A few years ago, I ran across this title, dated August 29th, 2014, on the "From the Blog" portion of the website of the Cowan Road Baptist Church of Gulfport, Mississippi. It has since been removed, and the Cowan Road Baptist Church appears to be abandoned. I don't know why. The blog followed the title "in from the pastor," which I assume means that Pastor Chris Ashley, if not the actual author, is at least responsible for it. The author asserted that, "Calling the pope the 'Vicar of Christ' implies that he has the same power and authority that Christ had over the church."

Hogwash!

I don't know why Pastor Ashley felt it necessary to expose this ignorance about the office of the Pope on a Baptist website. Do our Baptist brothers and sisters really care all that much about what Catholics believe? Why? If so, why would they go to an uninformed Baptist website rather than an authoritative Catholic one? There are any number of Catholic websites, including that of the Vatican, that could set straight anybody really interested in the truth. On the other hand, this is the same misguided soul who made himself infamous to Gulf Coast TV viewers and newspaper readers by publicly claiming that "The Most Gracious," "The Most Merciful," "The Almighty," "The One God," and all the other names of God in the Koran actually refer to the being he calls "Satan." He even had a big sign that said that outside his church! How perceptive can this guy be, anyway?

Admittedly, Baptists are free to believe anything they like, no matter how absurd, including about the Pope, the Grand Ayatollah, the Dali Lama, or anybody else, as long as that belief does not impugn their obligation toward honesty and charity toward people who devoutly disagree with them. But when they start accusing Catholics of "blasphemy" or claiming that "the Catholic Church rejects the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ's priesthood" (or that Muslims don't worship the same God Christians do), a decent concern for the facts, if nothing else, compels a more educated response. Catholics consider "instructing the ignorant" to be a praiseworthy work of mercy. That's why we sponsor so many schools and universities. There seems to be a fertile opportunity for that activity here.

Pastor Ashley's author is certainly right that if Catholics actually believed the nonsense he says we do, we'd be as wrong as he is. But he doesn't get to decide what we believe. The Catholic Church does that, and what the Catholic Church believes is contained in Scripture, as further expounded in, among other declarations available to the general public, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word "pope" occurs 37 times in the Catechism. Anybody who reads above a second grade level should have no trouble finding them all. You can use the "find" function of your web browser here.

Fundamentally, of course, the office of the Pope is defined in Scripture. The KJV says:

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:18-19

If you don't believe my Bible, look it up in yours. Anyone who doesn't believe the Bible, should probably stop here.

Pastor Ashley's blog claimed that the Scriptural basis for the office of Pope is John 21:15-17, which appears in John's 21st chapter addendum to the rest of his Gospel. Catholics believe this passage, too, but we don't consider it as a basis for Peter's appointment, which had already been accomplished in Matthew 16:18-19, some time before the Crucifixion. We note that all of Jesus' ministry had been accomplished, and he was enjoying a informal "last breakfast" with his Pope, Simon Peter, and some of his bishops; Thomas, Nathanael, James and the young narrator, John. His remarks about feeding his sheep appear to be a last reminder of what he wanted Peter to do. Remember, just before Jesus appointed him Pope, he had fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish (probably like those they were eating on this, their last meal with him). Peter was about to take on a similar task!

Baptists have just as much access to history as the rest of us, so they should be equally as well informed about it. By the death of the fourth Pope, Saint Clement I in November 99, the identity and functions of the popes were well established. That's why Christians compiled and preserved records about them. There were 37 Popes before the publication of the first Christian Bible (commissioned, incidentally, by Pope Damasus I), 232 before the publication of the King James Version, and 225 before the very first Baptist Pastor, John Smyth, was even born.

The facts are that the word "vicar" does indeed mean "instead of," and "the representative of a higher-ranking official." It has much the same meaning as "vice," (vice President, vice chairman) or "lieutenant" (lieutenant governor, lieutenant colonel). It most definitely does not mean "with all of the same authority and power that official has," at least to members of more enlightened denominations. That's just silly! Then there would be two such officials, each with the exact same authority, responsibility and accountability! What if they disagreed with each other about something? Who would break the tie?

We Catholics maintain that the vicar exercises only that authority specifically granted to him by the individual he represents. The Vice President of the United States, for example, exercises the authority of the President only under Constitutionally specified circumstances, and represents the President in a lesser capacity as he directs. A lieutenant general commands a field army only if he is about to be promoted, or if a four-star general is not available. In the Catholic Church, a pastoral vicar is a representative or deputy of a bishop, without the bishop's ecclesiastical powers. For example, he might have the legal authority to manage the diocese money, which legally belongs personally to the bishop. In the Episcopal Church, a vicar is a cleric in charge of a chapel. A Church of England vicar is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman. Other Anglican Churches consider a vicar as a deputy of some other clergyman. A vicar can also be a cleric or lay choir member who sings certain parts of a cathedral service, representing the officiating minister.

In the case of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope, the authority to "bind and loose whatsoever" (not just who gets into heaven) was specifically granted by Jesus Christ himself. What's not to understand?

Pope Gelasius I appears to be the first to be known as a Vicar of Christ, but this title was also used by bishops and even kings and judges, whose authority was considered a "divine right." The Holy Spirit was also called the Vicar of Christ by Tertullian. Popes Eugene III and Innocent III appear to have been referred to formally as The Vicar of Christ. Pope John Paul II called the bishops "vicars and ambassadors of Christ" in part 95 of his encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One):

When the Catholic Church affirms that the office of the Bishop of Rome corresponds to the will of Christ, she does not separate this office from the mission entrusted to the whole body of Bishops, who are also "vicars and ambassadors of Christ" The Bishop of Rome is a member of the "College", and the Bishops are his brothers in the ministry.

This office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God; and may not be either in whole, or any part thereof, transferred from Him to any other." I Timothy 2:5

This mistake is often made by contemporary Baptist authors whose ministry, like that of Pastor Ashly, partially involves denigration of other people's faith, or biased condemnation of the people themselves (such as Muslims, for example). They quote unrelated Scripture, to make it seem that they know what they're talking about to people who don't know any better. Fortunately, Catholic (and Muslim!) belief is not at all influenced by what uneducated Baptist commentators or pastors claim that it is, regardless of how much extraneous Scripture they quote to support their erroneous positions.

Their website says that "The Mission of Cowan Road Baptist Church is to love and worship God and to serve Him by helping all people become fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ."

I notice that this mission statement says nothing whatever about loving others, the one commandment of Christianity, by which Jesus himself asserted that his disciples would be known. Why do you suppose that is?

John Lindorfer