#12227 Why Orthodox & Catholics Differ on Union with God & Church Authority - William Albrecht
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this intellectually rich episode of Catholic Answers Live, we explore a key theological difference between East and West: How can man be united with God if God’s energies are uncreated and eternal? We examine the Catholic understanding of divinization (theosis), grace, and the beatific vision—and how these differ from the Orthodox view of God’s “energies.”
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Questions Covered:
- 05:42 – Did priestly celibacy start because the Church did not want the families to inherit money and property? How do I refute that claim from a protestant?
- 11:07 – How can I help convince parents to allow their children to attend youth groups? They are hesitant because there are students who attend who have same-sex attraction.
- 17:33 – I had a Catholic family member who recently passed away. I’m not Catholic. How do I properly ask the intercession of saints for this person’s soul?
- 23:55 – According to the western view, how can man be united with God if God’s energies are uncreated and eternal?
- 34:24 – I’m a Protestant chaplain. What is the Church’s opinion of me offering the lourdes supper to Catholics?
- 44:51 – Weren’t Peter and the other apostles married? Would this nullify your claim on priestly celibacy?
- 49:22 – Would a confession be acceptable for a plenary indulgence if I go a week before fulfilling the rest of the criteria?
- 51:37 – Do the Orthodox believe that the laity can invalidate councils? How can I use that information apologetically?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Hello and welcome to Catholic Answers live. |
| 0:32.5 | It is going to be a good show today, really good show. |
| 0:34.8 | Second hour, Tim Staples, this hour, William Albrecht, both hours, asked me anything. |
| 0:39.1 | And it's always a good show. |
| 0:40.3 | I always get a good feeling about the show when I forget to close the studio door. |
| 0:43.6 | And it's sitting wide open while I'm talking at the beginning of the show. |
| 0:46.8 | I don't know why. |
| 0:47.4 | I feel like that's a good sign when I'm so into the show that I forget to close the studio door. William Albrecht runs the website Patristic Pillars. |
| 0:55.3 | He's international speakers. As a matter of fact, just was in Great Britain doing debates and |
| 1:00.6 | talks over there. He's published a whole bunch of articles and things. You should check out |
| 1:04.5 | Patristic Pillars. It's very, very good. William Albrecht, thanks for being here with us. |
| 1:08.4 | Thank you for having me. I am thrilled and pumped to be back with you, Si. |
| 1:11.8 | Every time we get together and we talk about the Catholic faith, man, I have a great time. |
| 1:16.4 | Have a great time. |
| 1:17.2 | We do too. |
| 1:18.0 | I do too. |
| 1:18.8 | All of us really like it when you're on with us, and I'm glad that has been happening more. |
| 1:23.4 | And we should, you know, sometimes there's a scheduling thing. Somebody will cancel on us. We just call William up and he's like, all right, he puts on the headset. He goes like, nothing scares him. No preparation. He's like, all right, I'll go on the air. So you are, but the thing that I like to remind people when you're on is that you do this apologetic stuff in more than one language. And so |
| 1:45.4 | you're the Spanish language work you do for us is magnificent. So you did a debate. And I heard it's |
| 1:51.7 | premiering on our, on Resvests Catolicas, our Spanish language channel on YouTube. Do I have this |
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