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From: jhpb@granjon.garage.att.com
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Keith Drake Sez Peter could not be a pop
Message-ID: <Feb.8.03.13.44.1991.15800@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 8 Feb 91 08:13:46 GMT
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    To be fair, though, to take the other position for a moment -
    that Peter himself is referred to here - in a very real way
    Peter was the foundation of the early church.  Even a cursory 
    reading of Acts demonstrates that.  The point though, is that 
    Jesus was talking to Peter, and made no similar promise to any
    successor after him.
    
There are actually 3 different passages related to the Papacy.  Matthew
is one.  The other two are:

John 21:  "Feed my lambs... Feed my sheep."

Luke 22:  "Simon, Simon, Behold Satan has desired to have you... But I
have prayed for you that your faith fail not: and thou being converted,
confirm thy brethren."

The verse is John is regarded as the point at which our Lord conferred
the primacy on St. Peter (after the Resurrection).

The whole point about the Catholic interpretation of these verses is
that the interpretation is traditional.  Its roots go back as far as we
have Christians writing on the subject.  Not in the greatest clarity, of
course, but eventually the thought becomes precise enough to be clearly
Catholic.  By sometime in the 400's at the very least.

The following fragments are from St. John Chrysostom, bishop of
Constantinople, who flourished around 400.  They don't deal with the
Papacy per se, but with Peter's primacy.

One of the things that I find enjoyable about the writings of the
Fathers of the Church is their language ability.  Chrysostom means
"golden mouth".  One can see why.

"'And in those days, Peter, rising up in the midst of the disciples,
said,' Both as being ardent, and as having had entrusted to him by
Christ the flock; as the first of the choir, he always is the first to
begin the discourse.  Lo! there were a hundred and twenty; and he asks
for one out of the whole multitude.  Justly; he has the first authority
in the matter, as having had all entrusted to him.  For to him Christ
said, 'And thou being converted, confirm thy brethren.'"

"...the leader of the choir of the Apostles, the mouth of the disciples,
the pillar of the Church, the buttress of the faith, the foundation of
the confession, the fisherman of the universe."

"Peter himself, the Chief of the Apostles, the first in the Church, the
friend of Christ... this very Peter; -- and when I name Peter, I name
that unbroken rock, that firm foundation, the great Apostle, the first
of the disciples."

Here's one that treats specifically of the See of Rome.  It's from St.
Optatus of Mileve, writing against the Donatist schismatics in the 4th
century:

"...Thou canst not then deny but thou knowest that, in the city of Rome,
the episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter, wherein might sit of
all the Apostles the head, Peter, whence he was called Cephas, that in
one chair unity might be preserved by all; nor the other Apostles each
contend for a distinct chair for himself, and that whosoever should set
up another chair against the single chair might at once be a schismatic
and a sinner... Peter therefore first occupied that pre-eminent chair,
which is the first of the marks; to him succeeded Linus, to Linus
succeeded Clement..."