A longtime friend of mine from Canada, a staunch Catholic with a historic Italian surname, told me that I should, in this BLOG, address the question as to who was the first pope. This is in a way a trick question.
Apostle St. Peter (Simon bar Jonah), the rock upon which the Church was founded, is credited, categorically, by the Catholic church as being the first pope. The primacy afforded to the pope is based upon there having been an unbroken succession of popes starting with St. Peter. Thus, St. Peter, by definition, is the first pope. But for the sake of veracity it is now necessary to introduce some caveats.
Even without debating St. Peter's role in setting up or running the Roman church, it suffices to say that St. Peter probably did not consider himself as a bishop, or pope. He was an Apostle, the Prince of Apostles at that.
The Catholic pope and the Bishop of Rome, at a minimum for the last 1,700 or so, have been one and the same. The Bishop of Rome is the Catholic pope and that pope is always the Bishop of Rome.
It is now believed that Rome did not have a monoepiscopal [i.e., headed by a single bishop] structure till c. 140. St. Pius [c. 140/142 - c. 154/155], the ninth in line, after St. Peter is thought to have been the first sole Bishop of Rome.
Until the 3rd century, 'pope', from the Greek pappas meaning father, was commonly used to refer to any priest or bishop.
St. Siricius [Dec. 384 - Non. 399] is credited with being the first Bishop of Rome to appropriate the title 'pope' in its current Catholic connotation -- albeit, not on an exclusive basis.
St. Siricius was succeeded by St. Anastasius I who reigned for 2 years. His successor was St. Innocent I (Dec. 401 - Mar. 417). Innocent I proved to be a very assertive pope who did much to further the cause of papal primacy. Consequently he earned the sobriquet 'the first pope.'
The exclusivity that the term 'pope' now enjoys within the Western Church came to be in the 11th century when it was so mandated by St. Gregory VII (Apr. 1073 - May 1085). A document from 1075, attributed to Gregory VII, with the heading Dictatus papae (Pronouncements of the pope), specified 27 propositions pertaining to the rights of the pope; one of them stating: 'His title is unique in the world.' Dictatus papae, however, was not a papal bull, encyclical or decretal. Instead, it was more in the lines of what today would be known as a 'memo to file.'
Written by: Anura Guruge
Looks good! As for Peter, isn't it written somewhere that the RCC has the authority to further elaborate on past events?
Posted by: MC | July 05, 2008 at 05:37 PM