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Text Box: 'Because these Churches, although separated, have true sacraments and above all - because of the apostolic succession - the priesthood and the Eucharist, by means of which they remain linked to us by very close bonds,' they merit the title of 'particular or local Churches,' and are called sister Churches of the particular Catholic Churches. 'It is through the celebration of the Eucharist of the Lord in each of these Churches that the Church of God is built up and grows in stature.' However, since communion with the Catholic Church, the visible head of which is the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter, is not some external complement to a particular Church but rather one of its internal constitutive principles, these venerable Christian communities lack something in their condition as particular churches. "On the other hand, because of the division between Christians, the fullness of universality, which is proper to the Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him, is not fully realized in history.” We Orthodox, the ones who did not make changes in dogma, believe the converse is true. That the Roman Catholic Church, because it ceased to be Orthodox and followed false dogma, such as the dual procession of the Holy Spirit instead of the single procession of the Holy Spirit, and its abrogation of the thousand year old means of stating and confirming dogma through true Ecumenical Councils and replacing that method with the self-proclaimed and self-granted presumption of sole authority and sole ability of the Pope of Rome to state and confirm dogma, that because of such matters and the Roman Catholic Church having separated itself from being in communion with the rest of the true Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, that the Roman Catholic Church lacks something in its condition as a particular church. It required the passage of but a few

Text Box: hundred years before the fruits of the actions of the Roman Church began to appear, in the form of a multitude of heresies which resulted in schisms from the Roman Church which schisms formed the Church of England, the Lutheran Church, and eventually all of the Protestant and quasi "Christian" "churches" of today. But it required the passage of almost a thousand years before the Roman Catholic Church began to focus on self destruction from within through total corruption of its Latin Rite Divine Liturgy and that Liturgy’s replacement with something barely recognizable as a liturgy, something of doubtful ability to confect the Eucharist. It required that same almost thousand years before the Roman Church was able to revise the means, the liturgies, by which it administered the Sacraments, especially and particularly that of Holy Orders, into a form and format of doubtful ability to actually effect ("make") the desired Sacrament. But that now is the status of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in its Latin Rite. With the gross changes in its Divine Liturgy, The Mass, the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Linus, the first Roman Pope, which existed intact until 1054 A. D., and thereafter basically intact until Pope Pius XII, has formed a new, schismatic Roman Catholic Church of the Novus Ordo (the New Order of the Mass). In reality and in actuality, this New Order Mass Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church is in schism not only with all Orthodox Churches, but also with the Roman Catholic Church of the “Traditional Mass”, and all Byzantine Rite Churches in Communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The New Order Mass Roman Catholic Church is schismatic or in schism from the Roman Catholic Church because numerous Roman Catholic Councils, including the Council of Trent, and even Vatican II, along with Pope Saint Pius V, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Saint Pius X, and many other Roman Popes, have expressly forbad changes in the Latin Rite Divine Liturgy or Mass. They have so done in manners which can not be revoked or modified and have declared

Text Box: anyone who changes the Roman Mass to be anathema (excommunicated) along with anyone who facilitates such changes. The prohibitions did not include such minor maters as adding a local or especially well beloved saint into a part of the liturgy, but anything beyond the most nominal was expressly prohibited by excommunication. Rome had maneuvering room until the recent declaration of Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger) which allowed the Traditional Latin Mass while making the New Order Mass the official “Divine Liturgy” of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. With that declaration Pope Benedict XVI and all those of the New Order Mass became in schism with the Roman Catholic Church of Pope Pius XII (and perhaps of Pope John XXIII) and his predecessors. By the laws (Canons) of his own Church Pope Benedict XVI and his New Mass followers have thereby declared themselves to be Protestants, and Orthodox can not reunite with Protestants for Orthodox have never been united with the Protestant New Order Mass Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps the Byzantine Rite of the Oriental Churches in communion with the Roman Catholic Church will be sufficient to return Rome's Latin Rite to assured validity. But only a return to the conditions prior to the Great Schism of 1054 A. D., and the methods of stating and confirming dogma through true Ecumenical Councils, will remove Rome from the precipice of self-destruction whereat it now stands. + Paul, S.S.B. Metropolitan Primate, Orthodox Catholic Church of the Americas Superior General, The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil +

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