What are the differences between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Western Catholic?

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Vasilis92

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When I say Western I’m referring to the Latin Church (In Europe and South America mainly).
Do Eastern Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope?
In Filioque?
In the Immaculate conception of Mary?
How Eastern Catholics cross themselves?
etc.
I suppose there are some differences in liturgical rites.(I’ve heard that Eastern Catholic’s rites are more similar to Eastern Orthodox churches)

God bless,
Bill
 
So,it’s kind of a mix;Western doctrines (because Eastern Catholics belong to Catholic Church) and Eastern rites (because they belong in the East).Right?
 
Vasilis92 said:
So,it’s kind of a mix;Western doctrines (because Eastern Catholics belong to Catholic Church) and Eastern rites (because they belong in the East).Right?
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That’s it in a nutshell. Although they try to explain Western dogma in Eastern ‘language’.
 
Vasilis92 said:
When I say Western I’m referring to the Latin Church (In Europe and South America mainly).
Do Eastern Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope?
In Filioque?
In the Immaculate conception of Mary?
How Eastern Catholics cross themselves?
etc.
I suppose there are some differences in liturgical rites.(I’ve heard that Eastern Catholic’s rites are more similar to Eastern Orthodox churches)

God bless,
Bill
Click to expand...
I have recently become a parishioner at a Byzantine Catholic church. My understanding is:
  • Yes, the Eastern Catholics believe in Papal Infallability, but have a “different” conceptual understanding of it. I will ask others that are far more educated than I to explain this, but, the short answer is Yes.
  • Yes to the immaculate conception, but again, conceptualized a little differently. Again I hope a more Eastern education person will help both of us to understand this…
  • At my parish, it is in the creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, period. It does not include the Son. I have looked into this in the past, and while I am at a loss to cite it or to explain it fully, when I looked into the theological explanations of both, the Western and Eastern creeds, it seems they both believe the same thing more or less but use different semantics to get there…
  • There is another thread on this forum that is worth reading about this. I am convinced that it really makes no real difference, but, I am finding that, because I am going to the DL regularly, I tend to do the “right to left” with the thumb touching the forefingers and the two other fingers folding into the palm, about 90% of the time. After all, one crosses oneself about fifty times at every DL and it gets to be habitual!
  • If you have not yet experienced the Divine Liturgy, nothing else really matters! Go to a Divine Liturgy: experience it, preferably about five times before you make any judgements as it will take a few just to get over the “strangeness”. The Divine Liturgy must be experienced if you hope to have any hope of understanding it…IMHO.
 
rciadan said:
I have recently become a parishioner at a Byzantine Catholic church. My understanding is:
  • Yes, the Eastern Catholics believe in Papal Infallability, but have a “different” conceptual understanding of it. I will ask others that are far more educated than I to explain this, but, the short answer is Yes.
  • Yes to the immaculate conception, but again, conceptualized a little differently. Again I hope a more Eastern education person will help both of us to understand this…
  • At my parish, it is in the creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, period. It does not include the Son. I have looked into this in the past, and while I am at a loss to cite it or to explain it fully, when I looked into the theological explanations of both, the Western and Eastern creeds, it seems they both believe the same thing more or less but use different semantics to get there…
  • There is another thread on this forum that is worth reading about this. I am convinced that it really makes no real difference, but, I am finding that, because I am going to the DL regularly, I tend to do the “right to left” with the thumb touching the forefingers and the two other fingers folding into the palm, about 90% of the time. After all, one crosses oneself about fifty times at every DL and it gets to be habitual!
  • If you have not yet experienced the Divine Liturgy, nothing else really matters! Go to a Divine Liturgy: experience it, preferably about five times before you make any judgements as it will take a few just to get over the “strangeness”. The Divine Liturgy must be experienced if you hope to have any hope of understanding it…IMHO.
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Well,I strongly believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and I have no problem about how to cross myself.I like both ways :byzsoc::signofcross:
 
Eastern Catholics are Roman Catholics with an Eastern Rite (ie. Liturgy)

You can take that to the bank 😉
 
Vasilis92 said:
When I say Western I’m referring to the Latin Church (In Europe and South America mainly).
Do Eastern Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope?
Click to expand...
Yes
In Filioque?
Click to expand...
Yes, however it is not in the Creed it is accepted Theologically but it is not inserted into the creed as that is a Western tradition
In the Immaculate conception of Mary?
Click to expand...
Yes
How Eastern Catholics cross themselves?
etc.
I suppose there are some differences in liturgical rites.(I’ve heard that Eastern Catholic’s rites are more similar to Eastern Orthodox churches)
Click to expand...
God bless,
Bill
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They Cross themselves the same way as the Orthodox, and they use the Liturgical Rites that their respective counterparts in Holy Orthodoxy do (the slight difference I could think of would be that the Bishop of Rome will be inserted into the Anaphora).
 
