The Raft on the Tiber

This post will be the first of several to discuss the papacy. This series will delve into several different aspects of the papacy, its origins and its succession, with the idea of explaining the office to those thinking of conversion. This is a general introduction intended to bring a few points to the surface before the detailed work begins.

Caveat

I am no scripture scholar, so be charitable in your reading here. I’m much more comfortable with the historical and linguistic part of this. As always, this isn’t meant to be the final word, but a starting point. Here’s hoping.

So, What Exactly Are We Talking About?

Greek 101

ΚΕΦΑΣ (Pronounced Kephas. Lower case is κηφάς)

ΠΕΤΡΟΣ (Pronounced Petros. Lower case is πέτρος.)

ΠΕΤΡΑ (Pronounced Petra. Lower case is πέτρα)

Of Boulders and Pebbles

There’s a difference between the Greek words ΠΕΤΡΟΣ and ΠΕΤΡΑ – Petros and Petra respectively – a difference in meaning, not just a difference in the odd looking letters. A Petra is a huge stone, immovable and unbreakable. A Petros is a pebble. According to the scriptural citation most used by Christians, Christ called Peter Petros. He would never have tried to found his church on a pebble, would he?

A Note On The Study Of History

My degree is in history. Though my grad school work was very far from ancient history (and I never earned my MA as we started having kids while I was still in school), there are some things common to the study of history throughout all periods of time.

In a purely academic setting, the source material quoted in a project like this would be firsthand writing by contemporaries of the subject. Unfortunately, the real world won’t permit me to dig into the primary source material as I would have in college. I don’t have time to dig that hard, and you don’t want to wait for me to do so (it would take months of translation work alone). So I freely admit that someone out there, if they really wanted to press the issue, could take exception to the source material used here – and they’d have a point. However…

Renovations & Discoveries

In 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, it was decided to renovate the catacombs beneath St. Peter's Basilica. The idea was to make a little more space for people to visit the area where former popes were laid to rest. It was physically impossible to raise the roof without damaging the floor of St. Peter's. Instead, the plan was to lower the floor of the catacombs by a few feet to give visitors more headroom. They pried up the heavy marble floor and began digging. It wasn't long before they struck the first piece of buried Roman ruins.

Well, there you have it. The papacy posts are done. Personally, I think the weight of evidence is clear. But let me repeat something that I mentioned in the first post on this subject – There is room enough to disbelieve if you choose to do so.

But when you stop and think about it, this room for disbelief is critically important. If we had absolute proof from God, then faith would be of diminished importance. All that would be required of believers is submission to the proof. In such a case, Christianity would be much more like Islam. In Islam, the true believer is measured by how well they submit to the will of Allah. Not so in Christianity, where faith in God is more important than such simplistic submission.

Faith in God, to a Catholic, includes faith in His Church – the Mystical Body of Christ. Christ is the spiritual head of the Church. The pope is the earthy head.

Don’t be put off by the fact that some people choose to disbelieve in the Church and the papacy. Don’t be put off by the fact that some people will advocate against them both. We all have choices to make in this life, and they have made theirs. What does your heart tell you? What does your head tell you? And where do you place your faith?