On Church Authority – Part III
Updated: Aug 13
Part III briefly examines the support for the papacy according to Scripture and Tradition. It is assumed that one has a general understanding of the content covered in Part I and Part II.
3.1 Peter the Rock
The word pope is derived from the Greek and Latin papa, meaning “father”. It was a term initially used generally, only later used to refer particularly to the visible head of the Catholic Church.
Jesus chose or called His disciples. When Christ first approached Peter and the others as narrated in Luke 5, He taught from Peter’s boat:
And going into one of the ships that was Simon’s [Peter’s], He desired him to draw back a little from the land. And sitting he taught the multitudes out of the ship.
Afterwards, Christ instructed them to drop the nets even though Peter said that they got nothing working all night. A miraculously large catch followed in which the net broke.
And Jesus saith to Simon: Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
Whilst this first episode in itself is vague, Christ says more during his ministry.
He stated that “there shall be one fold and one shepherd” without naming anyone. (John 10) Whilst presumably referring to Himself first, He did not remain long after His Resurrection, thus pointing to the necessity of a visible head on Earth.
Later, Christ explicitly elected or appointed Peter to be the head. From Matthew 16:
Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.
The following are apparent and will be even clearer in light of other references:
● The church is inextricably linked to Peter (“upon this rock I will build my church”).
● Christ will protect His Church with Peter as part of its foundation and this condition does not merely apply to Peter but is perpetual (“and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”). After all, it is pointless if it only applies during Peter’s lifetime and not also his successors’.
● The above is the primary argument against sede vacante (“vacant seat”) beyond the usual transition between the death of a pope and the election of his successor. Generally, there has to be a pope somewhere, even if he remains unrecognized in the eyes of the world.
● Christ is the King and the monarch ultimately holds the keys. However, it is common practice for monarchs to hand over the keys to their chief advisor/right-hand man. Peter holds the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” which, amongst other things, means the power to forgive sins (to “bind” and “loose”).
● To “bind” and “loose” also signifies the authority to establish and revoke laws and rules. To “bind” signifies the authority to proclaim dogmatic definitions.
● The “keys of the kingdom of heaven” and to bind and loose on earth and heaven signify that Peter has authority in the spiritual and temporal realm.
During the Last Supper as narrated in Luke 22, Christ singles out Peter. He prays for him specifically and he is to afterwards “confirm” the others.
And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.
Peter’s election to the papacy was confirmed after Christ’s Resurrection as recorded in John 21.
When Peter and the others were fishing, they recognized Jesus on the shore. Peter then jumped out and ran to shore whilst the others remained in the boat, as to symbolize that it is Peter who leads the rest to Jesus.
Also interesting is the miraculously large catch this time did not break the net, unlike their first miraculous catch recorded in Luke 5. It is presumably from these two episodes that the metaphoric term for the Church, the “Barque of St Peter”, is derived.
They then ate and afterwards Christ repeatedly asked Peter if he loved Him.
When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. He saith to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs. He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he had said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him: Feed my sheep.
This triple question and response unmistakably confirms Peter’s supremacy over the Church which includes the duty to confer the Sacraments and to guide the flock.
3.2 Prominence in the New Testament
During Jesus Christ’s public life, He had many disciples. The 12 Apostles were obviously closer. Of these twelve, Peter, James (the Greater) and John were even closer. As already discussed above, Christ directly elected Peter as the head of the Church.
A simple word search will find that Peter is mentioned the most by name out of the 12 Apostles at over 150 times. John is mentioned 130 times but this includes John the Baptist and excludes John as the disciple “whom Jesus loved”. James is mentioned 37 times but this includes James the Less. (As another point of comparison, Paul, who was known as Saul before his conversion and was not a disciple of Jesus, is mentioned over 170 times but he wrote about half the books of the New Testament.)
There are other specifics that demonstrate Peter’s prominence in the mind of the writers of the New Testament.
● Peter is often named first even if others are named (Mark 9, Luke 8, Acts 1 et al).
● Peter was the first disciple to explicitly confess that Jesus is the “…Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16, Mark 8, John 6) Directly following this is Christ’s declaration that Peter is the “rock” in Matthew 16.
● Those who collected the temple tax approached Peter. Christ then had Peter pay it. (Matthew 17) It is apparent that Peter managed the group’s finances and represented the group, including Christ Himself, in these matters.
● During the Transfiguration of Christ, Peter, James and John were present but Peter is the only one of the three who spoke. (Matthew 17, Mark 9, Luke 9)
● Peter often asks or answers Jesus’s questions as if he is speaking on behalf of the group. (Matthew 19, Mark 11, Luke 8, Luke 12, John 13 et al)
● In the Garden of Gethsemani when Our Lord was praying, He found the disciples asleep even though He told them to keep watch. He addressed Peter as if he were responsible for the others’ conduct: “…and he saith to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with me?” (Matthew 26)
● When Mary Magdalen reported an empty tomb, both Peter and John ran to see. As Peter was older, John arrived first but did not enter the tomb until Peter entered. (John 20) The argument that John was afraid is unrealistic; whilst all the disciples ran away when Jesus was arrested, John accompanied Mary at the foot of the Cross. In this instance, it is clear that John was showing deference to Peter’s authority.
