What are the fundamental differences and objections between the [Eastern] Orthodox and Catholic Church?
In any dispute with the Orthodox, Catholics are at a disadvantage. We regard them as schismatics-i.e., the break between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity in A.D. 1054 was more cultural and political than doctrinal-while they call us heretics-i.e., as preaching false doctrine. One immediate consequence of these different views is the presence in Catholicism of various groups of Eastern Christians, Ukrainian Catholics being the largest, which are recognized as authentically Catholic without any alteration required in their traditional liturgies, doctrines, and piety. But obviously there can be no counterpart in the Orthodox Church; that is, no Latin Christians whose bishops are in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople instead of the Pope: to accept Orthodoxy is to abjure the “heresy” of Catholicism. A further consequence is that the differences between the two Churches are magnified by the Greeks, but downplayed by us. They present our teaching on Original Sin, f
