“Teach all,” St. John Henry Newman prayed, “that the See of St. Peter, the Holy Church of Rome, is the foundation, center, and instrument of unity. Open their hearts to the long-forgotten truth that our Holy Father, the Pope, is your Vicar and Representative.”
This is a truth I discovered, and which made me Catholic. Growing up Protestant, I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think this promise made to Peter about being the rock, about being the foundation of the Church, applied in any concrete way to our existence as Christians today. I read it only spiritually, not fully. I didn’t think the Bible had anything to say about the visible structure of the Church today. I didn’t think it could ever have anything to do with the papacy. But, of course, I was wrong.
Jesus asked Peter, “But who do you say I am?” And he answered, by the gift of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:15-16). By this, Christ founded his Church on Peter and his successors. Note the future tense of the whole exchange: Christ founds on Peter an institution that will endure, and which hell will not defeat. By this, Christ established a visible historical community, a family built on faith and the faith of Peter. This is a deep truth I wish I had more space to talk about it. But suffice it to say, it belongs to the beauty of our faith.
To be a Catholic is to remain in deep unbreakable communion with the Pope, to be a person of the Church by conviction and not just emotion or even mere personal agreement. If you’re Catholic only because you love Pope Francis, your faith isn’t mature. Likewise, if you’re wavering in your Catholicism because you don’t like Pope Francis, your faith isn’t mature either. Being Catholic is about being faithful, not about whim. It’s about truth and communion.
And that matters because the Pope is a shepherd, in the service of the Good Shepherd. The Popes shepherd and guide the Church, each pontiff playing a part in a much larger game. I became Catholic because I learned I needed the papacy, that everything was fragile without that foundation. Obedient to the Pope, I’m finally free to be a Christian. Sounds funny, but it’s true. And I think it’s what Jesus meant when built his Church on rock and that hell wouldn’t overcome it. He meant there would be a Church stronger and more stable than any of our hellish whims, both yours and mine.
