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The Catholic churches of the east, sometimes called
Uniates, share the same historical, theological and liturgical traditions of
the Orthodox churches, but most importantly they are in full doctrinal,
juridical and Eucharistic communion with the Bishop of Rome and are just as
Catholic as the Latin Rite!
Unfortunately this unity in faith and worship does not
exist with the Christian communities ultimately derived from the radical break
from Catholic faith and worship that began with the former Augustinian monk and
Catholic priest, Martin Luther, and known commonly as the Reformation. The
Christian communities of the Reformation represent in varying degrees the shift
away from Catholic fidelity to revelation received from Scripture and the
Apostolic Tradition and a turn to a faith and worship constructed under the
principle of Sola Scriptura, Scripture Alone. The Sola Scriptura principle of
Luther has led to a continuous splintering of the Christian Church over the last
500 or so years such that many Christians are no longer aware that contemporary
divisions and substantive differences in the nature of Christian belief and
worship did not begin to appear until 1500 years after Christ founded his
Church.
Christians today find it hard to conceive of the time when
there were no "denominations" in the Christian world. There was for 1000 years
the Catholic Churches of the east and the west. The non-Catholic Christian
communities existing then were the heretical sects (Arians, Nestorians,
Monophysites, etc.) that rejected the authoritative teaching of the early
Ecumenical Councils as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture in favor of
theological innovations deemed by the Council fathers to be incompatible with
the faith handed down to the Church through Scripture and the teaching of the
Apostles. These Councils were the great gatherings of the bishops of the Church,
often convoked by the Holy Roman Emperor but ultimately under the guidance of
the Bishop of Rome, or ratified by him or his legates, that settled the
theological and liturgical disputes that threatened the purity of the Catholic
faith and the unity of the Church.
Most Reformation-based Christian communities today still
subscribe explicitly or implicitly to the teachings of the first seven of these
Councils. For example, the Nicene Creed that Catholics recite at Mass every
Sunday and on solemnities, was drawn up at the Councils of Nicea in the year 325
a.d. and Constantinople in 381 a.d. This creed clearly affirms and defines the
Christian dogma of the Trinity against the Arians who, appealing among other
things to Scripture, denied the full divinity of the Son. This creed, which uses
terms not found in Scripture to define with greater exactitude the teaching
contained in Scripture, is not only subscribed to by contemporary non-Catholic
Christians, it is also a part of the liturgy of several of them. Any Christian
who believes in the doctrine of the Trinity (one of those terms not found in
Scripture) owes that belief not to the Bible alone, but to the teaching
authority of the Church, which affirmed and defined that doctrine when it came
under attack.
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