one@50 Editors’ note: To mark ONE’s 50th anniversary in 2024, each issue features a reprint of a ONE “classic” — an article that continues to capture the attention and interest of readers years after its publication. This edition features a piece by Jesuit Father John Long on the evolution of Catholic-Orthodox relations in recent history. In the last year of Father Long’s life, Michael La Civita, executive editor of ONE, sat down with the ecumenist and recorded his recollections. These conversations developed into this article, published in ONE in July 2005, two months prior to the author’s death. Father Long was a leading ecumenist of his day, having served on the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (1963-1980) and on the North American Catholic-Orthodox Theological Consultation. Father Long’s explanation of the advances in CatholicOrthodox relations — and of centuries-old disputes yet to be overcome — will “challenge and inspire” readers on the path toward unity.
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A Century of
Catholic-Orthodox
Relations by John Long, S.J.
I
n the spring of 1962, while a graduate student, I visited Mount Athos, the famous monastic mountain in Greece. Though kindly received by the Orthodox monks, I was shown a painting depicting the Byzantine Emperor Michael Palaeologus and a Roman pontiff presiding over the execution of a group of Orthodox monks who had refused to accept the “union” of the Greek and Roman churches proclaimed at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274. That incident never occurred. But it was a sign of the historical memory of real or fanciful grievances that have colored Catholic and Orthodox relations for centuries. In 1956, a priest from Fordham University took a group of undergraduate students to an Orthodox church. The Orthodox priest welcomed the group graciously and explained the arrangement and appearance of the
church. Pointing to the iconostasis — a screen of icons dividing the sanctuary from the nave of a church — he told them that the eucharistic sacrament for the sick was kept behind it. After leaving the church a student asked the Catholic priest whether the Orthodox had the Eucharist as did Catholics. When the priest said yes, the student rejoined, “I didn’t notice you making any sign of reverence. Is Christ really present?” “Yes,” said the Catholic priest, “but he doesn’t want to be.” Since the earliest days of the church, followers of Jesus Christ have been divided as to how to interpret and practice his teachings. Long before the Protestant Reformation divided the Christian West in the 16th century, no less than six movements — described often as economic, linguistic, philosophical, political or theological — divided the early church, principally the Christian East. In just four decades, we have