Habemus Papam
We have a pope! Well, maybe not we. I am admittedly not Catholic. Having spent the majority of my ministry journey in the Southern Baptist realm I did not have the seat of Peter in leadership structure. However, there were plenty of individuals that wanted, and tried, to be a sort of Baptist pope. But I digress. For the first time ever there is United States born pope. I am not exactly sure if that is truly relevant to anything or not, but alas, it is the first time a man born in the United States has been elected pope. I found myself watching the live feed following the billowing of white smoke with a sort of intrigue I did not really expect. For over 1 billion Catholics it was a supreme moment awaiting the introduction of the new pope. It is hard to ignore this change that directly impacts a fifth or so of the world’s current population.
The pope occupies the seat of Peter who was considered Bishop of Rome. The tradition is that Peter dispersed to Rome and led the church there. Paul would ultimately make his way to Rome in order to use it as a base of missional operation to go into the western areas of Spain. Both Peter and Paul would be martyred in the mid-60’s AD following the Great Fire of Rome. Nero took a great old criticism for his lack of leadership and shifted blame to Christians for the fire. Paul was beheaded and Peter was notably crucified upside down because he found himself unworthy to be hung on a cross in the same manner as Christ. Peter’s leadership coupled with his interaction with Jesus in Matthew 16 led that church to consider him the leader of the Catholic Church and for the seat of the papacy to be in Rome. There is plenty of discussion as to what Jesus meant when He stated he would build his church on the “rock” which was both a play on Peter’s name and the confession of Jesus as the Messiah. However, for millions upon millions of Protestant followers and the remaining billions of other religious and non-religious people what does a new pope really mean?
Immediately upon the announcement the new pope’s “policy” leanings began to be dissected. Would he lean liberal? Would he lean conservative? What does it mean that he chose Leo as his papal name? All of the debate, questions, and theories continue to push the role of pontiff into a political nature rather than a spiritual one. Ultimately, the pontiff is not a political office, but a spiritual leader. As such, we can respect and receive theological understanding from him even if we are not Catholic. The pope has the final authority through doctrines and covenants to interpret what the Bible is teaching for the Catholic Church. This belief is based on the Matthew 16 interchange. However, like any teaching, we should take time to dig into Scripture and seek to verify. As one commentator put it, “No one has the authority to change what Jesus said.” Not even the pope has the power to do so, but the challenge is in what Jesus’ words mean and how they apply. That is an issue no matter what side of the coin you land.
The pope is and should always be an advocate and model of Christ’s love for humanity. This reality is perhaps the greatest responsibility of the pontiff. Love is a notoriously fickle and difficult thing to actually define, but throughout Scripture the role of leadership is to model and teach priesthood leadership to the people. This responsibility is the greatest reason the Seat of Peter should be viewed from a a spiritual sense and never a political sense. Politics removes the fundamental dignity of every individual because of God’s caring creation. Truly loving people is hard and messy. Modeling God’s love is even messier. Let us hope that we can look to the pope to see God’s love in action.
In truth, we can all model the same godly civility in our lives. From the way that we lead our families, our children, and our spouse to the way we interact with strangers on the street. So, we have a new pope. For many of us that is irrelevant. For a billion others it is huge. And billions of others just don’t care. Time will tell what the grounding of this papacy will be. We can all pray for the Holy Spirit to give wisdom, guidance, and discernment to him. That’s not a bad prayer for ourselves as well.