In any antenna, the feed (primary radiator) determines the polarization of a complete antenna. Some antennas, like for satellite communication, can utilize two orthogonal polarizations, some even both at once (VSATs).
In any communication link, a transmitting antenna and an opposite receiving antenna should be set to the same polarization for the best transmission.
The difference between the polarizations is that if one of the pair of antennas is set to the orthogonal one, the transmission is suppressed by "polarization rejection", typically >20 dB. This effect is often used for frequency sharing between close links. Circular polarization is used e.g. in satellite communication to avoid fine adjustments that depend on station latitude. Frequency sharing is used there to multiply programming availability.