Who was the first leader in the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

Peter was appointed as the first leader of the Church when Our Lord said:

And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. (Matthew Chapt. 16)

Peter assumed the position upon the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven. The term 'pope' did not come into usage until many years later but Peter was still considered a pope even though the establishment of the office of pope and hierarchy was yet to come. All the apostles, even Paul, deferred to Peter for important decisions.

One thing needs to be pointed out here. Our Lord and Peter were speaking in Aramaic and not Greek. In Aramaic there was but one word for 'rock' and that is cephas. There is no confusion in usage as in Greek depending upon the size of the 'rock' which is an argument that many non-Catholics seem to ignore. The confusion in vocabulary arose years later when the gospel was translated to Greek.

And, yes, Peter did reside, at least for a time, in Rome and died there under orders from Roman Emperor Nero. Francis A. Sullivan SJ in his book From Apostles to Bishops states unequivocally that Peter was in Rome and died there. His statement is based on both scripture as well as the writings of early Church fathers.

Peter would have assumed leadership about the year AD33 and he died sometime between AD64 and AD67.

Answer 2

Answer 1:

Assuming the question should have been: "Who was the first head of the Roman Catholic church?"

And the answer is this: Assuming one considers the Pope to be the "head of the Roman Catholic Church," then according to the "I Sommi Pontefici Romani" section of the Roman Catholic Church's "Annuario Pontificio," the first pope was Peter (Simon Peter, or St. Peter), the apostle of Christ, who was Pope from 33 through... well... it was either 64 or 67 (experts disagree) AD, which would also have been the time of his death.

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AnswerThe head of the Catholic Church is Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ. In Scripture, it plainly points out that He is the head, and we are the body. His Vicar on earth is the Pope in Rome, this has been so since the very beginning when Our Blessed Lord appointed St. Peter as the first Pope, read St. Matthew's Gospel 16:17-19.

Answer 3

Peter is considered the first pope even though the term 'pope' did not come into common usage until much later. Whether Peter was in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome or elsewhere, he is still considered the first pope. Later, as the Church grew and a hierarchy developed. the Church established its headquarters in Rome as Rome was considered the center of the world at the time. It had good roads reaching out to the vast empire as well as ships that plied the Mediterranean. Missionaries could reach anywhere in the known world from Rome. As the pope was the highest ranking Church authority in Rome, he was automatically consider the Bishop of Rome. From 1309 until 1377 popes reigned from Avignon in France. No matter, the pope was still the pope. Once the situation was resolved, the papacy returned to Rome and the pope again resumed his position as the Bishop of Rome along with his title of Pope. Even today, should Pope Francis make the unlikely decision to move the Church headquarters to, say, Buenos Aires, Argentina, he would still be Pope and the assigned Bishop of Rome would simply be the Bishop of Rome. The Pope would be the Bishop of Buenos Aires as well as pope of the Universal Church. The Church has ample evidence that Peter did rule from Rome at some time. But even if he had never stepped foot in the city, he was still the Pope. Being Bishop of Rome is not a prerequisite for the papacy. By default, if the pope is headquartered in Rome, he is also the bishop of that diocese.

Answer 4

Jesus was the leader through his chosen vicar - St. Peter. The other apostles also helped in the leadership of the early Church.

Answer 5

The first leader of the Catholic Church was Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, His Vicar on earth (see St. Matthew 16:17-19) was St. Peter.

Answer 6

Jesus