"Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art Thou among women." It must not be admitted, say the Roman Catholics, that the angel greeted with the word "Grace-filled" the one who is partaker of original Sin. Roman Catholics do not notice how, in trying to exalt the Most-Pure One, they belittle Her dignity and merits. Indeed, what is higher, in the moral and religious sense: the attainment of the virgin's chastity as a result of Her personal podvig of life in God, as a result of the joint action of Her free will and God's grace, or the receipt of chastity by the Most Holy Virgin as a result of the mechanical action on Her of the "supernatural gifts of grace"?

"Thou hast found grace with God," said the Archangel to the Most-Pure One. She found a pure and immaculate life through the podvig. "Gained" – what does this word mean? This means: I have acquired, achieved, deserved. And the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ("The Holy Spirit will come upon Thee") completely sanctified the bosom of the Virgin Mary for the incarnation of God the Word.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was followed by the proclamation in 1950 of the dogma of the resurrection and ascension of the Virgin Mary, and this new dogma was a logical conclusion from the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, for if the Mother of God was excluded from the general law of original sin, then She was naturally given the supernatural gifts of righteousness and immortality, and She, like the ancestors before the Fall, should not be subject to the law of bodily death.

d) Roman teaching on the Pope and the Church

Part 1

Roman theologians put special emphasis on the doctrine of the pope and papal authority. Here the seal of legalistic understanding, the understanding of the juridical, grace and essence of the Church is revealed with special force. The perversion of Christ, the Apostolic and Ecumenical Councils, and the patristic teaching on the Church especially clearly and decisively separates Rome from Orthodox doctrine.

The teaching about papal authority, about the visible head of the Church, "the substitute and vicar of Christ," who sometimes overshadows the invisible Head, Christ, is the foundation of the entire teaching, the entire dogma of Roman Catholicism. But this teaching contradicts the foundations of the Gospel and Apostolic teaching about the Church, about her life and about the knowledge of the Truth.

The decree of the Vatican Council of 1870 states: "Firmly adhering to the tradition which has come down to us from the beginning of the faith of Christ (!?), we, to the glory of God our Saviour, to the exaltation of the Catholic religion and to the good of the Christian peoples, with the consent of the Holy Council, teach and define as a divinely revealed teaching (!?): that when the Roman Pontiff speaks from his pulpit, that is, when, in the exercise of his ministry as pastor and teacher of all Christians, he, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority (?), determines the teaching on faith and morals, which the whole Church must maintain, he, through the Divine help promised to him in the person of Blessed Peter, possesses that infallibility with which the Divine Saviour was pleased to endow His Church, in order to determine the teaching concerning faith and morals, and that therefore such determinations of the Roman Pontiff are in themselves, and not with the consent of the Church, are unchangeable. And if anyone dares to contradict this definition of ours, from which may the Lord protect, then let him be anathema."

In the Code of Canon Law, published in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, we read: "The Roman Pontiff, the successor in primacy of Blessed Peter, not only has the primacy of honor, but the supreme and complete authority of jurisdiction over the whole Church, both in matters relating to faith and morals, and in those relating to the discipline and administration of the Church, which is branched throughout the world." And even earlier, the Popes of Rome wrote: "We declare, affirm, determine, proclaim that obedience to the Roman Pontiff is an absolutely necessary condition for salvation for a human being" (Boniface VIII, Bull of 18.XI.1302). "We also declare that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff have supremacy over the whole world, and that this Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, as well as the head of the whole Church and the father and teacher of all Christians, and that to him, in the person of Blessed Peter, has been entrusted by our Lord Jesus Christ the full authority to shepherd the Universal Church, to guide and govern it" (Pope Eugene, 6.VII.1439). And Pope Paul IV wrote in a bull of February 15, 1559: "The Roman high priest, who is on earth the substitute of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, has full authority over tribes and kingdoms, and judges all"... Such is the Roman teaching on the Church and the Pope, alien to the Holy Scriptures, the Apostles, and the ancient Church.

According to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, the Church is one living organism – the body of Christ; and all of us, its members, are called to a living, organic participation in the life of the Church, so that, holding on to the One Head, Christ, the whole body, being united and bonded together, may grow in the stature of God (Col. II, 19). Christ is the Head of the Church, says the Apostle Paul in his epistles, and we, living stones, are placed in various ministries for the building up of the Church – the Body of Christ. "The body of the Church," says the Apostle, "builds itself up in love, by the action of each member in its own measure." And further: "God has subdued all things under His (Christ's) nose, and has set Him above all things, the Head of the Church, which is His Body, the fullness that fills all in all" (Eph. I, 22–23). Thus, the Church is the Fullness of Him (the Head, Christ). "Thus," says St. John Chrysostom, "only then does the Head attain perfect fullness, only then will there be a Body perfect in fullness, when we are all united and most closely connected with each other."

And the knowledge of the Truth, according to the apostolic teaching, is given to brothers "rooted and established in love... with all the saints." "That you, rooted and established in love, together with all the saints, may comprehend what is breadth, and depth, and height, and understand the Love of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, that you may be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead," says the Apostle Paul.

But the Roman Catholics, through the mouths of the popes and the Vatican Council, assert that the knowledge of the Truth is given to the pope independently, personally, without connection with the Church ("the definitions of the teaching regarding the faith of the Roman pontiff are immutable in themselves, and not with the consent of the Church"). It should be noted that in the Second Vatican Council, which has taken place in our days, the decree or formula of the Vatican Council of 1870 on infallibility was completely repeated and inserted into the context of the chapter of the Council's decrees that speaks of the authority of the Pope.

The teaching about the Church as the grace-filled Body of Christ under a single Head – Christ – is obscured by the Roman Catholics' teaching about the Pope as a single monarch, in whom the entire Church is concentrated. The Pope is not the first among his equals in grace bishops and brothers, he is the source of episcopal authority, the bishops are his delegates, the representatives of the Pope. The Pope has replaced the entire Body of the Church, and the criterion of truth, according to their teaching, is not the Holy Spirit, who lives in the whole Church, but the voice on the Roman throne of the bishop who sits. To the person of the Pope is transferred what belongs to the Church, and moreover, to him is also transferred that which belongs only to Christ. Why? Because papal authority is perceived by them mystically; what was taken away from the Church as a living mystical organism is transferred to the pope, and the Church itself is perceived as a juridical organism, a despotically controlled ecclesiastical state.