Why is the pope important

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A protestant friend of mine tells me Peter was not the leader of the churches. And he also asks me why the pope is so important. Can anyone give me a good response?
 
unitive_mystic said:
A protestant friend of mine tells me Peter was not the leader of the churches.
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There is another thread right now on the primacy of Peter.
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Is there REAL proof of Peter's Primacy? Apologetics
I was reading the Wikipedia on this issue, and there are a few points I would like some clarification on. Here are some claims made AGAINST the primacy of Peter: What are the counter-arguments to these to prove the West’s position of the Peter Primacy? The Orthodox also consider that St. Linus, not Peter, was actually the first Bishop of Rome. Regarding the Catholic interpretation of Matthew 16:18-19, Jaroslav Pelikan writes,[14] “As Roman Catholic scholars now concede, the ancient Christi…
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unitive_mystic said:
And he also asks me why the pope is so important.
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I think this is a very good question. If Jesus did not think this was important, He would not have charged Peter to feed and care for His flock, and to confirm his brethren in the faith. We call these the Petrine gifts and responsibilities.

The Pope is also the visible sign of unity in the Church From the early days of the Church, Christians who were orthodox (not heretics) were always in unity with the Bishop of Rome. This was how one could tell which were schismatics and apostates.

Protestants tried to replace the authority of the successor of Peter with another authority (Scripture) by creating the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. The fruit of this doctrine has been division and confusion. This is also why it is important to have a visibly unified Church in doctrine. When one rejects the authority appointed by Christ, division results.
 
What if the person says “at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what church or denomination you are as long as you love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
 
He is the head of the visible Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, visible as the Incarnation was visible.
What is a body without a head?

If you love God with all your heart why would you not be in the Universal Church He established?
 
Tell your friend to re-read Acts of the Apostles and report back on whether or not Peter was the leader of the apostles.

Jesus knew that the church needed a leader; he made Peter that leader. We simply continue the tradition He instituted through the Papacy.
 
Tell him to read Isaiah 22:20-24, Matthew 10:2 & 16:13-19, Mark 16:7, Luke 22:31-32, and John 21:15-19.

If he can’t understand why Peter (the Pope) is important after reading these verses, don’t debate this topic with him anymore but simply pray for him instead, because if he can’t see the Primacy of Peter in these verses it’s because the eyes of his heart have not been enlightened as of yet.
 
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Why do we keep having popes if Peter is the only one gifted with the ability to “bind and loose”
 
unitive_mystic said:
What if the person says “at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what church or denomination you are as long as you love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
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And how do you know what kinds of actions truly are doing that, and which are not? Many cults, many totalitarian ideologies preached exactly that. You might think the Nazi interpretation, or Jim Jones’ interpretation, of that is lacking in some respects, but how do you know? There needs to be some outside, authoritative guideline that
  • identifies which books are in the Bible;
  • identifies what the bible is, really, in relation to us
  • decides what the proper interpretation of the Bible should be
  • collates which ideas from the past 2000 years are authoritative, in understanding the context of Christ and Christianity
 
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unitive_mystic said:
Why do we keep having popes if Peter is the only one gifted with the ability to “bind and loose”
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Why did the apostles choose a successor to Judas?

Jesus established that there was a problem to which binding and loosing would be needed. He said nothing to indicate that the need ended. Jesus also taught a group of people in the first century that they should feed the hungry. We were not there, but we carry on that command ourselves, years later.
 
Maybe the better question is why is it better to have a single pope, rather than many popes, which is the defacto Protestant solution.
 
You seem to have a lot of questions on the Pope.

If you go to Catholic Answer’s main website www.catholic.com, you will be able to find a lot of answers to your questions.





Those will be a good start on defending the biblical and historical perspectives on the Pope.

As for choosing a pope, nowadays the cardinals vote among themselves.
 
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I would say that God saves some people despite their church and denomination because they do not know any better instead of because it just does not matter. That is Mercy.
 
In the old days, the person who “Held the keys” was The Kings representative. If he died, the keys were passed on to someone else. This would have been easily understood by the Jewish Christian audience in the time The Gospels were written. It sounds like a weird phrase in English and we do not typically adress people by saying “He who holds the keys” these days. But this was common language with a known meaning to The Jews of the time. The keys were passed on. So, who said that binding and loosing authority was only for Peter but not his successors? It does not say that in scripture it is not implied in scripture. That is why we rely on Tradition and The Magisterium and not Scripture alone as scripture alone was never intended to be the sole rule. Everyone will have a different opinion on everything if they only go by scripture alone but opinion does not equal truth. Gods promise that The Gates of hell will not prevail against His Church equals truth.

Protestants have popes too. They just do not call them popes. Whatever person or denomination that shapes how they interpret scripture is their pope. If they just read The Bible for themselves but do not have a church or if they church hop when a pastor says something they do not agree with, whether Bible passage or doctrine, then they are their own pope. I was my own pope for years as a protestant and never realized it.
 
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unitive_mystic said:
What if the person says “at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what church or denomination you are as long as you love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself”
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I would be curious to know if they believe other things that Jesus did were irrelevant. If he took the trouble to found a church, train the Apostles to run it, then decreed that the Church demonstrated His fullness on earth, why did he do all this for no good reason? What other things that he did “don’t matter at the end of the day”?
 
unitive_mystic said:
So how do we pick a new pope?
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Well, there are 2 broad choices here.

A. Protestant
I can pick my pope by watching preachers on TV, reading their books, visiting various churches in my city. I also am guided by the media, which strongly influences what individuals prefer in religion - “what’s trending now”.

I decide who best meets my particular needs (keeping in mind the media has guided me in defining what my religious needs ought to be). So I follow that person, and find writers and teachers compatible with them.

B. Catholic
I do not pick my pope. He is chosen by an imperfect human process. This has resulted in mostly very good choices, some bad choices. It is somewhat insulated from the media dominating secular culture, far better than following public opinion polls, which control political elections.

This process, yes imperfect, is better than me picking my own pope, in terms of helping my conversion. Do you think people picking their own pope will pick a pope who calls them to change, to deeper conversion?
 
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Well my protestant friend is concerned about it because the process of them picking a new pope has no biblical origins. Which means it is man made.
 
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