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To: stfassisi
Try this:

F.A. Sullivan in From Apostles to Bishops, Newman Press, a Catholic source often quoted in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"Admittedly the Catholic position, that bishops are successors of the apostles by divine institution, remains far from easy to establish . . . The first problem has to do with the notion that Christ ordained apostles as bishops . . . The apostles were missionaries and founders of churches; there is no evidence, nor is it at all likely, that any one of them ever took up permanent residence in a particular church as its bishop . . . The letter of the Romans to the Corinthians, known as I Clement, which dates to about the year 96, provides good evidence that about 30 years after the death of St. Paul, the church of Corinth was being led by a group of presbyters, with no indication of a bishop with the authority over the whole local church . . . Most scholars are of the opinion that the church of Rome would most probably have been led at that time by a group of presbyters . . . There exists a broad consensus among scholars, including most Catholic ones, that such churches as Alexandria, Philippi, Corinth, and Rome most probably continued to be led for some time by a college of presbyters, and that only in the second century did the threefold structure become generally the rule, with a bishop, assisted by presbyters, presiding over each local church."

An honest Catholic scholar who disagrees with you and the rhetoric from the Holy See. He probably lost his Imprimatur and became a Presbyterian, you think?.

1,694 posted on 10/27/2006 9:13:35 AM PDT by Uncle Chip (Seek and ye shall find, unless ye buy all that meaningless rhetoric)
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To: Uncle Chip

More historical accuracy. Are you angling for a History Chair at . . . welll, probably not Cambridge. Probably not Harvard . . . Would you believe CBN?


1,713 posted on 10/27/2006 12:48:44 PM PDT by Quix (LET GOD ARISE AND HIS ENEMIES BE SCATTERED. LET ISRAEL CALL ON GOD AS THEIRS! & ISLAM FLUSH ITSELF)
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