● Although St Paul was a prominent figure in the Early Church, even he was careful about the preaching of the Gospel, “lest I should build upon another man’s foundation”. (Romans 15) This statement is an acknowledgement that he did not hold the highest authority, that he was not the “foundation”.
● St Paul does not elaborate but he makes a distinction between Peter and the others when Jesus resurrected and appeared to his followers: “And that He [Jesus] was seen by Cephas [Peter]; and after that by the eleven.” (1 Corinthians 15)
After the Ascension of Our Lord, Peter often performed key actions or is the first to perform a key action. Below are merely a few examples.
● Peter is the first to enter the upper room and takes charge regarding Judas Iscariot’s successor. (Acts 1)
● At Pentecost, after the Apostles “were all filled with the Holy Ghost”, it was Peter who first spoke and gave a sermon. (Acts 2)
● Peter performed the first miracle, the healing of a “man who was lame from his mother’s womb”. He then preached to the crowd. (Acts 3)
● Ananias and Saphira, husband and wife, conspired to commit fraud against the Church and it was Peter who pronounced judgement on them (separately), they dropping dead. (Acts 5) This further confirmed his position in the eyes of the community.
● Although all the Apostles performed miracles, it seems Peter is the only one whose shadow could heal. (Acts 5) The imagery and tone seem to be an allusion to those who wanted to “touch the hem of His [Jesus’s] garment” in order to be healed. (Matthew 9, Luke 8, Matthew 14, Mark 6)
● Peter is not the only Apostle to raise the dead but he is the first mentioned to do so when he raised Tabitha in Joppe. (Acts 9)
● When Peter was imprisoned, “prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him”. An angel then broke him out of prison, the first miraculous intervention to save the Church. (Acts 12)
● In one of the first councils of the Church, held in Jerusalem, there was debate about the necessity of circumcision according to Mosaic law. Peter finally spoke, after which “all the multitude held their peace”. (Acts 15) In other words, everyone knew the debate was over when he spoke with authority. It was only afterwards that Barnabas, Paul and James spoke in support of what Peter had just said.
3.3 Some Implications
As already mentioned in Part I, obedience to authority is considered highly important in the Old Testament. This is reinforced in the New Testament. Our Lord stated: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14), so obedience and love are linked. (John 15, 1 John 5)
Since the ministerial priesthood (with Peter and his successors as the Church’s visible head) has the authority to preach and teach, and that the Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3), it follows that there is such a thing as “dogma” in order preserve the truth. From A Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy:
dogma n. 1: a doctrine or belief regarded as absolutely true and beyond dispute. 2: a doctrine affirmed authoritatively but with insufficient attention to intrinsic evidence. 3: a theological doctrine explicitly taught as integral to the faith, as absolutely and irrevocably sure, and affirmed by the authority of God or of the official teaching body of a religious society.
A “doctrine” is something taught or a body of such knowledge.
It also follows that Church authority should have something like “infallibility”. According to Matthew 18, Christ said to Peter:
Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.
This, of course, does not mean the pope may do or say whatever he pleases. A short thought exercise may be helpful: What kind of protection does the Church need given its mission to preach the Gospel, to teach and guide believers and to convert the rest?
Perhaps no harm would ever come to Christians? Life would just be too easy.
Perhaps no harm would ever come to priests? Still too easy.
The approach so far is materialistic. How about no Christians would ever do anything wrong? Life would be still too easy.
How about no priest would never do anything wrong? That’s nice, but still too easy.
How about just the pope would never get anything wrong? That’s still too convenient. If that’s the case, just bring all our problems to the pope. Things won’t be perfect because of the people executing his proposed solutions but at least what he says won’t be wrong.
How about the pope would never commit a sin? He can still make mistakes but without sinning. That’s not much more difficult than the previous. As if we deserve to have it so easy.
Commonsense suggests that the minimum God needs to do in order to protect the Church is promise infallibility to just the pope and only in specific situations in order to preserve the truth—that is, when the pope is defining dogma; for example, when he states, “We proclaim, teach and define <xyz>.” The verbs “preach” and “declare” can also be used. He need not use all those verbs, just one will do.
The pope has the authority to establish pastoral rules but he can be wrong about those and, either way, they can be altered or abolished. It is for dogma that infallibility applies and even this does not guarantee the pope will declare it at the right time or that he will do so perfectly; it only means he will not be in error.
A pope can define dogma that clarifies or adds detail to dogma defined by a predecessor as long as it does not contradict it. If this occurs, and assuming the previous dogma is validly declared by a true pope, then this is an indication that this pope is not the true pope but rather an anti-pope.
In other words, dogmatic definitions can be a diagnostic for testing whether a pope is a true pope. Of course, the pope in question must try to define dogma and even an anti-pope can end up stating nothing wrong.
The argument that Scriptural authority alone is sufficient is nonsensical. Much of Scripture is open to interpretation. This is presumably deliberate as God wants us to submit and rely on authority and our own discretion to counter our pride and practice humility, and to develop self-discipline. If Scripture is perfectly clear, then we could simply “follow procedure” divorced from others and take no personal responsibility.
