Successor to Peter

Benedict XVI has emphasised his role as the fisherman. Here a Spanish theologian writes an open letter, urging him to explore the meaning of the Petrine ministry

Dear Pope Benedict, When you went into the conclave, in which you were elected, you swore to be faithful to the ?Petrine ministry?, not of Pius or Gregory or Alexander?

This seems to me one of the most important features of these past days, though the media have scarcely paid attention to it.

Today, the ministry of Peter really needs restoration, like Michaelangelo?s paintings in the Sistine Chapel, to recover the freshness of the original colours. And not only the ministry of Peter: our politicians have now forgotten that the word ?ministry? means service, which gives me the chance to discuss with you some biblical features of this service.

Peter was not a head of State. However small a state may be, it confers a rank and powers that are not at all evangelical. (Think of Monaco or Andorra, which are other tiny states.) I believe, on this point, you should model yourself more on Peter than on many of his successors.

Peter was much loved in the early Church. When he was in prison he was prayed for constantly. But he never wanted to convert this appreciation into a halo of sacredness. He did not have himself called Holiness, nor Holy Father, nor Vicar of Christ, but in imitation of Jesus he divested himself of rank and managed to ?present himself as an ordinary human being? (Phil. 2:7). And when someone wanted to prostrate himself before him he stopped him, saying, ?Get up, I am a man like you are? (Acts 10:26).

Peter exercised his ministry in a conciliatory way. He soon found himself with a ?rightwing? faction in Jerusalem, led by James the brother of the Lord, and a ?liberationist? wing gathered around Paul. Despite the initial fervour, the confrontations were so great that St Luke, despite his tendency to idealise, has to admit that there were ?violent altercations? (Acts 15:2). Peter acted as the mediator between the two churches. He had an assembly called and after listening to a long discussion asked: ?Why do you test God, laying a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor ourselves could bear?? (Acts 15:10).

Peter?s confidence. While this conflict was still going on, Peter, together with James and John, placed his full confidence in Paul?s ?liberal? sector, laying down as the sole condition ?that you should not forget the poor? (Gal. 2:10). The cause of the poor thus became at one and the same time the test of true freedom and the means of uniting the Church. I am sure we will agree that this is one of the most beautiful features of the Petrine ministry.

Ahead even of Jesus himself. He opened the Jewish doors of the Church and let everyone in, despite the fact that Jesus had said he only felt he was sent to ?the lost sheep of the house of Israel?. But Peter recalled that the life of the Master was full of gestures which leapfrogged over these criteria, and he acted with the conviction that he was not betraying the Master, but rather letting himself be guided by His Spirit (Acts 10).

Peter was criticised by the early Christians. But he did not excommunicate them for saying so; but rather met with them to talk about it, and explained to them both his human fears and his reasons, that came from faith. That boldness saved the Church, when fear would have left it sterile for centuries.

Peter had his hesitations. He was intuitive and impulsive, but cowardly. And sometimes, for the sake of avoiding trouble, he betrayed the step that he had previously taken towards those who were not Jews. Paul, the whirlwind, criticised him for it in public. And Peter gave us a great lesson in humility when he accepted this criticism and did not silence Paul for saying so. You will no doubt remember what Augustine was to say later on: ?I dare declare that even more exemplary than the courage of Paul was the humility of Peter.?

Peter confronted the authorities. He insisted that we should obey God rather than human beings (Acts 5:29). This phrase is as forceful as it is dangerous (because we humans can manipulate it), and it has much greater weight when it is uttered by a person invested with authority, than when produced by someone from the lower ranks. I would ask you never to forget that phrase: because it is impossible to exercise a Christian service today without confronting the powers of this world; and because it is also very possible that some of your faithful will believe they should use it to make a point to you. And then it will be time once again for everyone to seek together what is the will of God.

Peter was instructed by the Risen One to learn to respect charisms. He did not to try to control that beloved disciple, who at times seemed to wander freely and to incarnate the message of the Lord that ?the Spirit blows where it wills? (and not where authority wills). Remember how to the anxious question of Peter (?What about this man??) the Lord replied: ?What is that to you? You come and follow me.? (John 21:21). To love more and to follow more is the basis of the Petrine ministry.

Peter proclaimed Christ. Firstly and almost exclusively he proclaimed the committed life, the murder and the Resurrection of Jesus, and said that, through that life, God forgave even his executioners and was irrevocably reconciled with all humanity (Acts 2 and 3), because ?God shows no partiality between people? (Acts 10:34). There were other problems of a practical nature (for example, circumcision or the force of the old Law) that he did not want to resolve straightaway himself, but rather he let them be resolved in the contact between the different churches.

The Church was founded on the faith of Peter. When this faith looked at Jesus from God?s viewpoint, Peter was described by the Lord as a ?rock?. But Peter is also called by Jesus nothing less than ?Satan? when he thinks of God in terms of power and triumph, and not in terms of a committed life (Mt. 16:18,23).

Peter and the apostles. The same power of binding and loosing that Peter receives (Mt. 16:19), the apostles also receive directly from Jesus (Mt. 18:18). So Peter is nothing without the apostolic college; he is the head of the college, but he does not replace it.

Peter was, above all, the bishop of Rome. And he was the example of the Roman Church, in the purity of its faith, in its interest in the poor and in its relation with the other Churches. This is what made these other churches look more and more towards Rome. This example was lost later on, and this became the cause of absurd divisions between the Churches. The ministry of Peter is a ministry of unity: it cannot support that division; it must recover its original image.

Peter denied Jesus more than three times. But you also know that this is not a reason for discouragement, but only for ?bitter weeping? (Lk. 22:62) and for trying to love the Lord more. And this is the greatest thing about the Petrine ministry.

To the future. Finally, Peter, the uneducated fisherman from a forgotten village, had the courage to leave the religious capital of the day to make his way towards the capital of the future, a cosmopolitan place that was unfamiliar to him. I do not know what that could mean today; but I suspect that it has something to say to us.

Brother Peter: according to my humble understanding these are some of the things to which you have sworn fidelity. The Christian world is at a difficult moment today, but it is no more serious nor more complicated a situation than that of the early Church. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ want to meet you with that unceasing prayer of the early Church that made ?the chains fall from his hands? (Acts 12:5-7). Dominus tecum. The Lord be with you.

Jos? Ignacio Gonz?lez Faus is a Jesuit theologian, retired from the Institut de Teologia Fonamental and the Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya.
This article was first published in El Pa?s.
Translated by Margaret Hebblethwaite.