Action Required: Peter And The Papacy

[dUSt]

Okay all you Church Scholars, Militant and Faithful. Time to earn your stripes. I hope this will be a collaborated effort.

I need a 300-400 word summary.
Topic: [b]Peter and the Papacy[/b]

Maybe someone can write a summary, and then as a group we can do some revisions, offer suggestions, revise, revise again, etc--until it is perfect. The summary should be a brief overview of Church teaching and also touch on the most common objections to the doctrine.

I'll be using this both in the apologetics section and the future phatmass Church Defense Handbook.

Let's do it.

[Crusader_4]

Many people have a problems with the idea of a Pope or human head of Church on earth. They like to assume that Jesus will somehow make us into perfect being and get along well and on our own accord find him and learn from ourselves. However, what one forgets is this opens a door for false teachings and due to our sinful nature turning us away from God. So then how did God accomplish this problem what did he do so we would not err in our understanding of God. He established a Church that can speak infallably and has a physical human in charge to help guide and discern God's will. For it is written in sacred scripture "The Church is the pillar of the Truth". As well this passing on of power is evident in MT 16. .... i could add more but am going away for a bit but its a start i could go deeper but there are better apologists here then me like i think mentioning the connection between Davids PM is a huge one as well as the Early Church...but i think also the docrtine of the Papacy devolped over time so one can in clude the early church but it may be more confusting for someone who doesnt know their chrisitainty all that well. I think logic and reason with a bit of scripture would do the best in this case but that is just me.

[voiciblanche]

I want to earn stripes! I'm going to talk to some people tonight about it and do some research, look it all back up in Scripture, etc. I'm working on it. I hope I'm of some help...

[Guest JeffCR07]

Well, I havn't been around long enough to merit being put in a group like "church militant" or "church faithful" but seeing as no one else has made the attempt, I'll get something little started that those who know more than I do can then augment (or change completely if need be)

I'll start with Scripture, but I think we should note that if would be a fallacy to limit it to just that. We have to remember, and be firm in our assertion, that in addition to Scripture, Tradition and Magisterial Teaching are also inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Scripture:

MT 16:15-19 'And He said to them, "Who do you say that I am?" "You are the Christ," Simon Peter answered, "The Son of the living God!" Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon, son of John! No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part declare to you, you are 'Rock' and on this rock I will build my church, and the jaws of death will not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'

I'm pretty sure we have all heard the keys of the kingdom argument, but just quickly, 3 points. First, Peter and Peter alone had his name changed by Christ, thus setting him apart in a special way. Second, to "bind and to loose" were, according to the Old Testament and to Jewish teachings, powers accorded only the the High Priests, who stood in positions of authority over the other priests. Finally, it is also very important that we understand that when Christ said this, he was referencing the following Scripture:

Is 22:20-24 'On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe, and girde him with your sash and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot to be a place of honor for his family; on him shall hang the glory of his family; descendants and offspring,'

This again, especially in conjunction with the changing of his name to "Rock" - think a "sure spot" - seperates him and elevates him.

Next:

JN 21:15-17 'When they had eaten their meal, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord." he said, "you know that I love you." At which Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." A second time he put his question, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord." Peter said, "you know that I love you." Jesus replied, "Tend my sheep." A third time Jesus asked him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" So he said to him: "Lord, you know everything. You know well that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

By asking him to feed AND tend he is placing him in the role of Sheperd. Not simply a priest (distributing the eucharist was also called "eating" or "handing out food") but the "tend my sheep" again placing him in a seperate category

Now, just a few references to Peter-in-Action:

Acts 2:37-39 'When they heard this, they were deeply shaken. They asked Peter and the other apostles, What are we to do, brothers?" Peter answered, "You must reform and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that your sins may be forgiven; then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was to you and to your children that the promise was made, and to all those far off whom the Lord our God calls.'

