Rome’s Audacious Claim: Should Every Christian Be Subject to the Pope?

“Papal Primacy” is the Roman Catholic Church’s claim that the pope has “full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church.” This claim was restated in clear terms at both the Vatican I and Vatican II councils and is still in the authoritative Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Paul Pavao addresses this claim from both history and Scripture. He takes on popular Catholic apologists like Jimmy Akin, Dave Armstrong, Stephen Ray, Scott Hahn, and Patrick Madrid. He also shows that interaction with other large churches such as the Lutherans and Orthodox have forced the Vatican to admit their popes never claimed primacy until at least the fourth century, and even afterward their claim to jurisdiction over other churches was rejected.

Rome’ Audacious Claim puts history in your hands. Pavao does not only provide quotes, but references them so that they can be easily found and read. Protestants and Catholics alike can learn the unique position on tradition held by second- and third-century churches, and those considering Catholicism can learn how the great, giving, church in Rome, famous among Christians for the martyrdoms that occurred there, became more a political entity than an actual church.

Well-known Welsh apologist John “J.T.” Tancock writes of the author: “I have come to know Paul Pavao as a trustworthy and honest voice in a field where hype, imagination, wishful thinking and downright lies are commonplace. He is not in the ‘classic’ sense an academic. He is, though, an expert in his field of Church History. He has a grasp of the conflicting ancient voices and the ability to summarise and draw out the essentials. He is honest enough and robust enough to challenge the ‘spin’ of whatever ‘orthodoxy’ raises its head today whether it is Protestant, Roman Catholic or ‘other’.”