Bishop of Rome
Bishopric
Catholic
Incumbent: Benedict XVI Elected: 19 April 2005
Province:	Ecclesiastical Province of Rome
Diocese:	Rome
Cathedral:	Archbasilica of St. John Lateran
First Bishop:	According to traditional Christianity, Saint Peter
Formation:	According to traditional Christianity, the 1st century
Website:	The Holy Father

The Pope (from Latin: papa; from Greek: πάππας (pappas),^[1] a child's word for father)^[2] is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church.^[3] In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle. The current office-holder is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected in a papal conclave on 19 April 2005.^{[nb 1]}

The office of the pope is known as the papacy. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction is often called the "Holy See" (Sancta Sedes in Latin), or the "Apostolic See" based upon the Church tradition that the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul were martyred in Rome. The pope is also head of state of Vatican City,^[4] a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the city of Rome.

The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and had a prominent part in human history.^[5] The Popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and resolve various doctrinal disputes.^[6] In the Middle Ages they played a role of secular importance in Western Europe, often serving as referees between the monarchs and averting several wars.^[7][8][9] Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are dedicated to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, charitable work, and the defense of human rights.^[10][11]

Having been gradually forced to give up temporal power, popes now focus almost exclusively on religious matters.^[6] Over the centuries, papal claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra—literally "from the chair (of St. Peter)"—to issue a formal definition of faith or morals.^[6] The first explicit such occasion (after the proclamation), and so far the last, was in 1950, with the definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

History[link]

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Title and etymology[link]

The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "Father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} The earliest record of the use of this title was in regard to Patriarch of Alexandria Pope Heraclas of Alexandria (232–248)^[17][18] in a letter written by his successor, Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, to Philemon, a Roman presbyter:

τοῦτον ἐγὼ τὸν κανόνα καὶ τὸν τύπον παρὰ τοῦ μακαρίου πάπα ἡμῶν Ἡρακλᾶ παρέλαβον.^[19]

Which translates into:

I received this rule and ordinance from our blessed father/pope, Heraclas.^[20][21]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest recorded use of the title "pope" in English is in an Old English translation (c. 950) of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People:

Þa wæs in þa tid Uitalius papa þæs apostolican seðles aldorbiscop.^[22]

In Modern English:

At that time, Pope Vitalian was chief bishop of the apostolic see.

Although the title was from the early 3rd century applied generically to all bishops,^[23] some sources^[who?] suggest that Pope Marcellinus (d. 304) was the first Bishop of Rome to carry the title, while other sources^[who?] suggest that this did not happen until the 6th century, with Pope John I (523–526) the first to assume this title.^[17] Bestowing the title on Rome's Pontiff did not strip it from Alexandria's, and the Roman Catholic Church recognizes this ecclesiastical fact.^[17] Indeed, even in the west, where in the 6th century the title began to be used particularly of the Bishop of Rome, it was only in 1075 that Pope Gregory VII issued a declaration that has been widely interpreted as stating this by then established convention.^[23] By the same 6th century this was also the normal practice of the imperial chancery of Constantinople.^[23]

Monarchical episcopate[link]

Catholics recognize the pope as a successor to Saint Peter, whom, according to Roman Catholic teaching, Jesus named as the "shepherd" and "rock" of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic dogma is the one true Church founded by Christ.^[24][25] Peter never bore the title of "pope", which came into use three centuries later, but Catholics traditionally recognize him as the first pope,^[26] while official declarations of the Church only speak of the popes as holding within the college of the Bishops a role analogous to that held by Peter within the college of the Apostles, of which the college of the Bishops, a distinct entity, is the successor.^[27][28][29]

Protestants generally agree that Jesus singled out Peter as the focal point of the first-century church. However, they contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome.^[30] The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as leader of the Church and in its dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles.^[31] Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome and founded the episcopal see there can be traced back no earlier than the 3rd century.^[32] The writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD 180 reflect a belief that Peter "founded and organised" the Church at Rome.^[33] Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter's presence in the early Roman Church. Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96^[34] about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the "struggles in our time" and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, "first, the greatest and most just columns, the "good apostles" Peter and Paul.^[35] St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did.^[36] Given this and other evidence, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero, although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine.^[37][38][39]

Various Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches. Gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas.^[40] Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome.^[40] In Rome there were many who claimed to be the rightful bishop though again Irenaeus stressed the validity of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary Pope Victor I and listed them.^[41] Some^[who?] writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops but not necessarily monarchical bishops.^[32]

In the 1st century and early 2nd century the Holy See had pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole.^[42]