Why doesn't the Church have an elite group of twelve men?

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Hyalus

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The governance of the Church tries to follow Jesus’ examples as closely as possible. We have a pope because in the Gospels, Peter was the foremost of the disciples, and Jesus confirmed his unique role in Matthew 16:17-19 by giving him the keys of the kingdom. We limit the priesthood only to men in part because Jesus only chose men as his disciples.

Well, in the Gospels, although Jesus had many, many disciples, there was a unique inner circle of Twelve, and recognition of the necessity of there being exactly twelve seems to be confirmed by Acts 1:12-26, where Matthias is chosen to replace Judas. Given this example, seemingly set by Jesus during his ministry and confirmed in Acts, why doesn’t the Church have near the top of its hierarchy an elite group of twelve?
 
The Pope has a council of 9 top Cardinal advisors… not quite 12, but an ‘elite’ group nonetheless
 
There are the ten Patriarchs, but also recall that the Apostles appointed bishops to increase their number, not merely to replace the dead. Timothy was appointed bishop of Ephesus after Peter went on to Rome (before which, the See of Peter was in Ephesus).
 
There sort of is; there are the Patriarchs of the regional churches.
 
Because at the time 12 men were enough to serve all the Christians.
Now that the Catholicism has spread worldwide, 12 just isn’t enough, so we have 193 instead. I equate the cardinals to the apostles, who are second only to the pope.
 
The bishops are the successors to the Apostles. It very soon became necessary to have more than 12 bishops. The Apostles never taught the need to limit their number to 12.
 
Hyalus said:
We have a pope because in the Gospels, Peter was the foremost of the disciples, and Jesus confirmed his unique role in Matthew 16:17-19 by giving him the keys of the kingdom.
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No.

We have a Pope because the Apostles added to their numbers by ordaining bishops, and the bishop in Peter’s final see (Rome) inherits the Petrine ministry.

He i snot Bishop of Rome by virtue of being the Pope, but rather the Pope by virtue of being the Bishop of Rome.
Hyalus said:
here was a unique inner circle of Twelve, and recognition of the necessity of there being exactly twelve seems to be confirmed by Acts 1:12-26, where Matthias is chosen to replace Judas
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They weren’t simply an “inner circle”, and they weren’t a governing body. They went out and evangelized, and increased in number by adding to their ranks.

hawk
 
in Orthodox Christianity the Patriarchs take on Apostolic succession of some of the 12 apostles.
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The patriarch of Russia doesn’t claim an apostolic see, does he?
 
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dmar198 said:
The patriarch of Russia doesn’t claim an apostolic see, does he?
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NO.

Rome: Peter per the west; joint martyrdom of Peter & Paul per the east.

Constantinople: Andrew

Antioch & Jerusalem: Peter

Alexandria: Mark

Thomists in India: Thomas.

Kiev: Cyril & Methodius (tenth century)

Moscow: claims Kiev see moved to Muscovy with the royal family; this is not acknowledged by those left behind in Kiev.

The ROC, however, wants to be lifted above Constantinople in primacy because, well, there are more of them, and they’re Russian.

In all seriousness, the ROC is the only real barrier in Rome and Constantinople finding an end to the schism. 😦

hawk
 
Hyalus said:
Given this example, seemingly set by Jesus during his ministry and confirmed in Acts, why doesn’t the Church have near the top of its hierarchy an elite group of twelve?
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We do have them. They are part of the Church glorified. The 12 Apostles are as much a part of the Church today as they were during their walk on earth. We benefit from their prayers.
 
I literally asked my parish pastor this question today! What a coincidence!
 
I thought Jerusalem was the seat of St. James.
 
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There still is an “inner circle” if you think of it. All the bishops of the world, though they are obviously more than twelve, make up that inner circle. The billion + other Catholics make up the remainder of Christ’s disciples who weren’t called to join the apostolic circle.
 
In ancient times, there were 5 great sees: Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, and Alexandria. The Bishops of those sees were considered the leaders of the Church, with the Bishop of Rome being first among equals, due to the Petrine lineage.
 
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