E9: The Pope (Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?)

For Episodes 2-10 we'll be diving into the 9 key differences between Catholicism and Protestantism in a series called Catholic or Protestant: What's the Difference?

In today's episode we'll be talking about the Pope and why we have one! We'll explore the Biblical roots of the Papacy as well as gain an authentic understanding of Papal Infallibility and the various levels of magisterial teaching. Lastly, we'll learn how to pray for our Holy Father.

Bible Passages Quoted:
-Matthew 16:18-19
-Matthew 10:2
-Acts of the Apostles (see 3rd resource below)

Resources:
Why Catholics Have A Pope | Fr. Mike Schmitz
Popes 101 | Catholic Central
The Papacy in Scripture: No Rocks Required | Catholic Answers
Papal Infallibility | Catholic Answers
Four Levels of the Church's Teaching | EWTN
Does God Pick the Pope? | Catholic Answers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi friends. Welcome back to another episode of Catholicism 101, Forever Learning and Living the Faith. And can you believe it? We are almost all the way through our July series, Catholic or Protestant, what's the difference? Today's second to last episode in the series is on the Pope. The Pope. And then on Monday, we'll have our final episode of the July series on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. So I'm really looking forward to that one. And then actually, our August episode, our one episode for August, will be kind of tying a bow on this whole notion of the Protestant Reformation. And we'll just kind of tie a nice, neat little bow on what we've been exploring the whole month of July. So be looking forward to that. I'm really excited about it. So without any further ado, let's get right into today's topic: the Pope, the office of the papacy. Now, the Pope serves as the successor of Peter, Peter the Apostle. He is the vicar of Christ, which again means representative. He is the vicar of Christ to the whole world. He has been given jurisdiction over the universal church. And another title for him is Servant to the Servants of Christ. As we said, he is the supreme pontiff. He is the leader of the church militant. The church militant is the church here on earth, you and me. And he is also the leader of the magisterium. Now, remember that the magisterium, if you don't remember, that's okay. I'm going to remind you right now. The magisterium is the teaching office of the church, and it is composed of all of the bishops. Now, the pope leads the magisterium and he remains in constant communication with his fellow bishops as the church makes the long, long journey in this thing we called time. The church makes the long journey into deeper and deeper truth. Now, the pope is elected by the college of cardinals from among them. So if you're a cardinal, you have a shot at becoming the pope. So cardinals, though, cart people are like, what's the difference between a cardinal and a bishop? Okay, because cardinals were red and bishops wear like a this purpley color. Cardinals are bishops, they're still bishops, they have the highest degree of holy orders, and they have been appointed by the pope with more governing authority in the church. And the way that they choose a pope, that they choose the next pope, is they enter into this sealed room called a conclave where they will invoke the Holy Spirit. They always start by having mass and invoking the Holy Spirit as they go to cast their votes. And they cast their vote so many times a day until a new pope is elected. And in order for a new pope to be elected, that individual has to receive two-thirds of the vote. Now, there's a really wonderful video I have linked in the resources in the show notes. It is the second one. It's from Catholic Central. It's titled Pope's 101. And what it is, it's this really wonderful video that includes an overview of how the conclave works. And I I love these Catholic Central videos because they're kind of lighthearted and a little silly goofy, but they're also like they know when to be serious. Um so when they talk about how the Pope is elected in the conclave, they it's really cute and it's kind of funny how they do it, but it is true. Um so I I highly recommend that if you want to know more about how the Pope is elected. Okay, now let's talk about some biblical evidence for the papacy. And the big one everyone always goes to is Matthew chapter 16, verses 18 and 19. And this is when Jesus says to Peter, actually at this time he is Simon, but this is when he gives him his new name, Peter, and he says, And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And what's happening here is Jesus is promising infallible authority to Peter. Now, hang on to that for a minute, because we're going to talk about papal infallibility here in just a couple minutes. But what's happening in this passage is that Jesus is promising that to Peter, and it empowers him to speak in the place of Christ as his vicar or representative on earth. Now, another fun fact about this passage is um the Greek translation of Peter is Cephas, which means permanent, unmovable rock. And actually, throughout the rest of scripture, uh in the book of Acts and in Paul's letters, you'll see Peter referred to as Cephas. Um they're kind of used interchangeably, and you see you see that especially in Acts and Paul's