Acts 15:6-12 'The apostles and the presbyters accordingly convened to look into the matter. After much discussion, Peter took the floor and said to them: "Brothers, you know well enough that from the early days God selected me from your number to be the one from whose lips the Gentiles would hear the message of the gospel and believe. God, who reads the hearts of men, showed his approval by granting the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us. He made no distinction between them and us, but purified their hearts by means of faith also. Why then, do you put God to the test by trying to place on the shoulders of these converts a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? Our belief is rather that we are saved by the favor of the Lord Jesus and so are they." At that the whole assembly fell silent..."

Here we can see Peter leading, and, not only that, but even the Scripture seperates him saying "Peter and the other Apostles" rather than listing all as equals.


Tradition:

I urge anyone who does not already know to study and look into the history of the other (non-Roman) Rites of the Church. They are all Catholic, and all in perfect communion, but by virtue of the fact that they refused to split (take, for example, the Byzantine Catholics refusing to leave with the Greek Orthodox) you can see that Tradition upholds the "Petrine Theory" or Theory of Peter

Also, reading the early Church fathers is full of it, St. Athanasius is particularly good, and Augustine is so well known for having said "Rome has spoke, the case is closed"

Teaching of the Magisterium:

Coucil of Trent, Council of Orange, Vatican Councils I & II, and a vast number of Papal encyclicals establish the Pope infallably (though Protestants won't buy that argument, lol)

Anways, I purposefully left lots of stuff for others to work with and feel free to adjust anything and everything i've got!

- Your Brother in Christ, Jeff

[Guest JeffCR07]

lol, whoops, I guess someone else DID make the attempt, while I was typing.

[Cure of Ars]

Here are a couple of things I believe we should think about while we are writing. I’m just kind of brainstorming.


It needs to be written with its audience in mind. The audience, I would assume, would be around 13-21 years old. Dust a while back posted that he wanted to pass out pamphlets that looked like a video game manual during concerts and such. I think this is an ingenious angle. He made a comment about it having the video game Superpope on the cover.

The 13-21 years olds usually are going through that rebellions stage. They are trying to find their own identity. I think that we could use this to our advantage. It is cool to be counter cultural. I think youth yearn to be consistent with their faith when so many have sold out their faith or watered it down to meaninglessness.

The 13-21 year old audience is idealistic. They are optimistic about being able to make a difference in the world. The want to be challenged and aim beyond everything to Christ Himself.

It needs to short, concise, and entertaining. It needs a touch of humor. It should not come off as academic.


What do you guys think? What are some other ideas? What else does our target audience want? What other angles can we use? What else can we do to make Christ’s message more sticky and contagious? Lets talk about this.



"Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." Matt 10:16

Edited June 10, 2004 by Cure of Ars

[Iacobus]

You would have to add some humor and make it easy to understand. Lists that can be skimmed over. I think I will try one tm but my papers are so boring my paper on Vatican II (according to my peer reader and friend) would put the Pope to sleep. Or something like that. But I shall see what I can do.

[Mickey's_Girl]

Cure of Ars: good call! Focus is important.

Iacobus: You crack me up!

Dust: I agree with Cure that it shouldn't be terribly over-academic. Biblical backup is vital...short quotes from church fathers are also good. If you can show the *direct* line from Peter, to the next person, to the next person...

I'm still doing my own research, but so far it seems like apologists go from "You are Peter and upon this rock" to St. Augustine, with no info in between. And wasn't that like 400 years? If you can make a clearer connection, I'd recommend it.

MG

[cmotherofpirl]

Remember to point out that Pope St Clement wrote a letter to chastise the Corinthians in 96 AD as the Bishop of Rome, and fully expected to be obeyed.
St John was still alive at that time, but the authority rested in the sucessor of Peter, not him.

[dUSt]

Woa, this is good stuff. Let's get all the info from this thread so far and get it into a 300-400 word summary.

And I agree with the angle of catering it to the teen crowd--less academic, but still potent--and counter-cultural.

