Orthodox Catholocism is much more traditional. They did not go through the changes the Roman Catholic church did at Vatican II in the 50s.
you'll still see the partition in Orthodox Catholic churches between the priest and the parishioners. you might even still find Orthodox Catholic churches doing mass in Latin....although that is even rare these days.
Basically, the Eastern Orthodox church thinks the Pope is the Bishop of Rome...not an infallible liaison to God. Roman Catholic priests cannot be married. Orthodox Catholic priests can.
My good friend, Father K is a priest in Eastern Orthodox Catholicism. He'll tell you that he eagerly awaits a day when he and his Roman Catholic brothers can become one church again.
Yes, they do. Catholics have the "foliage" which in the declaration of faith says that the Holy Spirit comes forth from both the Father and the Son. The Eastern Orthodox Church says no because they believe that way the Holy Spirit is being degraded. Also, the Holy Communion is different (catholics have Asia the eastern has simple bread). Furthermore, the Mysteries have some ceremonial differences. Also, Eastern Orthodoxy accepts every adherent as being able to receive the Communion. Also, a final large point of disagreement is the Pope and his traits (he's never wrong. his authority etc). The Eastern Orthodoxy does not recognize the Pope as leader of the Church.
The main disagreement is about the scope of the authority of the "Bishop of Rome" (i.e. the Pope). This is one of the key causes of the split between east and west in 1054 A.D.
Some other differences:
1. The Filioque (not the "foliage" as someone wrote!) - a phrase in the Creed regarding the generation of Jesus, the Son.
2. Re-Marriage and Divorce - the Orthodox have relaxed their standards
3. Contraception - the Orthodox take no official stand on this issue
4. Purgatory - the Orthodox have not officially defined Purgatory as a place, however they do have a theological concept of a "holding place" or spiritual toll-booths in the afterlife.
Contrary to what was written here, some Catholic priests do marry. In the Eastern Rite of Catholicism it is permitted. Also, Eastern Orthodox Christians DO believe in that Mary was "Ever Virgin."
The common ground between Catholic and Orthodox are MANY and that should be stressed here. They retain the valid apostolic priesthood, the seven sacraments, the communion of the saints, fasting, penance and the beautiful liturgy. They are officially considered to be in schism by the Catholic Church and we pray constantly for full unity in the very near future.
There are other minor differences between the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholicism.
The Orthodox do not fast on Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday. Roman Catholics experience no such restriction.
Orthodox do not kneel on Sunday; Roman Catholics do. Orthodox have no "Stations of The Cross;" Roman Catholics do.
Orthodox presbyters and deacons may marry before ordination; Roman Catholic clergy are celibate.
Orthodox worship towards the East; Roman Catholics, not necessarily.
In the Orthodox Liturgy, the "bread" of the Eucharist is "leavened" (Lyme); in the Roman Catholic Mass it is "unleavened" (Aymer).
The Orthodox faithful receive both the "body" and "blood of Christ" in Holy Communion; Roman Catholics receive only the "bread," a wafer.
There are no orders of Orthodox monks (male and female) as there is among Roman Catholics (Jesuits, Dominicans, Benedictines, Cistericans, etc.). More recently, many Roman Catholic monks and nuns have put away their traditional habits.
Orthodox clergy wear beards; Papist clergy are generally beardless.
There are many other differences, often the product of culture. Also, it is noteworthy that many of these differences, whether profound or not, do not apply to the contemporary religious situation. Ecumenism has brought great confusion, so that it is not always easy to say with any precision what Roman Catholics believe, while so-called Orthodox have abandoned the traditional teachings of the Church.
Purgatory is a condition of the departed before the final judgment. According to Roman Catholic theology, those souls destined for heaven (with a few exceptions) must endure a state of legation, or purification. They must be cleansed of the sins committed on earth. The rest go to hell for eternal punishment.
Moreover, from a "treasury" of merits or extra grace accumulated by the virtue of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints, "indulgences" may be granted. The grace is applied to those in purgatory in order to shorten their time there.
Orthodoxy teaches that, after the soul leaves the body, it journeys to the abode of the dead (Hades). There are exceptions, such as the Theotokos, who was borne by the angels directly into heaven. As for the rest, we must remain in this condition of waiting. Because some have a prevision of the glory to come and others foretaste their suffering, the state of waiting is called "Particular Judgment."
When Christ returns, the soul rejoins its risen body to be judged by Him. The "good and faithful servant" will inherit eternal life, the unfaithful with the unbeliever will spend eternity in hell. Their sins and their unbelief will torture them as fire.
The icon is an artistic depiction of Christ, the Mother of God and the Saints. God the Father cannot be painted, because He has never been seen. God the Holy Spirit has appeared as a dove and as "tongues of fire." He may be shown in this way. God the Son became a man, and He may be painted in His human form.
Icons are more than sacred pictures. Everything about them is theological. For example, they are always flat, flat so that we who inhabit the physical world will understand that the world of the spirit where Christ, His Mother, the angels, the saints, and the departed dwell, is a world of mystery which cannot be penetrated by our five senses.
Customarily, Roman Catholicism has historically employed statues in its worship. The statues are life-like and three-dimensional. They seem to imitate the art of ancient Greece. Both arts are naturalistic. The Latins portray Christ, the Mother of God, the saints, even the angels, as if they were in a state of nature. This "naturalism" stems from the medieval idea that "grace perfects nature."
The person or persons are represented on the icon as deified. He or she is not a perfect human being, but much more: They are transfigured and glorified. They have a new and grace-filled humanity.
