Roman Catholic Belief "ÃÂ The Papacy From the earliest of times, the Roman Catholic Church has had a leader "ÃÂ the Pope. It is the Popes job to settle disputes of the church, to ensure that the essential parts of Christianity, the foundations of faith, remain unchanged. The fundamental idea of the supreme Pontiff comes from a bible passage, where Christ addresses Peter: "So I now say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of the underworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven: Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth, shall be considered loosed in heaven."ÃÂ The name Peter was not at the time a proper name. It was a "nick name"ÃÂ that Jesus gave to Simon, who we today call Peter.
Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Ch...
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Pope Benedictus XVIPeter as a name came from the Greek Petros, which in turn represents the Aramaic Kepha, meaning Rock. So what the Lord is actually saying here is "So now I say to you, you are my Rock, and on this Rock I will build my church."ÃÂ "ÃÂ As a statement this qualifies Peter as the "head apostle"ÃÂ, the leader of the Church on earth. If we look again at the Pope's "job"ÃÂ, essentially, he is the earthly leader of God's Church.
The last point can be argued. Many Protestants believe that what Jesus means is, "Peter, you are a tiny insignificant rock, a grain of sand on a beach, but on the rock of the Revelation, that I am the Christ, I will build my church."ÃÂ "ÃÂ which changes the meaning again. However, as if to clarify the point, The Lord uses the symbolism of "the keys to heaven"ÃÂ.