Primacy of The Bishop of Rome - Opposition To The Doctrine

Opposition To The Doctrine

Stephen Ray asserts that "There is little in the history of the Church that has been more heatedly contested than the primacy of Peter and the See of Rome. History is replete with examples of authority spurned, and the history of the Church is no different."

The doctrines of papal primacy and papal supremacy are perhaps the greatest obstacles to ecumenical efforts between the Roman Catholic Church and the other Christian churches. Most Eastern Orthodox Christians, for example, would be quite willing to accord the Bishop of Rome the same respect, deference and authority as is accorded to any Eastern Orthodox patriarch, but resist granting him special authority over all Christians. Many Protestants are quite willing to grant the pope a position of special moral leadership, feel that according to the pope any more formal authority than that would conflict with the Protestant principle of solus Christus, i.e., that there can be no intermediaries between a Christian and God except for Christ.