Why are Catholics obsessed with the Pope? Get a life & move on... what do you say?

Question

This was a question originally put to me by Rebecca C and one I now put to any Catholics out there.

Reply to Debra M: as long as the Catholic church has global political ambitions arranging covert Concordats with various countries and seeking privileged access to the ear of Government to influence legislation... then the Catholic church and it's activities is very much my concern.

Reply to Rebecca C: perhaps you should pray before you open your mouth in future.

Answer 1

Yeah he's just a guy... this relates to another problem I have that pisses me off.

Answer 2

The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father1) is the head of the Catholic Church. He is called by many names, including Successor of St. Peter and Bishop of Rome. The office of the Pope is called the Papacy; his ecclesiastical jurisdiction is called the Holy See (Sancta Sedes in Latin) or Apostolic See (this latter, on the basis that both St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred at Rome). Early bishops occupying the See of Rome were designated Vicar of Peter; for later popes the more authoritative Vicar of Christ was substituted; this designation was first used by the Roman Synod of 495 to refer to Pope Gelasius I, an advocate of papal supremacy among the patriarchs. Marcellinus (d. 304) is first Bishop of Rome which sources show used the title of pope. The current Pope is Benedict XVI.

In addition to his service in this spiritual role, the pope is also head of state of the independent sovereign State of the Vatican City, a city-state and nation entirely enclaved by the city of Rome. Before 1870 the pope's temporal authority extended over a large area of central Italy, the territory of the Papal States. Although the document on which the territorial powers of the Pontificate was largely based — the so-called Donation of Constantine — was proved to be a forgery in the fifteenth century, the Papacy retained sovereign authority over the Papal States until the Italian Unification of 1870; a final political settlement with the Italian government was not reached until the Lateran Treaties of 1929.

Answer 3

The Pope is the head of our Church on Earth. Have you ever heard of a chain of command? Why do you or any other non Catholic really care what we Catholics do with or believe about our Pope? Christ himself established St. Peter as Pope.

Answer 4

Exactly! We as catholic have got a new life in Christ through baptism. And now we are moving on towards heaven.
Our leader on earth is the pope and we are not obsessed with him, we honor him though as the Vicar of Christ (the Sweet Christ on earth) and successor of St Peter.

Answer 5

I'm not a catholic but i do agree with you.they should be following Jesus not the pope.the pope is just a man.but yet they bow down to him.i once remember hearing that they think the holy land is Rome.because that's were the pope is. they need to get over it.and read there bible and know that Jesus is lord and Rome is not the holy land .not even the disciples let any one bow down to them.

Answer 6

Well, if you steadfastly believe (as Catholics are supposed to) that the Pope is humanity's DIRECT connection to the Almighty, wouldn't you WANT to hear what he (and by association, God) have to say?

Answer 7

I know right? What next? The world domination of a the church?

Answer 8

I think the right term for that would be, stay connected to Jesus not to a human who is very much like you. Look at Jesus not His creation because he will not do anything for your life.

Answer 9

That is one of the problems I have with the Catholic faith.

Answer 10

You yourself have asked countless ridiculous and silly questions about him; looks like YOU are the one who needs a life..