A Kingly Priesthood

This is from the June 1944 edition of the Converted Catholic Magazine.

THOSE who insist that Peter was the first Pope entirely disregard the fact that he left in writing, as part of the Bible, instructions as to how the Christian church should be ruled. They read intently the encyclical letters of Pope Pius XII. but either ignore or are unaware of the letters of the Apostle Peter, which no Pope today would dare to emphasize.

For Peter preached and put into writing the principles of the real New Order of the Christian dispensation. He would have been untrue to his Master had he taught that one man could be an autocrat over other men, either in spiritual or political matters. “Ye are a chosen generation,” he told the early Christians, “a royal (kingly) priesthood.” (I Peter 2:9). Peter’s doctrine is that each one is his own king and his own priest. This is democracy with a vengeance! In civil government each one was to possess the highest governing power, and, as in our American democracy, merely delegate this power by election, for a limited time, to those he chooses to represent him in the work of governing.

Most important of all, Peter taught that in religious matters each one is his own priest, a member of “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 2:5)

Peter furthermore expressly forbids the ministers of the Christian religion to lord it over the flock. He exhorts them as elders, as he himself is just an elder, not to use force in the ordering of things within the church. How then can the Pope of Rome, who claims to be Peter’s successor, consider himself an autocratic king in temporal affairs and the sole mouthpiece of God on earth? The history of the Popes is in direct contradiction to the teaching of Peter. Instead of following Peter, the Popes have imitated the Caesars of the Roman empire and the Pontifex Maximus of the pagan religion of Rome, whose title they appropriated. They have always supported tyrannical monarchs and brutal dictators who oppressed the people, who are true priests and kings in the Christian sense. They have killed this right of the people by condemning it as “socialism” and “communism.” No doubt, if Peter were on earth today, the Pope would brand him too as a Communist — and a Jewish Communist at that.