In the Catholic Church the succession of popes extends over a period of 2000 years and the primacy of the bishop of Rome was understood from the beginning.

St. Clemenent I (Clement of Rome) (AD 88-97 ) was the third Bishop of Rome and successor to Peter. He had to deal with the Corinthian Church which had deposed its presbyters without a good reason. The leaders were motivated by a spirit of envy, pride and sedition. Clement sent three emissaries Claudius Ephesus, Valerius Bito and Fortunatus along with a long pastoral letter indicating the need for repentance, humility and peace.

In this letter he speaks with authority. He says that that they should obey God rather than men. "For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults so as to draw us away from what is good." (14) Further he calls to repentance the leaders with the following words, "Ye therefore, who laid the foundation of this sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters, and receive correction so as to repent, bending the knees of your hearts. Learn to be subject, laying aside the proud and arrogant self-confidence of your tongues" (57) While there is no mention of the supremacy of the Church of Rome, he acts as the head of the Christians Church.

Death of John Paul II ( AD 1978-2005)

Death is a punishment for mankind's revolt against God; it is inevitable even for a Pope. Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 after a long debilitating illness which he did not hide from the world. President Bush paid tribute to the Pope as follows: "Pope John Paul II left the throne of St. Peter in the same way he ascended to it -- as a witness to the dignity of human life. ... Throughout the West, John Paul's witness reminded us of our obligation to build a culture of life in which the strong protect the weak. And during the Pope's final years, his witness was made even more powerful by his daily courage in the face of illness and great suffering."

At his funeral the Litany of the Saints was chanted reminding us that life does not end here but continues in an invisible dimension where the saints live in glory. Click Litany of Saints to hear a sample of this with concluding prayer.

Pope Benedict XVI (AD 2005- ) is the 265 Bishop that sits in the chair of Peter. He was elected on April 19, 2005, by the Cardinals but his power, wisdom and personal infallibility does not come from the electors but comes from God by the abiding presence of the Spirit of Truth in the Pope. Conscious of being the successor of St. Peter, "The morning of April 24, Pope Benedict, ... walked down to the tomb of the martyred St. Peter in the Vatican basilica to pay homage to the first bishop of Rome." (AmericanCatholic.org)

On April 18, the day before his election, in the homily for the Election of the Roman Pontiff places into focus the danger of relativism. He said, "How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves ­ thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching", looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires."

In his installation homily Pope Benedict stated:

"My real program of governance is not to do my own will,
not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen,
together with the whole church,
to the word and the will of the Lord,
to be guided by Him,
so that He himself will lead the Church
at this hour of our history."

The Pallium he received is a symbol of the good shepherd who loves and cares for his sheep. He says, "Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God's truth, of God's word, the nourishment of his presence, which he gives us in the Blessed Sacrament." He is also keenly aware of disunity in the Church and the need to work toward one fold and one shepherd.

Now Benedict XVI has to deal with the struggle
between truth and untruth, good and evil, life or death
which goes on in the world every day
realizing that his task is,
in whatever way possible,
to call mankind to the true faith in Christ
and to engender the kingdom of God in man's hearts.