Was Peter the First Pope?
The Roman Catholic Church rests its government on one claim: that Christ made Peter the head of His church on earth, and that the bishops of Rome inherit Peter's place. Rome counts Leo XIV, elected in 2025, as Peter's successor in an unbroken line.
The Catechism states the claim plainly: “The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the ‘rock’ of his Church” (§881). The First Vatican Council's constitution Pastor Aeternus (1870) defined, under anathema, that Peter received a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church (chapter 1), that by Christ's own institution he has perpetual successors in that primacy, the bishops of Rome (chapter 2), that the pope holds full and supreme power of jurisdiction over every church and every believer (chapter 3), and that he is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra (chapter 4).
We honor Peter. He left his nets to follow Jesus, confessed Him as the Christ, preached the first Gospel sermon at Pentecost, opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, wrote two books of the New Testament, and by early tradition died a martyr. The question is not whether Peter was a great apostle. The question is whether Christ made him, and the bishops of one city after him, the head of the church.
Who is the foundation and head of the church: a man and his successors in Rome, or Jesus Christ, the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4)?
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For Deeper Study
- Catechism of the Catholic ChurchAmazon The Roman Catholic Church (1992; second edition 1997)The primary source; paragraphs 551–553, 880–896, and 936–937 set out Rome's teaching on Peter, the pope, and infallibility.
- The Church of Rome at the Bar of HistoryAmazon William WebsterA former Catholic tests the papacy, Matthew 16, and papal infallibility against the early Christian writers and church history (Banner of Truth, 1995).
- The Roman Catholic ControversyAmazon James R. WhiteA Reformed Baptist answers Rome on authority, the papacy, the Mass, and Mary, with careful attention to Catholic sources (1996).
- From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early ChurchAmazon Francis A. SullivanA Jesuit scholar's study, from the Catholic side, of how the office of bishop developed, including his conclusion that Rome had no single bishop in the first century (2001).
- The Gospel According to RomeAmazon James G. McCarthyA former Catholic compares the Catechism with Scripture, including its teaching on the pope and the Magisterium (1995).
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Does the Catholic Church Teach?
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that God's Word comes through Scripture and Tradition as interpreted by its Magisterium, and that salvation comes through the Catholic Church and its sacraments. Scripture teaches that a sinner is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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