Back in 2015, my family went to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. At the end of the week, we got to have Mass with the pope. There were over a million Catholics in the streets of Philly and it was incredible. I’ve never felt the universality of the Church quite as keenly as I did at that Mass.
Anyway, since the pope was in country, obviously, news media outlets were covering him and an acquaintance of mine on Facebook said, “What’s the big deal about the pope? My pastor never gets this kind of coverage. Don’t even know what the point of the pope is.”
We will come back to this.
Now that my son is getting older, whenever my husband leaves for work, he has a conversation with our son, “Now, Buddy, I’m leaving for a bit and I need you to watch over things for me. Take care of your mom, keep an eye on the house. You do the things you know I would do, okay?”
Our son always stands a bit taller and I can see his confidence build as his father places trust in him to stand in his stead while he’s gone.
And so, my son will do things that he sees his dad do. He won’t let me bring the trash bin up from the curb. He turns off the lights at night and makes sure all the doors are locked. He becomes more helpful than normal, as he tries to mirror what he sees his dad do when he’s home. It’s pretty cute, honestly, how serious he takes his role.
But, it also speaks a great truth: No organization, unit, institution, group, or family works without a leader and if that leader is away, someone has to stand in for them as their representative.
What the acquaintance from the story at the beginning failed to see is that the papacy was founded by Christ. Peter was our first Vicar of Christ and the popes after him are his successors. Why do we need more after Peter? Because the Church Christ founded is still going and Peter isn’t here on earth anymore.
It’s important to note that her church has a leader—her pastor—who she believes has the authority to lead her church.
Whether people consciously think about it or not, Catholic Pilgrims, the reason people pay attention to the pope is because he leads over a billion Catholics and because his office, that we can trace all the way back to Peter, was instituted by Christ.
Have a blessed Feast Day of the Chair of St. Peter.
