“Anyone who wants to describe the importance of the papacy for the Catholic Church must start with Jesus Christ.”
Newsroom (18/05/2023 09:00, Gaudium Press) At the invitation of the Logos and Persona Association, the former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, gave a conference in Turin last 7 May on the importance of the papacy for the Catholic Church.
In fact, for some time now, the cardinal has been delving deeper into this subject, which is dealt with in his latest work “The Pope: Ministry and Mission”, released by Cantagalli Publishers.
Identity of the historical Jesus
Cardinal Müller cites the Gospel texts that support the primacy of Peter, recalling that “Peter is, together with the other Apostles, the guardian and witness of the identity of the historical Jesus until His death on the Cross, and of the Christ of faith thanks to the Paschal event. Consequently, Peter is also the representative of the unity of the pre-Easter circle of disciples and of the post-Easter Church, which God established on the basis of the Pentecost event”.
Peter, the fisherman, the one who “cowardly denied Jesus on three occasions”; who, at the Sea of Tiberias, Christ asked three times “Do you love me more than these” (Jn 21:15-19) in order to make reparation for the offence of having denied the Master, had to manifest there his love for the Redeemer, because “this love for Jesus also brought about his conversion” (Lk 22:32). But upon this Rock, Christ built His Church.
“The papacy is, in its most intimate essence, a service to the unity of the whole Church in the truth of the Gospel. Peter’s ministry is not a secular office of ruler after the manner of absolutist kings and autocratic tsars, but a pastoral-spiritual ministry. Bishops and popes should not follow the example of secular rulers who oppress and exploit their people. Instead, they should be distinguished by a greater devotion to the eternal salvation of believers. Indeed, Jesus told the Apostles, who were arguing over which of them should take first place: “… whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Like the Son of man, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:26-28)”, emphasized Cardinal Müller.
This unity of the Church was already highlighted in the second century by St. Irenaeus of Lyons against the Gnostics:
“Against the fundamental falsification of the Christian mysteries of the Unity and Trinity of God, the Incarnation, the sacramentality of the Church and the corporeality of the Redemption, at the end of the second century, Irenaeus of Lyons against the Gnostics of his time and of all times emphasized the unity (unitas) and communion of the universal Church on the basis of the apostolic tradition. In reality, the Church, although scattered to the ends of the earth, and having received the faith of the Apostles and their disciples, diligently preserves this preaching and this faith, and, as though living in a single house, there she believes in the same way, as though she had one soul and one heart, and preaches the truths of the faith, teaches them and communicates them with one voice, as though she had one mouth [. …] In fact, if the languages of the world are varied, the content of Tradition is nevertheless one and the same. And neither the Churches that are in Germany, nor those in Spain, nor those with the Celts (in Gaul), nor those of the East, Egypt, Libya, nor those in the centre of the world, have any other faith or Tradition [San Irenaeo di Lione, Adversus haereses, I, 10, 2.],” the cardinal noted.
Linked to Scripture and Tradition
There is a difference between the content of revelation received by Peter and the Apostles and that received by the bishops and the Pope:
“There remains a crucial difference between the Apostles and bishops. The Apostles, with Peter at the head, were the direct recipients and bearers of the full self-revelation of God in Christ. The bishops and the Pope, on the other hand, are linked in content to the realization of revelation in Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. The office … of authentically interpreting the Word of God, written or transmitted, is entrusted solely to the living magisterium of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This magisterium, however, is not superior to the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed down to it, in so far as, by divine command and with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, it listens devoutly, keeps holy and faithfully expounds that word, and from this one deposit of faith draws all that it proposes to believe as revealed by God. [Dei Verbum, 10.]
Addressing the College of Cardinals
While there is the assistance of the Holy Spirit, there is also a need for “the best possible human preparation” to transmit the deposit of faith, the cardinal says, and “both the Pope and the bishops are obliged to do so in conscience.”
“Also,” continues the German cardinal, “for the general government of the Church, the Pope must first address the College of Cardinals which, after all, represents the Holy Roman Church and – as the presbytery advises a bishop – advises the Pope collegially/synodally. A consultative body constituted by a supreme judge with criteria of complacency and clientelism is of little use and does more harm than good to the one in office, since the latter does not need the praise that flatters human vanity, but the critical expertise of collaborators who are not interested in the benevolent gestures of the superior, but in the success of his office, that is, of the pontificate, for the Church of the Triune God.”
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
