Pope

=== Position within the Church ===
The Catholic Church teaches that the pastoral office, the office of [[pastor#History|shepherding]] the Church, that was held by the apostles, as a group or "college" with [[Saint Peter]] as their head, is now held by their successors, the bishops, with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as their head.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p4.htm|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church – Christ's Faithful – Hierarchy, Laity, Consecrated Life|access-date=15 March 2020|archive-date=6 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906142233/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p4.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Thus is derived another title by which the pope is known, that of "supreme pontiff".

The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as the visible head of the Church,{{efn|"Continuing in that same undertaking, this Council is resolved to declare and proclaim before all men the doctrine concerning bishops, the successors of the apostles, who together with the successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ, the visible Head of the whole Church, govern the house of the living God."<ref name=quote>(Lumen Gentium, Pope Paul VI 1964, Chapter 3)</ref>}} and the Catholic Church's dogmatic constitution {{lang|la|[[Lumen gentium]]}} makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter, in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles.<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'', 22 |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> Some historians argue against the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, noting that the episcopal see in Rome can be traced back no earlier than the 3rd century.<ref name="O'Grady 146">{{cite book |first=John |last=O'Grady |title=The Catholic church: its origins and nature |page=[https://archive.org/details/romancatholicchu0000ogra/page/146 146] |isbn=978-0-8091-3740-4 |year=1997 |publisher=Paulist Press |url=https://archive.org/details/romancatholicchu0000ogra/page/146 }}</ref>

The writings of the [[Church Father]] [[Irenaeus]], who wrote around 180 AD, reflect a belief that Peter "founded and organized" the Church at Rome.<ref>{{cite book |first=J |last=Stevenson |title=A New Eusebius |page=[https://archive.org/details/neweusebiusdocum00euse/page/114 114] |isbn=978-0-281-00802-5 |year=1957 |url=https://archive.org/details/neweusebiusdocum00euse/page/114 }}</ref> Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter's presence in the early Roman Church. The Church of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians (which is traditionally attributed to [[Pope Clement I|Clement of Rome]] {{circa|96}})<ref name="fn_2">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm|title=Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)|publisher=New Advent|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia: The Fathers of the Church|access-date=14 April 2013|archive-date=25 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191125012820/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the "struggles in our time" and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, "first, the greatest and most just columns", the "good apostles" Peter and Paul.<ref name="Gröber, 510">Gröber, 510</ref> [[Ignatius of Antioch]] wrote shortly after Clement; in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans, he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did.<ref name="fn_3">{{cite web |url=http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/244/Letter_of_Ignatius_of_Antioch_to_the_Romans.html |title=Letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans |publisher=Crossroads Initiative |access-date=21 February 2006 |archive-date=8 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708205615/http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/244/Letter_of_Ignatius_of_Antioch_to_the_Romans.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Given this and other evidence, such as Emperor Constantine's erection of the "Old St. Peter's Basilica" on the location of St. Peter's tomb, as held and given to him by Rome's Christian community, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under [[Nero]], although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Saint Peter the Apostle|year=2013|author=O'Connor, Daniel William|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453832/Saint-Peter-the-Apostle/5632/Tradition-of-Peter-in-Rome|page=5|access-date=14 April 2013|quote=[M]any scholars{{nbsp}}[...> accept Rome as the location of the martyrdom and the reign of Nero as the time.|archive-date=6 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106221941/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Peter-the-Apostle|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation |language=de |title=Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. |year=1901 |pages=1 sqq., 161 sqq}}</ref><ref>''The Secrets of the 12 Disciples'', [[Channel 4]], transmitted on 23 March 2008.</ref>

Though open to historical debate, first-century Christian communities may have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as guides of their local churches. Gradually, episcopal sees were established in metropolitan areas.<ref name="O'Grady 140">{{cite book |first=John |last=O'Grady |title=The Catholic church: its origins and nature |page=[https://archive.org/details/romancatholicchu0000ogra/page/140 140] |isbn=978-0-8091-3740-4 |year=1997 |publisher=Paulist Press |url=https://archive.org/details/romancatholicchu0000ogra/page/140 }}</ref> Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome.<ref name="O'Grady 140" /> In Rome, there were over time at various junctures rival claimants to be the rightful bishop, though again Irenaeus stressed the validity of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary [[Pope Victor I]] and listed them.<ref>{{cite book |first=J |last=Stevenson |title=A New Eusebius |pages=[https://archive.org/details/neweusebiusdocum00euse/page/114 114–115] |isbn=978-0-281-00802-5 |year=1957 |url=https://archive.org/details/neweusebiusdocum00euse/page/114 }}</ref> Some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, but not necessarily monarchical bishops.<ref name="O'Grady 146" />

Documents of the 1st century and early second century indicate that the bishop of Rome had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, as even a letter from the bishop, or patriarch, of Antioch acknowledged the bishop of Rome as "a first among equals",<ref>''The Early Christian Church'' by Chadwick</ref> though the detail of what this meant is unclear.{{efn|"From an historical perspective, there is no conclusive documentary evidence from the first century or the early decades of the second century of the exercise of, or even the claim to, a primacy of the Roman bishop or to a connection with Peter, although documents from this period accord the church at Rome some kind of pre‑eminence";<ref>([http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8523 Emmanuel Clapsis, Papal Primacy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203104411/http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8523 |date=3 December 2008 }}, extract from ''Orthodoxy in Conversation'' (2000), p. 110)</ref> and "The see of Rome, whose prominence was associated with the deaths of Peter and Paul, became the principal center in matters concerning the universal Church".<ref>(Clapsis, p. 102)</ref> The same writer quotes with approval the words of [[Pope Benedict XVI|Joseph Ratzinger]]: "In Phanar, on 25 July 1976, when [[Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople|Patriarch Athenegoras]] addressed [[Pope Paul VI|the visiting pope]] as Peter's successor, the first in honor among us, and the presider over charity, this great church leader was expressing the essential content of the declarations of the primacy of the first millennium".<ref>(Clapsis, p. 113)</ref>}}