ABSTRACT
The claims of the Eastern Churches against the Latin Church have been almost without number; the depth of feeling can scarcely be exaggerated. Hundreds of millions of fervent, devout, faithful Christians live in those vast areas of the world hardly known to the Westerner and now shut off by a political curtain. In the Eastern Churches, the tradition of collegiality has continued uninterrupted since apostolic times. For some Eastern Churches, collegiality without the primacy has meant the loss of clarity and effectiveness in the world; they themselves admit it. The Latin Church has forced the Eastern Churches toward Latinization. The rites, customs, and spirituality of the East were formed in the patristic era, while the customs and spirit of the West underwent the great changes of the medieval and scholastic period. The two cultures incarnate Christian faith differently; in each, culture and faith have become like "two in one flesh".
