Difference between catholic and orthodox?

Question

Were they always seperate and whats some differences?

Answer 1

It is a more complex question than you realize.

I belong to the Eastern Catholic Church. The Western part of the Catholic Church uses the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, or Italo-Greek rite. The Eastern part uses either the Syrian, Byzantine, Chaldean, Malabaran, Malankaran, Coptic or Ge'ez rites. Eastern Catholics are Eastern Orthodox who repaired their relationship with Rome and are now, or in the case of the Maronites of Antioch, have always been in union with Rome. As such, each of the Eastern Catholic Churches are fully autonomous Churches. We are in union with Rome, but not governed by Rome, although Rome is the court of last appeal.

The East has fundamentally different theologies on just about everything. We have the same beliefs, but we understand them differently. As such, our services, teaching methods, rules, songs, art and roles are completely different. Protestantism would have been impossible in the East. None of the necessary antecedent thoughts are supported in the East. Protestantism is extreme Roman Catholicism. It is taking Roman Catholicism to its extreme logical conclusion without the moderating influence of the East.

They have not always been separate and there never has been a case where the separation has been complete. The Orthodox and the Catholic Church are one Church, but in schism. To provide an example, even though Rome and Moscow are in schism, the Patriarch of Moscow under Lenin was executed for appealing to Rome for help. He was found guilty of entreating a foreign power.

In some ways, the differences revolve around Augustine. Protestantism is extreme Augustinian thought. Most Protestant's don't realize it, but it is. Augustine held views that are not held in the East and which the Roman Church does not officially hold, but does tend to support. For example, Western theology tends to emphasize the static over the dynamic, it tends to be past-present oriented the East tends to be future oriented, the East emphasizes mystery over understanding.

So for example, the West gets caught up in the debate over what is communion. It tends to look at it as a memorial of a past event or a present recreation of that event. The East sees it as a foretaste of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. The West, because it was forced to become the civil government, views its canons as rules (some Baptists can't dance or wear makeup, some Catholics worry about the fast too much) as opposed to normative suggestions for a healthy life.

The East views the mystery of reconciliation as a way to recieve Christ the Medicine of Life. It is a form of healing. The West tends to emphasize forgiveness of sins as a juridical act. It is as though a judge came by and said "not guilty." The East sees it as a physician saying you are healed.

Original sin is a big issue in the West. Catholicism tends to see it like a "time out," we would give our children. Protestantism sees it as a banishment. I call the Protestant view the "life flight Jesus," view. You are on a pillar in a canyon and have no way to escape, but you can trust life flight Jesus and his helicopter to get you off, if you just trust him. Orthodoxy sees sin more like disease. It is a marring of the intended Creation. It is a wound to be healed and cared for, not a judicial sanction.

In some Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, married men become priests. The rule of thumb in the East is that if it was done in the first centuries, it is to be done today. If it wasn't done in the first centuries, it is not to be done today. That is true in the West, but less so. In Protestantism that idea is almost completely absent.

The West emphasizes the "Catholic," or the "all embracing," faith. It would rather embrace with love than divide. The East emphasizes the Orthodox, or the "right speaking," and would rather divide than be bound to someone who distorts the Catholic faith.

For the first 1000 years, there were periodic separations. It is somewhat hopeful that reunion may occur in my lifetime with the Orthodox. The issues are not so much theological as personal. People have been divided and reunion is hard.

The Catholic Church fully recognizes the authority of the Orthodox Church. In fact, should a Catholic be commanded to do something by an Orthodox bishop, he would be generally bound in conscience to do so as that bishop is a valid successor to an apostle by ordination.

The commonalities:
All services, East or West derive themselves from the services left by the apostles or were directly written by an apostles. The services of Mark and James are still in use and Peter's service (what we have left of it) is the underlying service for the Roman Catholic Easter Vigil.

All share a belief in the mysteries (called the sacraments in the West and ordinances in Protestantism).

Share a devotion to the Theotokos (Mother of God).

Have a validly ordained episcopate deriving their authority directly from the Apotles. (See Acts 1:46 for the first apostolic successor Mathias, the first bishop)

Share the same body of apostolic tradition. Apostolic tradition are those teachings, beliefs, songs, art, services and writings (the New Testament) handed on by the apostles to their immediate successors.

All look to the apostolic sees for guidance (those most ancient churches directly founded by an apostle to determine what things they did in the first century to be certain they are in accord.)

All emphasize the reading of scripture. The Roman service reads the entire bible once every three years if you attend every Sunday service, the Byzantine does in in about 49 weeks if you attend daily. I am not sure what the other groups do.

