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THE POPE OF ROME CLAIMS SUPREME, FULL, IMMEDIATE, AND UNIVERSAL POWER OVER ALL HUMAN SOULS: "The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls." Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, #937

I think you are making a unfair comparison. The line you quote from the Catechism shows that the Pope's pastoral responsibility is for all human souls. This is contrasted with the Devil's offer to the Lord to give Him power over all human temporal/political affairs, which is something the Devil couldn't give to Him, since He already has it (the Catholic Church believes in the Social Reign of Christ). The Pope's power isn't unlimited, since he is a steward for Christ, who is the real King. The Pope is responsibile for preserving and propagating the Apostolic teachings passed on over the centuries.

First off, let me greet my friend OrthodoxPresbyterian. It's been too long since he's been here; and we've missed him terribly.

Now, to your comment Pyro:
The line you quote from the Catechism shows that the Pope's pastoral responsibility is for all human souls. This is contrasted with the Devil's offer to the Lord to give Him power over all human temporal/political affairs, which is something the Devil couldn't give to Him, since He already has it (the Catholic Church believes in the Social Reign of Christ). The Pope's power isn't unlimited, since he is a steward for Christ, who is the real King. The Pope is responsibile for preserving and propagating the Apostolic teachings passed on over the centuries.

This may well be the modern Catholic interpretation of the scope of the Pope's power (that he is the head of the Church instituted by Christ), but that certainly is not the historical claim of the Catholic church. Ever since Unam Sanctum, the Roman Church claimed unlimited temporal power for the Pope, even over the affairs of the emerging secular states.

I am gratified to see that Roman Catholicism no longer claims complete temporal authority for the Pope. Such claims are the fodder from which anti-Catholic demagogues like Jack Chick drew their sustenance.

Nonetheless, we are faced with a Pope who still claims to be the Shepherd responsible for all the souls of Christendom. This was neither Biblically based (Mt. 16:19 notwithstanding) nor the product of an ecumenical council. "First among equals" I could live with. "Universal power in the care of souls" I cannot.

OP correctly recongized that Papal Authority is the major point which still divides Protestants - magesterial Protestants, anyway - from Rome.