[St. Catherine]

This still needs a lot of work, and even with a lot of work I don’t now if this meets Phatmass standards but here is what I got so far…

[color=blue]Jesus is the Messiah, which means that he is King. Peter infallibly pronounced Jesus as the Messiah. (Matt 16:16-17) Jesus in return gave Peter the “keys to the kingdom” with the authority to “bind and loose” in heaven and earth. (Matt 16:19) Keys to the Jews of Jesus’ time were very significant. (see Isaiah 22:22). The person who held the keys held the highest office under the king. The royal steward with the keys of the kingdom was in charge of defending the kingdom when the king was absent.

The Messiah promised that the Church would be victorious. Jesus promised to do this by building the Church on Peter. Jesus said, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18) “Peter” means “rock” and Jesus gave this name to Peter to signify the role that he would play in the Church. (John 1:42)

Jesus taught that those that listen to his voice would be like those that build their house on rock foundation… [/color]

Feel free to tear it up, rearrange it, or even ignore it.


I was also thinking that youth like technology, secret codes, game cheats, MP3’s and hip hop. I was thinking that it would be cool to have a code in this section where they can take the code plug it into Phatmass and down load the song, “Gates of Hell”. This would do a couple of things. It would get them to check out the website which would give us more opportunity for Christ’s message to stick. It would give them the chance to hear Catholic hip hop. It would give data to see how effective the pamphlets are by how many use people use the code. Then we would be able to tweak things and have feedback for the better impact.

But anyway good night and God bless

[Cure of Ars]

Boy, my wife, St. Catherine, is starting to sound like me.


I forgot to log off and back on as myself.

[Mickey's_Girl]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='Jun 10 2004, 01:35 PM']Remember to point out that Pope St Clement wrote a letter to chastise the Corinthians in 96 AD as the Bishop of Rome, and fully expected to be obeyed.
St John was still alive at that time, but the authority rested in the sucessor of Peter, not him.[/quote]
Cmom:

That is a very cool piece of info. Can you give me a source for that (and maybe some surrounding information?)? Online or book is fine.

Rock on!

MG

[MC Just]

Im gonna stick to rapping the faith for now on. I'm having trouble with apologetics nowa days. They go deeper than I thought. Plus it just get's me angry.

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

I'll try and compile the most relevant writings of the Church Fathers on this issue (taken from various internet sites). While Protestants may claim that some of the later Fathers have no authority, the early Father's writings are convincing enough. The continuity of the faith of the early Fathers echoed in the writings of the later ones, will prove the authenticity of our Sacred Tradition. Here it is:

[quote]The Little Labyrinth
"Victor . . . was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter" (The Little Labyrinth [A.D. 211], in Eusebius, Church History 5:28:3).[/quote]

[quote]Tertullian
"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . What kind of man are you, subverting and changing what was the manifest intent of the Lord when he conferred this personally upon Peter? Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys" (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D. 220]).[/quote]

[quote]The Letter of Clement to James
"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter" (Letter of Clement to James 2 [A.D. 221]).[/quote]

[quote]The Clementine Homilies
"[Simon Peter said to Simon Magus in Rome:] ‘For you now stand in direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the Church’ [Matt. 16:18]" (Clementine Homilies 17:19 [A.D. 221]).[/quote]

[quote]Origen
"[I]f we were to attend carefully to the Gospels, we should also find, in relation to those things which seem to be common to Peter . . . a great difference and a preeminence in the things [Jesus] said to Peter, compared with the second class [of apostles]. For it is no small difference that Peter received the keys not of one heaven but of more, and in order that whatsoever things he binds on earth may be bound not in one heaven but in them all, as compared with the many who bind on earth and loose on earth, so that these things are bound and loosed not in [all] the heavens, as in the case of Peter, but in one only; for they do not reach so high a stage with power as Peter to bind and loose in all the heavens" (Commentary on Matthew 13:31 [A.D. 248]).[/quote]

[quote]Cyprian of Carthage
"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. . . . If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

"There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering" (Letters 43[40]:5 [A.D. 253]).