Vasilis92 said:
Well,I strongly believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and I have no problem about how to cross myself.I like both ways :byzsoc::signofcross:
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Are you a native Greek? It wouldn’t be that weird, I know some native Russians in Russia who converted to Latin Catholicism.
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
Are you a native Greek? It wouldn’t be that weird, I know some native Russians in Russia who converted to Latin Catholicism.
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Yes.But in Greece I think it is different.Well,they are all Orthodox here and hate Catholics (don’t ask me why,they are just fanatics) so when I told them about my thoughts for conversion they almost killed me 😛
 
Vasilis92 said:
Yes.But in Greece I think it is different.Well,they are all Orthodox here and hate Catholics (don’t ask me why,they are just fanatics) so when I told them about my thoughts for conversion they almost killed me 😛
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Oh, this made my day 😃

Mind telling us your conversion story? I’m very curious how a Greek ends up Roman Catholic.
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
Mind telling us your conversion story? I’m very curious how a Greek ends up Roman Catholic.
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It’s a bit weird though.
First,you should know that for many years I was an atheist.I fought Christianity and laughing with Christians for attending the divine liturgy (or Mass in the West).I was about to …take exemption?(Don’t know how it is in english.I mean I wanted to get rid of the religion lesson when I was in high school).
Then,I woke up a morning and all of a sudden I changed!I really don’t know what happened but it was like God spoke to me.I recognized Jesus as our savior and just …believed in God!
That’s how I became Christian.Why I converted into Catholicism?I attended a liturgy of a Roman Catholic Church in Athens and I felt that I was really praised God.I felt more…Christian.Way better than a liturgy of a Orthodox Church.
And there is one more reason (and end my story).Theologically,Catholic doctrines are correct (about Filioque for example) and that counts for me.
👍
 
Vasilis92 said:
It’s a bit weird though.
First,you should know that for many years I was an atheist.I fought Christianity and laughing with Christians for attending the divine liturgy (or Mass in the West).I was about to …take exemption?(Don’t know how it is in english.I mean I wanted to get rid of the religion lesson when I was in high school).
Then,I woke up a morning and all of a sudden I changed!I really don’t know what happened but it was like God spoke to me.I recognized Jesus as our savior and just …believed in God!
That’s how I became Christian.Why I converted into Catholicism?I attended a liturgy of a Roman Catholic Church in Athens and I felt that I was really praised God.I felt more…Christian.Way better than a liturgy of a Orthodox Church.
And there is one more reason (and end my story).Theologically,Catholic doctrines are correct (about Filioque for example) and that counts for me.
👍
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Good! How wonderful! Somehow this story reminds me of St. Paul 👍

One question, the people in your church, are they Greek too or immigrants from the west?
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
Good! How wonderful! Somehow this story reminds me of St. Paul 👍

One question, the people in your church, are they Greek too or immigrants from the west?
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The majority is immigrants from the West.There are only 50,000 approximately Greek Catholics and mainly in Cyclades.
 
Vasilis92 said:
Theologically,Catholic doctrines are correct (about Filioque for example) and that counts for me.
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Vasilis - what a magnificent “conversion” story - thank you for sharing it with us!

By the way, I would respectfully point out that the Catholic Church denies neither the integrity nor orthodoxy of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as originally agreed at Council (without the filioque).
 
ByzCathCantor said:
Vasilis - what a magnificent “conversion” story - thank you for sharing it with us!

By the way, I would respectfully point out that the Catholic Church denies neither the integrity nor orthodoxy of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as originally agreed at the Council (without the filioque).
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With good reason. Read St Basil’s writings on either, the Holy Trinity or the Holy Ghost. He explains it very well. There is no need for the filioque.
 
When I say Western I’m referring to the Latin Church (In Europe and South America mainly).
Do Eastern Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope? Yes
In Filioque? We don’t practice it, we just don’t see it as heretical(We leave out the filloque clause)
In the Immaculate conception of Mary? Yes
How Eastern Catholics cross themselves? Forhead Abdomen/lower chest Right shoulder Left Shoulder
etc.
I suppose there are some differences in liturgical rites.(I’ve heard that Eastern Catholic’s rites are more similar to Eastern Orthodox churches) We don’t have mass, we have Divine Liturgy(So the Eastern Orthodox way)

God bless,
 
Vasilis92 said:
When I say Western I’m referring to the Latin Church (In Europe and South America mainly).
Do Eastern Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope?
In Filioque?
In the Immaculate conception of Mary?
How Eastern Catholics cross themselves?
etc.
I suppose there are some differences in liturgical rites.(I’ve heard that Eastern Catholic’s rites are more similar to Eastern Orthodox churches)

God bless,
Bill
Click to expand...
There are differences in the sacramental discipline, holy days, fasting, theology, and rites between the 23 Catholic churches. For the liturgies, there are these:

Alexandrian:
Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil (Coptic)
Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory of Naziansus
Divine Liturgy of Saint Cyril

Antiocene:
Divine Liturgy of Saint James – Antiochian and Greek-Melkite

Armenian:
Divine Liturgy of Saint Gregory (Basil)

Byzantine:
Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil
Divine Liturgy of The Presanctified Gifts

Chaldean:
Divine Liturgy of Mar Addi and Mar Mari
Divine Liturgy of Mar Theodore of Mopsuestia
Divine Liturgy of Mar Nestorius

Latin:
Ritual Romanum (ordinary and extraordinay forms)
Mozarabic (Spain)
Ambrosian (Milan)
Bracarensis (Portugal)
Carthusian
Anglican Use
 
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