The Great Schism: When The Catholic And Eastern Orthodox Churches Split

Pope Francis goes to Greece this week to meet the Eastern Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. Monsignor Paul McPartlan of Catholic University explains the history of the divide.

April 10, 20165:11 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now it's time for a regular segment Words You'll Hear. That's where we try to understand stories in the news by parsing some of the words associated with them. Today's word is schism. We expect to hear that word this week as Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, and Patriarch Bartholomew, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, traveled to Greece to meet over the plight of refugees. But that meeting raises the question of why there's an Eastern and Western church to begin with. That divide is called the great schism. To help us understand this, we invited Monsignor Paul McPartlan to stop by our studios. He's a professor of systematic theology and ecumenism at the Catholic University of America.

PAUL MCPARTLAN: It's a great pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

MARTIN: Needless to say, people have devoted centuries of debate and study to this. But as briefly as you can, can you tell us what happened that drove the two branches of the church apart?

MCPARTLAN: Well, schism is really a break of religion...



3:26 Audio and Transcript at link.