The Orthodox Church is a Christian church, considered, with a doctrine similar to that of the Catholic Church, but as the term itself says, it has a straighter, more rigid doctrine.
Orthodoxy is the doctrinal current that declares that it represents the correct view, founded on systematic (metaphysical) and scientific principles. The opposite is heterodoxy.
Orthodox Christians, by virtue of the denomination, are those who profess the entire doctrine of the Christian faith in accordance with the magisterium of the Church. They seized, however, the designation of the Byzantine Church after the schism that opposed them to Rome (in the ninth and eleventh centuries) by setting themselves up as depositaries of the true faith in opposition to the Latin Church. For this reason, the Christians of Eastern Europe, who remain separate from the Roman Catholic Church, were called Orthodox.
The Orthodox Church sees itself as the true church created by Jesus Christ, in addition to not recognizing the Pope as an authority. For Orthodox Christians, as they are called, there is no purgatory and they do not believe in Mary's virginity after conception. In the Orthodox Church, priests are freed for marriage, provided it took place before their conversion, and only bishops are required to maintain celibacy.
In the eleventh century, in the year 1054, there was a schism between the Christian Churches, dividing them into Catholicism, and the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christians do not accept Catholic dogmas, nor do they consider the sacraments valid. The Orthodox Church arrived in Brazil in 1904, and the first institution was created in São Paulo, in 1954.
The greatest authority in the Orthodox Church is the Holy Ecumenical Synod, from its foundation to the present day. The most important Orthodox churches are the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Learn more about the meaning of Orthodoxy.