In his 2000 Kelly Lecture, Robert F. Taft, S.J. noted that Rome's universalist ecclesiology in India "was in reality if not in intention little more than imperialism on the ecclesial level." In 1599, the Portuguese Padroãdo coopted the hierarchical structure of the indigenous Thomas Christians during the Synod of Diamper. In 1653, this ancient apostolic church fractured into Catholic and Orthodox churches, with many gathering to solemnly declare that they would no longer recognize the Latin prelate imposed onto them. The first part of my paper explores Angela Barreto Xavier and Ines G. Zupanov's argument that this historical context reveals a Catholic Orientalism through which the dominant knowledge formation of the so-called Eastern other is not concerned with the actual lived experiences of this other, but with a benevolent self-imposed burden that dominates for the imagined benefit of all. The second part will then consider how this universalist ecclesiology resulted from a distorted soteriology, which identified salvation with the geographic extension of papal primacy in reaction to the failed Council of Florence and the Protestant Reformation. Yet, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians, the blood of Christ was meant to put an end to hostility by destroying all barriers and making two groups into one. Through this renewed soteriology, I conclude by proposing a postcolonial healing of memories that builds on the work of Pro Oriente and others, which seek to go beyond justifying the existence of Eastern Catholics to encouraging their full flourishing in service to God's mission of reconciliation.