Important to remember is the Latin theory of grace: It is created by God for man. Orthodoxy teaches, as we recall, that grace is uncreated, and impacts all creation. It is a mysterious extension of the Divine Nature. Orthodox iconography reflects this truth, even as Roman Catholic statues reflect its idea of grace.
Again, icons are a necessary part of Orthodox piety. The Orthodox honor and kiss icons, a devotion which passes from the icon to the person or persons represented in them. Icons are not idols and the Orthodox do not worship them. Worship is reserved for God alone. The statues set up in Roman Catholic temples are not commonly venerated; they are visual aids and decorations. LMAO!
The Orthodox reject the Roman Catholic "dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary," which was defined as "of the faith" by Pope Pius IX, on the 8Th of December 1854. This dogma holds that from
Concerning the Sacraments in general, the Orthodox teach that their material elements (bread, wine, water
Continued, sorry about that I ran out of room any way concerning the Sacraments in general, the Orthodox teach that their material elements (bread, wine, water, chrism, etc.) become grace-filled by the calling of the Holy Spirit (epiglottis). Roman Catholicism believes that the Sacraments are effective on account of the priest who acts "in the person of Christ." Hmm?
Unlike the Latins, the Orthodox Church does not think of canons as laws, that is, as regulating human relationships or securing human rights; rather, Orthodoxy views canons as the means of forging the "new man" or "new creature"
Following the holy Fathers, Orthodoxy teaches that Christ, on the Cross, gave "His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). "For even the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). The "ransom" is paid to the grave. As the Lord revealed to the Prophet Hosea (Hosea 13:14), "I will ransom them (us) from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death." In a sense, He pays the ransom to the devil who has the keeper of the grave and holds the power of death (Heb. 2:14).
The man Christ voluntarily gave Himself on the Cross. He died for all ("a ransom for many" or "the many"). But He rose from the dead in His crucified body. Death had no power to hold Him. It has no power over anyone. The human race is redeemed from the grave, from the devil. Free of the devil is to be free of death and sin. To be free of these, we become like God (deification) and may live with Him forever.
According to Roman Catholic theology, God became man in order to satisfy the divine Justice which was offended by the sin of Adam. In other words, by his sin Adam offended the infinite God and, therefore, his sin had infinite consequences. It was not within the power of sinful and finite man to make amends, for the sin of Adam ("original sin") passed to us; but it is our obligation to do so. Only Christ, Who was God and man, could pay this "debt of honor."
Roman Catholicism teaches that human reason can prove that God is; and, even infer that He is eternal, infinite, good, bodiless, almighty, all-knowing, etc. He is "most real being," "true being." Humans are like Him (analogous), but we are imperfect being. The God of Roman Catholicism, born in the Latin Middle Ages, is not " the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the God of the savants and the philosophers," to adapt the celebrated phrase of Blaise Pascal.
Following the Holy Fathers, Orthodoxy teaches that the knowledge of God is planted in human nature and that is how we know Him to exist. Otherwise, unless God speaks to us, human reason cannot know more. The saving knowledge of God comes by the Savior. Speaking to His Father, He said, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou has sent" (John 17: 3).
The Orthodox Church does not endorse the view that the teachings of Christ have changed from time to time; rather that Christianity has remained unaltered from the moment that the Lord delivered the Faith to the Apostles (Matt. 28: 18-20). She affirms that "the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) is now what it was in the beginning. Orthodox of the twentieth century believe precisely what was believed by Orthodox of the first, the fifth, the tenth, the fifteenth centuries. So we can say that they are not as plastic as other religions that mutate based on political times,
Roman Catholicism, pictures its theology as growing in stages, to higher and more clearly defined levels of knowledge, this gives them an out if knowledge increases or powerful political sway changes the mind of the masses.. The teachings of the Fathers, as important as they are, belong to a stage or level below the theology of the Latin Middle Ages (Scholasticism), and that theology lower than the new ideas which have come after it, such as Vatican II.
Following the Holy Fathers, Orthodoxy uses science and philosophy to defend and explain her Faith. Unlike Roman Catholicism, she does not build on the results of philosophy and science. The Church does not seek to reconcile faith and reason. She makes no effort to prove by logic or science what Christ gave His followers to believe. If physics or biology or chemistry or philosophy lends support to the teachings of the Church, she does not refuse them. However, Orthodoxy is not intimidated by man's intellectual accomplishments. She does not bow to them and change the Christian Faith to make it consistent with the results of human thought and science.
That is a very interesting contrast, the development of religious orders in diverse places has often seemed to me a seeking of power over the people and each new split seeks to add it's new and improved ingredients. Eastern Orthodoxy is probably as close to the original zeitgeist of Christianity as is possible in our time, with the possible exception of the Egyptian Coptic Church
The Orthodox and Catholic Churches were one and the same until they separated from one another in 1054 mainly over the role of the Pope.
There are very few theological differences. The main difference is that the Orthodox Churches (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11329a.htm) use the Byzantine Rite (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04312d.htm) and the Catholic Church use the Roman or Latin Rite.
Pope John Paul II said of the Orthodox Churches in Orientale Lumen, "A particularly close link already binds us. We have almost everything in common."
For the entire document, see: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_02051995_orientale-lumen_en.html
From a Protestant point of view, the differences are, chiefly two: icons, and authority.
The veneration of icons goes back to the era of Constantine. Though the Eastern Church wrestled with this issue on and off for a number of centuries, obviously the practice prevailed. The Western Church had issues with this practice, which ties into the second chief difference - that of authority.
Though the Eastern Church respected the Roman Pope, they never held that the authority of that office superseded that of a general church council.
By the mid eleventh century the Eastern Church went its separate way.
There are many other differences, to be sure, if relatively minor in nature.
What are the MAIN disagreements between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churc