"There [John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church. You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishop, and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the priests of God, believing that they are
secretly [i.e., invisibly] in communion with certain individuals. For the Church, which is one and Catholic, is not split nor divided, but it is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who adhere one to another" (ibid., 66[69]:8).[/quote]

[quote]Firmilian
"But what is his error . . . who does not remain on the foundation of the one Church which was founded upon the rock by Christ [Matt. 16:18], can be learned from this, which Christ said to Peter alone: ‘Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:19]" (collected in Cyprian’s Letters 74[75]:16 [A.D. 253]).

"[Pope] Stephen [I] . . . boasts of the place of his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18]. . . . [Pope] Stephen . . . announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter" (ibid., 74[75]:17).[/quote]

[quote]The Poem Against the Marcionites
"In this chair in which he himself had sat, Peter in mighty Rome commanded Linus, the first elected, to sit down. After him, Cletus too accepted the flock of the fold. As his successor, Anacletus was elected by lot. Clement follows him, well-known to apostolic men. After him Evaristus ruled the flock without crime. Alexander, sixth in succession, commends the fold to Sixtus. After his illustrious times were completed, he passed it on to Telesphorus. He was excellent, a faithful martyr . . . " (Poem Against the Marcionites 276–284 [A.D. 267]).[/quote]

[quote]Peter of Alexandria
"Peter, the first chosen of the apostles, having been apprehended often and thrown into prison and treated with ignominy, at last was crucified in Rome" (Penance, canon 9 [A.D. 306]).[/quote]

[quote]Cyril of Jerusalem
"The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish. Let no man despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost of the apostles, denied the Lord three times before a little servant girl, but he repented and wept bitterly" (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).

"[Simon Magus] so deceived the city of Rome that Claudius erected a statue of him. . . . While the error was extending itself, Peter and Paul arrived, a noble pair and the rulers of the Church, and they set the error aright. . . . [T]hey launched the weapon of their like-mindedness in prayer against the Magus, and struck him down to earth. It was marvelous enough, and yet no marvel at all, for Peter was there—he that carries about the keys of heaven [Matt. 16:19]" (ibid., 6:14).

"In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, both the chief of the apostles and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the name of Christ healed Aeneas the paralytic at Lydda, which is now called Diospolis [Acts 9:32–34]" (ibid., 17:27).[/quote]

[quote]Ephraim the Syrian
"[Jesus said:] ‘Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples’" (Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).[/quote]

[quote]Optatus
"You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head—that is why he is also called Cephas [‘Rock’]—of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).[/quote]

[quote]Ambrose of Milan
"[Christ] made answer: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church. . . . ’ Could he not, then, strengthen the faith of the man to whom, acting on his own authority, he gave the kingdom, whom he called the rock, thereby declaring him to be the foundation of the Church [Matt. 16:18]?" (The Faith 4:5 [A.D. 379]).

"It is to Peter that he says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18]. Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal" (Commentary on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389]).[/quote]

[quote](Pope) Damasus I
"Likewise it is decreed: . . . [W]e have considered that it ought to be announced that although all the Catholic churches spread abroad through the world comprise one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless, the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it.
"Likewise it is decreed . . . that it ought to be announced that . . . the holy Roman Church has not been placed at the forefront [of the churches] by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).[/quote]

[quote]Jerome
"‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division" (Against Jovinian 1:26 [A.D. 393]).

"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. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396]).

