What is the difference between the Eastern Catholic and Western (Roman Orthodox) Catholic religions?

the orthodox and roman are very very similar - some of the distinct differences....

Ortho priests can be married prior to taking their vow to the preisthood and grow in the "ranks". RCC priests are only allowed to be married if they are converts from another denomination and were religious leaders in that one.

Ortho is pre vatican anything ; ) their altar still has the traaditional Holy of Holies with the center part of the altar restricted to only the priest (amman?? not sur eon the spelling) RCC all can go to the altar but jjust not the small tabernacle.

Ortho still holds with their various chanting (like the gregorian chants that are more widely know) RCC has the new "novos ordo" mass which is english and participatory.

Ortho will still ask women to leave if they are not modestly dressed - the Rcc while they don't like it - tolerate it.

Ortho does not follow vatican doctrine but respect the office and works with them - they care for the majortiy of the overseas churches. Rcc falls in line with the vatican decisions.

The differences are minimal. In fact the Orthodox are invited to fully participate and receive Communion in the Rcc and vice versa.

Basically - the differences are the Orthodox are more "old school" and the Rcc have changed (slightly) with the times. Old school is not a bad thing either!!

YSIC

Very little actually.

For example, one separa ting contention is in the "Nicene Creed", whether it should be that Jesus came "through" the Holy Spirit or "with" the Holy Spirit (worded: "and the Holy Spirit"). The difficulty lies in the implied ranking of order vs. equality issue.

So there are very tiny differences. If you attend an Orthodox Mass, it is very similar, except that the Eastern Orthodox will appear more stylized that the Roman Catholic Mass.

They are so close in fact, that the Church considers attending Mass at an Eastern Orthodox establishment the same as a Roman Catholic Mass, with the same Eucharist (whereas, attending a Baptist Church service, etc. would not be the same).

Go ahead and look a church up in your community. It is a beautiful service (though you might wonder how they cross themselves in a much more complicated movement than the Roman Catholic genuflection). Haha. Good luck researching.

Visit an Eastern Orthodox church.

Visit an Eastern Rite Catholic (ERC) church.

The two differences are the Creed and the ERC church calls on the name of the Pope of Roman instead of the local Bishop or Metropolitan.

To Marysia - I suspect you're not from the US because I've never seen women removed from an Orthodox church for not being dressed modestly.

Umm.. I'm not sure, as I'm neither.

But I found this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Christianity

I hate to be one of those lame people who says, "Google it" but...

Maybe check the phonebook and call a church and ask?

Good luck!