Following is a letter from Dr. James Likoudis, president emeritus of "Catholics United for the Faith", answering Fr. David Hoestetler, an Eastern Orthodox priest who wrote an article in "The Sword" (no longer in circulation) very critical of Catholic Marian Doctrine.

 

Dear Editor

An article by an Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. David Hoestetler, published in an ecumenical magazine, "The Sword" (which recently ceased publishing), noted correctly with regard to Protestant misconceptions that it is indeed "scriptural and biblical to venerate Mary."

Unfortunately, the article was marred by various inaccuracies and errors. For example, he stated that "Mary should not be depicted by herself in an icon in an Orthodox church." This is a surprising comment from an Orthodox priest since many such icons (showing the All-Holy and Immaculate Virgin alone with uplifted arms in intercessory prayer) are found in Russian Orthodox churches.

One can also think of the veneration given similar icons as Tender Mary (umileme), the icon Holy Virgin with Seven Arrows, the icon Theotokos Ostrabramskaya, the icon Softener of Evil Hearts, the icon Pokrov Russian, and the icon Theotokos Provider of Bread.

He also wrote that "Orthodox believe Mary really did die, contrasting this with the Catholic view that she didn't die and went straight to Heaven." Though a very few Catholic theologians have expressed the view that the Theotokos (the God-Bearer/ Mother of God) did not die, the traditional and assuredly the common doctrine from the earliest days of the Church has been that she did indeed die.

When Pope Pius XII defined in his Dogmatic Constitution "Munificentissimus Deus" that the Mother of God, was assumed body and soul, into Heaven, "when the course of her earthly life was completed," he quoted liturgical texts and fathers of the Church which specifically referred to Mary's death.

Fr. Hoestetler also took the occasion to reject the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception which teaches that Our Blessed Lady was preserved from the stain of original sin and thus exempted from the power of the Devil's enslavement of the human race. She was All-Holy in her very conception, marking the beginning of her earthly life. Fr. Hoestetler is found, moreover, in sharp disagreement with other Eastern Orthodox theologians, including the leading anti-unionists who rejected the famous Reunion Council of Florence (1439).

Both Mark of Ephesus and the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadios/Scholarios who was appointed to that see by the Ottoman conqueror Mehmet II expressed their belief in the Immaculate Conception.

Soon after Pius XII defined the doctrine in 1950, the Greek theologian Christopher Damalas declared, "We have always held and taught this doctrine. This point is too sacred to give rise to quarrels." Bishop Kallistos (Ware) in his classic study "The Orthodox Church" admitted that the Immaculate Conception was a theological opinion (theologoumenon) within the Orthodox tradition.

The Russian Orthodox theologian Fr. Lev Gillet wrote:

"From the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century the Russian Church has, as a whole, accepted belief in the Immaculate Conception.There is a continuous line of eminent Orthodox authorities who have taught the Immaculate Conception."

Among them was the famous Dimitri of Rostov canonized as a saint by the Russian Church. In the seventeenth century there were Confraternities of the Immaculate Conception among the Ukrainian Orthodox whose members consecrated themselves to the Mother of God, professing, "I promise to honor, all the days of my life, your immaculate and most pure conception." In 1667 there was a Council of Moscow with the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria present, which approved the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Those Eastern Orthodox today who deny the doctrine and seek to distance themselves as much as possible from the Catholic Church place themselves at odds with their own authentic Eastern tradition. That tradition professed that the Theotokos was indeed filled with deifying/sanctifying grace from the beginning of her existence and that she inherited human nature in a state pure and holy, uncontaminated by original sin.

---