Pope

== Status and authority ==<!--[[Papal authority]] and [[Papal Authority]] link here. Those are uses in different contexts and throughout history, so having only the position adopted in the 19th century is unacceptable.-->

=== Development ===
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=== First Vatican Council ===
{{Main|Papal supremacy|Papal infallibility}}
[[File:Illustration for Papal Infallibility page 131 Christ in His Church by Lucas Caspar Businger.jpg|thumb|1881 illustration depicting papal infallibility]]The status and authority of the pope in the Catholic Church was dogmatically defined by the First Vatican Council on 18 July 1870. In its Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, the council established the following canons:<ref>The texts of these canons are given in [[Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum|Denzinger]], [http://catho.org/9.php?d=byj#dez Latin original] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203190611/http://catho.org/9.php?d=byj#dez |date=3 February 2008 }}; [http://denzinger.patristica.net/ English translation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423150303/http://denzinger.patristica.net/ |date=23 April 2013 }}</ref>

<blockquote>If anyone says that the blessed Apostle Peter was not established by the Lord Christ as the chief of all the [[twelve apostles|apostles]], and the visible head of the whole [[Church militant and church triumphant|militant Church]], or, that the same received great honour but did not receive from the same our Lord Jesus Christ directly and immediately the primacy in true and proper jurisdiction: let him be [[anathema]].<ref>Denzinger 3055 (old numbering, 1823)</ref>

If anyone says that it is not from the institution of Christ the Lord Himself, or by divine right that the blessed Peter has perpetual successors in the primacy over the universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in the same primacy, let him be anathema.<ref>Denzinger 3058 (old numbering, 1825)</ref>

If anyone thus speaks, that the Roman pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate, or over the churches altogether and individually, and over the pastors and the faithful altogether and individually: let him be anathema.<ref>Denzinger 3064 (old numbering, 1831)</ref>

We, adhering faithfully to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God, our Saviour, the elevation of the Catholic religion and the salvation of Christian peoples, with the approbation of the sacred Council, teach and explain that the dogma has been divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when carrying out the duty of the pastor and teacher of all Christians by his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, through the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, operates with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished that His church be instructed in defining doctrine on faith and morals; and so such definitions of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the Church, are unalterable. But if anyone presumes to contradict this definition of Ours, which may God forbid: let him be anathema.<ref>Denzinger 3073–3075 (old numbering, 1839–1840)</ref></blockquote>

=== Second Vatican Council ===
[[File:GestatorialChair1.jpg|thumb|[[Pope Pius XII]], wearing the traditional 1877 [[Papal tiara]], is carried through St. Peter's Basilica on a ''[[sedia gestatoria]]'' {{Circa|1955}}.]]
In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964), the Second Vatican Council declared:

{{blockquote|Among the principal duties of bishops the [[Evangelism|preaching of the Gospel]] occupies an eminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock. Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic [[magisterium]] of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown so that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.

... this infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals, extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded. And this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the [[College of Bishops]], enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith, by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals. And therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable, since they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, promised to him in blessed Peter, and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment. For then the Roman Pontiff is not pronouncing judgment as a private person, but as the supreme teacher of the universal Church, in whom the [[charism]] of infallibility of the Church itself is individually present, he is expounding or defending a doctrine of Catholic faith. The infallibility promised to the Church resides also in the body of Bishops, when that body exercises the supreme magisterium with the successor of Peter. To these definitions the assent of the Church can never be wanting, on account of the activity of that same Holy Spirit, by which the whole flock of Christ is preserved and progresses in unity of faith.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html |title=''Lumen gentium'', 25 |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=11 August 2010 |archive-date=6 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906031754/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

On 11 October 2012, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council 60 prominent theologians, (including [[Hans Küng]]), put out a Declaration, stating that the intention of Vatican II to balance authority in the Church has not been realized. "Many of the key insights of Vatican II have not at all, or only partially, been implemented... A principal source of present-day stagnation lies in misunderstanding and abuse affecting the exercise of authority in our Church."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.churchauthority.org/index.asp |title=the Jubilee Declaration |access-date=5 November 2012 |archive-date=15 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015022156/http://www.churchauthority.org/index.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>