The Pope is: Trying to Eat Your Brain
I decided to do this “The Pope is…” series to discuss the different claims I’ve heard about the Papacy. These posts are inspired by conversations I’ve had with people about their opposition to Christianity. As with all my writings, I encourage you to do your research!
Is the Pope a Dictator?
The other day, a friend said Christians submitting to systematic leadership leads to anti-free thought; furthermore, the authority structure within the church was compared to socialism and communism (I should clarify that my friend meant communism as in every one part of the church is forced to believe everything the Pope says blindly).
But I don’t think having a hierarchy of guidance takes away from one’s free will. Free will is the root of Christianity. Anyone is free to think about whatever he/she wants, even to hold hostility towards the church. Having a pope allows proper guidance that avoids or diminishes contradictions, but that is not the same as spoon-feeding doctrine. I like the political analogy but as a republic, not a communist agenda.
The president is the country’s leader, and he/she must set regulations to keep its citizens safe. However, here in the United States of America, we have a lovely thing called Checks and Balances. The three governmental branches(executive, judicial, and legislative) can keep each other regulated. This principle diminishes one department to have exclusive power, and for this reason, the president is not able to make up laws that go against the country’s constitution. So, even though the president is the face of the country, he cannot do whatever he wants. Furthermore, the citizens are capable of disobeying the laws (with consequences, but it is nevertheless possible).
In a way, that is the essence behind the authority in Catholicism. It would be extraordinarily illogical and unscriptural for the Pope to make changes that contradict the Bible. As the bishop of Rome, where St. Peter subsisted, he is to continue St. Peter’s role: to care for and feed the sheep (John 21:15-19).
Is the Pope Corrupting the Teachings of Jesus?
Saying that the papacy is a tyrant office would imply that any pope could’ve done as he pleased with dogmas and scripture; if that were the case, Christian beliefs would be all over the place. However, the church’s creeds and doctrines have been the same since the first century.
Indeed, some dogmas have developed as time goes by, but it is to incorporate the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For example, there was no need to formally define the trinity until the church realized false teachings and misconceptions on the matter began to spread. There are some non-doctrine practices known as disciplines. These can change if the church decides it would better align people with God’s will (an example would be the priest’s celibacy). As I said, disciplines are things the church encourages believers to do because it will benefit them, but these are things that could change with time, or that some rites choose to do differently—there are some instances in which married men get ordained priests like in the byzantine catholic church. That’s right; there are other rites that are part of the catholic church other than the popular Latin/Roman rite.
Beyond Rome
These rites are Eastern churches that came back into union with the Holy See in the 16th century and Onward1. You can read more about the reunion here, but these churches went their separate ways because they disagreed with the Pope and church teachings at some point, yet came back eventually. If having a leader meant brainwashing people, why would some leave only to choose to be back? Okay, there are many answers to that question, but my point is that having worldwide unity does not force you to believe everything blindly. You are free to leave if you wish to go against the teachings of the church––a topic for another day, but why would one leave the church that Jesus established?
To me, claiming that having a global faith leader leads to blind deception does not make sense. However, if the said leader has a unique ability to speak without error, then I can understand why the skeptical radars go off. This idea is also known as papal infallibility, and it is another huge misconception. I will talk about what papal infallibility truly means in a future post!
The pope is here to guide us. It is a beautiful thing to trace back the lineage of all the popes leading back to St. Peter, the one Jesus Christ gave the authority to look after His flock.
Some Fun Resources
Note: One of my favorite YouTube channels, How to Be Christian, has an amazing video titled, “Don’t Trust Us; Test Us”. Feel free to check it out because it makes a good point against accepting information without reasoning or solely based on credentials. They also have a video on authority, which I recommend checking out for some amusing and biblically-based information on this topic.
Challenge for today: Pray for the leaders of the world to make good decisions with love for the neighbor in mind.
1. Kevin R. Yurkus. “The Other Catholics: A Short Guide to the Eastern Catholic Churches.” Crisis (July/August 2005).
[…] We can see the works of our first pope, St. Peter, in the Book of Acts. He takes the initiative on challenging topics; he goes out into the world preaching the gospel, healing people, and ultimately spreading the love of Jesus Christ. He was nevertheless human, so there were moments of mistakes, but through the power of God, we see the Church growing even though they would get persecuted. I bring up his humanness because people often criticize the pope as divine, among other misconceptions, some of which I speak about in “Misconceptions about Catholicism” and in “Misconceptions about the Pope” […]
[…] should check out this article for more information on Papal Infallibility and this post on”Is the Pope Try to Eat Your Brain?“Anyway, you should check out this article for more information on Papal Infallibility and […]