Papal Change?
 The pope seems like a cool dude, but he says he's the boss of all Christians. Was the papacy always this way? - Jeremy  1st Millennium 2nd Millennium Will the papacy always stay as it is now? |
1st Millennium Some Catholics may be shocked by the suggestion that the papal office was not the same in the first millennium as it is now. But the papacy has changed much over the centuries. During the first millennium the Bishop of Rome exercised a leadership role in the Church because Rome was the city in which Peter and Paul had been martyred. Bishops of other churches often looked to the Bishop of Rome for help in resolving doctrinal matters. Further, the Bishop of Rome did not hesitate to speak out when the unity of the Church seemed to be threatened. However, no Bishop of Rome ever claimed the right to exercise authority over the other churches, much less to appoint their bishops. He saw himself as a bishop among bishops, with the special role of serving the unity of the universal Church, protecting the integrity of the gospel, and at times acting as spokesman for his brother bishops. During the first millennium, the Bishop of Rome was chosen by the clergy and laity of Rome. Up until the ninth century, the Roman Church never chose its bishop as someone who was already a bishop elsewhere. This changed, with far-reaching effects, with the 882 election of Marinus I to succeed Pope John VIII. Marinus was already bishop of Caere in Tuscany and thus was the first bishop of another see (diocese) to be elected pope. 2nd Millennium For much of the first millennium, "pope" was a title for many bishops, and at times even for priests who were not bishops. The 11th century witnessed drastic changes in the understanding of the Petrine ministry (a term recognizing the succession of leadership in the Church back to St. Peter) when Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) reserved the title "pope" exclusively to the Bishop of Rome. A man of exceptional talent, he made reform the keystone of his pontificate at a time when reform was desperately needed in the Church. He had an exalted mystique of the papacy, describing himself as universal pastor, and claiming the right to appoint and depose bishops. He even claimed authority in secular order and the right to depose emperors and kings. A century later, Innocent III (1198-1216) saw his role as pope "above" the Church rather than in the Church, "set midway between God and man, below God and above man." He changed the designation of his office from what it had been up to his time, "Vicar of Peter," to the title "Vicar of Christ." In the 19th century, the First Vatican Council (1869-70) established the "blueprint" for understanding the papacy till the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Vatican I defined the primacy and infallibility of the Bishop of Rome. Will the papacy always stay as it is now? There are Catholics who are convinced that the only way to Christian unity is for other Christians to submit themselves to the supreme authority of the pope. Implied in such an attitude is the belief that the papacy has always operated in the past in precisely the same way it does today and that it is the will of Christ that this be so. This quick look at history shows how much the papacy has changed over the centuries. Pope John Paul II has a dream that today is still a long way from realization, namely, the reunion of all Christians. In an important encyclical, That All May Be One, he addresses himself to other Christian Churches and asks them: What changes need to be made in the exercise of papal authority that could make the papal office a source of unity rather than division among Christians? He sees this as an immensely important issue that he must deal with, yet he cannot do it himself. He invites Church leaders and their theologians to engage with him in dialogue on the subject. This was a bold step. To suggest the need of discovering new ways of exercising the primacy implies that the way it is presently being exercised needs to be changed. His encyclical suggests that if we wish to look for the ideal way in which the primacy of the Bishop of Rome should be exercised, we should look to the first millennium, when a united Christian Church did exist. |
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