What is the purpose of the Pope?
Two points I would like to voice…..one Catholicism is a sect of Christianity. Catholics are Christians just like Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, etc are. Two the pope is not revered as a god on earth. He is respected as a leader and loved as a very devout and pious man. He is Bishop of Rome with Christ as the head of the church, the highest church authority (not over God or the Bible, just over the other bishops and church officials), not a messiah, not always a saint-to-be, not a figure of worship. He is a figurehead and symbol, but if you don’t have a problem with communion, the cross or any other Christian symbol, why that would seem so terrible is beyond me. Having a pope provides the Church with unity and uniformity. You ought to find that every Catholic church teaches the same ideas and shares the same beliefs. The same cannot be said for churches with no leader. That is the main reason for a centralized church organization and every organization of that type requires a leader
