0
Popes
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Pope is also head of state of the Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved by Rome.
2,799 Questions
Is there an abuse of power practiced by the pope?
A:
Pope Francis is, by all accounts, a most decent man to whom abuse of power would seem entirely foreign. This has not always been the case with popes over the course of history. There have certainly been abuses of power and privilege.
How does the pope communicate with Catholics throughout the world?
encyclicals- letters from the pope to the whole church
What does the Fisherman's Ring the pope wears look like?
As far as I know, this is an accurate image: http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5852/particolareanellogu1.jpg
What was the battle cry for the crusaders which was credited to Pope Urban II as saying?
God wills it!
What did Pope Gregory XIII introduce?
Pope Gregory XIII is probably best known for his reformation of the calendar, with the aid of Jesuit priest/astronomer Christopher Clavius, who is credited as the calendar's chief architect. The reason for the reform was that the average length of the year in the Julian calendar was too long - it treated each year as 365 days, 6 hours in length, whereas calculations showed that the actual mean length of a year is slightly less (365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes).
Can a pope's family visit him in the Vatican?
Yes, if the pope has any surviving family members, they are able to visit him. Pope Benedict's brother would occasionally visit.
Was Pope John Paul I murdered or did he die of natural causes?
When did apostle peter build church?
Peter never did build the church or a church. Jesus is the one who built the church.
Answer
The Apostles founded the early Christian churches. The missionary journies by Paul and Peter (and other apostles which were not documented) helped establish and grow the churches. This all began within the years after Jesus was crucified or after 30-40 AD. Some of Paul's later writings after this time was an encouragment and admonishment of the Churches.
Peter was thought to have started the "first church" because of the interpretation of the scripture in the New Testament where Jesus spoke to Peter "Upon this Rock I will build my Church". This is a view generally accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. However most scholars do not interpreted this scripture to mean only Peter founded the Christian Church.
Does it speak of Virgin Mary's death in the Bible?
No
Though it was almost universally believed for more than a thousand years, the Bible contains no mention of the assumption of Mary into heaven. The first Church writer to speak of Mary's being taken up into heaven by God is Saint Gregory of Tours (594). Other early sermons on the Feast of Mary's entry into heaven are those of Ps.-Modestus of Jerusalem (ca. 700).
On May 1, 1946, Pope Pius XII, asked all bishops in the world whether they thought this belief in the assumption of Mary into heaven should be defined as a proposition of faith, and whether they with their clergy and people desired the definition. Almost all the bishops replied in the affirmative.
On November 1, 1950, the Feast of All Saints, Pope Pius XII declared as a dogma revealed by God that "Mary, the immaculate perpetually Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven".
We have no real knowledge of the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death. The dates which have been assigned to her death vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. Both Jerusalem and Ephesus claim to be the place where she died. (By tradition, Mary lived at Ephesus after the death of Jesus.) Mary's tomb was presumably found in Jerusalem. It is believed that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that after her burial, her tomb, when opened, was found empty. Therefore, they concluded that her body had been taken up (assumed) into heaven.
The Catholic Church is not 'afraid' of gays. However, they do teach that homosexual behavior is sinful. Popes, by the way, are not appointed. They are elected in a secret conclave.
AnswerThe Catholic Church has a completely different view of things. The Catholic Church is operating strictly from a revealed view of things as given to Her by God, and is 180 degrees around from what the culture thinks is important or "normal." The Catholic Church is operating from the point of view that man is created by God to be eternally happy with Him in heaven. If he fails in this, he will be eternally deprived of happiness, by his own choice, in what we call hell. Thus the Catholic Church is, according to Catholic theology, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, and is not, as such, capable of being "afraid of gays." Furthermore, the Catholic Church doesn't even recognize "gay" as a gender, it recognizes the that men were created male and female by God so that they could love each other and produce children. The Church views homosexual inclinations as essentially disordered (in the technical sense of not ordered towards love between a man and a woman AND not ordered towards the procreation of children) and it views the homosexual lifestyle or "gay" if you will as essentially sinful as denying God and putting one's desires and feelings ahead of the Creator of the universe. As the Church does not recognize "gay" as a valid lifestyle, it does not elect men as popes on the basis of a lifestyle, other then, perhaps, that of holiness. In other words, the Cardinals would never vote for a man because he chose sin as a lifestyle. Every person who has ever existed, saving Our Blessed Lord, and His mother, has been a sinner. Normally this is between a man , his confessor, and God. So it should come as no surprise that every Pope who has ever existed has been a sinner. It should be evident, though, that none of them have ever been "gay" as first of all, that term to denote a lifestyle other than to bright - lively - merry - cheerful - jolly - joyful - blithe - mirthful has only been in use for the last 20 or 30 years. Secondly, it is still a sin, and manifest sin would disqualify a man for the papacy. Bottom line, the Church has never knowingly appointed men who embrace a homosexual lifestyle as popes.
Who were the popes who practiced abuses?
Catholic Answer:
Yes, there have been bad popes but the vast majority have been good men. This is reflected in the fact that about 1/3 of them have been canonized as saints. Overall, perhaps 10 percent of the 266 recognized pontiffs have been bad. However, these can be broken down into three groups:
Inept - Some men chosen to be pope should never have been chosen in the first place as they had no leadership abilities. Pope Saint Celestine V is a good example. He was a hermit and had no desire to be pope. He was elected anyway but resigned within a year as he knew well he was not suited to be a leader.
