. are regarded as valid but illicit? 'From this is apparent the unacceptability of the Roman Catholic view of penances,' writes Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky, 'which proceeds from juridical concepts according to which: a) every sin or sum of sins must have an ecclesiastical punishment (apart from the fact that often misfortunes, for example, illnesses [as Catholics think - V.P. [deleted] PJRP97. Consequently, even children, not having personal sins, are all the same not free from original sin, from the legacy of Adam, and in order to be delivered from this legacy, they must be united with Christ; and this union, as we have already said, is accomplished in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. The term licit/illicit is a term used by the Church internally for her own liturgical laws. Conclusion: Missionary and Anti-Missionary Orthodox. Without valid bishops, it is impossible to have validly ordained priests. In all the above five cases, the vast majority of Orthodox clergy would receive the Roman Catholics in question by pastoral dispensation, that is, chrismation (or possibly even though confession and communion). In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, it is recounted repeatedly that the Apostles baptized entire families, and consequently also children. Catholics teach that, for the satisfaction of God's justice, a man, even though forgiven in repentance, must bear temporal punishments for his sins - here on earth, in various misfortunes, while after death, in purgatory. Therefore I'm not sure this question makes sense. The institution of a celibate clergy, which at least had as its apparent aim the raising of the whole clergy to the height of the Christian ideal of virginity, in reality had to lead to concubinage. ", Crown them with glory and honor. Marriage in the Orthodox Church. Thus, second marriages, in cases of either widowhood or divorce, are celebrated through a subdued penitential rite, and men who have been married more than once are not admitted to the priesthood. For if they they were illicit, Rome would not allow the faithful to receive the sacraments in a case of great need. The practice of counting the sacraments was adopted in the Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholics. Reason & Theology Episode: Eastern Catholicism. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Since Marriage is not viewed as a legal contract, there are no vows in the Sacrament. The baptism of children was known everywhere from apostolic times. Colchester, From the day of their baptism, children are expected to mature in the life of the Spirit, through their family and the Church. The Incarnation implied that God had become mani.e., fully visible and, thus, describable in his human nature. In the East, however, the culminating point of the prayer is not in the remembrance of Christs act but in the invocation of the Holy Spirit, which immediately follows: Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon the Gifts here spread forth, and make this bread to be the precious Body of Thy Christ. paytno. If they sincerely (and not polemically, out of ill will) hold this view, then they have not understood. Which sacraments can be administered validly but illicitly? There are special experiences in our corporate life as Orthodox Christians when the perception of God's presence and actions is heightened and celebrated. 2023.07.16. After all, the believers of the first centuries were incomparably more zealous and strict as regards both religious questions and Church practice than present-day members of the Church. Sin is ultimately alienation from God, from our fellow human beings, and from our own true self which is created in God's image and likeness. Since Roman Catholics also have other sacramental forms, which they believe to be sacraments, then it is actually possible, using extreme dispensation, to receive Roman Catholics by repentance, that is, by confession, and then communion. And thus, within the Church, everything we doour prayers, blessings, good works, thoughts, actionseverything participates in the life which has no end. While Roman Catholics and Protestants may receive these sacraments outside the Church, this is not the case for Orthodox Christians. If the baptism of infants were a new matter, it could have been confirmed only after great disputes, as the result of struggle and, perhaps, even divisions. The Eastern Churches are to be governed on their own as they also have apostolic succession. It isn't meant to govern other church bodies, though other Churches or ecclesial communions may well consult Catholic Law in codifying their own systems or adjudicating disciplinary questions in their own sphere. Roman theologians adduce the following grounds: One ought to approach communion with a consciousness of the importance and significance of this sacrament and after proper preparation; in Sacred Scripture there is no command to commune infants; for the salvation of children, baptism alone is sufficient. But, having secured the ground under her, she looks upon the children born in her bosom as upon her own children. What's the significance of a C function declaration in parentheses apparently forever calling itself? The Orthodox Church has never formally determined a particular number of Sacraments. In the Catholic Church, what makes something illicit vs. invalid? In the Orthodox Marriage Service, after the couple have been betrothed and exchanged rings, they are crowned with "crowns of glory and honor" signifying the establishment of a new family under God. My fianc was previously married in