Bishop Sheen quote(?): "Nobody wants a pope..."

[james62]

I thought i had heard this was said by Sheen:

“Nobody wants a pope because everyone wants to be the pope.”

I’ve tried different wordings, but can’t find anywhere on the internet that he said this. Am i thinking of someone else…or have i completely butchered the quote so that my internet search engine can’t find it?

 

[Charlemagne_II]

“Nobody wants a pope because everyone wants to be the pope.”

I’m not familiar with your quote as phrased, but here is a similar sentiment from G.K. Chesterton:

“The true egotist is as much interested in his own errors as in his own truth; the dogmatist is interested only in the truth, and only in the truth because it is true. At the most the dogmatist believes that he is in the truth; but the egotist believes that the truth, if there is such a thing, is in him.” from A Handful of Authors.

Clearly, G.K. is saying that it’s the egotist who wants to be pope. This is the essential tragedy of Protestantism, isn’t it? That all these contradicting dogmatists want to put themselves up as ultimate authorities … as if the Truth could stand firm upon ten thousand wobbly legs!

 

[Spencerian]

I thought i had heard this was said by Sheen:

“Nobody wants a pope because everyone wants to be the pope.”

I’ve tried different wordings, but can’t find anywhere on the internet that he said this. Am i thinking of someone else…or have i completely butchered the quote so that my internet search engine can’t find it?

Hi, there.

I’ve heard a similar truism (probably on CAL from Tim Staples):

“There is a shortage of vocations to the priesthood, but there is no shortage of vocations to the papacy!”

What that means is that Catholics challenge the very authority they propose to adhere to: The Catholic Church. They want to be pope, in effect, to attempt to adjust the faith to match their personal wants and needs.

That’s an inherently non-Catholic thing to do, since we try to live within the doctrines of our faith, never changing them just because culture tries to change us. It’s also illogical: The Pope has no authority to change what God has mandated; a pope can only teach what God has taught.