The Papacy
Jesus is the Head of the Church
16 For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
The power of the papacy comes from, represents, and is for Jesus, who is the living Head of the Church. Jesus uses the papacy as an instrument to achieve His purposes for His Body.
The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility
- Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, 1870, §9
- Faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that
- when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when,
- in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians,
- in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority,
- he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church,
- he possesses,
- by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter,
- that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals.
- when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when,
- Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable.
- Faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that
- Key elements of the definition
- - The Pope must make it clear that he is exercising the gift of infallibility by speaking ex cathedra, "from the judgment seat" of the Catholic Church.
- - The exercise of papal infallibility is limited to "a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.
- A Pope's opinions about the weather, sports, the rise or fall of the stock market, political and economic issues, the time of day or the day of the year are not protected in any way by the doctrine of papal infallibility. The doctrine of papal infallibility only implies that God will not allow a pope to formally and explicitly reject the dogmas found in the Deposit of Faith.
- - The doctrine of papal infallibility, taught solemnly by an ecumenical council, is an aspect of the infallibility of the Church.
- - The teachings of the councils of the Church must be ratified by a pope. The ex cathedra teachings of the pope do not need to be ratified by a council.
Reflections on the Doctrine of Infallibility
The papacy is part of the Magisterium, not the whole of it.
The pope (literally, "papa," daddy, abba) may, under certain circumstances, exercise the infallibility of the Church,' teaching infallibly about matters of faith and morals.
The Pope cannot teach infallibly by accident. He must deliberately speak "ex cathedra," that is, "from the chair" of St. Peter.
- A cathedra is a judgment seat. Every bishop is the High Priest of his diocese and has a cathedra in his "cathedral."
The concept of papal infallibility does not imply papal impeccability. Someone who is infallible renders true judgments, without error. Someone who is impeccable commits no sins. There have been many bad popes whose sins are well known and profoundly scandalous. Not one of them changed the teaching of the Church. They just disobeyed the teaching of the Church on faith and morals.
It is not the teaching of the Church that becoming Pope renders a man incapable of committing sins. The history of bad popes shows this quite clearly. Their sins are monstrously evil, but their sins do not contradict the teaching of the Church that, under certain definite conditions, a pope may exercise the infallible teaching authority of the Church about some aspect of faith and morals.
Besides having the ability to teach doctrines about faith and morals without error, the Pope also has primacy over the whole Church. He is the boss. The buck stops there. He is the visible head of the Church, under the sovereign headship of Jesus.
These two doctrines, papal infallibility and papal primacy, make the Catholic Church unique in the whole world of Christendom. All who have left the Church directly or indirectly contradict these two doctrines.
Follow Jesus, not Judas
In every generation, Jesus has been betrayed by men chosen to bring His message to the whole world. It began with Judas and has been a continual scandal ever since. I call this "the Judas Factor.
Recent Popes
| 256 | 1846-1878 | Blessed Pius IX |
| 257 | 1878-1903 | Leo XIII |
| 258 | 1903-1914 | St. Pius X |
| 259 | 1914-1922 | Benedict XV |
| 260 | 1922-1939 | Pius XI |
| 261 | 1939-1958 | Pius XII |
| 262 | 1958-1963 | St. John XXIII |
| 263 | 1963-1978 | St. Paul VI |
| 264 | 1978 | John Paul I |
| 265 | 1978-2005 | St. John Paul II |
| 266 | 2005-2013 | Benedict XVI |
| 267 | 2013-2025 | Francis |
| 268 | 2025 .. | Leo XIV |
Other Ancient Sees
- Wikipedia, "Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria." Descended from St. Mark?
- Assyrian Catholic Church of the East — from St. Thomas (but not where Thomas died, so not like Peter and Rome and Mark and Alexandria?).
Official Titles of the Pope
- Bishop of Rome
- Vicar of Jesus Christ
- Successor of the Prince of the Apostles
- Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church
- Primate of Italy
- Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province
- Sovereign of the State of Vatican City
- Servant of the Servants of God.[91]
- "Pope" ... does not appear in the official list, but is commonly used in the titles of documents, and appears, in abbreviated form, in their signatures. Thus Pope Paul VI signed as "Paulus PP. VI", the "PP." standing for "Papa" ("Pope").
- The title "Pope" was from the early 3rd century an honorific designation used for any bishop in the West.[97] In the East it was used only for the Bishop of Alexandria.[97] Pope Marcellinus (d. 304) is the first Bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title "Pope" used of him. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome.[97] From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century,[97] when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome.
- In Eastern Christianity, where the title "Pope" is used also of the Bishop of Alexandria, the Bishop of Rome is often referred to as the "Pope of Rome", regardless of whether the speaker or writer is in communion with Rome or not.
- The Lord made St. Peter the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is "head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on earth" (CIC, can. 331).
- #937
- The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls" (CD 2).
References