Greece in an Orthodox ceremony. Marriage is celebrated through a rite of crowning, performed with great solemnity and signifying an eternal union, sacramentally projected into the kingdom of God. The priest is viewed not as a judge, but as a physician and guide. And to this day, the Jews perform this rite on their children. The Archdiocese responds to the spiritual needs of the Greek Orthodox Christian Faithful through National Ministries, providing programs and services to your local parishes, Metropolises, and you. In the case of Roman Catholics, this generosity is taken by some even further. Vigil. You could ask a canon lawyer or the Pope himself, but I don't think they would quite know what to say. A husband and a wife are called by the holy Spirit not only to live together but also to share their Christian life together so that each, with the aid of the other, may grow closer to God and become the persons they are meant to be. 7 more replies foobarland 1 yr. ago 1 yr. ago foobarland 1 yr. ago this video. Are there number systems with fractional or irrational bases? The Western term transubstantiation occurs only in some confessions of faith after the 17th century. These are Bishop, who is viewed as a successor of the Apostles, Priest and Deacon, who act in the name of the Bishop. with respect and provide attribution on the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St.John the Baptist of Washington DC. You have understood what Christianity is actually about and wish to join the Orthodox Church. (Catholic perspective). From a Catholic perspective the sacraments of the Eastern Orthodox Churches are valid and licit. This is Christs express purpose and wish, the very object of his coming to the world: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (Jn 10.10). THE EUCHARIST. Answer First of all we must say that traditionally the Orthodox never counted the sacraments. The bread remains bread, and the wine remains wine; but "in the bread, with the bread and under the bread, Christ is invisibly present," and he who approaches the sacrament with faith - through communicating of the bread and wine - really takes into himself the body and blood of Christ, whereas he who does not have a corresponding disposition tastes ordinary bread and wine. Por qu los Catlicos Orientales no se vuelven simplemente Ortodoxos? Do Orthodox Recognize Catholic Sacraments? While all the materials on this site are copyrighted, you may use them freely as long as you treat them Dr. Anthony Dragani is Professor of Religious Studies at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania. This is the harder question. The Orthodox administrate their own sacraments with their own rules of conduct. Catholic ministers administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick licitly to members of Eastern Churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church if they seek such on their own accord and are properly disposed. The chief model was created when Emperor Justinian I completed the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the 6th century. 844 1. They enter into a new relationship with each other, God, and the Church. Each is called by God through His people to stand amid the community, as pastor and teacher, and as the representative of the parish before the Altar. Thus, according to strictness or the strict view (in Greek akrivia), any Roman Catholic or Protestant who wishes to join the (Orthodox) Church must be received by baptism, for they are considered not to have been baptised. General or group confession, introduced by John of Kronshtadt, a Russian spiritual leader of the early 20th century, is also occasionally practiced. In marriage we are blessed by God for unending friendship and love. The Baptism of adults is practiced when there was no previous baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit preserved the continuity of the Church through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Chrismation, which is often referred to as one's personal Pentecost, is the Sacrament which imparts the Spirit in a special way. Answer: The Old Catholic Church is a schismatic communion of churches that broke away from the Catholic Church in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries over the issue of papal authority. Yes, they are all valid as the Orthodox Church has Apostolic Succession. For the cases mentioned in 2, 3, and 4, the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops is not to issue general norms except after consultation at least with the local competent authority of the interested non-Catholic Church or community. A contrast was thus suggested between the visible manifestation of God through the pictorial representation of Christ as man and his more perfect but mysterious and invisible presence in the Eucharist. Through immersion, Christ Himself was baptized; through immersion, the first preachers of Christianity baptized (see Acts 8:37-38); special baptistries adapted for this purpose, which have been preserved till now at certain ancient churches in Rome and other places in the West, testify to immersion; immersion corresponds to the main idea of the sacrament: by being immersed thrice in the font, he who is being baptized is buried with Christ unto death and then rises together with Him unto life eternal (Romans 6:4). ( Unitatis Redintegratio, 15) This description emphasizes that in these special events of the Church, God discloses Himself through the prayers and actions of His people. The relative lack of legalism reflects the Eastern patristic understanding of sin as an internal passion and as an enslavement. Your