From the first days of its existence, due to the administrative division of the Roman Empire, the Church of Christ was divided into two halves: Eastern and Western. These two indivisible halves of the Ecumenical Church lived in complete unity and abode in the unity of the faith.
The foundations of church life in both East and West were the same. In the western half of the Church, however, a special order of life and a peculiar attitude towards it were gradually created. Disagreements and disputes began to arise between East and West as early as the second and third centuries, for example on the celebration of Easter and the baptism of heretics.
The differences in church life in the East and the West became especially evident after the political division of the two halves of the Roman Empire. In the 4th century, rites and customs other than the Eastern Church began to be established in the West, ie. concerning fasting, the sacrament of anointing, and the celibacy of the clergy.
In 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael declared himself against the innovations of the Roman episcopate, namely against the use of the Eucharist in the sacrament of fresh bread. Thus, he instructed the Bulgarian Archbishop Lev to write a rebuking message against these innovations. In response, the Western Church asked the Eastern Church to recognize all papal decrees, and after being convinced that they would not succeed, they placed a bull on the throne of St. Sophia Church, cursing the Patriarch of Constantinople and the entire Eastern Church. The East pronounced anathema against the pope, and since then the Roman episcopate has fallen away from the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ.
We will briefly outline the main differences between Catholicism and Holy Orthodoxy:
1. Dogma of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and of the Son (filioque)
Despite the clear teaching of the divine Revelation that the Holy Spirit proceeds, ie. receives its eternal and hypostatic existence only from the Father, Roman Catholics teach that the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Son. They do not distinguish between His eternal descent from the Father and His temporary sending from the Father through the Son (John XVI: 28-29). The Orthodox Church teaches that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally and hypostasis only from the Father, and is sent into the world not only by the Father, but also by the Son, or more precisely through the Son.
2. The dogma of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The teaching of the Roman Catholics about original sin is closely connected with their teaching about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The papal bull of December 8, 1854 reads as follows: “By the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our authority, we proclaim, proclaim and determine that the doctrine that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first moment of her conception, because of the special grace of Almighty God and the special advantage, because the future merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, was kept free from all impurity of original guilt, is a doctrine revealed by God, and therefore all believers undertake to confess it firmly and constantly. “
The Orthodox Church honors the Blessed Virgin Mary, but in the way the Mother of the Redeemer of the world should be honored. According to Orthodoxy, however, St. The Virgin Mary was born naturally and therefore she also inherited the original sin from her parents.
3. The dogma of the supremacy and infallibility (infallibility) of the pope.
In this regard, Roman Catholics say: “The Church is called one because it is the same, it spreads to East and West, to distant lands, to heaven and earth. All over the world it professes the same faith, uses the same sacraments. and acknowledges an invisible head of Jesus Christ in heaven, and on earth we see a head – the Holy Roman Father the Pope, as the successor of the Apostle Peter and the Vicar of Christ. “
The Orthodox Church confesses that there is one invisible head – the Lord Jesus Christ and that another, visible head does not exist. Since Catholics claim that the Pope is the successor of the Apostle Peter, as the first among the apostles, it should be known that St. Fathers of the Orthodox Church teach that ap. Peter is only “first among equals”, not a supreme governor. Even if we assume that the Savior gave special authority to the Apostle Peter, does it follow that he gave the same authority to his successors? Why exactly should he have handed over this power to the Pope, after e.g. Did the Apostle Peter also found the Church of Antioch? By that logic, the bishop of Antioch would also claim supremacy.
4. The Holy Sacrament of Baptism
Regarding the manner of performing the sacrament of Baptism, Roman Catholics say, “Those who are to be enlightened by this sacrament are either immersed in water, or watered, or sprinkled with water. Any of these methods are used. “
Orthodox St. Cyprian of Carthage clearly testified that Baptism by immersion was universal and only in exceptional cases (in case of illness) baptism by sprinkling and pouring was allowed. The Fathers of the Council of Neo-Caesarea, by Rule 12, forbade the baptized to become elders by sprinkling or pouring.
5. The Holy Sacrament of Anointing
According to Roman Catholics, only the bishop is a regular performer of anointing. According to them, only those over the age of seven should be anointed.
