The Gospel passage from this past Sunday, Matthew 16:13–20, told the famous story of Jesus asking the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds in turn by giving him a new name and a mission: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Then he gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven and promises that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against the Church.
This passage has been on my mind since I heard it on Sunday. In my lifetime, the See of Peter has been occupied by four very different men: John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Leo XIV. Each has brought his own personality, history, insights, talents, priorities, and limitations to the papacy. Yet the ministry continues. The Church does not start over with each new pope, nor does she depend solely on the effectiveness or holiness of one man. The papacy rests upon Christ’s promise and on the faith that Peter professed in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.
That is central to the mission of Where Peter Is. Despite what many of our critics may believe, our name is not an expression of attachment or devotion to a particular pope, much less a claim that every decision or opinion of a pope must be beyond criticism. “Where Peter Is” expresses something much more basic: that communion with the Successor of Peter is intrinsic to the structure of the Church Christ gave us. The pope’s ministry is not incidental to Catholic unity — when we embrace communion with the pope, we embrace our unity with the entire people of God.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn recently offered a short reflection on this mystery. Schönborn, a Dominican theologian and the archbishop emeritus of Vienna, was made a cardinal by John Paul II in 1998. He served as secretary of the commission that drafted the Catechism of the Catholic Church and participated in the conclaves that elected Benedict XVI and Francis. Having turned 80 before the election of Leo XIV, he was no longer eligible to participate in the conclave. That experience prompted him to ask how the papacy has endured for 2,000 years — and whether the answer is found by taking Christ’s words to Peter seriously.
Cardinal Schönborn’s reflection follows. Translated from the German original:
Twice I was permitted to take part in a papal election: in 2005, in the election of Pope Benedict XVI, and in 2013, in that of Pope Francis. By the time Pope Leo was elected, I had already passed the age limit. The papacy, however, seems to know no age limit: it has existed for 2,000 years. How is that possible?
Unless I am mistaken, there is no comparable institution in history. Its outward form has changed often and profoundly over this long period. Yet at its core it has remained the same: it has always been about the successor of the Apostle Peter. Nowhere is this more tangible than in Rome—at St. Peter’s Square, and in and beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. One thing is certain: St. Peter’s Basilica was built over the tomb of Peter. It lies directly beneath the altar at which his successors celebrate the liturgy. The obelisk standing in the center of St. Peter’s Square was an “eyewitness” to Peter’s crucifixion. It stood in the circus of the Emperor Nero, under whom Peter suffered martyrdom. Pope Leo XIV is Peter’s 267th successor. What accounts for the papacy’s endurance through the centuries? What is the secret of Simon Bar-Jonah, to whom Jesus gave the name Cephas—Peter, the Rock?
To answer this question, I propose a simple thought experiment: Let us take literally the words Jesus spoke to Peter at the time and see whether doing so makes sense.
Jesus asked his disciples who they believed him to be. Peter’s answer is clear: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Let us first consider the words with which Jesus responds directly to Peter’s profession of faith. They are truly breathtaking in their magnitude: “You are Peter—the Rock—and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” Put plainly, Jesus is saying that his Church will not perish, because he himself is building it upon a rock—and this rock is none other than Simon, son of Jonah, whom Jesus calls Cephas: Peter, the Rock. Is this promise the reason that there continue to be successors of Peter to this day?
Let us also try taking Jesus’ second statement literally: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” This surely means that, together with the keys, Jesus entrusted Peter with authority: the power to bind and loose, here on earth and extending even into heaven. Did Jesus, then, intend to make Peter a kind of all-powerful earthly ruler? May the pope invoke Jesus’ words in order to claim such power for himself? Certainly not—provided that we also take literally what Jesus says to Peter in response to his profession of faith: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”
Put plainly, this means: You did not come by yourself to profess me as the Christ and the Son of God. God gave this to you. Your faith in me is not an achievement of your own, but a gift from God. In this way Jesus also makes clear what the rock is upon which he himself will build his Church: Peter’s faith. The Church has survived to this day not because it is such a solid institution. It lives by the faith of all those who, like Peter, profess Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. Just how weak this very Peter can be in faith will become clear in next Sunday’s Gospel.
Schönborn’s reflection returns us to the reason this site exists. Pope Francis’s death was a profound loss for many of us, and some of us continue to mourn him. For those of us who have contributed to WPI over the years, his mission and vision deepened our understanding of what it means to remain close to Peter and to trust Christ’s promises, especially when many Catholics misunderstand, resist, and malign him. In Pope Leo XIV, the Petrine ministry continues. In important ways, Leo carries Francis’s legacy forward — his commitment to synodality, care for the poor and for migrants, concern for creation, call for an end to violence, and vision of a missionary Church that welcomes everybody. The pope has changed, but the papacy has not. May we trust that Christ will continue to guide his Church through the ministry he established.
Image: Vatican Media
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. In addition to his work for the site, his writing has appeared in America Magazine, National Catholic Reporter, US Catholic, The Irish Catholic, Catholic Outlook, The Synodal Times, and other Catholic publications. He has been quoted in The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New York Post, and other mainstream outlets on Catholic affairs. He previously co-hosted the Field Hospital podcast with Jeannie Gaffigan and The Debrief podcast. Before founding Where Peter Is, he worked in communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Climate Covenant. He is married with four children.
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