Expert: Sal - 5/4/2005

Question
So far I know that there was twelve bishopes in twelve different countrys. But I don't get is how and why now the Catholic Church has a Pope? what happened to the churches? My dad told me there used to be on Church in Europe and the people that went to shool in the west didn't agree with the people in the east so the excumnicated each other. What happened?

Answer
Dear Danni:

Your Dad is probably referring to the “Great Schism” between the Eastern & Western Catholic Churches. This occurred in 1054 AD. The Eastern churches are today called the Eastern Orthodox churches. The Western Church is the Catholic Church. The main reason for the split was that the Eastern churches resented that a “westerner”, the Pope, was ruling over them. So they denied that the Pope was any different than any other Bishop and therefore, they could have their own eastern “pope”.  The Eastern Orthodox Church today denies many Christian truths such as the infallibility of the Pope, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the permanence of marriage, the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father & the Son, and the doctrine of Purgatory. The Great Schism was the first permanent split of the Christian Church.  

The Catholic Church today has a Pope because the Christian Church has always had a Pope. The first Pope, St. Peter, was directly chosen by Jesus. This is recorded in the Gospel According to St. Matthew.

“I (Jesus) for my part declare to you, you are Rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (16:18-19).

When Jesus gave the keys of heaven to Peter and declared that the gates of hell would not defeat the Church, Jesus was declaring that the papacy was to continue after Peter's death. So the Catholic Church elected Linus Pope after Peter's death, then Cletus, then Clement, all the way through the centuries down to our current Pope, Benedict XVI.

Thanks for the question. If I can be of further help please do not hesitate to ask.

God Bless You,
Sal