There is a new Pope of the Catholic Church. After the death of Pope Francis, a Conclave (or closed-door) was held to elect a new Pope. This practice was established in 1274 by a Pope who saw his election take 3 years and decided changes should be made. When a Pope is elected by 2/3rd’s majority of the Cardinals chosen by the previous Popes, he is asked whether he accepts the position. If he answers in the affirmative, he goes off to a quiet room and reflects on all of the issues in front of him.
Another tradition is that the new Pope changes his name. His name usually reflects a previous Pope or someone in the history of the Catholic church who made an impact or will make a statement about the new Pope’s direction. For example, Pope Francis is thought to have chosen his name because of St. Francis of Assisi, who was very concerned about social justice. The new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, is somewhat interesting in that the previous Pope Leos are a mixed bag. The new Pope himself has a PhD in Canonical studies, which you think would mean he may be focused on a Scriptural direction. However, the most recent Pope Leo was also focused on the injustices of people in other nations.
Interestingly, the new name is supposed to reflect the direction of the new Pope, but none of the new Popes in history have chosen the name Peter out of respect for the Apostle Peter, whom they consider the first Pope. It seems ironic in that you would think every Pope would lead the church in the direction of Peter, being the “first Pope.”
What I find most fascinating about all this is that I don’t read in 1 Timothy, “To my beloved Timothy, my Spiritual son, elected by a conclave of 180 disciples of Jesus to be the Pastor of the church in Ephesus.” Or “Titus, my beloved son in the faith, chosen by a bishop, a few cardinals, and signed off by the Pope, to be the preacher on the island of Crete.” And I don’t see anywhere in Scripture about a new leader of the Church being named after Peter’s death. The book of Acts is the history book of the New Testament, and most believe it was written after Peter’s death. Surely, if there were a process to “elect” a new leader of the church, Luke would have written about it.
When Paul and Barnabas returned to the church leaders in Acts chapter 15, it reads as though James, the brother of Jesus, is doing more of the speaking for the Elders than Peter.
All of this, of course, stems from Matthew 16:13-20, where Jesus asks his disciples who people say He is. When Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus responds by saying, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means Rock), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
The Catholic church teaches that Jesus established the church on Peter and that the church is the final authority for spiritual things. As a Protestant, I would disagree and say that Jesus was building His church on Himself, as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. We believe, as a church, the Bible is the final authority on Spiritual matters.
While I disagree with the Catholic church and how they establish leadership and the church being the final authority, my prayer is that the new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, will hold to his PhD studies and lead the Catholic church in being a Biblical body of believers. I pray He will challenge the Catholic church members to be students of the Bible. And that’s the same prayer I have for all preachers and leaders of every church in the world.
To some extent, we all behave like Catholics in how we handle the Bible. We trust our preacher and our elders to tell us what the Bible says and what God wants us to do. I want us all to scour God’s Word and read for ourselves what the Bible teaches and how we can live according to His will. The Sunday morning sermon should be a reminder of what we have read ourselves. The Sunday morning sermon should clarify some things we read in God’s Word that may have escaped us, or we didn’t know where to find. The Sunday morning sermon should help bring some application opportunities to what we learn about God. In Acts 17, Paul talks to believers in Berea. After he speaks with them, they go off and discuss amongst themselves what Paul has taught. The next day, they went back and decided they would hear more because what Paul said lined up with Scripture.
The church is a body of believers that gather together to worship God for who He is and what He has done. The church body is a body of believers that live life together and carry out the commissions of Jesus. The church body has Jesus as its head, not a Pope or an Elder, or a Pastor. God and His Word, through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, are our final authority about spiritual matters.
But, don’t take my word for it. Open up your Bible.