""Consequently the Council elaborated the Doctrine of degrees of communion, the one by which, with the language of the Council, it affirms on the one hand the presence of the Church in fullness in the Catholic Church and it recognizes the notion of Church for example with regard to the Orthodox Eastern Churches, which have kept the ordained ministry and the Eucharist...On the other hand the fact of speaking of degrees of communion, of recognizing Eastern Churches with the full status of Churches" [Dominus Iesus]
It is therefore really risque, especially with regard to the effort of the present Pope, to try to keep the Orthodox out of Catholic Caucuses even if Catholic does mean only those Christians in communion with Rome, as it would be risque at this point, and contrary to the spirit of Orthodoxy, to exclude Christians in communion with Rome from Orthodox caucuses. We are not in communion but we are in the same House of God, same one Holy Cathoic and Aposotlic Church, offeirng the same valid Eucharist and sharing the same apostolic authority.
The Vatican would be highly dipsleased to learn that the Orthodox are exlcusded on FR while they are included in Rome. It owuld mean that the Cathoic laity and Catholic hierarchy are at odds.
Particularly ironic since the original complainant doubtless is one of those who accuse others of being CINOs while at the same time stomping on the Pope's program.
Generally, when Catholics visit Orthodox Churches or vice-versa, they can sit, be behaved, and participate in intelligent and fruitful discussion. Given that the Caucus threads are discussions within the virtual closed doors of a virtual church, it would seem to hardly make sense to restrict one from the other unless there is antagonism.
That said, the Caucus thread designation seems to not be so much about who is in communion with whom, but rather about keeping order.
Perhaps we need to start creating more threads as [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]. Alternately, it might make sense to designate some threads as [Catholic Caucus; Orthodox invited] and [Orthodox Caucus; Catholics invited] (i.e. "visitors stopping by fully welcome in the others' virtual church") - by giving a blanket invitation, it becomes more than a pure Caucus, but less than an Ecumenic thread.