Catholic Church decree on Oriental Churches
It's interesting to note that if one attends a Catholic service, in the liturgy books is a short explanation that those who believe in Orthodoxy are able to receive communion from the Catholic church. If I were a smarter man, I'd be able to pinpoint the papal decree .. but, think it's in this link or something related:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html
Growing up, I did attend a Catholic school and sadly the nuns and priests were not aware of this ... had to experience humiliating instances of a nun yelling at me when I was in 4th Grade to go sit down when I had lined up for Confession, the questions about our belief and why the Orthodox Qurbana was so different from Catholic, etc.
Of course, there was no Internet back then so information was not as easily shared. But, definitely with our kids growing up, they will definitely learn all of this ... and the inevitable questions on why if there was only one Christ there is so many different "Christians".
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html
Growing up, I did attend a Catholic school and sadly the nuns and priests were not aware of this ... had to experience humiliating instances of a nun yelling at me when I was in 4th Grade to go sit down when I had lined up for Confession, the questions about our belief and why the Orthodox Qurbana was so different from Catholic, etc.
Of course, there was no Internet back then so information was not as easily shared. But, definitely with our kids growing up, they will definitely learn all of this ... and the inevitable questions on why if there was only one Christ there is so many different "Christians".
Comments
"The sin of our separation is very serious: I feel the need to increase our common openness to the Spirit who calls us to conversion, to accept and recognize others with fraternal respect, to make fresh, courageous gestures, able to dispel any temptation to turn back. We feel the need to go beyond the degree of communion we have reached."
and later:
"I pray the Lord to inspire, first of all in myself, and in the bishops of the Catholic Church, concrete actions as a witness to this inner certitude. The deepest nature of the Church demands it. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, the sacrament of communion, we find in the Body and Blood we share the sacrament and the call to our unity.(46) How can we be fully credible if we stand divided before the Eucharist, if we cannot live our sharing in the same Lord whom we are called to proclaim to the world? In view of our reciprocal exclusion from the Eucharist, we feel our poverty and the need to make every effort so that the day may come when we will partake together of the same bread and the same cup."
It would be so inspiring if our own Indian Orthodox Catholicos Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I reciprocated with similar thoughts and mentality. Perhaps it is in one of the Kalpanas ... highly doubt it though :(