Leo XIII against Leo XIV on Synodal Church

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Leo XIII against Leo XIV on Synodal Church – Part I
Only Peter Holds the Supreme Power

TIA | August 9, 2025

Pope Leo XIV says that he takes his name and inspiration from Pope Leo XIII. This does not conform with the new Pope's agenda of continuing to enforce a Synodal Church. Indeed, Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Satis cognitum on the unity of the Catholic Church, teaches precisely the opposite.

We plan to bring to the attention of our readers on Saturdays for four consecutive weeks some decisive texts of that Encyclical in which the contradiction with the agenda of the Synodal Church is flagrant.

In the excerpt below Leo XIII teaches the perennial doctrine of the Church on the supremacy of the authority of the Pope over the entire Catholic Church.

Pope Leo XIII

Rightly, therefore, does St. Leo the Great say: "From the whole world Peter alone is chosen to take the lead in calling all nations, to be the head of all the Apostles and of all the Fathers of the Church. So that, although in the people of God there are many priests and many pastors Peter should by right rule all of those over whom Christ Himself is the chief ruler" (Sermo iv., cap. 2).

And so St. Gregory the Great, writing to the Emperor Maurice Augustus, says: "It is evident to all who know the Gospel that the charge of the whole Church was committed to St. Peter, the Apostle and Prince of all the Apostles, by the word of the Lord... Behold! He hath received the keys of the heavenly kingdom – the power of binding and loosing is conferred upon him: the care of the whole government of the Church is confided to him" (Epist. lib. v., Epist. xx).

It was necessary that a government of this kind, since it belongs to the constitution and formation of the Church, as its principal element – that is as the principle of unity and the foundation of lasting stability – should in no wise come to an end with St. Peter, but should pass to his successors from one to another. "There remains, therefore, the ordinance of truth, and St. Peter, persevering in the strength of the rock which he had received, hath not abandoned the government of the Church which had been confided to him" (S. Leo M., sermo iii., cap. 3).

For this reason the Pontiffs who succeed Peter in the Roman Episcopate receive the supreme power in the church, jure divino. "We define," declare the Fathers of the Council of Florence, "that the Holy and Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold the primacy of the Church throughout the whole world: and that the same Roman Pontiff is the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the true Vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that full power was given to him, in Blessed Peter, by Our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, to rule, and to govern the universal Church, as is also contained in the acts of oecumenical councils and in the sacred canons" (Conc. Florentinum).

Similarly the Fourth Council of Lateran declares: "The Roman Church, as the mother and mistress of all the faithful, by the will of Christ obtains primacy of jurisdiction over all other Churches." These declarations were preceded by the consent of antiquity which ever acknowledged, without the slightest doubt or hesitation, the Bishops of Rome, and revered them, as the legitimate successors of St. Peter.

Leo XIII, Satis cognitum, §§ 12,13

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Leo XIII against Leo XIV on Synodal Church – Part II
Peter Alone Is the Church’s Foundation

TIA [Emphasis in the original] | August 16, 2025

We continue today to bring to our readers’ attention another excerpt from Satis cognitum, the Encyclical by Pope Leo XIII that dealt with the unity of the Catholic Church. In today’s text it becomes clear that although the Bishops have their own power, its source is the power that Our Lord conferred upon St. Peter.

This document shows clearly that there is no place for the doctrine of a Synodal Church in which the supreme power in the Catholic Church would belong to the Bishops and the Pope, with the shared role as part of the nature of this power.

Pope Leo XIII

But since the successor of Peter is one, and those of the Apostles are many, it is necessary to examine into the relations which exist between him and them according to the divine constitution of the Church. Above all things the need of union between the bishops and the successors of Peter is clear and undeniable. This bond once broken, Christians would be separated and scattered, and would in no wise form one body and one flock.

"The safety of the Church depends on the dignity of the chief priest, to whom if an extraordinary and supreme power is not given, there are as many schisms to be expected in the Church as there are priests" (S. Hieronymus, Dialog, contra Luciferianos, n. 9). It is necessary, therefore, to bear this in mind, viz., that nothing was conferred on the Apostles apart from Peter, but that several things were conferred upon Peter apart from the Apostles.

St. John Chrysostom in explaining the words of Christ asks: "Why, passing over the others, does He speak to Peter about these things?" And he replies unhesitatingly and at once, "Because he was pre-eminent among the Apostles, the mouthpiece of the Disciples, and the head of the college" (Hom. 88. in Joan., n. I). He alone was designated as the foundation of the Church. To him He gave the power of binding and loosing; to him alone was given the power of feeding.

On the other hand, whatever authority and office the Apostles received, they received in conjunction with Peter. "If the divine benignity willed anything to be in common between him and the other princes, whatever He did not deny to the others He gave only through him. So, that whereas Peter alone received many things, He conferred nothing on any of the rest without Peter participating in it." (S. Leo M. Sermo iv., cap. 2)

From this it must be clearly understood that Bishops are deprived of the right and power of ruling, if they deliberately secede from Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must rest. They are therefore outside the edifice itself; and for this very reason they are separated from the fold, whose leader is the Chief Pastor; they are exiled from the Kingdom, the keys of which were given by Christ to Peter alone.

These things enable us to see the heavenly ideal, and the divine exemplar, of the constitution of the Christian commonwealth, namely: When the Divine Founder decreed that the Church should be one in faith, in government, and in communion, He chose Peter and his successors as the principle and centre, as it were, of this unity. Wherefore St. Cyprian says: "The following is a short and easy proof of the faith. The Lord saith to Peter: 'I say to thee thou art Peter'; on him alone He buildeth His Church; and although after His Resurrection He gives a similar power to all the Apostles and says: 'As the Father hath sent me,' &c., still in order to make the necessary unity clear, by His own authority He laid down the source of that unity as beginning from one" (De Unit. Eccl., n. 4).

Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis cognitum, §§ 14,15