letters. I almost said Paul's apostles, Paul's letters. But there are a lot of instances where this happens. They're all over the book of Acts, um, and they're in some of, as I said, Paul's letters, not Paul's apostles, but Paul's letters. Um, and there's actually a link that has a lot of them also in the show notes, and it is called The Papacy in Scripture, No Rocks Required, and it's um it is from Catholic Answers. So you'll see they have a ton of um scripture passages listed there that are again proof of the papacy and that it's authentic and legitimate and that Jesus established it. Now, this next Bible passage that I want to point out to you is Matthew chapter 10, verse 2. And it's whenever they're calling and listing the 12 apostles. They're like, these are the 12 apostles, first Peter, uh, or first Simon Peter, however it says, but it does say first. And um, I found this on this Catholic Answers um source that I'm sharing with you, and this is what they had to say about it. They said, in the context of the calling and listing of the twelve apostles, Peter is referred to as the first apostle. We know that this does not mean the first chronologically, because Peter was not the first called by Christ in time. Andrew was. And you can see that in John chapter 1, verses 40 and 41. The Greek word that is used here, protos, first, um, protos is first, it often denotes a sense of preeminence or even a primacy and authority, not necessarily simply being first in time. It can also be translated as chief. So I thought that that was very interesting. Now, also in the Acts of the Apostles, um, Peter is referred to as the head of the church many times, most especially um in the times where the apostles choose a successor for Judas, uh, and then later on as they embark on evangelizing the Gentiles and moving out of Jerusalem. And then also at the Council of Jerusalem, where the big question of do Gentiles, who are becoming Christians, do they have to be circumcised? And that whole debate, we see Peter again as the head of the church in all of those instances. Um, and I'm not gonna, you know, put in the description when I say Bible passages reference because I'm not gonna put each of those because they're in the resources in the uh Catholic answers one I told you about. And they have them cited there. So if you're really that curious, go to that scripture, Catholic answers. Um, no rocks in this arena. What? Okay, no rocks required is what it says. Anyway, so that is just some quick shot uh biblical evidence, scriptural evidence for the papacy. Now let's talk about what I said I was gonna talk about, papal infallibility, and let's actually explain that. So when people talk about papal infallibility and that Catholic that that myth that Catholics believe the Pope can never be wrong or the Pope is always right, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. This this is what they're thinking. Um this is what they're thinking of when they say that. The the the teaching of the Pope ex cathedra, which means from the chair of Peter, it is an infallible declaration made by the Pope with the full authority of the papal office on matters pertaining to faith and morals. Now, when we say infallible, we do mean without error. But I want to um kind of throw some reality at you here about ex cathedra and like how often it actually happens. Um, it's only ever happened twice in history. Um, and that is with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and then also with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. So it has only ever happened twice that a Pope has exercised that full authority from the chair of Peter and said, like, I speaking as a Pope declare that this is without falsity for sure. You gotta believe it. Um, so there's only two times that that's actually really happened. Now, more often than not, uh the Pope is teaching on a level that requires what we call the religious submission of intellect of and of abede of intellect and will. Now, these are these are non-definitive teachings, but I don't want to discredit the fact that there are definitive teachings. Um, but people often taught those are the things like that we know. Those are like our dogmas, our doctrines that we know for sure's. And when po when people said Catholics believe the Pope can't be wrong, that that's not what we're talking about, you know. He makes it very explicit, and I'll talk about that. But these non-definitive teachings. So these teachings, like I said, we owe them religious submission of intellect and will, which is still a level of belief, but it's not the same level of belief as things that are dogmatically defined. So those things like the resurrection, the Trinity, the Eucharist, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, etc., those are things that like we owe full, wholehearted belief, like they are necessary for salvation kind of thing. These um non-definitive teachings, though they're classified as non-definitive teachings, it does not mean that these are simply um probable or that we're uncertain. It only means that they are not directly linked with what has come to us through divine revelation. So I'll give you an example of one of these non-definitive teachings, and that would be um JP2, John Paul II, his encyclical Evangelium vitae, where he declared the immorality of capital