The expression " pope of Rome"

THE EXPRESSION " POPE OF ROME"

When we tour in Rome visiting the vatican we have to understand that not all the citizens of the vatican live inside the vatican itself but the Holy See has representatives in all over the world.

The "pope of Rome" is the best known and most influential moral and religious leader in the world. Every government in the world has to deal with him and the vatican too also because the pope and the vatican are represented in 140 countries through the bishops, including at the UN palace in New York.

It has been this way since Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the fourth century AD.

Prior to the liberation of the Church by Constantine in 312, Church records are very sketchy. The reasons for this are not too hard to figure out: the ongoing persecutions by Roman imperial authorities led both intense secrecy on the part of Christians and destruction of many written records. Thus, unwritten tradition is an important witness to the history of the earliest popes.
The history of the popes is the history of Christianity, still the dominant religion in Europe and in the Americas. Understanding the papacy before visiting Rome is important for understanding the modern world.

Touring in Rome with private tour guides opens your mind and makes you discovering centuries of history of Rome and Europe in a short amount of time.

In Great Britain, as in much of Northern Europe, the secular authorities threw off the papal control of their churches during the Protestant revolt of the sixteenth century.
Let's take a look now to the notion of catholic tradition. The church teaches the Divine Revelation and the pope's primary mission is to safeguard this deposit of faith from change, which would be error, so when doctrinal disputes arise he must determine what the church has alway taught on the matter. Although many are under the impression that " papal infallibility" and " defining dogma" mean that the pope can alter or originate doctrines as he pleases, the reality is just opposite. These terms actually mean that when the pope speaks at the highest level of his authority, the Holy Spirit will prevent him from defining untruths.

Of course, this ideal view certainly did not and does not apply to all popes, by any means. As vicars of Christ, they have often failed and infallibility does not, in Catholic teaching, protect most papal statements or any papal actions ( except beatification and canonizations of saints ). It will prevent a pope from defining heresy as dogma.

Many questions can be answered by Rome tour guides if you decide to take private tours of Rome.

In this picture you can see the popes' residence located outside of saint Peter's square and the top window on the write with the purple color tapestry is the one used by the pope to give the blessing to the faithful at noon each sunday.