The Claim of the Papacy
One of the eldest claims to the Roman Catholic Church’s sovereignty is that has been founded on Peter, who was stated by Jesus to be the foundation of the church He would build. They further argue, that by Jesus Christ’s commission, Peter is divinely protected from doctrinal error, is the new chief Shepherd, and the church that Peter would establish in Rome would be divinely blessed and protected from failure.
Because Roman Catholics have co-opted Christian history as their specific history, this means that the Roman Catholic Church is the only church of Jesus Christ. As the leader of Christ’s divine church, the office of the vicar of Christ possesses the authority of Christ Himself:
The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, “is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. “For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”(CCC, 882)
“The college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the Roman Pontiff, Peter’s successor, as its head.” As such, this college has “supreme and full authority over the universal Church; but this power cannot be exercised without the agreement of the Roman Pontiff.” (CCC, 883)
We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Unam Sanctam, 1302).
The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, “supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls” (CCC, 937)
The Papacy Rejects Jesus’ Role of Messiah and High Priest
As we can see from the above Roman Catholic principles, the Pope replaces (or even supersedes Jesus) in matters of the spirit. Jesus alone cannot gift you salvation, a Christian must submit themselves to the Pope. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not even the dominant mechanisms for regenerating souls, the full and supreme power in caring for souls belongs to the Pope.
As you will soon see, even just the argument for the Pope deriving his power from Christ will become void by their very own decrees. The Pope is so very much the sole authority in Roman Catholicism, to where no bishops or Christian offices have any power without his approval.
Now if any of the above sounds a little excessive, or even heretical, remember that these passages come from both the Catechism and the Unam Sanctum. These are byproducts of Magisterium, meaning that these doctrines must be infallible. The Pope is considered so divine, that He is instructed to be referred to as “Holy Father”, Summus Pontifex (Highest Priest), His Holiness, and of course, the Chief Shepherd.
Source: https://aleteia.org/2019/08/17/here-are-10-official-titles-of-pope-francis-and-their-meaning/
Source: https://www.cathdal.org/Resources-Grades_3-5_English_cathdal.pdf
If we are to believe the Roman Catholic Church, there is no possible way any person can be saved without being a Roman Catholic. The Pope has the supreme authority over men’s souls and only those teachers approved by the Pope are valid.
Since the Roman Catholic Church has conflated their denomination with Christianity itself, hence the brazen use of the term “universal church,” there are no other valid Christian denominations and all other Christians are going to Hell. In case someone thought there would be some room for centrist apologetics here, I would assert that there very bluntly is not:
St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “Be not deceived, my brethren; if anyone follows a maker of schism, he does not inherit the kingdom of God” (Letter to the Philadelphians 3:3).
St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote, “whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress [a schismatic church] is separated from the promises of the Church, nor will he that forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is an alien, a worldling, and an enemy” (The Unity of the Catholic Church 6, 1).
In the fourth century, St. Jerome wrote, “Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation” (Commentary on Titus 3:10-11).
Saint Augustine and the Council of Cirta (412 A.D.): “He who is separated from the body of the Catholic Church, however laudable his conduct may otherwise seem, will never enjoy eternal life, and the anger of God remains on him by reason of the crime of which he is guilty in living separated from Christ.” [Epist. 141 (CH 158)].
Saint Gregory the Great: “The holy universal Church teaches that God cannot be truly adored except within its fold; she affirms that all those who are separated from her will not be saved.” [Moral. in Job. XIV,5 (CH 158)].
You would think that something so overwhelmingly vital to salvation, even superseding Jesus’ saving grace, would have been mentioned at least once by Jesus, Peter, or any of the apostles. However, a divine papal office never existed within the New Testament, apostles founded various independent churches outside of Peter, Peter never named a Papal successor, and in Revelation Jesus never mentions a Roman Catholic Church. In fact, most of the men I had just quoted existed before the “doctrines” of the Papacy and Magisterium, themselves. So, these are some pretty substantial claims to make without any sort of direct biblical evidence. Only through circumstantial evidence, historical revisionism, and twisting of scripture can these arguments be made, but they don’t quite hold under scrutiny.
This is a serious problem, since if the Roman Catholic church has lied, Roman Catholics have effectively ascribed Holiness, authority, and the very power of Christ onto a mere man. This is, of course, flagrant heresy and idol worship, so these assertions must be taken very seriously. Thus, I have assembled a list of ethical, scriptural, and logical refutations of common claims on the Papacy in the following chapters.