punishment, which is the death penalty. That is considered um a non-definitive teaching. It's not necessary for salvation at this time that you believe that. Um, but the church is also like, we believe it enough to like that you you really should believe this. It's not just probable, it's not likely that this is immoral, like we do believe this. Um, and let me talk a little bit more about this, that it's just not a matter of personal conscience of whether or not you believe it, but rather a humble obedience to the magisterium of the church and her devout theologians. Now, I pulled this from EWTN when they're talking about the four levels of church teaching, and this is what they had to say. In a criminal trial, the judge will tell the jury they must find the evidence proved guilt beyond reasonable doubt. He does not demand that every tiny doubt be ruled out, even though it may mean life in prison or death. If one should make a mistake by following this fourth level, the level of non definitive teachings, if one should make a mistake by following this level of church teaching, when he comes before the divine judge, the judge will not blame him, rather, he will praise him. But if a person errs by breaking with the church on the plea that he knew better, as in like I knew better than the church, that will not be easily accepted. So, like I said, it's not a matter of personal conscience, it is a humble obedience to the magisterium of the church and her devout theologians, which is why we call it religious submission of intellect and will. And I wanted to talk here real quick, too, about how um it's not like things are put in this category lightheartedly, these non-definitive teachings. They're put there because they are on a journey to holding higher authority. So oftentimes those teachings that become doctrine or dogma, they start out as non-definitive teachings. And over time, as we come to understand the deposit of faith, uh, divine revelation, as we come to understand that better through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, these teachings then kind of move up in authority. Some just by their very nature might never really move up in authority, but a lot of them will. Um, and again, it's just one of those things that takes a lot of time and the church moves very slow on these things, but they're not put there lightly. Now, the last thing I want to talk about here is the reality of the human element of the church. And this kind of ties in nicely because there have been things that have um been taught by the church in this non-definitive um category that like the church has kind of backed up on and been like, we made a goof. But honestly, that does not happen often at all. That's only happened like a couple times in history. Um, and it typically happened around the time that we didn't have a great pope. So throughout history, there have been a few undesirable popes who have abused their power for personal gain rather than acting as a shepherd of the flock entrusted to their care. But if you look back throughout the history of the church, there are many, many more cases of good holy popes that led the faithful well rather than those who were misleading or corrupt. Now, when we talk about uh the reality that the church has a human element to it, we have to remember that even though the Pope is being given extraordinary graces to lead the flock, he is also being very heavily spiritually attacked. Like I've said many times, the enemy does not attack what is not important, and what he attacks the most is what is most important. And we know we know that the Pope and his role in the church is incredibly important. Incredibly important. And so it is so, so, so vital um for all of our success and our growth um towards our destiny um and being people of faith, that we pray for our pope. Oh my goodness, we have got to pray for our pope. And there's this really popular tradition um of offering up the first our father that you say in the rosary, offering up that first our father um for the Holy Father and his intentions. And also we pray for him during the Eucharistic prayer at every single mass. We pray for our bishop and we pray for our pope and we name them um because they desperately need those prayers. They really do. So now that you've learned a little bit more about the Pope, you should go pray for him. Whether that's by a rosary, going to Mass, or just maybe a novena, whatever you want to do. Do something do something for the Pope. Pray for Papa. Anyway, that's all I have for you all today. I again, I hope you learned something. If it sparked a question, there's always the link to that question box in the show notes. Check out those other resources I didn't mention. Uh I linked a video from Father Mike Schmidt's that's entitled Why Catholics Have a Pope. Um, a little bit more about papal infallibility on um the Catholic Answers website. I've linked that. And then the question of like, does God pick the Pope? Uh, which kind of addresses also the fact that like we've had a couple bad popes throughout history. Um, and so it addresses that really, really wonderfully. And I highly encourage you to check those links out. But next time we will be talking about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. And I'm so excited. Um, and I hope and pray that you have a wonderful day. Bye.