orthodox and catholic?

Question

can someone give me a basic list of differences between roman catholic and orthodox, in the following categories, history, beliefs, practices, worship and churches. I've tried looking on websites but i don't understand it. thanks

Answer 1

Although the final schism was made in 1054, the differences began much sooner.

A) The Roman church early accepted the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. What became the Orthodox churches did not.
B) The Orthodox churches accepted the concept of the Eastern Emperor deciding who would be Patriarch of Jerusalem, Constantinople, etc. (Caesaro-papism). The Roman church never allowed the Western Emperor to make that decision regarding the papacy.
C) The Roman church had, by the 4th century, accepted the the current means of determining the Sunday of Easter. The Orthodox church, using a different calendar, has a different day.
D) The Roman church also accepted the Assumption of Mary, that is, the belief that at her death, she was assumed bodily into heaven and teaches this dogma to this day, although it was not pronounced a dgma until the last century.
The Orthodox church disputed this belief, claiming that she sleeps until the last day (called the Dormition of Mary).
E) Because of the above the Orthodox church does not accept the many apparitions and visitations of the Blessed Virgin that have occurred over the centuries.
F) The Roman church has a college of cardinals to assist and advise the pope, but his is the final authority. In the Orthodox church, councils are the final authority.
G) In the Roman church, priestly celibacy has been the law since the Middle Ages. Orthodox priests are allowed to wed, but married priests cannot be elected to bishoprics.
H) The rituals vary greatly, the Eastern Orthodox tending to be much more opulent. But there are 5 Eastern Catholic (ie, uniate with Rome) churches whose rituals are just as grandiose, so that's not a major problem.
I) Surprisingly enough to those who haven't been following church news too closely, there are fewer and fewer differences between the two oldest branches of Christianity and unity may well be achieved in the near future. We can only pray.


Hope this helped.

Answer 2

The two main differences concern authority, and a rather abstruse matter called filioque.

Roman Catholics say that ultimate authority rests with a person they like to call 'the bishop of Rome', whereas Eastern Orthodox (EO) say that authority is correctly shared between people they like to call monarchical 'bishops' in various cities. (Protestants consider all this totally irrelevant, and do not recognise any of them them as even Christian, for other reasons.)

RCs and EO are derived from the same parent body that was set up and controlled by Roman emperors, but it split into the present organisations some centuries ago, mostly over the question of whether the Holy Spirit came from the Father, or from the Father and the Son. (That was the reason given, but most people didn't care. I think it is much more likely that Western Europe needed a more sophisticated religion to match up with the increased prosperity of the region, and filioque provided an excuse to fine tune Western religion. Even this could not hold new Western ideas, and Protestantism eventually resulted.)

For the ordinary person, there is little practical difference between Rome and the EO. Both are agreed that man cannot be justified by faith in the righteousness of Christ, and say that his perfect righteousness must be added to by good works, things thought up by priests. In other words, they blaspheme, though they deny that charge vehemently. So they are as Christian as Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists, and can be ignored by anyone who really wants to be saved. Those will be imputed with Christ's own righteousness, thereafter following Him only.

Answer 3

Father K is very knowledgeable and would likely give you a better answer than me but he is Anglican. I am Roman Catholic and I went to an Orthodox Mass to see how much alike we might be. Our Churches split in 1054 over something that probably should not matter anymore. I loved their service and their churches are beautiful inside. Their beliefs and practices are so close to ours that I believe we should reunite. The only major difference I could see is that their chief patriarch is not the Pope. It is obvious to me that they are a legitimate Apostolic Church just as the Roman Catholic Church is.

Answer 4

For all their historical and doctrinal differences the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are similar in many beliefs and both recognise the validity of each other's Sacraments. I would have thought that outweighed the differences between them.

Answer 5

Basically the Catholics believe that the Pope is the nearest thing to God,the orthodox churches didn't and broke away.

Answer 6

the main difference is the orthodox can get divorce . it was all roman cathorlic , constantinople was main city for the pope
until the eastern church spilt , i not Shaw why thay spilt

Answer 7

Both have saints, infant baptisms, sacraments, and traditions. Yet, the Orthodox priests can get marry and they don't have a pope.

Answer 8

If you're talking about Greek orthodox preists then a big difference is that they have beards while catholic preists don't (unless they want one)

Answer 9

Ask father K, he's orthodox: http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt=AlFJn9hQCCVLce9R74QnoAXd7BR.?show=eea28160e2175a4c8a06986bd36ddfe0aa

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