With all the excitement over the election of the American Pope Leo XIV, it is appropriate to ask: what does a pope do?
While a pope has several titles, the two most important would be Vicar of Christ and Successor of Peter. A vicar in Latin is a person who represents another: in this case, the pope is the visible representative of Jesus Christ, who is the true Head of the Church.
This is not a mystical role: Catholics do not believe that popes go into a mystical trance or prophetic state to “channel” Jesus. Rather, popes make judgments using the gift of discernment, with access to the Scriptures, the Apostolic Tradition, church teaching and experts.
As the Successor of Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, the pope is the head of the worldwide College of Bishops. In Catholic theology, bishops are successors of the apostles as well, true shepherds of their local flocks.
The pope plus the other bishops form the supreme earthly leadership of the Catholic Church, although this ministry is a servant of the Bible and Apostolic Tradition.
The pope is the head of state of Vatican City, an independent nation that is in continuity with The Papal States, a political entity going back to the mid-eighth century. As such, the Vatican has the world’s oldest diplomatic service still in operation.
The executive, legislative and judicial branches familiar to Americans are unified in the pope at the international level and bishops at the local level. That being said, popes and bishops have deputies who serve the executive and judicial functions.
Under the pope are various departments, known as dicasteries, that form the major oversight functions of the pope over this international church.
Dicasteries exist for overseeing bishops, priests and deacons, missionaries, doctrine, questions regarding worship and other salient matters.
Many smaller commissions and offices exist as well.
The whole forms a bit of an untidy mess and it is thought that both Popes Francis and Leo XIV were elected in part by the cardinals to rationalize the unwieldy Roman bureaucracy.
Perhaps an individual pope’s most lasting legacy lies in the papal power to appoint bishops in most of the world.
While things on the ground may not seem very different to the average Catholic from pope to pope, the bishops ordain and appoint the priests and deacons to the local parishes where the “rubber meets the road.”
Among the pope’s most famous roles is teaching infallibly.
Since the formal declaration of this doctrine in the 19th century, in fact the popes have only used this power twice.
This power is not an ability to create new doctrines but to reinforce and clarify existing beliefs.
The majority of Catholic infallible teachings derive from ecumenical councils of all the world’s bishops, which occur roughly every century.
As the earthly leader of the world’s largest Christian church, it is appropriate that all people of good will pray for the ministry of Pope Leo XIV.
Father Michael Hendrickson is the Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Gilroy and an active participant in the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County. He can be contacted at mi*******************@*sj.org.
