Following is a letter from Dr. James Likoudis, president emeritus of Catholics United for the Faith, to the Editor of "Culture Wars" magazine, answering a writing of Mrs. Christine Mohn, which was posted in the magazine' issue of June 2015. In his letter to the Editor, Dr. Likoudis offers clarifications and corrections to the bias, misinformations, and incorrect notions put forward and expressed by Mrs. Mohn.

To Editor, Culture Wars
206 Marquette Ave.
South Bend, IN 46617

July 8, 2015

Dear Editor,

The Letter "Theological Issues" (June 2015 issue) by Mrs.Christine Mohn attempts to defend Eastern Orthodoxy but presents a rather skewed view of Church History. It furthers many misconceptions of Catholic doctrines as well as of Eastern Orthodoxy itself. May I make the following brief observations:

1. The Mozarabic Christians in 9th century Visigothic Spain were Latin rite Christians in communion with Rome. They were Catholic, not eastern Christians separated from Rome, like the Nestorians and Monophysites. At the time of the Martyrdom of 44 Spanish Catholics, Constantinople was in communion with Rome. There was not yet a dissident Eastern Orthodoxy engaged in a formal denial of Papal supremacy.
   
   
2. Opponents of the Papacy have always sought political reasons to explain the existence of the Papacy and the "rise of papal power". So, it is alleged that Charlemagne (who "hated the East") "made the pope head of the 'entire Church'." Actually, he was quite aware that the Petrine office of the pope as visible head of the Church was due to the very words of Christ in the Gospels to Peter, the Chief of the Apostles.
   
   
3. Similar is the claim that the Popes depended on forgeries (the False Decretals and the Donation of Constantine) to usurp power in the Church. It doesn't occur to such critics that acceptance of such forgeries would not have been possible if they had not reflected the common and traditional belief of the faithful.
   
   
4. The Catholic doctrine of the Holy Spirit is declared "heretical". Perhaps she should pay attention to the statements of those Orthodox theologians (e.g.,Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Nicholas Lossky, etc.) who believe the Filioque is not heretical, and even can be held as "a pious opinion".
   
   
5. The patriarch Photius "did not err". Unfortunately, he did in promoting a true heresy, namely, that the Eternal Son had no part in the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit. He also erred in daring to excommunicate the Pope (Nicholas I) in 867 A.D. over the Filioque and puerile liturgical and sacramental differences.
   
   
6. As an adherent of the questionable theology of the 14th c. Gregory Palamas on the "Uncreated Light" that can be seen with bodily eyes, Mrs. Mohn writes that "Orthodox theology finds the notion of 'created grace' heretical." But, then, Palamas himself would be heretical because he, too, had a notion of "created grace".
   
   
7. As regards her dislike of "indulgences", she should know that in the 19th c. a number of Greek Orthodox bishops issued them for their faithful.
   
   
8. On "original sin", the teaching of some Orthodox theologians is identical with that defined by Catholic doctrine.
   
   
9. "The innovative Purgatory" she cavalierly dismisses; it was, in fact, held by a number of Orthodox writers and prominent theologians such as Peter Mohila and the patriarch Dositheos in the original version of his "Confessions". Concerning the existence of the intermediate state where souls undergo purification (which Catholics call "Purgatory"), there is, in fact, identity with Catholic doctrine in the actual praxis of the Orthodox who pray for the dead, offer the Divine Liturgy for the deceased, and ask for the prayers and charity of those on earth and in heaven "that the souls of the departed be given a place of light, refreshment and repose, whence all pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away".
   
   
10. To charge that the "mysticism of the West is not Christ-centered", if by "West" is meant Western Catholic Mysticism, that is simply wrongheaded at best, and calumny at worst. The same can be said of the disparagement of "Augustinian theology" and "the cold logic of Aristotle". As to this last complaint, it can be argued that the Catholic Church in its Scholastic intellectualism is more faithful to the Hellenic Greek philosophical experience than those Orthodox thinkers who fall victim to ultra-Platonic fantasies and various idealisms, and in their disparagement of philosophical Reason do harm in promoting theological subjectivism and fideism.
    
    
11. In denying that the soul is naturally immortal, Mrs. Mohn denies what the respected Russian Orthodox theologian Protopresbyter Michael Pozmansky declared to be "one of the fundamental objects of the Christian faith". ("Orthdoox Dogmatic Theology", p. 131).
    
    
12. With respect to the assertion that St. Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130-200 A.D.) did "not point to old Rome or any other patriarchate having primacy over others", the saint wrote in the 2nd century when the patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem did not exist [as of yet]. [But] In that famous passage of his work: "Against the Heresies" he referred to the Roman Church as being "the greatest, most ancient, and well known Church, founded and established by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, at Rome... and that to this Church on account of her more powerful principality it is necessary that every Church should come together (agree)." This passage is linked to the apostolic succession of the Bishops of Rome, and however it may be construed by hostile critics, the preeminence, indeed, the universal primacy of Rome in the Church, is clearly traced to the very beginnings of the Church's existence.
    
    
13. Lastly, the Fathers of the Church always distinguished their Catholic Church from all heretical and schismatic groups. To them, the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" of the Creed was identified before the world as "The Catholic Church". It was the Catholic Church which taught the orthodox faith. The entire world knows who the Catholics are as do those anti-papal Orthodox who sadly continue to denounce the "Catholic heretics".

About Dr. James Likoudis
James Likoudis is an expert in Catholic apologetics. He is the author of several books dealing with Catholic-Eastern Orthodox relations, including his most recent "The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy: Letters to a Greek Orthodox on the Unity of the Church." He has written many articles published by various religious papers and magazines.
He can be reached at:  jameslikoudis1@gmail.com, or visit  Dr. James Likoudis' Homepage