Answering Eastern Criticisms of the Western Church

I think you are referring to the commonly repeated claim by a few Eastern Orthodox (often converts from “Western” Christianity) that the Western or Latin or Roman Church has made use of rationalistic philosophy to underpin its theology and spiritual practice. Strangely, though, these arguments often use the same kind of hyper-logical reductions that are associated with Western ideologies. This leads them to reject even some Fathers of the Church, such as St. Augustine, or even aspects of St. Gregory the Great, since these saints’ approach is viewed as infected with errors that in their minds explain the “errors” of the Latin or Western Church.

This attitude is very different from the comprehensive and sound views proposed by St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter Orientale Lumen in which he shows the complementarity of the two traditions and their fundamental identity and unity. The sainted pontiff teaches us the view East and West as the “two lungs” of the Church. The fact is, it is the Roman Church that unequivocally embraces the spiritual, liturgical and theological tradition of the Christian East, while in the Eastern Churches there is still a very strong, even if not universal, opposition to any recognition of the spirituality, liturgy, and theology of the Roman Church.

I have read crazy attacks not only on St. Augustine but on St. Francis, and St. Therese of Lisieux, while Roman Catholics easily recognize as one of their own Orthodox saints such as St. Seraphim of Sarov or St. John of Kronstadt. Let us pray to these holy ones that among the Orthodox the mentality that encourages schism will pass away and that unity may be achieved.