Greek priest: The principle of papal supremacy in Catholicism is a disease

Archpriest Georgios Katsaounis. Photo: UOJ

The rector of St. Spyridon's Church in Nea Ionia, Archpriest of the Church of Greece Georgios Katsaounis, in an interview with the program «Εν Αληθεία» of the UOJ in Greece, spoke about the fundamental differences between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

"There is a great difference in the structure of church governance. The structure of the Orthodox Church is conciliar. The structure of the Roman Catholic Church is absolutist. There may be an appearance of conciliarity, councils are held, but to what extent are the opinions of many taken into account?" the priest noted.

According to him, Western Christianity suffers from the principle of supremacy: “Whatever one person says goes. I consider this a disease.”

Father Georgios emphasized that Orthodox Christians have deeply rooted conciliar consciousness, which stems not only from the Gospel, but also from the humanistic tradition of ancient Greece. He cited as an example the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, who with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate created an alphabet for the Slavic peoples and translated the liturgy into their native language.

"It took 1000 years for the Roman Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council to give peoples the right to celebrate the liturgy in their language. Before that, it was believed that there were only three sacred languages: Latin, Hebrew, and Greek," the archpriest reminded.

He also pointed to the lack of genuine freedom in Christ in the West: “As the Apostle James, the brother of the Lord, said: if wisdom is not from above, it is merely earthly and demonic. Likewise, freedom: if it does not contain God, it turns into licentiousness.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported about how Pope Leo XIV sees the future of relations with the Orthodox Church.

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