Papal Supremacy
An Orthodox Tradition Q&A
When I was attending the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
the other day, I heard the phrase "care of all the Churches" in the
Epistle reading. To me, as a former Roman Catholic, this sounded rather strange,
since I had been brought up to believe that the Pope, as the successor of St.
Peter, had "the care of all the Churches." If St. Paul claims this for
himself, does this not invalidate the Roman Catholic arguments for Papal
primacy? On the other hand, how do we Orthodox explain the verse in the Gospel
reading in which Christ tells St. Peter that He will give him the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven? Does this mean that only St. Peter was given this
prerogative? And what about the controversial verse, "Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church"? Was St. Peter himself the
foundation of the Church? This is all confusing and seems contradictory. (M.S.,
CT)
You are quite right with regard to your suspicions about the problems
occasioned for the Roman Catholic doctrine of Papal supremacy by St. Pauls
comments about his responsibility for the Church. Largely in recognition of this
and other challenges to Papism, since the Second Vatican Council Roman Catholic
theologians have studiously avoided characterizing the Pope with such
exaggerated terms as "the voice of God on earth," as they were wont to
do in bygone days. Yet, astonishingly enough, in their efforts to make the
doctrine of Papal supremacy more palatable to Orthodox and Protestants, they
have tended, of late, to emphasize the Popes alleged "sollicitudo
omnium ecclesiarum," as the Latin Vulgate renders the original Greek of
II Corinthians 11:28, "he merimna pason ton ekklesion" or
"the care of all the Churches." That this statement is from the mouth
of St. Paul, describing his own duties, and not a statement by St. Peter, hardly
reinforces the notion of Petrine primacy on which the doctrine of Papal
supremacy rests. Indeed, if one were to take it as literally as the Papists take
Christs statement to St. Peter with regard to his Apostolic prerogatives in
the Church, he would of necessity have to attribute to St. Paul the primacy
which Roman Catholics give to the former.
In his homily on this Epistle, St. John Chrysostomos expounds on the nature
of St. Pauls care for the Churches. He says that this was the heaviest of the
burdens with which St. Paul wrestled in his Apostolic ministry: "...His
soul too was distracted, and his thoughts divided. For even if nothing from
without had assailed him; yet the war within was enough, those waves on waves,
that sleet of cares, that war of thoughts." St. John adds that, though it
is difficult enough for one to look after a single house, St. Paul had "the
care not of a single house, but of cities and peoples and nations and of the
whole world" (Homily 12, in Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, First Series, Vol. XII
[Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1978], p. 395). Several Roman Catholic exegetes, in
keeping with their misunderstanding of Christs words about the ministry of
St. Peter, have misunderstood this all-embracing pastoral care with which St.
Paul, as the Apostle to the Nations, was naturally entrusted as an institutional
prerogative. In so doing, however, they once more compromise their own
arguments. For, if St. Paul was given such care of all the Churches, then
primacy in the Church would logically belong, again, not to St. Peter, but to
St. Paul and, by implication, to his
successors. Clearly, however,
St. Paul was not speaking, in the passage under consideration, of an
institutional prerogative, as St. John Chrysostomos points out, but of a burden
imposed on him by the nature of his ministry.
With regard to the other verse which
you cite, St. Theophylact of Ochrid points out that the words, "I will give
unto
thee,""...were
spoken to Peter alone, yet they were given to all the apostles," since
Christ also said, Whose soever sins ye
remit, they are remitted."
(The Explanation by Blessed Theophylact of the Holy Gospel According to St.
Matthew
[House Springs, MO: Chrysostom
Press, 1994], p. 141.) The second verse to which St. Theophylact refers is St.
John 20:23. As the translator rightly observes, the verb "remit" is in
the second person plural, and thus refers not to St. Peter alone, but to all of
the Apostles. As for the "controversial verse" (St. Matthew 16:18),
St. Theophylact, following St. John Chrysostomos and the overwhelming consensus
of both Greek and Latin
Fathers, interprets the words "this rock" to denote St. Peters
confession of faith in the Divinity of Christ, and not the Apostles person.
Any other interpretation would, of course, violate the Christocentric nature of
the Church and the rather clear Scriptural affirmation that "Christ is the
head of the Church" (Ephesians 5:23) and the "head of the Body"
(Colossians 1:18).
Let us note, also, that the honor which
the Orthodox Church has bestowed on both St. Peter and St. Paul, that is, the
title of Protokoryphaioi,
i.e., "leaders" or "chiefs" of the Apostles, gives us some
insight into what the distinctions between the Disciples of Christ actually
mean. They describe functions, responsibilities, cares, and rôles; they do not,
however, refer to special privileges, prerogatives, or authority. For, in the
final analysis, despite these distinctions, all of the Apostles were equal, just
as all of the Bishops of the Orthodox Church—who are their successors—,
whether they be simple Bishops or Patriarchs or Œcumenical Patriarchs, are
absolute equals. This fact helps to explain both the passage which you cite from
II Corinthians and the Gospel passages which Papists have wholly unjustifiably
used to support the doctrine of Papal supremacy.
From Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XVII, No. 1 (2000), pp. 28-30.
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