Exactly what is says, CatholicEagle.........
The titles and pretensions of Rome need no setting out, others have already done that. The trappings of a secular power, even in its present reduced state include a bank, foreign service with diplomatic accreditation in many countries, an intelligence service, a gendarmarie, etc., etc. That is all the trappings of a state.
To borrow from the writing of Blessed Father Justin Popovich - which just happend to be on hand - "....Roman Catholicism or Protestantism, because the latter are forms of Christianity after the pattern of the proud European being, and not of the humble God-human being." (The Inward Mission of Our Church, in Divine Ascent, pages 21-27, Great Lent 1997).
The essay I have quoted from is not a polemic against Rome, or anyone else but a challenge to us, the Orthodox. Rome's pride has laid at the root of its every innovation and it's pretensions to universal 'jurisdiction' over all other churches throughout the world. To be a Christian is to answer the call to be showing all meekness unto all men (Titus, 3:2), the undertake the ascetic struggle following Christ's exhortation, be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father is perfect (Matthew, 5:48), following the precept They that are Christians have crucified the flesh together with the passion and lusts (Galatians, 5:24).
All this something very different from what Rome has become, she who produced so many martyrs, confessors and teachers. She was again and again a light shining in darkness has become the father and mother of the proud European mind-set, and quite distant from that mind-set of her early forbears.
