Today's Class

Today we had a really great class!!!  We had a very good discussion on the early formation of the Church.

As most of us know, the Church's hierarchy consists of the Pope, bishops, priests, and deacons.  But did you ever think about how that came to be?  This was just one of the many topics discussed this morning.  We also noted that Pope St. Clement wrote very interesting letters to the church at Corinth in order to try to stop the faithful from straying from their roots.  I was able to find a link to the letters here.  

Back to the hierarchy...

The question came up about apostolic succession, canon of scripture, and the apostles.  First off, I want to make sure that we are clear on apostolic succession.  We all know that every Catholic bishop today can be traced back to the original 12 apostles, right?  But how?  Well, that question was answered today.  During the 1st century, there was no laying on of hands as we see it today.  The 12 apostles simply had a "following" and from those followers, they chose who would best continue their teaching.  There is a good article from Catholic Answers here about apostolic succession.

What happened to the apostles?

This was another good question that came up today.  We know they went out to evangelize, but then what?  Well, from our discussion today, we learned that they were teaching and evangelizing all over the area.  At first, they were teaching that Jesus was to come back soon, but that belief eventually died with the apostles, just as our book tells us in Chapter 3.  So, what happened to the apostles?  They fulfilled their duty to the Lord by teaching the Gospel, and then they died at different times in history.  In fact, all except St. John, who is believed to have died a natural death, were martyred.  One particular apostle who I want to mention is St. Peter.  Most of you may already know this, but it is believed that St. Peter was martyred in Rome by crucifixion.  But it was not upright as Jesus' was.  Peter was crucified upside down, according to tradition, because it has been said that he did not feel he was worthy enough to die in the same manner as Our Lord.  Today, you will often see an upside down cross (NOT upside down crucifix), which represents St. Peter.  Here is a picture of Pope John Paul II sitting in a chair with the cross of St. Peter.

We also discussed the Apostle's Creed today.  This creed states the general beliefs of the faithful and provides the doctrinal basis of the early Church and the Church today.  You can read a little bit more about it here.

Finally, one of the last things we talked about was the succession of popes.  We know that traditionally, St. Peter is considered the 1st pope, but what about after that?  Well, I did a search and found this list of the popes at EWTN.  You can always count on them!  This list can be found here.  It begins with Pope Benedict XVI and goes backwards to St. Peter.  I hope that helps!

Well, I've said a LOT in this post today!  I'm sorry I didn't get it up until now, but hopefully it summed up all that we said today and a bit more!