March 30, 2016

Interview with a Former Catholic from Poland who Converted to Orthodoxy through Baptism


In this interview with Marina Madej, a former Catholic from Poland who converted to Orthodoxy through Holy Baptism, we find one of many unfortunate examples of not allowing a convert who desires Holy Baptism to be baptized, forcing upon them oikonomia unnecessarily to the point that it drives them to a distant land seeking Baptism as their conscience urges. Since the schism in the eleventh century, the Church has traditionally accepted converts from Catholicism either by Baptism or Chrismation, the latter being allowed by oikonomia, but both traditions equally valid. To be received by Confession alone is an unnecessarily extreme form of oikonomia to receive a Catholic, as they do in Poland, which is why Marina fled to Greece to be properly received into the Orthodox Church.