Plausibility Check: Fully Catholic Eastern Europe?

As we all know, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia went Orthodox while the rest of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. etc) went Catholic. How plausible would it be that the former three go Catholic and Orthodoxy is marginalized to the Southern Balkans? If so, how? Another thing, you can also have a full east-west reunion if you want a post 1054 PoD, but you would have to explain how this could succeed.

Kievan Rus don't accept Orthodoxy, what with an earlier weakening of the ERE?

Of course, this is more likely for them to stay pagan or go Muslim, but hey.

I guess that more active missionaries from Rome, who also could act as teachers would challange the Greek church in Eastern Europe. From my understanding the Romans where slow to try to convert the East, and by the time they go organised the Greeks had got there first.

Laurentia said:

As we all know, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia went Orthodox while the rest of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. etc) went Catholic. How plausible would it be that the former three go Catholic and Orthodoxy is marginalized to the Southern Balkans? If so, how? Another thing, you can also have a full east-west reunion if you want a post 1054 PoD, but you would have to explain how this could succeed.

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In The Raptor of Spain, I had the Khazars survive longer, blocking Orthodoxy from reaching the the northern Rus' so they were instead Christianized by the Scandinavians.

Laurentia said:

As we all know, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia went Orthodox while the rest of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. etc) went Catholic. How plausible would it be that the former three go Catholic and Orthodoxy is marginalized to the Southern Balkans? If so, how? Another thing, you can also have a full east-west reunion if you want a post 1054 PoD, but you would have to explain how this could succeed.

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Perhaps if the Eastern roman empire had fallen earlier than OTL, they just wouldn't have the organization to go abroad converting.

Mauro Motta said:

Perhaps if the Eastern roman empire had fallen earlier than OTL, they just wouldn't have the organization to go abroad converting.

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I agree, although, but and that's really a matter of definitions, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic could be seen as a part of Central Europe. (I remember being in Hungary and referring to the region as Eastern Europe, however they (made it clear that they)preferred Central Europe; for them and for the Netherlands Russia and Ukraine is Eastern Europe)

You just need the first pagan ruler of those lands to choose Latin Christianity instead of Greek Christianity. If Vladimir I had done so (or some other butterflied ruler), than it's done.

Of course, one of the major reasons why Greek Christianity was choosen was that Constantinople was much closer than Rome, and at the time (around AD 988) the Byzantines were much more impressive culturally than the Latin West. But let's say that the ruler of Rus had married the newly christianed King of Poland's sister or daughter, and that gave Latin Christianity the boost it needed or some other similar situation. Or that Rus remained pagan a little while longer, and when a succession crisis hit, the King of Poland intervened and the price for his help would be introduction of Latin Christianity along with the other usual demands.

So it's plausible, but perhaps not as likely as adopting Greek Orthodoxy.

Blackfox5 said:

But let's say that the ruler of Rus had married the newly christianed King of Poland's sister or daughter, and that gave Latin Christianity the boost it needed or some other similar situation. Or that Rus remained pagan a little while longer, and when a succession crisis hit, the King of Poland intervened and the price for his help would be introduction of Latin Christianity along with the other usual demands.

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How stable was early Latin/Roman Christianity in Poland? Polish churches are a mix of east and west: icons, western-style painting, and statuary stand side by side in baroque cathedrals. Poland has a strong eastern Slavic cultural influence, but the Latin script and the Latin liturgical language have exerted a strong influence. In my view, the only truly significant difference between Poles and Ukrainians is that the Poles are Roman Christians and use the Latin alphabet (with modification), and the Ukrainians are Byzantine Christians and use Cyrillic. Culturally, there is much overlap.

Also, much later in the 16th century, there was quite a bit of Polonization in the western Ukraine (especially after the Union of Brest). The Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics were heavily Latinized (rosary, stations of the cross, confessional booths), no doubt due to the Polish presence. The exchange of eastern and western Christianity was (and perhaps is) still quite porous between Poland and its Byzantine relatives.

Thanks guys. I wasn't too sure I knew much about this period, so I just wanted to make it clear.

The best way to do this might be to put off the Schism for a few centuries, either with a strong pope, a conciliatory emperor, or a greater mutual Norman/Muslim/whatever threat. If you cause tensions to crop up later then it's possible that the Rus won't want to follow Constantinople's lead in everything, especially if the Byzantines have fallen on hard times. They may side with faraway Rome because (in practice) it gives them a little more latitude.