Apologetics

Why did the Orthodox and Catholic churches really split?

He argues the schism was not merely a dispute over papal authority. Central to it is the filioque, the Western modification of the Nicene Creed — if the creed needs modifying, he says, then it was not inspired by the Holy Spirit when given, since the Orthodox hold that what comes out of the councils is inspired the way scripture is, so changing it means going against the Holy Spirit. On the papacy, he says the Orthodox agree Rome was a 'first among equals' but deny supremacy: whole councils met without the See of Peter, and if supremacy were the normal apostolic arrangement, the East would not have gone a thousand years without recognizing it. He calls the developed papal claims a mutilation of the fathers' teaching that Christ is the head of the church.