[american colleen]

Have you never wondered why the East has never declared an Ecumenical Council since the schism?

Just last night I was reading this month's "Crisis" magazine. In it there is an interesting article by Fr. Ray Ryland on Vladimir Soloviev which touches on this very same thing. He quotes Soloviev as saying "Since breaking with Rome, the Eastern Churches haven't been able to convoke and ecumenical council and probably never will be able to" (I am paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to get up and get the magazine, but the paraphrase I wrote is almost a duplicate for the original).

My question is why hasn't there been an ecumenical council by the Eastern Churches since @1054 and what did Soloviev mean when he said the EC's haven't been able to and probably never will be able to convoke one? I'd be interested in both of your thoughts on this since I find both of you fair and fact minded.

Good article, btw - although it left me with some unanswered questions (like above) and there were a couple of things I disagreed with (on the part of the author of the piece and not Soloviev).

[FormerLib]

I'm sure there's an incredible number of opinions on the topic, but it has been explained to me that the Church cannot hold an Ecumenical Council when the Eastern and Western Churches are divided.

I would imagine that this poses another problem for reunification since there have been councils in the West that the East will never fully recognize. I hope you will excuse me from any specifics here as I know very little (virtually nothing, really) about any of the councils in the West since 1054.

[FormerLib]

On the subject of Crisis magazine, I would like to see the answers given to the "Here are 12 myths every Catholic should be able to expose" quiz that is displayed on their homepage.

[Catholicguy]

I remember one from the Raucous Caucus who now no longer posts, sadly. She posted a series on Soloviev that was amasing. I think I can scare up a link quickly. Jes a sec.

BTW, what was that woman's name? She was smashing

[Catholicguy]

http://praiseofglory.com/solovievrock.htm