Great selections from Catholic Answers on the Christ’s Church and the Pope
Primacy of Peter, the first Pope – Bible verses
Peter is the Rock
Peter’s Successors
Apostolic Succession
Peter and His Successors – how the Pope is chosen
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He is the guiding light of millions of Catholics in the world.He is the essence of righteousness.
He (the Pope) has to be a Champion in Life
http://www.themiamisooners.com
While I have great admiration and respect for the late Pope, as for Saint Peter, I must disagree with the view of Peter as the rock upon which Christ’s church is built.
Leaving aside the issue of Petrine primacy for a while, I think all Christians should agree CHRIST, not Peter, is the foundational rock of the Church.
Peter writes in the first epistle bearing his name, that Christ is the foundational Rock upon which the Church is built, the Stone which the builders rejecting becoming the cornerstone. Building on the analogy, Peter urges all Christians to be living stones, built up as a temple to God, upon the foundation of Christ.
Numerous encounters with the Pharisees in the Gospels show Christ referring to himself as the Rock of salvation (and the church is built upon the Rock of salvation).
The Greek from the Petrine verse in Matthew distinguishes between Christ as Petra, a large foundational rock, and Petros, a smaller piece of stone. The Word-play conveys Peter’s Christ-likeness, not his status as a foundation of the church. Christ says upon this petra, Christ Himself, he would build his church.
Peter himself confirms same in I Peter chapter 2, and Paul says that no foundation can be laid save for that already laid, which is Christ in I Corinthians 3:9-11.
Christ is the foundation of His Church, and he is building up, through the work of the apostles, the people of God into that holy building. Paul in this chapter and previous chapters warns against the sectarianism which was already roiling the church. Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:11-13 critical of such sectarianism, stressing the unity of all the apostles in preaching in accord the revealed mystery of Christ.