Question:
What are the bases for saying that the Orthodox are not part of the Church?
Answer:
To be more accurate, Eastern Orthodox Christians are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. A key doctrinal impediment to full communion is that the Orthodox do not recognize the Pope as having “full, supreme and universal power over the Church” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 22). And there are other doctrinal and pastoral issues, including how to minister well to the divorced who want to be remarried and those who have already sought remarriage apart from the Church.
On the other hand, we have much in common with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. See CCC 838, 1399.
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