Pope

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The Pope (from Latin: "papa" or "father" from Greek πάπας, pápas, "papa", Papa in Italian) is the Bishop of Rome and as such is the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church (that is, all Latin Rite and Eastern Rite churches which are in full communion with the Roman Pontiff). The Pope is also head of state of Vatican City. The current (265th) pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in papal conclave.

The office of the pope is called the Papacy; his ecclesiastical jurisdiction is called the "Holy See" (Sancta Sedes in Latin) or "Apostolic See" (the latter on the basis that both St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred at Rome). In addition to his spiritual role, the pope is Head of State of the independent sovereign state of the Vatican City, a city-state entirely enclaved by the city of Rome.

Early popes helped spread Christianity and resolve doctrinal disputes.[1] After the conversion of the Roman Empire, the pope's secular ally was the Roman Emperor. In the 8th century, however, Pope Stephen II was forced to appeal to the Franks for help,[2] beginning a period of close interaction with the rulers of the West. For centuries, the forged Donation of Constantine also provided the basis for the papacy's claim of political supremacy over the entire former Western Roman Empire. In medieval times, popes played powerful roles in Western Europe, often struggling with monarchs for power over wide-ranging affairs of church and state,[1] crowning emperors (Charlemagne was the first emperor crowned by a pope) and regulating disputes among secular rulers.[3]

Gradually forced to give up secular power, popes have come to focus again almost exclusively on spiritual matters.[1] Over the centuries, popes' claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed since the first centuries, culminating in the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for those rare occasions the pope speaks ex cathedra (literally "from the chair (of Peter)") when issuing a solemn definition of faith or morals.[1] The last such occasion was in the year 1950 with the definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

[edit] History

Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and "rock" of the Church.[4]

In the early Christian era, Rome and a few other cities had claims on the leadership of worldwide ("Catholic") church. James the Just, known as "the brother of the Lord", served as head of the Jerusalem church, which is still honored as the "Mother Church" in Orthodox tradition. Alexandria had been a center of Jewish learning and became a center of Christian learning. Rome had a large congregation early in the apostolic period, and Paul the Apostle was martyred in there.

[edit] Early Christianity (c 30 - 325)

During the first century of the Christian Church (ca. 30-130), the Roman capital became recognized as a Christian center of exceptional importance; but there are only a few references of that time to recognition of the authoritative primacy of the Roman See outside of Rome. In the Ravenna Document of 13 October 2007, theologians chosen by the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches stated: "41. Both sides agree ... that Rome, as the Church that 'presides in love' according to the phrase of St Ignatius of Antioch (To the Romans, Prologue), occupied the first place in the taxis, and that the bishop of Rome was therefore the protos among the patriarchs. They disagree, however, on the interpretation of the historical evidence from this era regarding the prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome as protos, a matter that was already understood in different ways in the first millennium." In addition, in the last years of the first century AD the Church in Rome intervened in the affairs of the Christian Church in Corinth to help solve their internal disputes.

Later in the second century AD, there were further manifestations of Roman authority over other churches. In 189 AD, assertion of the primacy of the Church of Rome may be indicated in Irenaeus of Lyons's Against Heresies (3:3:2): "With [the Church of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree... and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition." And in 195 AD, Pope Victor I, in what is seen as an exercise of Roman authority over other churches, excommunicated the Quartodecimans for observing Easter on the 14th of Nisan, the date of the Jewish Passover, a tradition handed down by St. John the Evangelist (see Easter controversy). Celebration of Easter on a Sunday, as insisted on by the Pope, is the system that has prevailed (see computus).

Early popes helped spread Christianity and resolve doctrinal disputes.[1]

[edit] Nicea to East-West Schism (325 - 1054)

During these seven centuries, the church unified by Emperor Constantine effectively split into a Greek East and a Latin West. The pope became independent of the Emperor, in the East, and became a major force in politics in the West.

