Category: Popes
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The Papacy: A Claim Every Christian Must Examine
Can we first agree on two basic principles? First, if the Catholic Church is right that Jesus Christ established the papacy, then every Christian should seek full communion with the Catholic Church. We would not be free to reject an authority that Christ Himself established. Second, if the papacy is an invention built upon a…
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Why the Bad Popes Saved Rome
When we think of the Papacy, we often imagine an unbroken line of venerable leaders. History, however, tells a much more complex—and often scandalous—story. How could the Church endure, let alone solidify its power, through periods governed by what E.R. Chamberlin, in The Bad Popes, calls some of the most corrupt men ever to sit…