MaxPC wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 6:34 pm
barnhart wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:59 pm
How do you understand the New Testament warnings against creating hierarchies of power?
Thank you, I shall give it some thought tonight to try and hopefully provide an answer that helps understanding.
Here is my answer from earlier in the thread for Matthew 23.
viewtopic.php?p=223737#p223737
Barnhart, I decided to simply try to write a summary and then paste it here so that your query can be answered in one place. I left the link so that you can refer back to part one, the answer to the Matthew 23 query.
The Roman Catholic Church Administration Model Today
As is commonly known, the Roman Catholic Church calls the Apostle Peter our first Pope who was vested with authority by Jesus in
Matthew 16:
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Christianity as a faith grew rapidly from its beginnings and learned quickly it had to deal with the practical administration of those increasing numbers. As those numbers increased, administrative models had to be configured to better maintain the proper delivery of the Faith’s teachings without error to and to also meet the needs of the new Christians. The Roman Catholic Church traces its first administrative models to
Acts 6:
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
2 And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
3 Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty.
4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Proch′orus, and Nica′nor, and Timon, and Par′menas, and Nicola′us, a proselyte of Antioch.
6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them.
7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
The use of multiple dioceses led by Bishops within each territory, country or continent was the answer to this logistical challenge. As the membership grew, more dioceses were created and so it continues today.
In dealing with the size and growth rate of the Early Church, the leadership copied the hierarchical management structures found in other faiths and in secular governments. Through the centuries, as the world’s governmental structures gradually changed from monarchies to democratic republics and parliaments, they also influenced the restructuring of RCC administrative models.
Since Vatican II in the early 1960s there has been a return to the
collegial model for the Bishops and Cardinals which has counter-balanced the centuries of “top down” management practices. To use a secular analogy, the Pope acts as a “Servant CEO” (my term for it) while depending upon the input and expertise of the College of Cardinals and the Bishops - the Pope cannot do it all. In recent years there have been laity who have expertise in various fields such as biological ethics, etc. who have joined the Pope’s circle of advisors.
The Pope, the Bishops and the Cardinals are charged with protecting the Deposit of the Faith from distortion and error, (those teachings that are non-negotiable) and serving the Faithful within the nations around the world. God holds them accountable for these responsibilities (Matthew 16:17-20).
In turn the Bishops within their individual dioceses also follow a similar management model that depends upon the input of parish priests and laity. There will also be specialists trained in Canon Law, etc within each diocese. They too are held accountable by God for their responsibilities. Some dioceses are urban and suburban; some are rural with ranches and farms. In Wyoming, there was a Catholic Bishop who also worked on ranches as a cowboy. He did not have as many Catholics and duties as the more populated dioceses so he supplemented the diocesan finances with money he earned while working cattle.
The reason the RCC has turned to this type of management is due to the sheer size of the Roman Catholic Church today which is comprised of 1.2 Billion members. Just the record keeping alone would require a systematic management approach. To give an idea of the parish sizes in the USA, there are individual rural parishes with as few as five families; and rapid growth areas that have parishes with 14,000 families. New mission parishes continue to emerge as well.
Is it perfect? No, but then personally, I consider any institution or organisation vulnerable to human error and imperfections which is why I consider the guidance of the Holy Spirit as indispensable.
Hopefully that answers your queries, Barnhart. My apologies for the length of these answers; I did my best to try to summarise two millennia of RCC history. So much of that history involves personality dynamics and reactions to those dynamics which is just an academic way of saying there are many perspectives to the history. I can only try to approach it from the history books and knowledge of human behaviors. I am old but contrary to rumors and jokes I am not old enough to be a first hand witness.