The pope may be the most visible and famous symbol of the Catholic Church. It is the office of the papacy and the assumed link back to the original apostles that differentiates Roman Catholicism from other Christian denominations. The office of the papacy is rather complicated and, much to the chagrin of believers, comes with a rather checkered past.
The title pope stems from the Greek word papas, which simply means "father." Early in Christian history it was used as a formal title expressing affectionate respect for any bishop and sometimes even priests. Today the pope is the supreme legislative, executive, and judicial authority in the Roman Catholic Church — there are no "checks and balances" like one may be accustomed to finding in secular governments.
Doctrinally, the pope is regarded as the successor of St. Peter, leader of the apostles after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Catholics believe that the bishop of Rome inherits the mantle of Peter, the apostle of Jesus Christ who was entrusted with the administration of his church after he died. Peter travelled to Rome where he is believed to have established a Christian community before he was martyred.
All popes are, then, successors of Peter not only as leading the Christian community in Rome, but also as leading the Christian community in general, and are believed maintain a direct connection to the original apostles.
Papacy of the First Millennium
Many people imagine that the current structure and administration of the Catholic Church today is much like it has always been, but that’s not the case. Early on, there isn’t even evidence of a single bishop of Rome presiding over churches in the city. Although the official lists give the names of several “popes” during the first decades of Christianity, it is more likely that they simply presided over a council of elders. The first pope who was actually a single bishop presiding over the diocese of Rome was Pius I (142 - 155).
At first the bishop of Rome was chosen like all other bishops: through a general election of the people. Over time both bishops and nobility in the area around Rome took on more and more of a role in electing Rome’s bishop. Eventually the will of the people was consulted on only a perfunctory basis — and sometimes not at all. It eventually came to pass that popes had to be ratified by the emperor, not by the people of Rome they would be serving. This pointed to the fact that popes became more involved with European politics than with local pastoral duties.
During its first centuries, the Christian Church became closely intertwined with the political rulers of the Roman empire, even to the point where pagan religions were banned. Eventually these grey lines separating ecclesiastical from temporal leadership would be largely eliminated once the traditional power structures broke apart and the Roman Empire “fell” in the wake of Alaric’s sacking of Rome in 410.
By 452, it was Pope Leo I who went outside Rome to meet Atilla the Hun and convince him to withdraw his forces, not a secular prefect. Pontiffs were now virtual temporal rulers over the city of Rome and its surrounding regions. Popes raised and led armies, imposed taxes, and made decisions about who could live where.
Papal involvement in temporal politics would expand well beyond the borders of Rome. On Christmas day of the year 800, Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor. This solidified the imperial protection of the papacy and established the precedent that the supreme religious authority in Europe had a say in the supreme political authority as well.
At the same time, this alliance to the political and religious rulers of the West became an important stepping stone towards the ultimate schism between the Eastern and Western churches. Matters came to a head in 1052 when secular Norman rulers insisted that Greek churches in Italy conform to standard Latin practices. The patriarch of the Greek church in turn demanded that Latin churches in Constantinople conform to Greek customs. When he was refused, he simply had them closed. Because the issue could not be resolved in 1054, that is the year usually given for the final break between East and West.
