“Loyal to the Pope. Full Stop”? – by Father Reto Nay
Schönborn admits that “there are differences because every Pope has his own story and his own character, but it’s always the Pope.” His conclusion, “Therefore, it’s very clear for me to be loyal to the Pope. Full Stop.”
There are a few problems with Schönborn’s statements:
1. “He is the Pope” is not a basic Catholic attitude. “It’s the Lord” is (John 21,7). The pope is not Christ, he is Peter. “Peter” does not mean “rock” (= “Petra”) but is only a derivative from it. The rock is Christ.
2. To say that “the Pope is always the Pope” is a truism. There have been a few good popes and quite a few bad ones. Is this difference unimportant?
3. “Loyal” is a terrible word. For good reasons, it never appears in the Bible or in Tradition. It is a derivation from “law.” But we are Christians, not lawyers. It refers to the attitude of a subject toward a sovereign. This is not the relation of the Catholic to the Pope. The pope does not “lord it over the faith” (2 Cor 1,24).
4. Don’t ever put a full stop behind a human being. Always put a question mark.
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