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Hello!
I know this may be a common question for you guys but let me explain myself!
I am from Latvia (in America now) and I have always had this “background exposure” to Orthodoxy.I grew up Lutheran and attended the same church my whole life until I came to America. I guess, I feel disconnected now with Lutheranism and all of Protestantism. Maybe it’s because of how it’s done in America? However, I feel a call in me and a connection to I guess what I would call the “old ways” of Christianity and the ways the early Church did things. It is the truth that the oldest Christian churches are Orthodox or Catholic. I have some knowledge of Catholicism as I have friends who are Catholic and have attended Mass regularly. Whenever I try to research the differences online between the Churches I really don’t find much that is different (though this could be the fault of me struggling to focus on what I am reading lol).
So just straight out, plain and clear, what are the main differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism?
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The differences are mainly historical and philosophical. For starters, we agree upon the following: the Church has infallible authority, the first seven ecumenical councils were valid, the efficacy of baptism, the real presence of the Eucharist, basic trinitarian beliefs, the 27 books of the New Testament, the seven sacraments, and more.
However, the most significant disagreements stem from the historical view of the Church, namely the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome (Pope). When the Great Schism occurred in the 11th Century, the main disagreement was that the East held to the traditional position that the Pope was the leader of the Church and that Peter was the prince of the apostles, however the Pope is not infallible, is not supreme, and does not have universal jurisdiction over the whole Church. He has no more authority than any of the other Bishops (Patriarchs) of the Church. Whereas the view invented by Rome, which relied on many forgeries and corruptions (watch THIS VIDEO), was that the Pope was the ultimate head of the entire Church who had supreme authority over all Bishops and former ecumenical councils, and that the Roman Pontiff (when making ex-cathedra statements or statements on faith and morals) had infallible authority. He was the universal Bishop with supreme jurisdiction.
This claim, mainly formulated at Vatican I, is ahistorical and an innovation, given that even previous Popes, such as Gregory the Great, say:
This issue of the papacy also causes further divides between the Catholics and Orthodox mainly due to the filioque. In the period of 800-1000, the Pope altered the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed to say that the Holy Spirit hypostatically proceeds from the Son, compared to the original version which just said from the Father. This causes more differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism because, setting aside the numerous philosophical issues involved, one singular Bishop does not have the authority to alter the Creed for the whole of the Church. It was condemned in the past by both ecumenical councils and Church fathers.
The main difference is ecclesial. The Catholic church views Christian unity as rooted in a common ecclesial structure, we view Christian unity as rooted in a common faith tradition.