On Punching Heretics

The Catholic Thing ^ | May 4, 2014 | Fr. Dwight Longenecker

[Iscool]

Furthermore, I believe that the stated example of the father disciplining his son as a metaphor for a church disciplining non-conformance is totally out of place.

So true...As we know, the way of the father with the son was chastisement...And as we know the position of the Catholic religion is vengeance...

When the Catholic religion was created with the power and might of the Roman armies, the vengeance against non Catholic believers took on an appalling act of murder and torture, because they could...

We can see in this post that if the means was again available, we'd be living in a far more bloody world...

[D-fendr]

non-Catholic believers were AKA heretics.

Is that the heritage you mourn?

[D-fendr]

You’re claiming LDS is free from coercion and violence?

[Biggirl]

I tend to use the word “orthodox” in regards to the Eastern Churches not in full union with Rome.

For this reason I use instead the terms “conservative” and “liberal” in even areas of faith and doctrine.

[livius]

Using “orthodox” with no cap is better if you’re describing orthodoxy” in the sense of orthodox or traditionally true doctrine. “Orthodox” with a cap now means the various churches who have that name in their title.

The title itself originally came from the theological disputes in what we now call the Middle East, because these were the churches that adhered to traditional orthodox doctrine (as opposed to Arianism, Donatism, or a host of other heresies that thrived there). But eventually, after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, began to refer to the ethnic or national churches of the East.

You can’t say you’re “Orthodox” without saying what ethnic group or tradition you belong to...Russian, Serbian, Syrian, etc. But you can say you’re “orthodox” if you are either Catholic or whatever your national “Orthodox” church is, because all of them are Trinitarian and agree on the major points of Christian doctrine.

The big technical difference between the capital O Orthodox and the capital C Catholics is the so-called filioque clause in the Creed, but it is widely acknowledged that both interpretations are correct and that the wording may have been the problem.

If the capital O Orthodox ever come back, they’ll be able to finally get rid of the ethnicism that has been holding Christianity in captivity among them. And they’ll bring us all the artistic and spiritual riches of the East, which greatly influenced both Rome and its important colony, Spain, during the early years of Christianity.

The Visigothic rite traditionally celebrated in Spain, modified during Vatican II and no longer more than a shadow of its former self, nonetheless was the rite celebrated in Spain during most of the Islamic invasion (in the parts of Spain that rebelled or were not invaded) and was supposedly very similar to a Byzantine rite liturgy.