Catholicism

:This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. See Catholicism (disambiguation) for alternative meanings

Footnotes

• ¹ Webster's College Dictionary, 1991.
• ² St Peter is sometimes called “the first pope”. However, if “pope” is defined as “successor of St Peter”, St. Linus is the first pope. The Catholic Church teaches that the college of the bishops has succeeded, in the Church, to the group of the apostles, not that the bishops are apostles; and that, among the bishops, primacy belongs to the Bishop of Rome, as primacy among the apostles belonged to St Peter, not that the pope is on the same level as the Apostle Peter (‘’Catechism of the Catholic Church,’‘ 880-881).