Pope
The pope is the bishop and patriarch of Rome, the supreme spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Rite Catholic churches. He is also the head of the Vatican City state. His office and jurisdiction is known as the Papacy. The pope is elected for life by a secret vote of those cardinals who are under the age of 80.
Jesus founded a community of disciples, which we call "Church". Among them he gave Peter the keys of the Reign of Heaven (Matthew 16:19: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"). See also Luke 22:31:"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers". For those testimonials Peter is considered by Roman Catholics to be the first visible head of the Christian church and the first pope. However Protestants claim that documentation of this is very weak, and that in the first few centuries of Christianity, the Bishop of Rome didn't have any special privileges.
The Vatican Council 1869-1870 defined the dogma of papal infallibility whereby the pope, when he speaks ex cathedra, does not have the possibility of error on any matter of faith and dogma. All other Christian churches, and many Catholics, reject the doctrine of papal infallibility. Pope Paul VI stated that he would never speak ex cathedra.
The head of the Coptic Church is also termed the Pope.
The latin term sede vacante (empty seat) is normally applied to the period between the death of one pope and the election of his successor. This term has been adapted to identify a group of modern schismatics. See sedevacantism.
The term antipope refers to individuals whom some have claimed to be popes, but which have never been recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Their stories often reflect tumultuous periods in church history.
The word pope (post-classical Latin papa, father), is an ecclesiastical title now used exclusively to designate the head of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 4th and 5th centuries it was frequently used in the West of any bishop, but it gradually came to be reserved to the bishop of Rome, becoming his official title. In the East, on the other hand, only the bishop of Alexandria seems to have used it as a title; but as a popular term it was applied to priests, and at the present day, in the Greek Church and in Russia all the priests are called pappas, which is also translated "pope". Even in the case of the sovereign pontiff the word pope is officially only used as a less solemn style: though the ordinary signature and heading of briefs is, e.g. "Pius P.P.X.", the signature of bulls is Pius episcopus ecclesiae catholicae, and the heading, Pius episcopus, servus servorum Dei, this latter formula going back to the time of Saint Gregory the Great. Other styles met with in official documents are Pontifex, Suminus pontifex, Romanus pontifex, Sanctissimus, Sanctissimus paler, Sanctissimus dominus nester, Sanctitas sua, Beatissimus paler, Beatitude sue; while the pope is addressed in speaking as Sanctitas vestra, or Beatissime peter. In the middle ages is also found Dominus apostolicus (cf. still, in the litanies of the saints), or simply Apostolicus.
The reigns of the Popes can be roughly divided into eras:
- Imperial era 42-395,
- Western Imperial Era 395-476,
- Herulian era 476-491,
- Ostrogothic era 491-553,
- Byzantine Era 553-751,
- Lombard Era 751-756,
- 1st Era of the Papal States 756-1309 (vacant 1268-71),
- Avignon Era (the "Babylonian Captivity") 1309-1377,
- 2nd Era of the Papal States 1377-1798,
- Napoleonic interruptions 1798-1814,
- 3rd Era of the Papal States 1814-1870,
- Savoyard Era 1870-1929,
- Vatican Era 1929-.