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The Case/Rome

Papal Supremacy and Infallibility

Orthodoxy honors Rome as an ancient apostolic see, but rejects universal papal jurisdiction and Vatican I infallibility as later claims not received by the undivided Church.

Rival Claim

The Roman claim

Christ gave Peter and his successors universal jurisdiction over the whole Church, so communion with the Roman pontiff is the necessary visible center of Christian unity.

01

Primacy is real, but conciliar

Orthodoxy does not deny that Rome held a unique primacy of honor in the early Church. The question is whether that primacy was a universal monarchy over every bishop and local church. The ancient pattern is conciliar: bishops gather, deliberate, and receive decisions as the Church, with Rome honored among the great sees rather than standing above the Church as a separate court of appeal.

Acts 15 shows an apostolic council, not a solitary papal decree. The canons of Nicaea and Chalcedon speak in terms of regional patriarchal order and conciliar reception. The later Vatican I claims of immediate universal jurisdiction and ex cathedra infallibility go beyond that received structure.

  • Acts 15
  • Nicaea I, Canon 6
  • Chalcedon, Canon 28
  • Pastor Aeternus (1870)