What is the difference between Orthodox Christianity and Catholic Christianity?

Answer 1

Catholic AnswerOrthodox Christian, when used with a capital "O" refers to those Christians who split from the Catholic Church in 1054 A.D. Most Orthodox Christians have a corresponding Rite still in communion with the Holy Father in Rome. When the Orthodox left the Catholic Church, each Rite split in half with half remaining loyal to Rome, and half forming the "Orthodox" Church. Thus there is a Greek Orthodox Church, and a Greek Rite in the Catholic Church. The most visible difference is that the Orthodox do not accept the primacy of the Pope over the entire Church, nor do they accept any of the ecumenical councils which were held after they left the Church in the eleventh century. But in the main, their Liturgy, vestments, and other practice is identical to their Catholic counterparts.

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from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Eastern Orthodox Church

The Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem with their associated churches which gradually severed themselves from the Holy See after 1054. ... It now consists of the four independent churches governed by patriarchs of those places and the following other autocephalous churches, namely, of Cyprus, Russia, Georgia, Sinai, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Rumania, Finland, Albania, Poland and Japan. The patriarch of Constantinople has only a primacy of honour; the chiefs of all these churches govern under the control of a holy synod. The Byzantine rite in many languages, is common to all. Their orders and sacraments are valid. The parochial clergy are usually married, and bishops are chosen from among the monks, formerly very numerous. In theory there is complete unity, in fact a substantial agreement touching faith and morals. The Catholic Church regards these churches as being only in schism, but certain dogmatic differences are maintained by many eminent Orthodox theologians. They teach that the infallible Church has no visible head and speaks through the voice of the bishops as a body; the primacy (except of honour) and infallibility of the Holy See are rejected and only the first seven councils recognized as ecumenical. They reject the Filioque, teach that our Lady was purified from original sin at the Annunciation (cf., Immaculate Conception) and are confused in their doctrine of Purgatory. Their teaching on the Real Presence seems indistinguishable from Transubstantiation, but like all dissident orientals they believe that consecration requires the epiklesis. They reject indulgences, alleging that sacramental absolution remits al temporal punishment. The practice of admitting divorce for adultery and in other circumstances is spreading. Many of the clergy of these churches are most inadequately trained; the people exceedingly devout and attached to their liturgies, but the use of the sacraments is far from general or even common, and their practice accordingly lags behind their external piety. Devotion to our Lady and other saints, and to the images and relics is very strong. The Orthodox are the second largest Christian body, numbering some 40 millions (excluding the large but uncertain number in U.S.S.R. [note-this article was written in 1957]), and found by emigration in most parts of the world; but except by Russians in the middle and far East they have been able to do practically no foreign missionary work....

Orthodox

1.. In Common speech, orthodox as an adjective is used of those who profess true doctrine in all its integrity in reference to some standard, named or implied. In this sense the word is used by the Catholic Church in official pronouncements (e.g., in the oath against Modernism) and the liturgy (e.g. in the prayer Te ignitur of the Mass) in reference to the true faith of the Church, and it is so used by religious writers, e.g., St. Ignatius in the "Spiritual Exercises."

2. In its technical historical sense, orthodox is as a noun and adjective applied to those Christians who accept and hold the definitions of the Council of Chalcedon, namely, Catholics and "Greeks" as against monophysites and Nestorians. In the course of time it has become the distinguishing epithet of the "Greeks" (Orthodox Eastern Church) and Catholics acknowledge their right to the name in this sense. If it is understood in sense 1. (Above) we must use it of them only by courtesy, just as the Orthodox call us Catholics though claiming true catholicity for themselves alone (cf., Catholic-Orthodox). The name is sometimes given by English writers to other Eastern dissidents (Armenians, Jacobite, Copts). This is absurd, both in historical fact and according to the usage of those concerned, who would vehemently repudiate the epithet in this sense: but the Copts not infrequently use it for themselves, apparently as part of the general imitation of their Byzantine neighbours, as do the Malabar Jacobites.

Answer 2

The Orthodox people do not have a leader like the pope. while the catholics do. the orthodox are a little bit more strict.