"Simon Peter, the son of John, from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, brother of Andrew the apostle, and himself chief of the apostles, after having been bishop of the church of Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion . . . pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero. At his hands he received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord" (Lives of Illustrious Men 1 [A.D. 396]).[/quote]

[quote](Pope) Innocent I
"In seeking the things of God . . . you have acknowledged that judgment is to be referred to us [the pope], and have shown that you know that is owed to the Apostolic See [Rome], if all of us placed in this position are to desire to follow the apostle himself [Peter] from whom the episcopate itself and the total authority of this name have emerged" (Letters 29:1 [A.D. 408]).[/quote]

[quote]Augustine
"Number the priests even from that seat of Peter. And in that order of fathers see to whom succeeded: that is the rock which the proud gates of hades do not conquer." [Psalmus contr Partem Donati(A.D. 393)]

"If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them [the bishops of Rome] from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole Church, the Lord said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not conquer it.’ Peter was succeeded by Linus, Linus by Clement. ... In this order of succession a Donatist bishop is not to be found" (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).

"Among these [apostles] Peter alone almost everywhere deserved to represent the whole Church. Because of that representation of the Church, which only he bore, he deserved to hear ‘I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven’" (Sermons 295:2 [A.D. 411]).

"Some things are said which seem to relate especially to the apostle Peter, and yet are not clear in their meaning unless referred to the Church, which he is acknowledged to have represented in a figure on account of the primacy which he bore among the disciples. Such is ‘I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,’ and other similar passages. In the same way, Judas represents those Jews who were Christ’s enemies" (Commentary on Psalm 108 1 [A.D. 415]).

"Who is ignorant that the first of the apostles is the most blessed Peter?" (Commentary on John 56:1 [A.D. 416]).[/quote]

[quote]Cyril of Alexandria
"He promises to found the church, assigning immovableness to it,as He is the Lord of strength, and over this he sets Peter as shepherd." [Commentary on Matthew (A.D. 428)][/quote]

[quote]John Cassian
"[B]ut that great man, the disciple of disciples, that master among masters, who wielding the government of the Roman Church possessed the authority in faith and priesthood. Tell us therefore, tell us we beg of you, Peter, prince of the Apostles, tell us how the churches must believe in God." [Contra Nestorium,3:12(A.D. 430)][/quote]

[quote]Council of Ephesus
"Philip, presbyter and legate of [Pope Celestine I] said: ‘We offer our thanks to the holy and venerable synod, that when the writings of our holy and blessed pope had been read to you . . . you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations. For your blessednesses is not ignorant that the head of the whole faith, the head of the apostles, is blessed Peter the apostle’" (Acts of the Council, session 2 [A.D. 431]).

"Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome], said: ‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors’" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).[/quote]

[quote](Pope) Leo I
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles. . . . He wished him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named what he himself was, when he said: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter’s solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against it" (Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445]).

"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . established the worship belonging to the divine [Christian] religion. . . . But the Lord desired that the sacrament of this gift should pertain to all the apostles in such a way that it might be found principally in the most blessed Peter, the highest of all the apostles. And he wanted his gifts to flow into the entire body from Peter himself, as if from the head, in such a way that anyone who had dared to separate himself from the solidarity of Peter would realize that he was himself no longer a sharer in the divine mystery" (ibid., 10:2–3).[/quote]

[quote]"Although bishops have a common dignity, they are not all of the same rank. Even among the most blessed apostles, though they were alike in honor, there was a certain distinction of power. All were equal in being chosen, but it was given to one to be preeminent over the others. . . . [So today through the bishops] the care of the universal Church would converge in the one See of Peter, and nothing should ever be at odds with this head" (ibid., 14:11).[/quote]

[quote]Council of Chalcedon
"Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop of the great and elder Rome, through us, and through this present most holy synod, together with the thrice blessed and all-glorious Peter the apostle, who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the foundation of the orthodox faith, has stripped him [Dioscorus] of the episcopate" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 451]).[/quote]

I just realized how long this is. I guess you can choose the best from this list. These quotes were taken from [url="http://www.catholic.com"]Catholic Answers[/url] and [url="http://www.cin.org/users/jgallegos/contents.htm"]Corunum Catholic Apologetics[/url].

Edited June 11, 2004 by thedude