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As I read through this thread and the other, more inflammatory one concerning the return of the icon and the tensions between Moscow and Rome, I realize that something I said earlier in the thread was a non-starter. I suggested that the Pope should recognize the Russian Patriarch in his sphere, and cease to send Catholic missionaries to seek Catholic conversions (from Russian Orthodoxy) in the territory of the Russian Patriarch.
But that cannot be the answer.

Our Churches are far apart. The Orthodox clearly believe that their side of the argument is completely correct. I have been unwilling to fight on the merits, because I think that no unity will ever be found that way. Personally, I think that Rome has the better argument. In a nutshell, I read Jesus' giving "the power of the keys, to loose and to bind" to Peter as Jesus himself creating the papacy, and I see Church Councils as a later creation, in apostolic times, to govern the Church. The Apostles and the Church did not have the power to override the Supreme Power that Jesus explicitly gave to Peter, and that Peter passed down in apostolic succession. When it comes down to it, I believe that the Bible itself says that Jesus Christ made the Pope infallible and final and absolute in his power, and that Church developments that trended away from that are themselves innovations that derogated from the structure that Jesus created. I believe in the monarchic Church, not just as a matter of historical necessity in the West, but as commanded by God Incarnate.

But I don't think that there is any way to argue the issue. One either reads the Gospels that way, or one does not.

Here, I sought a discussion as to how we could go about putting the sacramental Church back together. It has become clear enough to me that the desire to do so - which is to say the desire to obey Jesus - is weaker than the desire to preserve our respective traditions. If the Muslim onslaught did not reconcile East to West, nothing else is likely ever to do so in our lifetimes.

Therefore, the Pope must not recognize the territorial integrity of the Eastern Patriarchs. He must send Latin missionaries into Russia and compete directly with the Orthodox Church. There isn't anything else to be done at this point. Future generations may be more able to cooperate than we seem to be able to, but until that day, the Pope must not cede his authority over the universal Church, and if the Eastern Precincts of the Church will not recognize that authority, than it is the duty of the Pope to send in Roman Catholic missionaries into the Patriarchate of Moscow, and elsewhere, and compete for souls. Obviously the Russian Church has an ethnic advantage on this turf, but the long history of co-option by the Communists has certainly created the dynamic whereby Russians are, in fact, turning to Rome in unprecedented numbers. Will Catholicism sweep Russia? No. No more than the Eastern Rite Catholics will predominate in Eastern lands. Nevertheless, since it is clearer to me than it has ever been that there is not going to be a rapprochement between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Catholicism has to be directly on the ground in the East, in direct competition. The Pope cannot wait and hope that things will get better. If they do, future generations will see their way clear where we will not. If they do not, the Catholic Church needs to be aggressively competeing for souls everywhere in the world, including in Orthodox lands.
Unfortunately, there apparently is no other way.