What are the essential differences between Orthodoxes and Catholics?

Answer 1

The Great Schism is the title given to the rift that formed in the Church in the eleventh century A.D. This separation led to the "Roman Catholic" Church, hereby known as the Western Church, and the "Greek Catholic" or "Greek Orthodox Church," hereby known as the Eastern Church.



In order to best understand what happened, we need to examine history and the context in which that history occurred. The Church from the fourth century onwards had 5 patriarchs or heads, and each one governed a jurisdictional area or patriarchate. The patriarchates were located in the west in Rome, which spoke Latin, and in the east in Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Byzantium, which all spoke Greek.



Wanting to create a new Christian empire, and due to the degree of paganism in Rome, the Emperor Constantine decided to move the capital of the Empire to Byzantium (which was later renamed Constantinople after him). Around this time, and shortly after this move, the barbaric "Germanic" tribes began invading across Europe. This invasion had the effect of plunging Europe into what is known as the "Dark Ages." The combination of economic and political turmoil, geographical distances, and linguistic differences, created a rift that caused the eventual estrangement of West from East.



Given these factors it is not surprising that very few western theologians spoke Greek, and instead wrote and spoke primarily in Latin. They did not have access to, nor could they read, the writings of the eastern theologians. As such, most of the western theology was based on a few key Latin theologians, whereas the East had numerous Greek theologians, and did not have to focus on any particular theologian's teaching.



The flexibility of the Greek language (there was approximately ten times the vocabulary than Latin), allowed for more expressive and deeper writings. The decline of literacy in the west led to the clergy being the primary teaching authority. This is contrasted with the east where general education and more universities created a literate populace, and thus more lay theologians who played an active role in the church.



The growing list of differences between East and West simply exacerbated the tensions. One of the most striking differences was that as new people were evangelized in the west, they had to use Latin as their liturgical and ecclesiastical language, while looking to Rome for leadership. On the other hand, missionaries from the east translated the Bible into the language of the people. When the new churches in the East became mature, they became self-governing and administratively independent from their mother church. In the West, Rome began to require all clergy to be celibate; whereas in the East they retained married clergy.



So, while the “filioque controversy” was the cause of the “Great Schism,” with the eastern and western bishops excommunicating each other, it was in fact only the breaking point. Differences, disagreements, and distance had been laying the foundation for the Great Schism for centuries. The Great Schism was essentially the “forerunner” of the Protestant Reformation, with a refusal to accept the unbiblical concept of the supremacy of Rome at its core.

Answer 2

The principle difference is alliegiance to the Pope. The Orthodox have their own chief shepherd, and do not follow the successor of the shepherd appointed by Christ. There are few doctrinal diffences. The best known one is the doctrinal point that finalized the schism of the Orthodox from the Church founded by Christ - the idea that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone (Orthodox view) vs. the Catholic teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
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Answer 3

Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics separated from one another in 1054. There are very few theological differences.

The main difference is that the Eastern Orthodox Churches (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11329a.htm) use the Byzantine Rite (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04312d.htm) and the Roman Catholic Church use the Roman or Latin Rite.

Pope John Paul II said of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Orientale Lumen, "A particularly close link already binds us. We have almost everything in common." (see http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_02051995_orientale-lumen_en.html)

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Not sure about all of them. One is the fact that the Roman Catholic Church maintains that the head of the Church is the Bishop of Rome, namely the Pope, and the Orthodox Church refuses to allow one man to be head over the Church.
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Answer 5

there were problems because of the distance of konstantinople and rome,so the roman preists took advantage to gain full control of the romans