THe Church's Unconventional Authority

Seal of Pope Francis

The Church's authority stems from Christ and from God.  The structure of this authority remains unchanged. It is a structure of passing of authority from one person to another and guidance from God. This has many implications. First, the Church is not a democracy. Second, Bishops and the Pope have Christ's authority when they are ex cathedra. Finally, the Roman Curia serves as a government of sorts.

     Let's begin on the first implication. The Church is not a democracy because the authority is not from the people. The people of the Catholic Church hold no authority in appointing bishops and popes and such. Rather, the authority comes from God. This means that the authority is still best for the people. God knows more than us, as he is infinite, meaning the Catholic Church can make no permanent mistakes in its mission.  Further, unlike even a republic, the Church does not make decisions rationally. While people may talk about one papal candidate being a favorite or another being a front-runner, nobody predicted then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.  He was elected because the way the Church makes its decisions is through prayer.  The members of the conclave prayed on who they ought to make the next pope, and chose Pope Francis. Nobody saw that coming.  Moreover, this means the Church is more effective than a democracy. This can be empirically and analytically proven. While nations like ancient Greece were ruled by the people, they seemed to have infinite prosperity. However, despite their seemed success, they eventually fell. As did the Roman Empire. What hasn't fallen, and never will, is the Catholic Church. People say you would have to be superhuman to guide a nation or congregation of people without failure for two thousand years. While these people say it skeptically, the Church is guided by a superhuman being (God).  Further, the Church has had failures. The Church has had bad popes, bad bishops, and plenty of scandals and corruption. The fact that She still exists today is a testament to the superhuman side of the Church.

    Next we move on to infallibility. Like stated above, God is the authority for the Church. We may think "well how does that work?" The simple answer is that Christ instituted the Church. Christ appointed Peter as the Pope and gave him the keys to the kingdom. He appointed twelve Apostles, and gave them the authority to "bind and loose." Christ passed down his authority to the Apostles and from them to the Bishops, meaning his authority is what guides the Church.  Further, the bishops all can determine doctrine together. The bishops are like the Pope's representatives. They hear his doctrine and make sure it is spread to the rest of the world. Think of the Church as a rock concert setup. The guitar is the Pope. He makes music. The bishops are like speakers. They help bring music to the crowd. The musician plays the guitar(Pope), which makes music (doctrine) and the speakers (bishops) spread it to the crowd (the Church). One crucial question is deliberately left open. Who is the musician? The metaphorical musician's identity is the key to all of this authority. The musician can be seen as God, guiding doctrine and speaking through the Pope. In this way, the Church gains its authority from God, as it is guided by him the way a guitar is guided by a musician.  This means the Church has Christ's authority when everything's hooked up (ex cathedra).

     Finally we come to the Curia. The Curia is like the executive branch of a government. They deal in logistics. Every nation, no matter what its laws or beliefs, must have a court system, a foreign policy objective, an executives cabinet, and a series of committees to keep the government functioning.  The Curia performs these functions. However, the Curia, like the rest of the Church, is different because it is not guided by people. The Curia is guided by God. The Roman Curia is in charge of dealings with other nations, spreading of doctrine, and trials of people within the Church. Like the President has a cabinet, the Pope has his Pontifical Councils, which facilitate him in spreading the word by covering the logistics of things.  They help the Church branch out to accomplish its mission.  The Congregations are like committees: they help to regulate what goes on in the Vatican and in the Papal State.  Then there is the court system, or the tribunals. These tribunals make sure people are not speaking against the Church, and help guarantee the Church is in no way being undermined.  The Secretariat of State performs the same duties as a Secretary of State would in normal countries: they complete foreign policy objectives with other nations. However, there are two important natures key to the state apparatus that the Church lacks.  First is the military. The Church has no offensive military presence. The Pope has some guards, and that's about it. Moreover, the Church does not tax. While one of the precepts of the Church is that we ought to provide for her needs, this doesn't need to be in the form of money. If a local parish requires volunteers to build a building, it is the obligation of the Church's people to do so. In such a way, the Roman Curia is distinct from the government.

     All in all, there is one theme consistent with all three implications: God is the source of Church authority and decision-making. The Church's authority is the same as God's, because God is hte musician playing the metaphorical guitar, meaning he is the one who creates the doctrine taught to the Church's people.  As such, we can see how the Church's authority is summed up by the fact that God holds authority that he passes down to the Church and her officials