It is attributed to the great showman, P.T. Barnum of circus fame, that “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. I am not so sure that is always true. With the recent death of Pope Francis, the media has been filled with many inaccuracies concerning the papacy, the Catholic Church, and our faith. I know part of the very inaccurate and sloppy reporting is a lack of understanding and familiarity. I also think it is laziness and prejudice as well. It is easier to create things than to do the hard work of getting to know the truth. Many people, not just the media, have a narrative and are not bothered by inconvenient facts. I strongly encourage you to not rely on the media for a truthful and factual account or faithful representation of Catholic teaching, practice, or belief. I am not accusing the media of being bad people, but too often they are simply wrong.
Sadly, many Catholics, even educated Catholics, do not know or understand Catholic teaching on the papacy. The Pope (Roman Pontiff) is not the CEO of a multi-national NGO nor is he a demi-god possessing supernatural knowledge or abilities. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, and Vicar of Christ. He is the spiritual and pastoral leader of the Church. Papal authority resides in the office and not the person. As we witnessed during the pontificate of Pope Francis, there is only one Pope! When Pope Benedict XVI resigned and Pope Francis was elected, there were not two popes, only one.
The Pope is the Vicar of Christ because he is the successor of St. Peter. He is the successor of St. Peter, because he is the bishop of Rome. It is important to note that the head of the church is Jesus Christ. The church belongs to Christ and not the Pope. The Bishop of Rome as the successor to Peter possesses the authority of binding and loosing (Mt 16) and, more importantly, the responsibility of strengthening the faith and unity of the Lord’s disciples (Jn 21). This authority was given to Peter and his successors by the Lord himself for the care of his Church. To some this truth is lost and they often only see the papacy in political terms of power and intrigue.
Throughout the history of the Church the papacy has undergone changes and development. How the Successor of Peter fulfilled the duty of strengthening the unity of the church has differed according to the needs of the times. No doubt the manner in which future popes serve will change, but the task will be the same. It is always entertaining to see how the secular media is always attempting to claim one pope or another as a “reformer”. They love to see things shaken up. The truth is when you look at almost every pope, he shakes things up, he reforms things, he brings back things from the past and lets go of other things. The one thing that they do not do and cannot do to the great chagrin of the chattering classes is change the truth of the Catholic Church.