The Importance Of The Roman Catholic Church And The Orthodox Church

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The Roman Catholic Church is a religious community that is similar to the Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholic Church has what they call mass every Sunday. Also known as a church service, and this is a tradition that they have been doing ever since the Catholic Church first started in 1054 A.D. According to Wittberg P. “The fundamental reason for entering a Roman Catholic religious order was to strive for spiritual perfection.” The primary goals of the Roman Catholic Church is to pray or grow spiritually, preach the Word of God, help the poor, and to do many good works upon the earth, so that the Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified among men (Goals of Catholic Youth Ministry). Thus, the community is inclusive, because they try to help people …show more content…

However, as many as there are, they only have one leader, the Pope. The Pope is the bishop of Rome, the Eastern and Western Catholic Church’s both fall under his jurisdiction. The Roman bishop is important to the Catholic community because they believe that he is the successor to Saint Peter the Apostle (a disciple of Jesus). They also believe that he is infallible when it comes to religious doctrine. This is one of the major reasons that the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are in conflict. However, the Orthodox Church believes that the church has one leader, the Holy Spirit, they also believe that only Christ is infallible. Another major difference between Orthodox and Roman Catholics doctrine is the belief of “Original Sin” or “Ancestral Sin”, Roman Catholics believe that everyone inherited the guilt of Adam. Whereas, Orthodox believe that nobody is born into Sin, and everyone has an opportunity to do good. A small difference between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism is how much each member fasts during the period of Great Lent. According to Gregory Auxier, who is an educated member of the Orthodox Church, “During Great Lent we Orthodox fast from meat and dairy every day, and Catholics fast only from meat, and only on Wednesday and

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