ancestors are Serbs. Surely the sacraments of any schismatic are not lawful to receive. People that deny children the sacrament of Baptism subject them to danger, for if children die before baptism, not having been born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5), how will they be able to inherit life eternal? Let us take a parallel. You have understood what Christianity is actually about and wish to join the Orthodox Church. Both Pope St. Paul VI and Patriarch Atheneagorus of Constantinople nullified the excommunications from 1472, which means that Romans are now technically in communion with Constantinople itself though most Greeks do not recognize this. The Orthodox Churches officially consider Catholics to be in schism, so when a Catholic converts to Orthodoxy they are chrismated as a sign of reconciliation. At confession, the priests diligently investigate the faults of the penitent and then impart to him such a quantity of supererogatory good works performed by the saints as is necessary in order to expiate the sins of the penitent. The absence of faith turns the sacrament into an empty formality, deprived of any meaning. When one is ill and in pain, this can very often be a time of life when one feels alone and isolated. YouTube | Thus, most Orthodox practise dispensation, a generosity of heart, mercy. It is offered to all who are sick in body, mind, or spirit. Although He cannot be seen, God is not detached from His creation. As with Chrismation, oil is also used in this Sacrament as a sign of God's presence, strength, and forgiveness. He leads us to Christ who unites us with the Father. It is mans life lived by the Holy Spirit in union with God. Since unleavened bread had a ritual significance with the Jews, Christ, having performed the Mystical Supper on leavened bread, underscores by this that He is abro-gating the Judaic ritual law. Now, many like saying that Orthodoxy is a religion for Russians. They believe that what is missing in their sacramental forms (and those are themselves an inheritance from the Orthodoxy of the West in the first millennium) is made up for, or filled, by the grace received by entering into the (Orthodox) Church and receiving her sacraments. Most importantly, it affirms the central truth of the Orthodox Christian faith: that God became flesh in Jesus Christ and entered into the midst of creation thereby redirecting the cosmos toward its vocation to glorify its Creator. And everything the Holy Spirit does bestows grace upon us. Because its bishops had been validly ordained, they retained the ability to ordain other bishops and priests. I wasn't aware of Ignatius' comments. During the first centuries of Christianity, the Church was still in the stage of missionary activity. It might also be that the answer is different for different sacraments. In my opinion it is a question founded on a misunderstanding. The anointing also reminds us that our bodies are valuable and are involved in the process of salvation. So, strictly speaking, Romans are still technically in communion with most of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Your ancestors are Irish. This is to protect both the Sacraments and the person. Christianity Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for committed Christians, experts in Christianity and those interested in learning more. The frequency is left the discretion of the individual. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. The interpretation and number of the sacraments vary among the Christian churches of the world. We need eating and drinking of a special food which nourishes us for eternal life. As it is said: The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: He was a quarter Tartar, through his motherHis great grandfather was a mullah. It's a bit long (40 minutes) but is extremely interesting. Therefore some worship in common (communicatio in sacris), given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church authority, is not only possible but to be encouraged. The Sacraments of the Orthodox Church are composed of prayers, hymns, scripture lessons, gestures and processions. The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church and officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. Does the Eastern Orthodox Church consider Roman Catholic Sacraments as valid? Now it is not so, but one Body and one Cup is offered to everyone..". @curiousdannii Baptism is a special case due to the fact that it is applied to non-Christians. Co-author uses ChatGPT for academic writing - is it ethical? This is normally done by eating and drinking. Among Eastern Orthodox theologians, the doctrine is confusing, because it emphasizes the effects of original sin while neglecting its essence. Byzantine Rite Catholics and Greek Catholics (14 churches sui iuris) (the terms are synonyms, as is Greek Rite Catholic) are generally portions of the Eastern Orthodox Churches which left the Eastern Orthodox communion and joined the Catholic Communion. We want Second Marriage. All our life and the creation of which we are an important part, points, to and reveals God. The sacraments in the Orthodox Church are officially called the holy mysteries. Usually seven sacraments are counted: baptism, chrismation (or confirmation), holy eucharist, penance, matrimony, holy orders and the unction of the sick. I spoke to the first question because I believe that is what the question is about. 4. It is an ancient Orthodox practice for every Christian to have a spiritual father to whom one turns for spiritual advice and counsel.

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