According to the Holy Orthodoxy, the Holy Sacrament of Anointing is performed not only by the bishops, but also by the elders (priests), with the difference that the former consecrate the anointing for the sacrament, and the latter can anoint only with anointing consecrated by the bishops. In the Orthodox anointing is performed over all the most important parts of the body, unlike the Roman Catholics, who anoint only the forehead.
6. The Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist (Holy Communion)
The differences in this Sacrament are the following:
a) Roman Catholics perform this sacrament with unleavened bread instead of sourdough. They claim that Jesus Christ Himself instituted the sacrament of unleavened bread. This is not because Jesus Christ celebrated the Eucharist (the Last Supper) before the Jewish Passover, which began on the fourteenth day of the month of the evening (Lev. XXIII: 5). The Jews began to eat unleavened bread on the 15th day of the month, for 7 days. Therefore, on the 13th, when the Last Supper took place, there were no more unleavened bread (unleavened bread) and the Lord performed the Eucharist not with unleavened bread, but with leavened bread, as it was used that day.
b) Not all believers are included in the same bread, e.g. the priests consecrate for themselves a larger host (a thin round plate of unleavened dough), and for the laity they consecrate smaller ones for each one separately. According to the Orthodox Church, this innovation is a retreat from the spirit and the idea of the sacrament, through which believers must unite in one body.
c) Not all believers are included under both types, ie. with the body and blood of Christ. The laity partake of them only with the host and are deprived of the cup, despite the Savior’s words: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53).
d) Deprive young children up to a certain age of communion altogether. They made this deviation as a consequence of the previous one, because after legalizing the laity to join only under one species, ie. only with the body of Christ did the young children necessarily have to be deprived of the sacrament because they could not take solid food.
7. The Holy Sacrament of Repentance
According to this sacrament, Roman Catholics say the following: “Neither the confessor should know who the clergyman who confesses is, nor should the confessor know who is confessing.” This way of confession was introduced by them, perhaps in order to keep the secret of confession. According to Orthodoxy, however, the mental state of the penitent is no less important in confession: he must experience some torment of conscience, even shame, when he confesses face to face with the priest. This is because in the other case, the penitent can shamelessly confess the same sin countless times.
8. Holy Sacrament Priesthood
The celibacy of the priests (celibacy) was introduced by the Roman Catholics in the 4th century in order to elevate it morally. With this decision, they achieved opposite results. The councils and historians of the West testify that after the celibacy of the clergy was established, its moral decline became even greater.
The Orthodox Church teaches that the clergyman must be with his family. St. Paul also spoke on this issue. ap. Paul, who says that a bishop must be a man’s wife and know how to “run his house well and have obedient children with perfect reverence, because he who does not know how to run his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God?” ” (1 Tim. 3: 2-4)
9. The Sacrament of Marriage
Roman Catholics claim that marriage is considered unconditionally indissoluble, even in the case of adultery. A man and a woman can separate, but they cannot remarry.
According to Orthodox teaching, however, Christians can divorce in adultery in the words of Christ: marriage.
10. The Holy Sacrament of Anointing
According to Roman Catholics, the oil for this sacrament is consecrated only by the bishop, and only the anointing of the sick is given to elders. They do not see this sacrament as a healing tool, but as the last anointing of the dying to help him fight the horrors of death.
The Orthodox teach that the elders not only anoint, but can also consecrate the oil according to the words of ap. Jacob: “If any of you is sick, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:15). As to who should be anointed, the Holy Orthodox Church teaches that this sacrament can and should be performed on the seriously ill, for whom prayers are recited for the ascension of the disease, and not to help them have a lighter death. .
The afterlife of man. Doctrine of purgatory.
Roman Catholics teach that the souls of dead believers who failed to repent in their lifetime for immortal and minor forgiveness sins, as well as the souls of those who repented of their mortal sins but could not fulfill certain epithems or to suffer temporary punishments, are sent after the fair trial to purgatory – a middle ground between heaven and hell.
According to Orthodoxy, the Church has prayed and is now praying for the dead, but it is praying for the forgiveness of their sins, for their deliverance from hell, and not from some middle place – purgatory. Prayer is necessary for those in hell, because Christ has the keys to hell and death (Rev. 1:18) and can deliver sinners from there, as He did when He entered hell (1 Peter 3: 18-19). ), if they worship His name (Philip 2: 10-11) and if their sins are forgiven (Matt. XXII: 31-32).
