From the desk of the pastor for Oct. 19, 2025

The Lord be with you. At the end of the last article, I mentioned the Western Schism of 1378. Nearly three hundred years earlier a far more important separation occurred: the Great Schism. Although the Western Schism was resolved in forty years, the Great Schism is still being healed.

The word “schism” comes from the Greek word “skhizein,” which means to split. Schisms are juridical in that they do center on doctrine but on jurisdiction. Thus, a schismatic is a person who leaves a church while still believing in what that church teaches. A heretic, in contrast, is someone who leaves or is expelled from a church because he believes in some doctrine contrary to that church’s teaching. Notice in the above the lower case use of “church.” Heresies and schisms can happen in any religious tradition.

The East-West Schism or Great Schism began in 1054 AD. For several centuries Rome and Constantinople had vied for being the most powerful part of the Church. Although the Pope had the most influence within the western Church, the Patriarch of Constantinople had the most in the eastern Church. The Patriarch had gained that influence both from Constantinople being the seat of a patriarch and from the Eastern Roman Empire having its capital there. While the Western Empire had fallen in the late fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire had continued - and would continue until 1453. To summarize things far too much, tensions had been rising between these two for a long time.

Matters came to a head in 1054 when the Pope excommunicated the Patriarch, and the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope… sort of. Pope Leo IX had sent a delegation to Constantinople to gain recognition from Patriarch Michael I Cerularius as head of the Church and help from the emperor. Pope Leo’s requests were denied, and his representative excommunicated the Patriarch. Cerularius retaliated by excommunicating the papal legate. At the time most people saw this as an internal conflict between the Pope and Patriarch that would soon be sorted out.

Instead of the dispute dying off with Leo and Cerularius, things got worse. Theologians and bishops from both sides started finding fault with the other side. The Western Christians used unleavened bread whereas Christians in the East used leavened bread. Who was right? The Filioque dispute became the most famous with Western theologians and Eastern theologians still disagreeing today if there is even a disagreement. Over the next few centuries Eastern Christians became known as Orthodox whereas Western Christians called themselves Catholic…at least until the Protestant Reformation.

In 1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I nullified the excommunications of 1054 beginning a process of dialogue. Even though the two churches remain separate, we are sort of in communion. Roman Catholics may receive Communion at Orthodox Churches and the Orthodox may do so likewise with the permission of their priests. A sort of detente has emerged with neither side looking to worsen relations but no clear path to full reconciliation in sight. Much prayer is needed so let us pray and offer our individual communions for the greater communion of Catholic and Orthodox.

In His Sacred Heart,
Fr. John