Why do we need a pope?

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FireFromHeaven

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I have been thinking lately. Why do we need a pope? I don’t mean to switch to bible only and interpret as I please. I mean why is there one pope instead of a council of clergy in permanent residence at the Vatican. They decide issues and release speeches. God bless all answers.
 
A committee invented the platypus. 😃

Why? Because our Lord wanted it that way: “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church”. 🙂
 
True. But why in early Christianity was there no pope until the 2nd century?
 
Have you ever worked in a group making decisions? Of course we all have at some time. People don’t always agree. St Nicholas ended up in a physical altercation with Arius at the Council of Nicea. Look at what an inefficient, ineffective joke the US Congress has become.

But in the pope, we have one man to whom Christ has promised the charism of infallibility to make the final decision.
 
FireFromHeaven said:
True. But why in early Christianity was there no pope until the 2nd century?
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There has been a pope since St Peter was given the promise in the year 33. The actual name “Pope” wasn’t used until the second century, but there was always a Successor of St Peter, Prince of the Apostles.
 
FireFromHeaven said:
True. But why in early Christianity was there no pope until the 2nd century?
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That is not Catholic teaching! where do you come up with that idea?
I’ll bet Popes Peter, Linus Cletus, Clement, Evaristus etc. would be surprised!
 
Never knew that. Thanks moore. Read about the great schism recently and too many Protestant sites.
 
FireFromHeaven said:
Papal supremacy.
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The bible.
You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church. Not to mention all the times in acts where Peter is obviously the leader. Not to mention the idea that there is not papal supremacy did not catch hold until some splits and reformations. For at least a thousand years it was believed almost universally. Why would God allow his Church to be wrong for a thousand years?
 
All good points. However what about when the Protestants pull the verse where Saint Paul calls Saint Peter out on his error? How do we answer that?
 
This forum proves why we need a Pope, the amount of arguments on here with all the moderators trying to hold the peace.

We need someone who’s decision is final, finto, finished over…the sheep are scattered without a shepherd…like many now, waiting for direction from the chair of Peter…
 
FireFromHeaven said:
All good points. However what about when the Protestants pull the verse where Saint Paul calls Saint Peter out on his error? How do we answer that?
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LOL! Many popes have been corrected and Jesus himself corrected Peter. Paul was corrected as well. Say, “Ok Paul conseled the Pope. But paul also deferred to the position Peter had.” And if that does not ring true for them then just ask them what “commitee” they think ruled the Church for 2000 years?
 
FireFromHeaven said:
Papal supremacy.
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My favorite is from the Letters of St Jerome to Pope Damasus. Nearly all Protestants venerate Jerome, and all owe him a massive debt since we would have no Bible save the Greek and Hebrew if it were not for him, and no one knows the Scriptures as well as him. In his first letter to the Bishop of Rome, he writes:
As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your Holiness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails.
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Slaney said:
This forum proves why we need a Pope, the amount of arguments on here with all the moderators trying to hold the peace.

We need someone who’s decision is final, finto, finished over…the sheep are scattered without a shepherd…like many now, waiting for direction from the chair of Peter…
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Moore11 said:
LOL! Many popes have been corrected and Jesus himself corrected Peter. Paul was corrected as well. Say, “Ok Paul conseled the Pope. But paul also deferred to the position Peter had.” And if that does not ring true for them then just ask them what “commitee” they think ruled the Church for 2000 years?
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What do we do when they say “if the pope is infallible on teachings why is he wrong sometimes?”
 
FireFromHeaven said:
What do we do when they say “if the pope is infallible on teachings why is he wrong sometimes?”
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The pope is only infallible when he makes a declaration ex cathedra (“from the Chair” of Peter). Whenever he does this, he makes it explicitly clear.

For example, the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which Pope Pius XII infallibly defined the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, we find lines like:

as an opening
FIDEI DOGMA DEFINITUR DEIPARAM VIRGINEM MARIAM
CORPORE ET ANIMA FUISSE AD CAELESTEM GLORIAM ASSUMPTAM
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(DEFINING OF THE DOGMA OF THE VIRGIN MARY GLORIOUSLY ASSUMED BODY AND SOUL INTO HEAVEN)
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and
Quamobrem, si quis, quod Deus avertat, id vel negare, vel in dubium vocare voluntarie ausus fuerit, quod a Nobis definitum est, noverit se a divina ac catholica fide prorsus defecisse.
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Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.
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and closing with
Nulli ergo hominum liceat paginam hanc Nostrae declarationis, pronuntiationis ac definitionis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario adversari et contraire. Si quis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei ac Beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum eius se noverit incursurum.
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It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration, pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
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Most papal documents do not contain such strong language, because they do not claim the charism of infallibility.
 
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