Sort of and sort of not. They have their own authority i.e. they can ordain priests and bishops etc. But there is a heirarchy. To be part of the church is to be "in agreement" so to speak with the successor of Peter. So while they are of the same rank they don't have the same jurisdiction. A bishops is over his diocese and the Pope's is his diocese and the universal church.
It isn't necessarily supposed to look like secular hierarchies though and the pope is usually slow to intervene in another bishop's diocese. It is his job to mostly provide continuity and clarity when bishops disagree. When that happens everyone is supposed to do what Peter does. If they don't, then you get a schism and while the splinter is still valid (as long as they don't change the rite of ordination, that happened to the anglicans) they are no longer fully integrated, they lose the guarantee of the protection of the Holy Spirit.
It a logical consequence. In any disagreement at most one party can be correct. So if you assume a Spirit guiding the church to truth it can't make two things true. So you have to pick at most one. The only way to know which is if one was given the keys to the kingdom or something.. 😛
Not claiming anyone outside the church needs to believe any of that, but it is the logical conclusion from the premises we have.
Daniel Wigton
npub1w4…q30zp
2026-06-04 20:23:43 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…59mf
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npub1w4jkwspqn9svwnlrw0nfg0u2yx4cj6yfmp53ya4xp7r24k7gly4qaq30zpSeen on
wss://nos.lolPublished at
2026-06-04 20:23:43 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Sort of and sort of not. They have their own authority i.e. they can ordain priests and bishops etc. But there is a heirarchy. To be part of the church is to be \"in agreement\" so to speak with the successor of Peter. So while they are of the same rank they don't have the same jurisdiction. A bishops is over his diocese and the Pope's is his diocese and the universal church.\n\nIt isn't necessarily supposed to look like secular hierarchies though and the pope is usually slow to intervene in another bishop's diocese. It is his job to mostly provide continuity and clarity when bishops disagree. When that happens everyone is supposed to do what Peter does. If they don't, then you get a schism and while the splinter is still valid (as long as they don't change the rite of ordination, that happened to the anglicans) they are no longer fully integrated, they lose the guarantee of the protection of the Holy Spirit. \n\nIt a logical consequence. In any disagreement at most one party can be correct. So if you assume a Spirit guiding the church to truth it can't make two things true. So you have to pick at most one. The only way to know which is if one was given the keys to the kingdom or something.. 😛\n\nNot claiming anyone outside the church needs to believe any of that, but it is the logical conclusion from the premises we have.",
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