The Pope, successor of Peter, Vicar of Christ, and our homeboy!!

“In Christ Abraham’s posterity is blessed, because in him the whole world receives the adoption of sons, and in him the patriarch becomes the father of all nations through the birth, not from human stock but by faith, of the descendants that were promised to him. From every nation on earth, without exception, Christ forms a single flock of those he has sanctified, daily fulfilling the promise he once made: I have other sheep, not of this fold, whom it is also ordained that I shall lead; and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” --From a sermon by Pope Leo the Great

Pope Leo goes on to quote how Christ told Peter, “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17). He said this to Peter and no one else. He gave Peter charge just before he left earth and ascended to Heaven. And today we find Peter’s successor in our midst, in the person of Pope Benedict XVI.

But Pope Benedict is not meant to distract us from Christ. No, he is not a mediator between God the Father and mankind. Rather, he is a mediator between Christ and mankind, just as Christ made Peter. Pope Benedict is our rock, our present-day spiritual guide, leading us to Christ, through his example and the examples of the many saints that have preceded us.

CCC 834, 882, 1369