The Orthodox, the Catholics, (as well as the Protestants) belong to the same great religion, Christianity. They all worship the same god and rely on the same sacred book, the Bible.
The schism (separation) between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches occurred in 1054 and marked as much if not more, the political rivalry between two cultural areas, Rome and Constantinople, as the profound theological differences between the two confessions. However, it defines two Church systems and two relationships to power whose differences will become more pronounced over the centuries.
The term “orthodox” comes from the Greek ortos (Ορθος) which means right, and doxa (δόξα) which means belief. Orthodoxy thus means true belief and designates the Churches that have remained faithful to the faith of the first councils. The Orthodox Church is in uninterrupted continuity with the primitive Church.
Differences in rites and traditions
If in general, the Orthodox Church has remained closer to original Christianity, over time, the two Churches have developed different traditions which are expressed in the rite, the liturgy, and the rules that govern worship. What is most obvious when you enter an Orthodox church is the mystical atmosphere, combining repetitive prayers, the play of light from the candles and candelabra, and the symbolism of the icons.
The most notable differences are:
During the liturgy, Catholics pray standing or kneeling, while Orthodox people remain standing or seated.
The songs are understood as prayer in their own right and are omnipresent in the celebrations of the Orthodox divine liturgy.
Icons are at the heart of the Orthodox religion and in Greek churches we see the faithful performing devotional gestures in their honor. These icons are a symbol that we venerate (and not idols) unlike the adoration which is due to God alone. Conversely, statues are not normally tolerated in Orthodox churches.
For the Eucharist, the Orthodox, faithful to tradition, use fermented bread while the Catholics use unleavened bread.
The Orthodox make the sign of the cross with the three fingers of the right hand (thumb, index, middle finger) and by touching the forehead, chest, right shoulder then left shoulder. The current practice among Catholics of signing themselves from left to right was established at the time of the Crusades, without anyone providing any particular justification for this change. As you will see, the Greeks cross themselves on countless occasions throughout the day.
If the Catholic Church imposes celibacy (this is a rule that was imposed in the 11th century without it being a dogma), Orthodox priests can be married and have children. However, they must be married before their ordination (the pope, if he is ordained while celibate, remains celibate throughout his life). Only bishops are obliged to celibacy and practically all Greek dads (popes) are married. According to the prescriptions of the Pastoral Epistles, the pope must be a man of “one wife” and a pope who divorces is reduced to a lay state.
If the Catholic Church essentially practices baptism by effusion (water is poured on the person’s forehead), the Orthodox Church baptizes by total immersion of the body. This is also the meaning of the word baptism in Greek. The Orthodox Church has remained faithful to the tradition since the evangelical origins of this ritual which symbolizes total adhesion to Christ and the fact of “putting on Christ”.
The Catholic Church has used the Gregorian calendar since 1582 (introduced by Pope Gregory XIII) while it is the Julian calendar that still prevails among some Orthodox people (a solar calendar introduced by Emperor Julius Caesar in 46 BC. -VS.). Thus, certain Orthodox Churches and certain Eastern Rite Catholic Churches celebrate Christmas on January 7 (in the Gregorian calendar, which corresponds to December 25 in the Julian calendar: 13 days difference).
What are the underlying reasons for the separation?
The great schism between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church dates back to 1054 and it was not until the historic meeting in Jerusalem of Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I in 1964 – the first meeting between the primates of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches since 1439! – so that dialogue is renewed between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Things are moving with Pope Francis who has already met on several occasions with the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church of Russia.
To explain the duration of the separation, the underlying reasons are theological reasons which may seem “Byzantine” subtleties to the layman.
THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE ADDITION OF THE WORD FILIOQUE TO THE CREED
For the Orthodox, taking up the words of Christ in Saint John (15, 26), the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Catholics say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, a Patre Filioque.
This addition to the Creed imposed by Charlemagne, an ally of Rome, in the 8th century and ratified in the 11th century is rejected by the Orthodox Church which considers that it is not in conformity with the words of Christ and that it modifies the relations between the three persons of the Trinity in a certain way reinforces the role of Jesus at the expense of the Holy Spirit.
THE PRIMACY AND INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE
The other essential cause of the schism was the desire of the popes to transform moral primacy into direct legal power over the churches. In the 11th century, the Gregorian reform, to free the papacy from the Germanic emperors, attempted to directly submit the bishops and kings to the pope (theory of the two swords) and claimed the infallibility of the sovereign pontiff.
The Orthodox Churches consider the Pope to be the Patriarch of Rome. They recognize him as having a primacy of honor in the event of an Ecumenical Council and not a place as head of the Church, this place being that of Christ. They also do not accept the dogma of papal infallibility as defined by the First Vatican Council in 1870.
In the Orthodox world, the mode of government of the Church is based on the bishop then, depending on the subjects to be dealt with, on the Holy Synod (the assembly of bishops) and possibly the ecumenical council. This gives a decentralized organization and collegial decisions whereas for Catholics the organization is pyramidal and all authority comes from the Pope, Bishop of Rome.
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
The Immaculate Conception concerns the conception of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and not that of Jesus Christ, whose virginal and sinless conception is not in question. Orthodox and Catholics agree that Mary is Immaculate when she conceives and gives birth to the Son of God and that this is the effect of a special grace of the Holy Spirit. The difference comes from the moment of this grace: at the conception of Mary for the Catholics, at the moment when she says “YES” to the archangel, for the Orthodox. At the origin of the problem, the dogma of original sin in Saint Augustine led the Western Church into terrible theological controversies concerning Mary. To summarize, while in the Orthodox East, the Virgin represents all humanity carrying God, the Theotokos, in the West, is born and takes off the image of the “Immaculate Conception”, welcoming but born different from all the other women hence the dogma which followed, that of the Assumption, completely ignoring the “human” Dormition (the death of the virgin) of the Mother of God.
There is also a controversy which, if it is not one of the reasons for the separation, sheds light on the conception held by the two Churches: the controversy over Grace and free will which I summarize in broad terms (and as well as I understood it…)
In the 4th century, Saint Augustine clarified the dogma of original sin, which he further defined as an innate defilement that corresponds to the concupiscence that every human being, therefore cursed, carries within him from its design. Starting from this dogma specific to the Western Church (which considers Saint Augustine as the Father of the Fathers of the Church) nature is predisposed to evil and cannot protect itself from it without a special grace.
These controversies have remained almost foreign to the Christian East and these notions do not have the same meaning. Orthodoxy believes that man was created free. He was not, therefore, preserved from the inclination to evil (otherwise he would not have sinned). He glorified God spontaneously and not because he was directed to good by special grace. Human nature is inclined towards Good and evil is external to it.