Episode 27: LTC – The Church

Thriving in the Trenches a Catholic Podcast

“The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ He says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’…On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?”

—St. Cyprian of Carthage The Unity of the Catholic Church, 1st edition, A.D. 251

Show Notes:

• Washington Post Article on the Reformation noted in episode.
• Acts 1:12 – This is where we see that the Apostles were “seats of authority” that had to be and remain filled. Again, seeing how the Holy Spirit led the choosing in the casting of lots. Again, watching Peter stand up as the mouthpiece of all the disciples and apostles.
• Acts 15 – The first Church council showing evidence for Peter’s papal authority, how the magistereum works, and how Church dogmas and doctrines have been formed through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Without these historical councils, we would not have the Christianwide accepted teaching of the Trinity, the 2 natures of Jesus, and the (much disputed) table of contents of the Bible.