> “In the Orthodox Church alone is grace given through the sacraments (most other churches don’t even claim to have sacraments in any serious sense)...they (heretics) cannot be objectively Christian as belonging to the Body of Christ and receiving the grace of the sacraments.” – Fr. Seraphim Rose
> “...To "lead a perfectly righteous life," as the questioner expressed it, means to live according to the commandments of the Beatitudes—which is beyond the power of one, outside the Orthodox Church, without the help of grace which is concealed within it.” – Metropolitan Philaret of NY
> “They have separated themselves from the unity of the Ecumenical Church and are deprived of God’s grace, which abides in Christ’s Church… And all the actions and sacraments performed by the bishops and priests who have fallen away from the Church are without grace; while the faithful who take part with them in prayer and sacraments not only do not receive sanctification, they are subject to condemnation for taking part in sin.” – St. Tikhon of Patriarch of Moscow
“None of them find themselves under the activity of the grace which is present in the Church, and especially the grace which is given in the Mysteries of the Church.” – Fr. Michael Pomazansky
“It is clear that by this regulation the Church does not recognize in heretics and schismatics either the priesthood or the other mysteries, and considers them subject to ecclesiastical baptism in the nature of things.” and “...the Church by receiving Latins into communion in the same way as Nestorians (Council of Trullo, 95) does not make any distinction between old heresies and the Latin one. I think that the Latins are considerably further from the Church and they are worse than Monophysites and Monophelites, because they created a second Christ, i.e., the antichrist in the person of the Pope, who is supposedly infallible...” – Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky
“Those who... do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation...anathema!” – From the ROCOR anathema of 1983 under the Presidency of Metropolitan Philaret
“No, the truth of ecclesiastical unity does not recognize the grace of the mysteries administered within extra-ecclesiastical communities...the reception of Latins nowadays without baptism does not at all convince me that the Latin mysteries are valid in themselves” – St. Hilarion Troitsky
> St. Paisius Velichkovsky “was so apprehensive about heresies and schisms that all who were converted, whether from sects or from the western Latin heresies, he baptized...” – The Moldavian ascetic Schema-monk John who was a contemporary of St. Paisius
“What should we say in response to these questions: can the Latin Church and other religions be called the New Israel and ark of salvation? And how can one understand the Eucharist of this Church of Rome? Only the Church of the right-believing, undamaged by heretical philosophizing, can be called the New Israel. Holy Apostle John the Theologian says, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all were not of us (1 Jn. 2:19). And Holy Apostle Paul says, One Lord, one faith (Eph. 4:5), i.e. one is the true faith, and not every belief is good--as those having separated themselves from the one true Church recklessly think, about whom Holy Apostle Jude writes, How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit (Jude 1:18-19). Therefore, how can these, who are alien to the spirit of truth, be called the New Israel? Or, how can they be called a haven of salvation for anyone, when both one and the other cannot be effectuated without the grace of the Holy Spirit? In the Orthodox Church, it is believed that the bread and wine in the mystery of the Eucharist are transubstantiated by the invocation and descent of the Holy Spirit. But the Latins, as mentioned above, considered this invocation unnecessary and excluded it from their Liturgy. Thus, he who understands--let him understand about the Eucharist of the Latins.” – St. Ambrose of Optina
"The heterodox, by their very heterodoxy, have separated themselves from the communion of the Mysteries of the Orthodox Church.” – Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow
“All of us who are children of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Ecumenical Church ought not to be guided by our own reasonings in questions which arise concerning the doctrine of our Faith, since these reasonings may be erroneous. Rather in such instances we must apply the canons which give us guidance. These canons are contained primarily in a book called The Rudder, a collection of the canons of the holy Apostles, the holy Ecumenical and Local Councils and those of several of the holy Fathers. At the end of The Rudder (Russian edition) in a chapter called "Concerning the Apostasy of Rome — how she fell away from the Orthodox Faith and from the Holy Eastern Church," the Pope of Rome and his followers, who wrongly call themselves catholics, are termed heretics. There is nothing to be said about the other Protestant Christian confessions, inasmuch as they have departed even further from Orthodoxy...But how does a person achieve salvation? One of the chief conditions for the attainment to salvation is repentance... But even if the non-Orthodox or heretic were to desire to offer repentance before an Orthodox priest, his repentance for his sins would be ineffective. We read in Part I, Question 113 of The Orthodox Confession: "What must we observe in the mystery of repentance? Answer: First of all, we must observe that the penitent is a Christian of the Orthodox and Catholic Faith, for repentance without the True Faith is not repentance and is not received by God." All of this is said concerning living Christians who believe incorrectly or concerning heretics...Our Holy Church unfailingly requires of every heterodox person desiring to be in communion with Her that he publicly before the entire Church, renounce his errors and receive pure Christian doctrine. If it were possible to offer prayers in church for the salvation of the souls of heterodox who have reposed, the Church in her divine services would employ special petitions for them. There is no such thing in any of our church services. On the contrary, on the First Sunday of the Great Fast, our Holy Church pronounces anathema, that is, separation from unity with herself, on all heretics and apostates from Orthodoxy, which would include Roman Catholics and Protestants.” – St. Joseph of Optina
“They [use] dead Latin substances and perform a Liturgy in which there is no life...” – St. Theodosius of Kiev
"The Western Church, has distorted the image of Christ, having been transformed from a Church into a Roman state and incarnated it again in the form of the papacy. Yes, in the West there is in truth no longer Christianity and the Church, although there are still many Christians - yes, and they will never disappear. Catholicism is truly no longer Christianity, and is passing into idol-worship...” – Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
“The (Russian Orthodox) say that all subordinate to the Church of Rome are not true Christians and are not saved...They profane, blaspheme, mock and despise all the sacraments of the (Latin) Church.” – A Roman catholic bishop stated this at the Lateran (Papal) council of 1514
“...All heretics of every different heretical faith are deprived of the true, holy baptism...” and “From the beginning of the Russian state until now, there has never been a case where Latin heretics and heretics of other faiths were not baptized except for the case of Ignatius the Patriarch who was deposed..." – Patriarch Philaret of Moscow
“The first important stage on the path of this "apostasy" was the falling away from Orthodoxy of the Latin West, with the papal throne at its head... Only the appearance of Christianity was left, its exterior, deprived of the true spirit of life in Christ.” – Archbishop Averky (Taushev)