- PAPACY AND INFALLIBILITY -
You Catholics / Catholic Christian say that Christ built His Church upon Peter quoting Saint Matthew Chapter 16 verse 18 to justify your stand: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church". Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:11 - "For other foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus". - Acts 4:11-12 says, "This (Christ) is the stone which was rejected by your builders, but which has become the head of the corner. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Saint Peter himself said, "To you, therefore, who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,' and 'A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall..." (1 Peter 2:7-8). It is clear that on Jesus Christ is the Rock, not on Peter or his successors.
Not only to those who accuse us, accuse us falsely, but they distort Sacred Scripture/Word of God to suit their purposes. Catholic Christian do not mean to say that salvation is built upon Peter and is not that Christ's Church is founded by Peter. Christ is the Foundation of His Church. Without Christ Jesus, there is no Church. Christ is not only the Saviour of Christians, He is also the Life of Christians.
But Christ Jesus did found a visible Church with the twelve Apostles as leaders and Saint Peter as their chief. In the lives of the Apostles with Jesus, Saint Peter often took the lead. (This, as I have said, is a fact of human grouping. Call the leader whatever name you want, it does not matter. The reality is that there is always a leader.) When Jesus asked His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?", who took the lead to express the belief of the disciples? It was Peter. Let's read the whole text.
"And Jesus answered him (Peter), Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven..." (Matthew 16:17-19).
The Context before and after the phrase "on this rock," is Christ's address to Peter. Grammatically, it is untenable that Christ suddenly in a small phrase without any justification applies this rock to Himself. "You are Peter, and on this rock," the copula "and" joins Peter and this rock. If it were not a reference to Peter, why should it say, "you are Peter and". Let us replace "this rock" with Christ and see if it make sense grammatically. "And I tell you, you are Peter and on Christ I will build my Church." Does this make sense? If Christ were referred to as "this rock", the first part would have been left out without any loss of meaning. Do not tell me that Jesus who was a great orator, all of a sudden, here only, made great grammatical blunder in such a way that for 15 centuries the Church, against which Jesus promised the "gates of hell shall not prevail," went wrong. Besides, to whom did Jesus give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven? To Peter. It would be absurd of Christ, who held the keys, to say that he would give the Keys to Himself. Our Lord was not mad. The interpretation of this text to prove that Christ did not make Peter the rock upon which He would build His Church not only twists the text in such a way that is makes no sense but it also makes Our Lord appear foolish.
Peter in Greek is Petrus and rock is Petra. It is, in grammar, what we call a pun, a play of words. In the original Aramaic language spoken by Jesus, there is only one word, kepha, for Peter and the rock. It should read like this, "You are the kepha and upon this kepha I will build my Church." In translating this into Greek, which has a genders, it would sound silly to give Peter the word Petra which is feminine. It would be making fun of Peter. So the translator had no choice except to change the gender of the word to the masculine Petrus.
Peter's leadership of the twelve can be easily seen in the New Testament by any unprejudiced reader. His name heads the list of the Apostles' names (Matthew 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). Of the inner circle of three - Peter, James and John - again Peter comes first (Mark 9:2; Matthew 17:1; 26:37). When all the disciples of Christ left Him except the twelve Apostles because Jesus claimed that they must eat His Body and drink His Blood, Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you wish to go away also?" Who answered for all the Apostles? Simon Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life;..." (John 6:67-68). After Jesus' resurrection, the angels at the tomb told the women to go tell His disciples and Peter (Mark 16:7). Mary Magdalene ran up to Peter and told him of the Lord's resurrection (John 20:2). When two of Jesus' disciples on the road to Emmaus, after recognizing Jesus, returned to report to the Apostles and "those who were with them, who said, 'The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" (Luke 24:34). Why mention only Simon Peter's name if it were not that he had a special standing among the disciples? Saint Paul mentioned that the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared first to Peter and secondly to the twelve (1 Corinthians 15:5). Why this specific reference to Peter if Peter had not a special role? Peter's role as rock or leader becomes clearer after Christ's resurrection. At the lakeside, Jesus asked Peter thrice, "Do you love me?" And thrice, when Peter confessed his love, Jesus said, "Feed my lambs (my sheep)" (John 21:15-18). This was predicted earlier by Christ. Peter would deny Him thrice before the cock crew, but Jesus prayed for him so that "your faith fail not and when you turned again, strengthen your brethren." (Luke 22:32). Peter's leadership was one of "feeding and strengthening" the faith of Christ's disciples.
This Peter did after the descent of the Holy Spirit. He took the lead in choosing another Apostle in place of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:17), in addressing the crowd of people on Pentecost (Acts 2:14), in defending Christ before the Jews and their priests and in condemning Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3-10). Peter was held in great reverence by all so that his shadow might fall on them and heal them (Acts 5:15). This was not said of other Apostles. Three years after his conversion St. Paul went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter and stayed with him for 15 days (Galatians 1:18). Why Peter and not the others, if it were not that he was the undisputed leader?
Objections - Some people argued that Peter could not have been the leader because Paul rebuked Peter for inconsistency over the question of circumcision and because James finally decided the issue.
Response - This objection presupposes that leadership is tyranny. Why cannot a leader be rebuked for what he has done wrong, especially since Christian leadership is one of service, not of tyranny. "I have come to serve and not to be served," said Jesus (Matthew 20:27-28). Peter's leadership was one of humble service and that was why he accepted Paul's rebuke. Christian leadership is always humble obedience to the Truth in service of others: to admit one's mistakes and correct them for others. No human being is exempted from mistakes. The fact that Peter accepted Paul's rebuke proved that he was a true leader following Christ's command.
