The teaching about papal authority, about the visible head of the Church, "the substitute and vicar of Christ," who sometimes overshadows the invisible Head, Christ, is the foundation of the entire teaching, the entire dogma of Roman Catholicism. But this teaching contradicts the foundations of the Gospel and Apostolic teaching about the Church, about her life and about the knowledge of the Truth.

The decree of the Vatican Council of 1870 states: "Firmly adhering to the tradition which has come down to us from the beginning of the faith of Christ (!?), we, to the glory of God our Saviour, to the exaltation of the Catholic religion and to the good of the Christian peoples, with the consent of the Holy Council, teach and define as a divinely revealed teaching (!?): that when the Roman Pontiff speaks from his pulpit, that is, when, in the exercise of his ministry as pastor and teacher of all Christians, he, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority (?), determines the teaching on faith and morals, which the whole Church must maintain, he, through the Divine help promised to him in the person of Blessed Peter, possesses that infallibility with which the Divine Saviour was pleased to endow His Church, in order to determine the teaching concerning faith and morals, and that therefore such determinations of the Roman Pontiff are in themselves, and not with the consent of the Church, are unchangeable. And if anyone dares to contradict this definition of ours, from which may the Lord protect, then let him be anathema."

In the Code of Canon Law, published in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, we read: "The Roman Pontiff, the successor in primacy of Blessed Peter, not only has the primacy of honor, but the supreme and complete authority of jurisdiction over the whole Church, both in matters relating to faith and morals, and in those relating to the discipline and administration of the Church, which is branched throughout the world." And even earlier, the Popes of Rome wrote: "We declare, affirm, determine, proclaim that obedience to the Roman Pontiff is an absolutely necessary condition for salvation for a human being" (Boniface VIII, Bull of 18.XI.1302). "We also declare that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff have supremacy over the whole world, and that this Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, as well as the head of the whole Church and the father and teacher of all Christians, and that to him, in the person of Blessed Peter, has been entrusted by our Lord Jesus Christ the full authority to shepherd the Universal Church, to guide and govern it" (Pope Eugene, 6.VII.1439). And Pope Paul IV wrote in a bull of February 15, 1559: "The Roman high priest, who is on earth the substitute of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, has full authority over tribes and kingdoms, and judges all"... Such is the Roman teaching on the Church and the Pope, alien to the Holy Scriptures, the Apostles, and the ancient Church.

According to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church, the Church is one living organism – the body of Christ; and all of us, its members, are called to a living, organic participation in the life of the Church, so that, holding on to the One Head, Christ, the whole body, being united and bonded together, may grow in the stature of God (Col. II, 19). Christ is the Head of the Church, says the Apostle Paul in his epistles, and we, living stones, are placed in various ministries for the building up of the Church – the Body of Christ. "The body of the Church," says the Apostle, "builds itself up in love, by the action of each member in its own measure." And further: "God has subdued all things under His (Christ's) nose, and has set Him above all things, the Head of the Church, which is His Body, the fullness that fills all in all" (Eph. I, 22–23). Thus, the Church is the Fullness of Him (the Head, Christ). "Thus," says St. John Chrysostom, "only then does the Head attain perfect fullness, only then will there be a Body perfect in fullness, when we are all united and most closely connected with each other."

And the knowledge of the Truth, according to the apostolic teaching, is given to brothers "rooted and established in love... with all the saints." "That you, rooted and established in love, together with all the saints, may comprehend what is breadth, and depth, and height, and understand the Love of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, that you may be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead," says the Apostle Paul.

But the Roman Catholics, through the mouths of the popes and the Vatican Council, assert that the knowledge of the Truth is given to the pope independently, personally, without connection with the Church ("the definitions of the teaching regarding the faith of the Roman pontiff are immutable in themselves, and not with the consent of the Church"). It should be noted that in the Second Vatican Council, which has taken place in our days, the decree or formula of the Vatican Council of 1870 on infallibility was completely repeated and inserted into the context of the chapter of the Council's decrees that speaks of the authority of the Pope.

