To: tiki
You wrote:
“The gaps would only matter if the previous pope had to pick the new one and that doesn’t happen.”
Right. Then someone could claim that the succession was broken because a previous pope died before picking a successor. That isn’t an issue for Catholics or Eastern Orthodox Christians however, because that was never a dogmatic necessity for succession.
5,517 posted on
06/13/2008 4:04:48 PM PDT by
vladimir998
(Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
To: vladimir998; tiki
That isn’t an issue for Catholics or Eastern Orthodox Christians however, because that was never a dogmatic necessity for succession.
Now you've got it. The "unbroken line" is a fallacy.
5,538 posted on
06/13/2008 5:32:26 PM PDT by
OLD REGGIE
(I am most likely a Biblical Unitarian? Let me be perfectly clear. I know no thing.)
To: vladimir998
The problem is a confusion of tactile apostolic succession with the succession of the papacy. If the apostolic succession is broken we have an ecclesiological problem. If we have a gap in people occupying the chair of St. Peter, we have no problem at all as far as I can see.
5,539 posted on
06/13/2008 5:38:28 PM PDT by
Mad Dawg
(Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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