Eastern And Western Church And The Pope's Visit To Turkey

[awyers]

Can someone help me clarify some church history and what is going on in Turkey with the Pope's visit???

Please correct me if I am wrong.....In the Catholic church there are two branches...the East (the Orthodox Catholic church) and the West (the Roman Catholic Church). The head of the Eastern rites is the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Pope is the head of the Roman church. Does that make Constantinople the centre of the Eastern rites like Rome is the seat of the Pope?

So...what are the different rites in the Eastern branch? Do any of them accept the Pope as the head of the church or do they all accept the Patriarch as the head of the church? If so, what do they regard the Pope as if not the head of the church? Does that make the Pope and the Patriarch equals? Is the only technical difference between the two branches in the leadership (do we hold all other things in common like the Dogma and Doctrine, Feast days, Sacraments etc). I know we have differences in smaller things like languages, icons, etc but I was wondering about the basic foundations.

I would really love to be able to understand this!

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='Piobaire' post='1130850' date='Nov 29 2006, 06:54 PM']
Can someone help me clarify some church history and what is going on in Turkey with the Pope's visit???

Please correct me if I am wrong.....In the Catholic church there are two branches...the East (the Orthodox Catholic church) and the West (the Roman Catholic Church). The head of the Eastern rites is the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Pope is the head of the Roman church. Does that make Constantinople the centre of the Eastern rites like Rome is the seat of the Pope?

So...what are the different rites in the Eastern branch? Do any of them accept the Pope as the head of the church or do they all accept the Patriarch as the head of the church? If so, what do they regard the Pope as if not the head of the church? Does that make the Pope and the Patriarch equals? Is the only technical difference between the two branches in the leadership (do we hold all other things in common like the Dogma and Doctrine, Feast days, Sacraments etc). I know we have differences in smaller things like languages, icons, etc but I was wondering about the basic foundations.

I would really love to be able to understand this!
[/quote]

It seems that you have misunderstood quite a few things...Try reading [url="http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/catholic_rites_and_churches.htm"]Catholic rites and churches[/url] for clarification. This should illustrate how the Catholic Church, East and West relates, and to a small degree goes into how the Orthodox Church differs from it. Its coverage on the non Byzantine Orthodox churches is somewhat light however so be aware that usually where it says that someone has returned to Rome that Church usually split into two. With a Catholic and an Orthodox version.