Even if, hypothetically, Scripture is sufficiently clear so that it does not require interpretation, it still requires preservation. Therefore, in order to protect the Church, something like infallibility is necessary for the authority figure—for example, Chief Copyist and Publisher—responsible for preserving and distributing the text.
But Scripture does require interpretation and the Church’s authority to teach therefore includes the right to interpret Scripture. From 2 Peter 1:
Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.
It is true we “private” individuals who are not in authority are still responsible for what we believe and we should not just automatically accept anything taught. As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, “But prove [test] all things…”
However, this does not give us the authority to determine what is right or wrong, let alone impose it. We can have an opinion insofar as it does not contradict dogma but even that is overly simplistic.
Strictly speaking, I should not be writing this article. It is not my job. It is only to counter the amount of trash on the web and the lack of authoritative and quality material that I reluctantly write this. In other words, if one is not in a position of authority, then one should shut up because it’s not helpful most of the time.
3.4 Tradition and the Early Church
In addition to Scripture, the Early Church acknowledged papal authority. Below are merely a small number of quotations.
From Letter to the Corinthians by Pope St Clement I (b. ? – d. 99), who was the fourth pope; that is, the third successor to Pope St Peter:
If, however, any shall disobey the words spoken by Him through us [Clement I], let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and serious danger…
From the Epistle to the Romans by St Ignatius of Antioch (b. 27 – d. 107):
I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you. They were apostles; I am but a condemned man: they were free, while I am, even until now, a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being a prisoner, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain.
From Prescription against Heretics, Chapter 22 by Tertullian (b. ~160 – d. ~225):
Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called “the rock on which the church should be built”, who also obtained “the keys of the kingdom of heaven”, with the power of “loosing and binding in heaven and on earth?”
From On Modesty, Chapter 21 by Tertullian (b. ~160 – d. ~240):
“On you,” He says, “will I build My Church”; and, “I will give to you the keys,” not to the Church; and, “Whatsoever you shall have loosed or bound,” not what they shall have loosed or bound. For so withal the result teaches. In [Peter] himself the Church was reared; that is, through himself; himself essayed the key…
From Treatise I: On the Unity of the Church by St Cyprian of Carthage (b. ? – d. 258):
And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins you retain, they shall be retained”; yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity.
From Canon 9 by St Peter of Alexandria (b. ? – d. 311):
Thus Peter, the first of the apostles, having been often apprehended, and thrown into prison, and treated with igominy, was last of all crucified at Rome.
From Church History II:25 by Eusebius of Caesarea (b. ~265 – d. ~340):
It is confirmed likewise by Caius, a member of the Church, who arose under Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. He, in a published disputation with Proclus, the leader of the Phrygian heresy, speaks as follows concerning the places where the sacred corpses of the aforesaid apostles are laid: “But I can show the trophies of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian way, you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundations of this church.” And that they both suffered martyrdom at the same time is stated by Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, in his epistle to the Romans, in the following words: “You have thus by such an admonition bound together the planting of Peter and of Paul at Rome and Corinth. For both of them planted and likewise taught us in our Corinth. And they taught together in like manner in Italy, and suffered martyrdom at the same time.” I have quoted these things in order that the truth of the history might be still more confirmed.
From Church History III:2–3 by Eusebius of Caesarea:
2-1. After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate of the church at Rome. Paul mentions him, when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle. 3-1. One epistle of Peter, that called the first, is acknowledged as genuine. And this the ancient elders used freely in their own writings as an undisputed work. But we have learned that his extant second Epistle does not belong to the canon; yet, as it has appeared profitable to many, it has been used with the other Scriptures. 3-2. The so-called Acts of Peter, however, and the Gospel which bears his name, and the Preaching and the Apocalypse, as they are called, we know have not been universally accepted, because no ecclesiastical writer, ancient or modern, has made use of testimonies drawn from them.
From Catechetical Lecture 18 regarding the One Holy Catholic Church by St Cyril of Jerusalem (b. 315 – d. 387):
Of old the Psalmist sang, Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, (ye that are) from the fountains of Israel. But after the Jews for the plots which they made against the Saviour were cast away from His grace, the Saviour built out of the Gentiles a second Holy Church, the Church of us Christians, concerning which he said to Peter, “And upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
From Schism of the Donatists 2:2 by St Optatus of Milevis (b. ? – d. 387):
You cannot then deny that you know that upon Peter first in the city of Rome was bestowed the episocopal cathedra, on which he sat, the head of all the apostles (for which reason he was called Cephas), that, in this one catehdra, unity should be preserved by all.
From Homily 54 on Matthew by St John Chrysostom (b. 347 – d. 407):
Do you see how He, His own self, leads Peter on to high thoughts of Him, and reveals Himself, and implies that He is Son of God by these two promises? For those things which are peculiar to God alone, (both to absolve sins, and to make the church in capable of overthrow in such assailing waves, and to exhibit a man that is a fisher more solid than any rock, while all the world is at war with him), these He promises Himself to give…
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