When the dispute over circumcision grew hot, the Apostles and the elders gathered in Jerusalem to discuss the matter (the first Council - Acts 15). There was "much dispute" (verse 6) over the question. Then Peter rose and spoke against "putting a yoke (circumcision) upon the neck of the disciples (the Gentile Christians)" (verse 7-11). After Peter's speech "all the assembly kept silence" (verse 12). Only then did the assembly listen willingly to Barnabas and Paul as they related the "signs and wonders" that God worked through them "among the Gentiles." At the end which, James, drawing the attention of all to what Peter said (verse 14), gave his opinion (my judgement verse 19). He agreed with Peter. It was only after all these that the final judgement was made by "the apostles and the elders" with the whole Church, for it "seemed good" to them (verse 22). They chose men and sent them to Christian Gentiles with a written letter. The letter is important because it tells us who finally decided. It was not James but the "apostles and the elders" in whose name the letter was written, "The brethren, both the apostles and the elders, to the brethren ..." (verse 23), who finally passed judgement. If any one person's importance is emphasized, it is that of Peter, because the disciples "kept silence" after Peter's speech. James only agreed with Peter and drew the attention of the others to Peter's reasoning.
After the death of Saint Peter, his successors took the role of leadership. - The following paragraph is taken from: (a) Catholic and Christian by Alan Schreck,. Servant Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1984, pp. 88-91. (b) Home to Rome by Peter Reddy, Assisi Press, Quilon, 1959, pp. 67-69. - When conflict disturbed the Church at Corinth in the first century, the appeal was made to Peter's successor in Rome, Saint Clement (90 A.D.) Saint Clement sent a letter of admonition and his correction was accepted by the Christians at Corinth. Why was not Saint John the Apostle called to settle the dispute? He was still alive at Ephesus. In the second century, The Eastern Churches again requested Victor 1 (190 A,D,) Bishop of Rome, to decide on the date of Easter. His decision was final. In the late second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, wrote against false teachers saying, "the tradition which that very great, oldest, and well known Church, founded and established at Rome by those two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, received from the apostles... every church must be in harmony with this Church (the Church in Rome) because of its outstanding pre-eminence. Cyprian of the third century referred the question on baptism to Saint Cornelius and later to Saint Stephen in Rome. Again their decision was adopted by all. Pope Dionysius demanded from the Patriarch of Alexandria an explanation of certain articles of faith to which Alexandria complied. Cyprian, the martyr-bishop of Carthage wrote in 250 A.D.
"It is on him (Peter) that He (Jesus) builds the Church, and to him He entrusts the sheep to feed. And although He assigned power to all the apostles, yet He founded a single chair, thus establishing by His own authority the source and hallmark of the churches' oneness. No doubt the others were all that Peter was, but a primacy is given to Peter and it is thus made clear that there is but one Church and one chair... If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he is still holds the faith? If he deserts the chair of Peter upon which the church was built, has he still confidence that he is in the church?"
In the fourth century, Saint Athanasius appealed to Pope Julius I against the unjust decision of some Oriental bishops. Pope Julius reversed the decision. Also in the same century, Saint Jerome, the first great scriptural/biblical scholar, wrote to Pope Damasus, "I follow no one as leader except Christ alone, and therefore I want to remain in union in the church with you, that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that on this rock the church is founded." The Archbishop of Caesarea, Saint Basil, asked Pope Damasus for protection against his enemies. In the fifth century, Saint Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople appealed to Pope Innocent I to resolve grievances caused by Empress Eudoxia and some Eastern Bishops. In the controversy over the so called "Nestorian heresy", both Saint Cyril and Nestorius himself appealed to Pope Celestine. The following pope, Pope Leo condemned Nestorius and his doctrine. The Patriarchs, Archbishops and bishops accepted Pope Leo's decision saying, "Peter has spoken through Leo." From the time of the Apostles till at least the 9th century, Saint Peter and his successors were recognized as leaders of the Christians. We quoted only a few example of the recognition of primacy of the church in Rome in the early Church after the Apostles.
The bishop of Rome was and is a symbol and agent of the unity in faith and love of all Christians. To deny the existence of a leader is not only to be blind to the leading role of Peter in the New Testament and to history but also to deny the necessary fact of human groupings.
- Infallibility - How can a human being be always infallible? From our knowledge of human beings and of human history, it is just not possible that a human being is perfect - exempt from error. How can the Pope be infallible then?
Not only non-Catholics but Catholics themselves do not understand the Catholic Church's position on infallibility. The Catholics but Catholics themselves do not understand the Catholic Church's position on infallibility. The Catholics themselves are to be blamed for giving non-Catholics the wrong and incorrect impression that whatever the Pope says or decides, is infallible. This is absolute nonsense. Suppose the Pope were to say that it would rain tomorrow. Would he be free from error? As a coincidence it might rain. But what if it does not rain? An individual pope might have a special gift for predicting the weather but I doubt that all the popes have the same gift.
History has proved otherwise. In this matter I would rather trust the weather-forecasting station. Or if the Pope were to pronounce that Jesus Christ was only a prophet, going against the Christian belief, would it be infallible? Of course not. This is only a hypothetical question. What is miraculous is that in the whole twenty centuries of the history of the Catholic Church, even in the worst times when the popes were corrupt, there has never been any dogmatic pronouncement of faith that has turned out to be fallible or wrong. - PAGE ONE -
Infallibility must first be taken in the context of the Church....... - PAGE TWO -
- By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing - S. J. - Straight to Catholics -
- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -
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