QUESTION:

12/12/2009: I apoloize if this has already been addressed, but I would like some clarification on the catholicity and infallibility of the Church. I have heard that the local church is the "catholic" church in that it is whole, complete, etc. However, I know also that individual dioceses can fall into error. How does one reconcile the belief in the local church as the "catholic" church when local churches can, and do, apostosize? Thank you

ANSWER:

The Orthodox view of the local catholicity of the Church (or the catholicity of the local Church) means that beyond the Church (the local Church) there are churches organized in various structures, and thus a common union of churches. The Church - if it is the Church at all, and it does function as the Church even during times of doctrinal errors - is infallible in that her mysteries truly unite us to Christ which is salvation. Furthermore, it is inconceivable that every Church in very place would fall into grave and formal heresy, which is why the "network" aspect of the common union of Churches can also be thought about as an error recovery mechanism. There is no incompatibility between the local catholicity of the Church and infallibility, provided that one does not important a universalistic and "intellectual" understanding of infallibility. Orthodox Christians do not have an instant mechanism for doctrinal infallibility since there is a reception process even for Councils. This quest for intellectual certainly is not what the Church is about, and this is not what the infallibility of the Church is about.

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