When Jesus established the Church, He wanted it to always be centered on the human person. So, He has chosen individuals, from the beginning, to be Apostles. They are entrusted with the full body of teaching and have guided the Church. They then chose other persons to succeed them in that work. What we’ve done for 2,000 years is rely on the gift of the Holy Spirit, through the power of ordinary men who were chosen, which tells us a lot about God’s faith in humanity. Apostolic succession is just as much a question of our belief in God’s divinity as it is our belief in the power of human beings.

Every pope has a lineage that can be traced all the way back to the Apostles. Some of them even have been portrayed in artwork, such as the paintings of each of our popes in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. For us, we can rely upon knowing that our faith has been handed on from generation to generation.

By Father Dominic Buckley, June 01, 2022