What do Greek Orthodox beleive?

Question

A Greek man works in our building and wears a long black robe but is married. I am confused.

Answer 1

Normally only a Greek Orthodox priest would dress like that. Greek Orthodox priests can be married, if they were married at the time of their ordination.

Greek Orthodox believe very similarly to Catholics, although they believe that bishops are more autonomous than Catholics believe them to be. Although the Greek Orthodox do accept the idea of a historical primacy of the bishop of Rome, they only consider this to be a "first among equals" primacy, and not a sovereignty over the whole church.

Because they consider Catholics to be apostate because of the papal claims, this primacy is presently given to the bishop of Constantinople (Istanbul.)

There are other differences - the eastern churches disagree with a clause in the western creed called the 'filioque', which describes the Holy Spirit proceeding from Father and Son. They say only the Father. Although eastern churches agree with the general idea of 'transubstantiation', they don't use the word. They consider it part of the Catholic trend of over-explaining the great mysteries.

But like Catholics, the Orthodox are sacramental and liturgical.

Answer 2

Greek Orthodox(as well as the Eastern Orthodox as a whole)is just like Catholicism, except for the fact that they are not under the authority.

Rather, they are under the authority of Patriarchs, who also trace their lineage back to the Apostles, such as St. Andrew(in the same way as Catholics trace the Papacy back to St. Peter).

Also, the Orthodox say the Nicene Creed differently than the Catholic Church does. That's not to say that Orthodox do not believe in the Blessed Trinity(they do), but, they believe that Catholicism altered the Nicene Creed centuries after it was composed.

Answer 3

Orthodox Christianity possesses the seven sacraments; valid ordination, the Real Presence, a reverential understanding of Sacred Tradition, apostolic succession, a profound piety, a great history of contemplative monastic spirituality, a robust veneration of Mary and the saints, and many other truly Christian attributes. Catholics (including myself) widely admire, in particular, the sense of the sacred and the beauty and grandeur of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy (which - it should be noted - is also present in the many Byzantine or Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church), as Thomas Howard eloquently illustrates:

The Nicene Creed, adhered to by most Christians, contains the phrase, "One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." From a Catholic ecclesiological perspective, Orthodoxy - strictly speaking - is not "one" Church, but a conglomerate of at least seventeen

Catholics assert that Orthodoxy's rejection of the papacy is inconsistent with the nature of the Church through the centuries. No one denies the existence of the papacy in some form in the early period. Orthodoxy, however, regards the authority exercised by popes historically (or which should have been exercised) as simply that of a primacy of honor, rather than a supremacy of jurisdiction over all other bishops and regional churches

Catholics would argue that Orthodoxy has not come to grips with modernity and the new challenges to Christianity that it brings, in terms of how to effectively communicate the gospel to modern man. The Catholic Church renewed itself along these lines in the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). One need not compromise doctrine in order to deal with the modern situation. Pope John Paul 11 does not do so in his stream of extremely relevant and cogent encyclicals on present-day issues such as moral theology, labor, the family, the role of women, the place of laypeople, etc. Although, as a result of this undertaking (i.e., due to a corruption of the nature of the Council by ambitious heterodox Catholics), the Catholic Church suffers from a modernist crisis within its own ranks, this too will pass. Signs of this are increasing, and the nonsense will fade away like all the other crises and heretical movements in the past

Orthodoxy, although praiseworthy in its generally traditional stand for Christian morality, differs from Catholicism over the question of the propriety and morality of contraception, which was universally condemned by all branches of Christianity until 1930. Thus, Catholics feel that they (almost alone today) are more in accord with apostolic Christian Tradition on this point, and that an acceptance of contraception is a giving in to humanistic sexual ethics. Catholics regard it as a mortal sin, whereas Orthodoxy has not even forbidden it.

Catholics also believe that Jesus and the Apostles, and ancient Christian Tradition, considered a valid sacramental marriage between two baptized Christians as absolutely indissoluble . An annulment is essentially different from a divorce in that it is the determination (based on a variety of reasons) that a valid sacramental marriage never existed. Orthodoxy accepts second and third marriages, with a measure of penitential sadness commensurate with a falling short of the Christian ideal, and feels that this is a tragic pastoral necessity, in light of the fallen human condition.

Answer 4

similar to the Catholics...they believe in the Trinity...very strict though...only priests can touch the alter in their churches

Answer 5

very similar to the Catholics although their Priests can marry.