The teaching about the Church as the grace-filled Body of Christ under a single Head – Christ – is obscured by the Roman Catholics' teaching about the Pope as a single monarch, in whom the entire Church is concentrated. The Pope is not the first among his equals in grace bishops and brothers, he is the source of episcopal authority, the bishops are his delegates, the representatives of the Pope. The Pope has replaced the entire Body of the Church, and the criterion of truth, according to their teaching, is not the Holy Spirit, who lives in the whole Church, but the voice on the Roman throne of the bishop who sits. To the person of the Pope is transferred what belongs to the Church, and moreover, to him is also transferred that which belongs only to Christ. Why? Because papal authority is perceived by them mystically; what was taken away from the Church as a living mystical organism is transferred to the pope, and the Church itself is perceived as a juridical organism, a despotically controlled ecclesiastical state.

The sin of the papacy is to encroach on that which belongs only to God, that which belongs to the Holy Spirit who lives in the Church.

Thus, in the book of Bishop Bougaud "The Church", published in 1922, the pope is equated with the Sacrament of the Eucharist; just as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Christ is really present under the cover of bread and wine, so Christ is really present in the Pope. "In the sacrament of the Eucharist," says Bishop Bugaud, "we have, so to speak, only a 'half' of Christ, for He is 'dumb' in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Where to look for the second "half" of Jesus Christ, who really dwells in the Church? She's in the Vatican: she's in the Pope. The Pope is the second way of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Church." Jesus Christ "created for himself two modes of real presence, quite different; both are inexplicable and, being united together, form the fullness of His incarnation. Oh, the great mystery of the two veils under which Jesus Christ is hidden in His entirety!" "Go to Jesus, saying, Go to the Pope." "This is the mystery of Christianity: it is the miracle of the real presence of the Incarnation, proposed and spread under two veils. What Jesus Christ did not put under one of these coverings, He put under the other; and it is possible to possess Him in fullness only if one is able to pass from the Eucharist to the Pope and from the Pope to the Eucharist in a fervent impulse of the heart. Apart from these two mysteries, which actually form one mystery, we have only a diminished Jesus Christ (He Himself established this), Who is insufficient for the needs of both individual souls and society, Who is not even able to defend Himself." "The mystery of faith! This is the word that must be said about the Pope after we have said it about the Holy Eucharist, for the Pope is Jesus Christ, hidden under a veil and continuing through the human organ his public ministry among men." "Therefore, the Church, which is more sensitive than we are to Divine things, does not know how to talk about the Pope. No expression seems to her too strong to express this mutual penetration, which makes of Jesus Christ and the Pope her Head, at once visible and invisible, and her only Consort. She attributes to him all the love she has for the Lord. She surrounds him with the same reverence."

"Oh, the sweetness of the feelings that one experiences before the tabernacle and at the feet of the Pope," in which Jesus Christ "took and condensed the whole Church," and moreover: He "created the Pope before." "This is a great mystery: the Church is the unceasing and constant creation of the Pope. He creates the Church; and in it and through it he enlightens and sanctifies souls."

There is no doubt that Bishop Bugaud reflected in his work the official teaching of the Roman Church on the Pope. Announcing the election of Pope Pius XI to the world, the Vatican wrote in 1922: "Happy Rome: for she alone possesses both tabernacles: the tabernacle of the Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ gives Himself to all hearts, and the Vatican, where Jesus, through the mouth of the Pope, teaches the word of Truth, unchanging and infallible."

This is the pit by which the Church of Rome separated herself from the Catholic Orthodox Church, which remains faithful to the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. This teaching about the Church and the Pope is absolutely unacceptable to us Orthodox. A non-Christian spirit breathes from him. We are in danger of replacing Christ with man, replacing the Church, this great living organism, with the Pope.

History has clearly shown us how gradually and persistently, over the course of centuries, this striving of the Bishop of Rome for supremacy in the universe grew, how the theory of the papacy, nourished by the spirit of pride and carnal understanding of the Church, nourished by intrigues and politics, grew.