All emphasize self government and subsidiarity (problems should be solved at the lowest level possible).

Answer 2

--Is Catholic--

Let me concentrate on Differences rather than what caused the seperation. The seperation is extreamly complex and about 800 years of history (from roughtly 4th century to 11 century things just kept getting worse).

There is a book worth of differences between Roman Catholics and Orthodox. Because there are different Orthodox Churches, let me use the Greek Orthodox in my explanation.

However, there are almost no differences between Greek (Byzantine Rite) Catholics and Greek Orthodox. The way you have to look at things is that there is a small separation between G.Orth being Catholic, and a large separation from them being Roman Catholic.

The differences break down into

Liturgical
--The structure of the Rites are different as are the prayers, but there is the same basic concepts occurring -- Penance, Thanksgiving, Scripture Readings, Homily, and most importantly the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Eucharist.

Clergy
Married priests in G.Orth.

Spiritual
--Vastly different. Some examples. Western mystics tend to get stigmata, Eastern tend to under go transfiguration (glowing). Spirituality of Icons, which is more in-depth and involved than how we use statues. Icons are windows into heaven and are very much revered. Spirituality can be very Oriental almost yogaish and Buddhist.

Theological
Orthodox understand things from a medicinal standpoint. Everything is about how God is healing the human race. Theology also relies upon "mystery", which doesn't mean hidden, but rather unable to approach exactly, when they talk theology (so things can be vague, prosy, and contradictory) whereas the West wants to go for the details. The West (after St. Aquinas) tends to see God as pure act (essence and act are the same). The Orthodox see a difference between God's essence and His energies (activities). The Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son.

Miss. stuff.
The Sign of the cross is done backwards (or forwards depending on how you look at it) (and the positioning of the hand is different). Believe it or not this was a big deal way back when.

That is just general. There is more.

But you know at the end of the day, these differences are not that much. The difference between a Catholic/Orthodox and a Protestant is vast compared to the difference between Cath. and Orth. Catholics, and Orthodox have the same faith, it is just different in how it is expressed, theologically and its forms. There is also minor differences in how the Church is structured (such as the papacy....).

Answer 3

They separated in 1054 A.D., when the ambassadors of the Pope (Catholic) and the Patriarch of Constantinople (Orthodox) excommunicated each other. There aren't a lot of differences in actual basic beliefs; they split up about whether we should say that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son", or just "proceeds from the Father". However, their customs are now pretty different. For example: Orthodox priests can get married, Catholic priests can't. Orthodox use leavened communion bread (with yeast), Catholics use unleavened (just flour and water, baked.) Orthodox also have a more elaborate Liturgy, while the Catholic Mass was simplified by Vatican II.

Since the beliefs of the two groups are still so similar, many people in both groups think they should join back up. For now, though, Catholics aren't allowed to go to Orthodox Liturgy, and Orthodox aren't allowed to go to Catholic Mass.

Answer 4

The Orthodox churches have been in schism with the Catholic Church since 1054.

Of the Church's 21 ecumenical councils in its history, the Orthodox churches typically recognize the authority of only the first seven.

The major difference deals with earthly ecclesiastical authority. Basically, the Orthodox churches do not recognize the primacy of the Pope as the head of the Church.

In virtually every other way, though, the Orthodox churches are a mirror image of the Catholic Church. The Orthodox hold virtually all of the same doctrinal and moral beliefs that we Catholics do.

Orthodox and Catholics can attend each other's Masses, as well as receive the sacraments of reconcililation and extreme unction (the "last rites") from each other's priests.

Answer 5

They weren't always seperate - the Catholic church split from the Orthodox church (the leaders ex-communicated each other or something) a long time ago. There are differences, for example the Orthodox church celebrate Christmas day on the 6th January. Check out the links for more info!

Answer 6

they split up when the roman empire split up into the western roman empire(that adopted the catholic religion) and eastern roman empire(that adopted the orthodox religion). The differences are that the catholics use the Gregorian calendar and the orthodox use the Justinian calendar, that would be one of the main differences.

Answer 7

No, they were not all separate. It all started when Jesus made Peter the first Pope saying "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." " Matthew 17-19.
And thus the Catholic religion began. Catholicism was the first and only Christian Religion, and it remained that wait until the 16th century when Martin Luther started the Protestant reformation. And with that more and more Christian religions branched out from Catholicism.

Answer 8

catholics worship idols like the cross, statues etc...Orthodox does not...