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Hi, William —
Thanks for the question.
Because Jesus said so!:
16 13 When
Jesus went into the region of
Caesarea Philippi he asked his
disciples,
- "Who do people
say that the Son of Man is?"
14 They
replied, "Some say John the
Baptist, others Elijah, still
others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets." 15 He
said to them,
- "But who do
you say that I am?"
16 Simon
Peter said in reply,
"You
are the Messiah, the Son of the
living God."
17 Jesus
said to him in reply,
"Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah. For
flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my Heavenly Father. 18 And
so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build
My Church, and the gates of the
netherworld shall not prevail
against it. 19 I
will give you the keys to the
kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you
bind on earth shall be bound in
Heaven; and whatever you loose
on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven."
Matthew 16:13-19 |
and Isaiah, the prophet, foretold this:
22 15 Thus
says the Lord GOD of hosts,
"Come,
go to this steward, to Shebna,
who is over the household, and
say to him: 16 What
have you to do here and whom have
you here, that you have hewn here
a tomb for yourself, you who hew
a tomb on the height, and carve
a habitation for yourself in the
rock? 17 Behold,
the LORD will hurl you away violently,
O you strong man. He will seize
firm hold on you, 18 and
whirl you round and round, and
throw you like a ball into a wide
land; there you shall die, and
there shall be your splendid chariots,
[be the] shame of your master's house. 19 I
will thrust you from your office,
and you will be cast down from
your station.
20 In that day I will call my servant
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your
robe, and will bind your girdle
on him, and will commit your authority
to his hand; and he shall be a
father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder
the key of the house of David;
he shall open, and none shall
shut; and he shall shut, and none
shall open. 23 And I will fasten
him like a peg in a sure place,
and he will become a throne of
honor to his father's house. 24 And they will hang on him the
whole weight of his father's house,
the offspring and issue, every
small vessel, from the cups to
all the flagons.
25 In
that day, says the LORD of hosts,
the peg that was fastened in a
sure place will give way; and
it will be cut down and fall,
and the burden that was upon it
will be cut off, for the LORD
has spoken."
Isaiah 22:15-25 |
It's important to remember that the
role of the Pope is not one of domination,
but one of service.
All huge companies have organizational
charts with blocks that represent
people who work at various levels
of responsibility. At the top,
is one person, the CEO, the Chief
Executive Officer; the President of
the company, and at the bottom are non-supervisory workers who perform
the required work to make the company
run and make a profit.
For this reason, most corporate organizational
charts look like triangles, with
the one president at the top and
numerous non-supervisory workers
at the bottom.
There is a similar organizational
structure within the Catholic Church, with
one major difference:
You have to turn the triangle-view
of the organizational chart up-side
down!
Starting at the bottom of this new
organizational chart and moving to
the top, with the first bullet representing
the highest level of responsibility:
- The Pope serves the cardinals,
bishops, priests, deacons and
the faithful.
- The Cardinals serve the bishops,
priests, deacons and the faithful.
- The bishops serve the priests,
deacons and the faithful, and
at the top level:
- The priest, especially the
pastors, serve: other priests,
deacons and the faithful, and finally,
- The faithful serve and evangelize other faithful and non-believers in the world within their specific vocation.
It's also important to remember that
the role of the Pope is NOT to create
new teachings.
No, it is to protect and safeguard
the Teachings Jesus left the Church
before his Ascension and to elaborate on current day issues
that deal with morality or (issues
of faith and morals).
I hope this answers your question.
Mike Humphrey
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