[edit] Imperial capitals: Rome and Constantinople

With the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the Council of Nicea, Christian unity and Rome's primacy were well-established.

After the imperial capital was moved to Constantinople in AD 330 the eastern churches, especially the Bishop of Constantinople, started to assert pre-eminence by virtue of its imperial status.

The First Council of Constantinople (AD 381) suggested strongly that Roman primacy was already asserted; however, it should be noted that, because of the controversy over this claim, the pope did not personally attend this ecumenical council, which was held in the eastern capital of the Roman empire, rather than in Rome. It was not until 440 that Leo the Great more clearly articulated the extension of papal authority as doctrine, promulgating in edicts and in councils his right to exercise "the full range of apostolic powers that Jesus had first bestowed on the apostle Peter". It was at the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451 that Leo I (through his emissaries) stated that he was "speaking with the voice of Peter". At this same council, the Bishop of Constantinople was given a primacy of honour equal to that of the Bishop of Rome, because "Constantinople is the New Rome."

[edit] The title Pope

The title of Pope was from the early third century an honorific designation used for any bishop in the West.[5] In the East it was used only for the Bishop of Alexandria.[6] From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved it for the Bishop of Rome.[7] From the early sixth century it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the eleventh century.[8]

[edit] Medieval development

After the fall of Rome, the Church served as a source of knowledge, authority, and continuity.

Gregory the Great (c 540-604) administered the church with wisdom and stern reform.[2] From an ancient senatorial family, Gregory worked with the prudence, stern judgment, and discipline typical of ancient Roman rule.[2] Theologically, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook, his popular writings full of dramatic miracles, potent relics, demons, angels, ghosts, and the approaching end of the world.[2]

Gregory's successors were mostly dominated by the exarch or the Eastern emperor.[2] These humiliations, the weakening of the Empire in the face of Muslim expansion, and the inability of the Emperor to protect the papal estates made Pope Stephen II turn from the Emperor.[2] Seeking protection against the Lombards and getting no help from Emperor Constantine V, the pope appealed to the Franks to protect his lands.[2] Pepin the Short subdued the Lombards and donated Italian land to the Papacy.[2] When Leo III crowned Charlemagne (800), he established the precedent that no man would be emperor without anointment by a pope.[2]

Around 850, a forger, probably from among the French opposers of Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims[9] made a collection of church legislation that contained forgeries as well as genuine documents.[9][10] At first some attacked it as false, but it was taken as genuine throughout the rest of the Middle Ages[9] It is now known as the False Decretals. It was part of a series of falsifications of past legislation by a party in the Carolingian Empire whose principal aim was to free the church and the bishops from interference by the state and the metropolitans respectively,[10][9] and who were concerned for papal supremacy as guaranteeing those rights.[9] The author, a French cleric calling himself Isidore Mercator, created false documents purportedly by early church popes, demonstrating that supremacy of the papacy dated back to the church's oldest traditions.[2] The decretals include the Donation of Constantine, in which Constantine grants Pope Sylvester I secular authority over all Western Europe.[11] Thanks to this forgery in the collection, the decretals became one of the most persuasive forgeries in the history of the West. It supported Papal policies for centuries.[2]

Pope Nicholas I (858-867) asserted that the pope should have suzerain authority over all Christians, even royalty, in matters of faith and morals.[2] Only Photius, bishop of Constantinople, dared gainsay him.[2] He sternly defended morality and justice in a decadent age.[2] After his death, the authority of the papacy was acknowledged more widely than ever before.[2]

The low point of the Papacy was 867-1049.[12] The Papacy came under the control of vying political factions.[12] Popes were variously imprisoned, starved, killed, and deposed by force.[12] The family of a certain papal official made and unmade popes for fifty years.[12] The official's great-grandson, Pope John XII, held orgies of debauchery in the Lateran palace.[12] Emperor Otto I of Germany had John accused in an ecclesiastical court, which deposed him and elected a layman as Pope Leo VIII.[12] John mutilated the Imperial representatives in Rome and had himself reinstated as Pope.[12] Conflict between the Emperor and the papacy continued, and eventually dukes in league with the emperor were buying bishops and popes almost openly.[12]

