The
Fathers Speak:
The Papacy
The Papacy
One issue that separates us as
Catholics from all other Christians is the role of the bishop of Rome, the
pope. It is the only major stumbling
block left keeping us from full unity with the Orthodox Churches (though there
are a few other theological issues still being worked out). One area that is providing much promise in
that regard is the study of the role of the bishop of Rome in the first Christian
millennium. Here are just a few quotes
on the matter from the Fathers of the Church.
With a false bishop appointed for themselves
by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and
blasphemers to the chair of Peter and to the principal church [at Rome], in
which sacerdotal unity has its source"—Cyprian of
Carthage, Epistle 54, circa A.D. 252
And this
confession is indeed rightly made by them, for they have not the succession of
Peter, who hold not the chair of Peter, which they rend by wicked schism; and
this, too, they do, wickedly denying that sins can be forgiven even in the
Church, whereas it was said to Peter: "I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven. and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound
also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed also
in heaven."—
St. Ambrose, On Repentance, mid-fourth century A.D.
"I follow no leader but Christ and join
in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the
chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been
built." —St. Jerome,
Letter to Pope Damasus, A.D. 396
"There are many other things which
rightly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The consent of the people
and nations keeps me, her authority keeps me, inaugurated by miracles,
nourished in hope, enlarged by love, and established by age. The succession of
priests keep me, from the very seat of the apostle Peter (to whom the Lord
after his resurrection gave charge to feed his sheep) down to the present
episcopate [of Pope Siricius]"
– St. Augustine, Against the Epistle of
Manichaeus, A.D. 397
