Power VS Authority In the Church

[HickmanJosh]

I heard that the hierarchy of the Church is based around authority and not power, a little foggy about this i went on an online dictionary to clarify the two definitions. I just wanted to check here and make sure i get the right definitions especially relating to what kind of authority the Church hierarchy has vs the power it doesn’t.

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/power
Power
(countable and uncountable; plural powers)
1. (countable) capability or influence.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book III, chapter ii
An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book III, chapter iii
Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace. … The favourite phrase of the former, was the natural beauty of virtue; that of the latter, was the divine power of grace.
1998, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present.
2. (uncountable) physical force or strength.
He needed a lot of power to hit the ball out of the stadium.

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/authority
Authority(countable and uncountable; plural authorities)
1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.  [quotations ▼]
3. (countable) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
The world’s foremost authority on orangutans.
 [quotations ▼]

Thanks in advance!

 

[Stylites]

Someone recently used this term in regards to the Church:

I suspect that over time more and more TLM’s will be offered as younger priests get into positions of power in the Church.

The Church wields authority, not power. People are often hungry for power, but never for authority.

Power says: “Do what I want you to do because I say so.”

Authority says: “Here is what God says is good and proper to do.”

 

[Scoobyshme]

The basic difference between authority and power is that authority is “given” and power is “taken.”

Jesus delegated His Divine authority to the hierarchy of the Church. He delegated His complete authority to govern and manage the Church to Peter and his successors, the Popes.

Power is more of a political term, I believe, and is more often used by the enemies of the Church and Christ, than by the Church, in this context.

 

[janman55]

Power is a vague term, what about the power of love?

Authority is something is conferred and leads to the ultimate goal of UNITY.