Imprudent - Popes are fully human and as with all humans they make decisions that history later shows to have been wrong decisions. Many of the popes who called for Crusades would fall into this group as well as Pope Leo X who totally mismanaged the Martin Luther situation as well as Vatican finances. Nearly every pope has made decisions he later regretted.
Immoral - Perhaps 5 percent of popes would fall into this group of truly evil and despicable human beings. Pope Alexander VI, Pope Benedict IX are probably the worst of the lot.
Remember this: Our Lord chose 12 apostles. One of those 12 turned out to be an evil man.
Just as God exalts the humble and the weak and raises up saints, so the power of God shines through the weakness of these men. Could there be a more signal proof of the Divine assistance and the indefectibility of the Church? Satan has tried for 2000 years to destroy the Church and will continue to do so until the end of time. The Church will survive.
It should also be noted that even the most evil and immoral men to sit in the chair of Peter did not teach anything contrary to Catholic Doctine. I suppose these could be called cases of "Do as I say, not as I do."
Depending on potential classification of one or two Medieval popes as antipopes, there have been approximately 266 popes recognised by the Catholic Church. Of these, there are simply too many popes who were sexually immoral, corrupt, violent, murderous, or otherwise practised abuses to be listed here.
Perhaps Pope Alexander VI is considered the most corrupt and decadent pope in history, but he would have many rivals for that accolade.
Why was Pope Urban II able to recruit so many people to fight for the crusades?
He said that anyone who went and fought in the Holy Land had an immediate remission of their sins.
How is the election of the pope announced to the world?
After a ballot elects a pope and the results certified, the ballots are burned with chemicals that produce white smoke which can been seen issuing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Usually within an hour or so, the senior cardinal deacon will appear on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and and announce in Latin, "Habemos Papam" (We have a pope). He will then announce the name of the cardinal elected and the name he chooses to be known by.
What miracles did he do to become a pope?
First off, there have been 266 popes and you have not specified which one you are referring to. Secondly, a cardinal does not have to perform miracles to be elected pope. You are confusing a papal conclave with the canonization process for naming saints.
Was the pope of Rome a Coptic Christian?
No, the Coptic Christians are an Orthodox religion and have their own patriarch who they call a pope. The Catholic pope was never a Coptic Christian.
No, but in the past he would tap the pope lightly on the forehead with a small silver hammer while he called his birth name 3 times. If there was no response, the pope would be declared as deceased. The camarlengo still calls his name three times but a doctor makes the call on the death. The practice of the hammer was discontinued a number of years ago.
Was Pope Gregory justified in condemning Emperor Leo for his decision to have all icons destroyed?
A:
Whether Pope Gregory would have been justified in condemning Emperor Leo depends on whether Leo was justified in his actions. If icons are evidence of idolatry, or could lead to the practice of idolatry, the Emperor would have been justified in ordering them to be destroyed, as idolatry is considered to be contrary to Christianity. Certainly, there was widespread opposition in early Christianity to the use in churches of images in the form of statues or pictorial representations.
Why did Pope Urban VIII commission a baldachino (canopy) for Saint Peter's interior?
To define the alter space.
Is it more important what the Bible says or what the Pope says?
In short, what the Bible says is more important than what the Pope says. Refer to the Gospel of St. John 3: 31. Ideally, what the Pope says will match perfectly with what the Bible says. What the Pope says, however, may fall within the realm of interpretation. The Bible is always the inspired Word of God. Man speaks from his own beliefs, which are simply that. Beliefs about God's Word are necessarily different in nature from God's Word, regardless of how sincerely the beliefs are held. When one's beliefs precisely align with God's Word, then the beliefs are accurate; but, still, they are beliefs and not God's Word. As Christians, we approach God through our beliefs about what God has revealed of himself through the Holy Scriptures. There's no getting AROUND our beliefs. Rather we must go THROUGH our beliefs. Beliefs, however, are subject to error; God's Word is not. The Bible says of itself that it is God-breathed. See 2 Timothy 3:16. Beliefs, on the other hand, are not God-breathed. Beliefs may, and often do, change. God's Word never changes. Man has no capacity to judge God's Word. Rather it is God's Word that judges Man. When someone proposes to speak of the inaccuracy of Scripture, for example, it is like a dog barking in the wind. When contrasted against the Word of God, which is from the top down, what Man says and means is necessarily from the bottom up. That is, the perspectives are different. Man does not have the proper and necessary perspective to judge God's Word. The Pope, according to Catholism, is Christ's representative on Earth. The Pope, however, is not, and does not claim to be, God. The Holy Scriptures, as contained in the Bible, is God's Word and, therefore, is more important than what anyone says. The Pope is subordinate to and a servant of the Word. The Word is subservient to no one. According to the Catholic view the Pope, when speaking ex cathedra in his position as head of the church, and making a statement about faith or doctrine is speaking infallibly. As stated above, the Pope is a man and cannot be infallible by definition. Those who do not follow the Catholic position also note that the Pope has defined doctrines which contradict the Bible.
Those who follow the Catholic view must, by definition, be placing the Pope and Catholic tradition ahead and over the Bible. This will not be a problem where and if the Catholic view is in accord with Bible teaching.
If there is an apparent disagreement the Catholic position would always put the Pope first.
Others would have a higher regard for the word of God, as the word of one who cannot err and would place that first. Such would also note that there are many significant disagreements between what the Pope teaches and what the Bible teaches, although of course there are quite a number where they appear to agree.
Who elected the pope before College of Cardinals?
The popes were originally chosen by the clergy and faithful who lived in and near Rome.
