Primacy of The Bishop of Rome

The primacy of the Bishop of Rome is an ecclesiastical doctrine concerning the respect and authority that is due to the Bishop of Rome from other bishops and their sees. Together with the Filioque controversy, differences in interpretation of this doctrine have been and remain the primary causes of schism between the Western and Eastern Orthodox churches. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, some understand the primacy of the Bishop of Rome to be merely one of greater honour, treating him as "primus inter pares" ("first among equals"), without effective power over other churches, while others see primacy as indeed power, the expression, manifestation and realization in one bishop of the power of all the bishops, an expression and manifestation of the unity not just of the churches but of the Church. The Roman Catholic Church attributes to the primacy of the Pope "full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered", a power that it attributes also to the entire body of the bishops united with the pope. The power that it attributes to the pope's primatial authority has limitations that are official, legal, dogmatic, and practical, and "it is an error to think that every word uttered by the Pope is infallible".

In 2007, representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church jointly stated that both East and West accept the fact of the Bishop of Rome's primacy at the universal level, but that differences of understanding exist about how the primacy is to be exercised and about its scriptural and theological foundations.