format_quote Originally Posted by
Woodrow
I haven't been a Catholic for over 40 years so I'm going by memory.
Catholic and Orthodox are basicaly the same. The only difference is that a point there was a question as to who was the legaly elected pope. The Bishop of Rome or the Bishop of Constantinople. The Roman Catholics go with the Bishop of Rome while the Orthodox go with the Bishop of Constantinople. Theologicaly all of the beliefs and sacrements are Identical . There is also the language difference.
I am not certain about the coptic. They are very similar but they split at an early date and consider the Bishop of Alexandria to be the Pope. They are traditionaly Arabic People and their liturgy is in Aramaic. They are among the last people that still speak Aramaic. They claim their NT is the unchanged Aramaic as used by Isa(as) and it is more in line with the Gospel of Barnabas than the Catholic NT. They are not true trinitarians and are often very well accepted by Muslims in the countries they live.
Hola Woodrow,
this is not so... all apostolic Churches recognize the authorities of the Holy Sees... Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem... each can be called "Pope" or "Holiness" Pope means father which comes from their correct titles "Patriarch of..."
also, all of the apostolic Churchs believe in the specialness of the Pope of Rome, the difference that caused the schism was that we believe the Pope is Prince of the Patriarchs and has actual dogmatic powers over the other Patriarchs... the other Patriarchs consider him to hold a merely honorific title of first among equals...
this and a clause added to the Nicene creed was the basis of the mutual excommunications of the Pope and Patriarch in 1054. today we have the orthodox churchs which do not recognize roman catholic communion as the same (dogmatically) so we cannot be given communion in a divine liturgy... likewise we do not recognize the orthodox communion as the same dogmatically so they cannot be given communion at our mass...
the orthodox because they do not believe in the primacy of the papacy as we do, and believe in the authority of egalitarian councils we say they are "creedal." whereas catholics believe in a more monarchal primacy of the papacy and are therefore dogmatic or doctrinal...
the mutual excommunications of the Patriarchs is over as of 2006 HH Pope Benedict XVI and HAH Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew withdrew the excommunications to end the schism... it will take time though...
HH Pope Shenouda III is the Patriarch of Alexandria, he is called the Pope of the Copts... the Copts have been in schism from the Holy Orthodox and Holy Catholic Churchs since they rejected the Council of Chalcedon... that concerned Jesus having two natures, one divine, one human.
they believe he had only one nature... i do not think they would include a gospel of barnabas (since it did not exist prior to the 16th century) and i do not think they are similar to muslims since their Patriarch Athanasius defended the Holy Trinity against the heresy of Arius at Nicea...
actually checking
their Canon now i see it is not different from Catholicism...
the only major difference between Copts (who are oriental orthodox) and Catholics is their belief in a Jesus who had only one nature... not two... they still believe he is divine.
i hope this helps mariam
Dios te bendiga