The United Papal States

Pope Trump II?

In an ideal world, nearly everyone should be able to answer the following question with little to no thought: “what are the three branches of government?”

But as we know, we do not live an ideal world, and the ability for 80% of randomly sampled people to know the answer is highly questionable.

What is not questionable, however, are the striking similarities between the composition of the American government and the Catholic Church.

One can easily make the argument that the Church also has an executive branch (the Pope), a legislative branch (the Bible), and a judicial branch (the universal college of bishops).

Starting with the executive branch, the similarities are salient: both are the face and representative of their respective institutions in both domestic and international situations.

Also, the executive branch of both structures are not solely dependent on the legislative branch to create laws, as it is common knowledge that the president can issue executive orders that are legally binding.

What is not as well known is that the Pope can declare dogma that is considered infallible when speaking ex cathedra—from the chair (of Peter). Many non-Catholics will take this and say something along the lines of “Catholics believe the Pope is incapable of error and therefore heretics,” when this is obviously not the case.

The dogma must not only have a scriptural basis, but also cannot contradict previous teachings of the church and must have a longstanding history of being widely accepted both contemporarily and by previous clergymen, theologians, and Church Fathers.

This is not something that occurs often, as the last time dogma was asserted was when Pope Pius XII formalized the Assumption of Mary as official doctrine in 1950.

Although the term structure differs, with Popes serving for life and presidents being bound by two four-year terms, the length of tenure for both is surprisingly similar; over the past 2,000 years, Popes lead for an average of seven years, and it is common for presidents to serve for the full eight years.

The relatively short tenure of Popes can mainly be attributed to their old age, as by the time they ascend from priest to bishop, then to archbishop, cardinal, and finally Pope, they are usually quite advanced in years.

Additionally, both the Pope and president are, to some extent, bound by at least one other branch.

A president’s executive order can be vetoed by a 2/3 vote from Congress as well as by the Supreme Court. The Pope is bound by the Bible, as the dogmas he declares cannot contradict Sacred Tradition or Scripture given that he is not above divine revelation.

Despite the uncanny resemblance between both executives, there lies two key differences: his election and inability to be vetoed.

Unlike the president, the Pope is not democratically elected but rather needs a two-thirds majority from a group of high ranking bishops called cardinals and not the global body of 1.3 billion Catholics.

In addition, while the Pope cannot contradict divine revelation, he is not limited to the same extent as the President. There has essentially been no instance of a stark disagreement between the Pope and the college of Bishops at an ecumenical council, but if that were to happen, the Pope’s word serves as the final authority.

Pawns & Bishops

The Supreme Court and universal college of bishops are both a body of high ranking, undemocratically elected officials whose job is to convene to clarify previously made decrees.

As many know, the Supreme Court makes judgements on whether Congress’s laws or the president’s executive actions are constitutional. Similarly, the college of bishops convenes to clarify the stance of the Church usually in response to contestations of existing theology and the spreading of heresies.

Both bodies heavily utilize the idea of precedent when making decisions, as the Supreme Court oftentimes references stare decisis in their rulings while the college of Bishops frequently draw back to the workings of important doctors of the Church, saints, and notable theologians.

An example is at the 16th century Council of Trent, known as the impetus for the Counter Reformation, where the concept of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was reaffirmed based on the work of most famous doctor of the Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD).

Additionally, the two both operate on majority rule with the possibility of disagreeing members to issue dissenting opinions.

Similar to the president and the Pope, there are two main differences: the number of members and the frequency of conventions.

Out of the 5,600 bishops worldwide, a few hundred are usually present at the councils, which far surpasses the nine Supreme Court Justices appointed to the bench. Also, Supreme Court gathers far more often than the bishops, as there have only been 21 ecumenical councils in the 2,000 year history of the Church.

Hand on the Bible

The least similar of the three comparisons is most likely the “legislative branch,” mainly due to Congress being composed of actual people rather than the text of the Bible, and Congress actively creating laws while the Bible’s content are fixed in nature.

However, their greatest similarity lies in the idea that it serves as the foundation for the other two branches.

Congress is responsible for creating the laws that the executive enforces and the judicial branch judges, while the Bible provides the divine revelation that the Pope interprets and the bishops clarifies.

Another parallel between the Church and American government is the similarity between the creation of new amendments and development of Church teachings over time.

For example, a question that has I’ve heard is “if the early Christians were Catholics, why didn’t they believe in saints?”

Firstly, this is simply incorrect.

While a Google search will display that the first council to affirm the veneration of saints was Council of Nicaea II in the 8th century, the doctrine was already widely held among the Catholic faithful. Like mentioned earlier, the councils do not compose new teachings but rather affirms pre-existing teachings and makes them official.

Not only did early Christians like Tertullian (160-225 AD) and St. Cyprian of Carthage (200-258 AD) write extensively about the intercession of saints, but there are also Roman catacombs, or Christian burial places, that included prayers to saints, with an example of Priscilla’s catacombs being labeled with “pray for us, Peter and Paul.”

Additionally, the oldest known prayer to Mary is from roughly 250 AD and is called the Sub Tuum Praesidium.

Secondly, trying to equate the idea that early Christians weren’t Catholic because they didn’t believe in the Assumption of Mary, for instance, is similar to saying the Founding Fathers weren’t American because they didn’t believe in universal suffrage.

In both cases, the understanding of the foundational pillars grew over time and led to the implementations that we see today.

The only difference between these two scenarios is that the Founding Fathers actively objected to universal suffrage while the early Christians lived in an era where early writings, apocryphal texts, and Church Fathers hinted at the possibility of the assumption, but it was not formally defined yet.

To be clear, divine revelation ended with the death of the last apostle; however, the Church gradually understands, articulates, and defines these truths more clearly over time, leading to no contradictions.

Through theological reflection, debate, and ecumenical councils, the Church does not create divine truths, but rather deepens its understanding of these truths.

All of the previously mentioned similarities between the Church and American democracy are essential to understand, but the most important has been withheld until the end.

By far the most important similarity between the two is that the head of both institutions has never been a woman!

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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