In 1049, Leo IX became pope, at last a pope with the character to face the papacy's problems.[12] He traveled to the major cities of Europe to deal with the church's moral problems firsthand, notably the sale of church offices or services (simony) and clerical marriage and concubinage.[12] With his long journey, he restored the prestige of the Papacy in the north

[edit] East-West Schism to Reformation (1054 to 1517)

The East and West churches split definitively in 1054. This split was caused more by political events than by slight diversities of creed.[12] Popes had galled the emperors by siding with the king of the Franks, crowning a rival Roman emperor, appropriating the exarchate of Ravenna, and driving into Greek Italy.[12]

In the Middle Ages, popes struggled with monarchs over power.[1]

From 1309 to 1377, the pope resided not in Rome but in Avignon (see Avignon Papacy). The Avignon Papacy was notorious for greed and corruption.[13] During this period, the pope was effectively an ally of France, alienating France's enemies, such as England.[14]

The pope was understood to have the power to draw on the "treasury" of merit built up by the saints and by Christ, so that he could grant indulgences, reducing one's time in purgatory.[13] The concept that a monetary fine or donation accompanied contrition, confession, and prayer eventually gave way to the common understanding that indulgences depended on a simple monetary contribution.[13] Popes condemned misunderstandings and abuses but were too pressed for income to exercise effective control over indulgences.[13]

Popes also contended with the cardinals, who sometimes attempted to assert the authority of councils over the pope's. Conciliar theory holds that the supreme authority of the church lies with a General Council, not with the pope.[15] Its foundations were laid early in the 13th century, and it culminated in the 15th century.[16] The failure of the conciliar theory to win general acceptance after the 15th century is taken as a factor in the Protestant Reformation.[17]

Various antipopes challenged papal authority, especially during the Western Schism (1378 - 1417). In this schism, the papacy had returned to Rome from Avignon, but an antipope was installed in Avignon, as if to extend the papacy there.

The Eastern Church continued to decline with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, undercutting Constantinople's claim to equality with Rome. Twice an Eastern Emperor tried to force the Eastern Church to reunify with the West. Papal claims of superiority were a sticking point in reunification, which failed in any event. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople.

[edit] Reformation to present (1517 to today)

As part of the Catholic Reformation, Pope Paul III (1534-1549) initiated the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which established the triumph of the Papacy over those who sought to reconcile with Protestants or oppose Papal claims.Protestant Reformers criticized the Papacy as corrupt and characterized the pope as the antichrist.

Popes instituted the Catholic Reformation[1] (1560 - 1648), which addressed challenges of the Protestant Reformation and instituted internal reforms. Pope Paul III (1534-1549) initiated the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which established the triumph of the Papacy over rulers who sought to reconcile with Protestants and against French and Spanish bishops opposed to Papal claims.[18]

Gradually forced to give up secular power, popes focused on spiritual issues.

The pope's claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed since the first centuries. In 1870, the First Vatican Council proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility for those rare occasions the pope speaks ex cathedra (literally "from the chair (of Peter)") when issuing a solemn definition of faith or morals.

Later in 1870, Victor Emmanuel II seized Rome from the pope's control and substantially completed the unification of Italy.[1] The Papal States that the pope lost had been used to support papal independence.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty between Italy and Pope Pius XI established the Vatican guaranteed papal independence from secular rule.[1]

In 1950, the pope defined the Assumption of Mary as dogma, the only time that a pope has spoken ex cathedra since papal infallibility was explicitly declared.

The Petrine Doctrine is still controversial as an issue of doctrine that continues to divide the eastern and western churches as well as separating Protestants from Rome