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I knew I would find Óttar in this thread..
Anyway. Moving on..
The main differences between Catholicism and "Orthodoxy" concern the Jurisdiction and Teaching authority of the See of Saint Peter. The "Orthodox" maintain that the primacy of the See of Saint Peter is more a "first amongst equals" thing compared to the Universal Teaching authority that we Catholics believe Peter's Throne carries (basically, that the Pope can declare dogma binding on all the body of faithful). The Jurisdiction issue concern's how great the Papal authority is in the more temporal affairs of the Church (confirming Bishops etcetera).
It's complicated by the fact that the Greeks in the past have argued that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is equal to the Bishopric of Rome because a secular Roman Emperor declared Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire.. and no that isn't a joke. The fact is the Bishoprics established by Saint Peter have always been recognised as the premier Sees with Rome, Saint Peter's personal See, being recognised as having the authority listed in contention above. Historically even the enemies of the Church appealed to Rome's authority. When Photius usurped the See of Constantinople from Saint Ignatius (Photius went from Layman to Bishop in seconds) Photius appealed to Pope Saint Nicholas I to confirm him as Constantinople's Bishop. Of course the Pope did no such thing and Saint Ignatius was reinstated. But it's just an example.
Then there are the debates surrounding the differing theological and philosophical methods of the Latin West and Greek East. Essentially Scholasticism versus the Patristics (I boil it down to Plato versus Aristotle). There is no conflict between Aquinas (the most well known Scholastic theologian) and the Early Church Fathers but I find the Greeks will pick a fight about pretty much anything with the Latin West.
That's about it. We are essentially unified in everything else (one baptism for the remission of sins, the Most Holy Eucharist &c.).
When we bring Protestantism into the picture.. honestly it cannot be done. Protestantism is far too broad. In Protestantism you have visible versus invisible Church (those that believe in a Church with a hierarchy on Earth and those that believe in a non-visible Church uniting all Christians). You have different degrees of Predestination and various views on the nature of Grace and many who do not believe in the Dual Natures of Christ (that Christ is both distinctly fully human and fully Divine without either being compromised some Protestants or rather many deny this). Then you get into the matter of the Communion of Saints (which many Protestants deny) and the different degrees in which Christ is present in the Most Holy Eucharist (with Catholics+"Orthodox" keeping to the teaching Transubstantiation and extreme-Evangelicals maintaining He is not present at all in the hosts and Lutherans saying he's there a little). And we cannot forget "Scripture Alone". That says it all right there.
Basically Protestants are just weird.
Well when one looks at the fact that the Catholic Church in America was pretty much built by immigrants it isn't really a surprise..
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