For the great majority of the Greek people, the existence this religious group Unites is completely unknown, yet to the outside world they go about calling themselves Greek Catholics. In Greece itself the term "Greek Catholic" means that some-one of Greek nationality belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. However, outside of Greece, this term has an entirely different meaning.
To the rest of the world the term "Greek Catholic'' has come to mean that they are a group of people who used to belong to the Orthodox Church but have accepted the Pope and his authority over them without changing their outward Orthodox appearance. In other words, they look Orthodox from the outside while being Catholic from the inside. They preserve the liturgical, theological and devotional traditions of the various Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches, but they are in full communion with the Pope at the Vatican.
These people are the Unites, and while in Greece itself they number only about 2,000 , their numbers are large and are spread mostly in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East where they are known as Melchites.
But how did these Unites who call themselves Greek Catholic come about while the great majority of the Greeks don't even know about their existence?
To answer this question, one must go back to the Vatican and look at its policies regarding the Orthodox Church. Throughout its history, since the Great Schism of the Christian Church came about in 1054, which divided the Christian World between the Orthodox East and the Catholic (later also Protestant) West, the Vatican had always desired to bring the Orthodox Churches under its control. The sacking of Constantinople (1203/1204) by the 4th Crusade was the high light of this policy by the Vatican, but it has also tried to force the Orthodox World into capitulating under Vatican authority in various synods, such as during The Council of Florence (1437-9).
When these Synods did not bring the desired result, the Vatican reverted to the Policy of creating Unite Churches.Unite Churches are those Churches created by breaking away from the Orthodox Church and accepting the Pope, yet still following all the Orthodox traditions. The truth is that the creation of Unite Churches started back in 1215 during the Synod of Lateran in 1215, but this policy did not materialize until between 1587-1596 when two Unite monks co-operated with the King of Poland in creating a number of Synods with the Orthodox Archbishop of Kiev in order to bring about the union of Polish and southern Russian Orthodox with the Vatican.
The Bishop of Kiev declared the union, most of the people in Ukraine did not accept it, but those who did call themselves today Greek Catholics. Since the ultimate goal of the Vatican is to unite the whole Christian World under its authority, the Vatican has ever since worked diligently in fostering the break up of the Orthodox Church, and creating its own Unite Churches without regard to the violence and killings resulting from such unions.
The Unites have turned countries such as Ukraine, the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well Romania into a field of Orthodox conversions for the Vatican. However, the Roman Catholic Church has also moved into the Middle East, where the Vatican has found fertile soil in creating Unite Churches, since the heads of the Orthodox Churches of Antioch and Jerusalem show little concern about the needs of their Orthodox flock.
As a result, today many Arab speaking Orthodox Christians have crossed over to the Unite Churches and are collectively known as Melchites. In Lebanon and Syria, the Unites are thriving by taking advantage of the weaknesses of leadership by the Orthodox Antiochian Patriarchate.
With the fall of the Communist regime of the Soviet Union, the Vatican moved into Russia trying to find Orthodox converts to its authority via the Unites. This policy has created dire strains between the Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church.
The fact that the Unites look and appear Orthodox can be very deceptive to unsuspecting Orthodox members, who might join such a church without realizing that it is under the authority of the Pope in the Vatican.In Greece, the small 2,000 member Unite Church (they call themselves,
The Greek Catholic Exarchy) are originally refugees from Constantinople and are concentrated in Athens. Considering their small membership, to their cedit, they are very well organized having under their care two Hospitals (Pammakaristos Hospitals), three Monasteries, a Hospice at Neos Kosmos (Thea Pronia), the Church of the Holy Trinity at Acharnon, as well as being very active publishing newspapers with Unite material.
The existence of the Unites and the anti-Orthodox policies of the Vatican which created them and sustain them, has become very detrimental towards reconciliation between the two major Churches of Christianity.As long as the Vatican works in such a deceptive and scrupulous manner against the Orthodox Church, there will never be any union between the Churches.
As long as each successive Pope behaves like a carnivorous lamb towards the Orthodox people, there will never be any trust between Orthodoxy and the Vatican.
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