Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the United States. He arrived yesterday and was greeted at the White House. It was the largest greeting, ever, at the White House. That is as it should be. He represents the largest single Christian church in the world. He is also the head of state for the Vatican. Both of those give him the honor of being recognized as important by the President of the United States. He would have a similar honor given to any head of state. As a religious figure and a head of state, it adds to the pomp involved in the reception.

The Pope speaks for almost 1 billion Catholics. That is a lot of people. They are from almost every country in the world. That gives him a big voice in world affairs. He has a lot of authority on religious and ethical issues. He is not always right, but at least he does have a place at the table.

He claims to be the link between our Father in Heaven and we as people. He comes from a long line of Popes that claim that same authority. The Catholic Church recognizes the Pope as infallible. That means that he can do no wrong. Unfortunately for Catholics, the Pope is a human being. Being human is by definition acknowledging that you make mistakes. Making the Pope infallible is not acknowledging that he is human and will make mistakes. Catholics just hope that the Pope makes small mistakes, not big ones. Unfortunately for Catholics, not all Popes have made small mistakes. Many have made big mistakes and those have had bad consequences for many people. I am not saying that Pope Benedict XVI will make big mistakes. Most recent Popes have not made big mistakes. The big mistakes have mostly been made by Popes that let power go to their head in the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages.

The claim by the Pope is that the Apostle Peter made the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Rome became the Pope. While it could be true that the Apostle Peter made the Bishop of Rome that does not mean that the next Bishop of Rome has the same authority. That is because Bishops have to be called by Apostles. After all the Apostles were killed, there was no-one with authority to call the next Bishop of Rome. Therefore, the next person who was made the Bishop of Rome did so without authority of the church. New Apostles should have been called before a new Bishop of Rome could have been ordained. Then the Bishop of Rome would have had authority over the people that lived in and around Rome. If the congregation got large enough, the unit would have been divided and there would have been two Bishop’s in Rome. At no time would the Bishop of Rome ever exercised authority over the church. He would always been under the authority of the Apostles.

So after an examination of the record it is clear that some things are not right in the Pope’s claim to be the leader of the True Christian Church. As the Bishop of Rome he would only have authority over Rome. As Bishop of Rome he would have been called to the position by Apostles and released by Apostles. Being a Bishop is not a lifetime position. Some people have held the position through the end of their lives, but that is an exception to the rule. Most people called to be Bishops are released after a few years in the position. Early Bishops held the position for as long as 20 years. More modern Bishops are released after about 5-7 years.

One other problem with the Pope is that as the Bishop of Rome, he is not married. In Hebrews it clearly states that a Bishop is to be the husband of one wife. Catholic Bishops are not married. How can they be Bishops if they are not married or have ever been married? Those are just some questions to ask of Catholic Bishops. They do not follow the teachings of the Bible when it comes to Bishops. The Catholics do not follow the Bible when it comes to a lot of other things also.

There are a lot of good things about the Catholic Church. There are a lot of bad things in the history of the Catholic Church. Almost any church has things in its history that it would just as soon forget. You cannot judge a church completely on its history. Churches are run by human beings. Human beings make stupid decisions and do stupid things. Those stupid things cause those of us today to cringe and doubt. If a church is true, it is true regardless of what stupid things people have done in its name.