That is profoundly true. However, the Latin Church has noted the "bridge" between the West and the Eastern Orthodox - the Eastern Catholics. They still continue their particular cultural practices and celebrate the Liturgy in the same way as they have for over a thousand years. They are, however, in union with the Pope. This can be a lesson on how unification can take place, since the Eastern Catholics have a similar background that the Eastern Orthodox do.
Regards
As I said that "praxis matters" I never meant to imply that there is any doubt that the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom is somehow, in the slightest, un-Catholic.
It is rather that when there is a drift in praxis, of which we Catholics are particularly guilty, it is understandable that the Orthodox would be wary of getting too close.
It is a bit off the tenor of this thread, but I actually think that a union today -- I mean in our generation -- is ill-advised. Neither side is ready in the same sense in which Isaiah's Jews were not ready for Christ.
The Catholics are not ready because we have to sort out the cultural decline, nearly to the point of loss, of the West. Benedict XVI is a transitional papacy, -- we all sense that. We need to purify the Latin Church, so that heterodox Western liberal theologians no longer dominate it. We cannot, for example, have the teaching on contraception and even abortion ignored, and Traditional Latin Mass suppressed by the indult regime, and expect to be embraced by the East.
The Orthodox are not ready because having lived in geographical separation for such a long time, their historical experience for the past 1000 years is of fighting Islam and communism and now Islam once more, while ours is fighting the Reformation and neopaganism, both heresies emerging not from away, but from the bosom of the Church. We came to appreciate strong papacy to defend against heresy; the East came to appreciate strong episcopacy to disperse and survive a military defeat. As the Orthodoxy moves West, it, too, will recognize and embrace the Latin Church's priorities.
Another reason for me to say that we live in transitional times is that Protestantism is in disintegration. What is called fundamentalist Evangelicals are certainly a healthy and vigorous community of faith, but the mainstream denominations are approaching irrelevancy. It remains to be seen in what direction the faithful Protestant remnant moves vis a vis both Churches.
I'd give it a century or two. What is excellent, I think, -- and this thread illustrates it, -- that lately there is a healthy attitude regarding the coming reunion; the momentum is for it to happen and there is a genuine desire to get it right this time. Also, the Orthodox Church is a tremendous asset and witness for us Catholics just the way it is. Its presence in the West is growing and it attracts some Protestant converts who we have a greater difficulty reaching because of the historical negative baggage between us.
"However, the Latin Church has noted the "bridge" between the West and the Eastern Orthodox - the Eastern Catholics. They still continue their particular cultural practices and celebrate the Liturgy in the same way as they have for over a thousand years. They are, however, in union with the Pope. This can be a lesson on how unification can take place, since the Eastern Catholics have a similar background that the Eastern Orthodox do."
Umm, Jo, that's Uniatism. That's caused quite enough trouble already and, I think, Rome has rejected it, at a minimum in public.