"We only need the Pope there is no need for other people to help him."

Some people would say that only the Pope is needed and there is no need for other people to help him. This is because the pope is infallible when he speaks ‘ex cathedra’. He is only possessed of infallibility when he defines a doctrine concerning faith and morals to be held by the whole Church, through the divine assistance promised to him by St Peter. This means he cannot make mistakes so there would be no need for others to help him. Also if he was elected as pope the cardinals would have a lot of faith in him so he should be able to make good decisions about the church alone. Also, having one leader making decisions by himself gives Catholics one central person to look up. This gives the faith one persons view which all Catholics should follow. It also keeps the faith united under one leader.

A strong argument for the pope leading the church without others helping him is the idea of apostolic succession. In the Bible Jesus chooses Peter to be his Rock on which he had chosen to build his church. Peter then became the first bishop of Rome and was accepted as the central authority among all churches. The believe of apostolic succession is that God passed Peter’s apostolic authority to those who later filled his seat as popes of Rome. Therefore through apostolic succession the pope is the leader of the Catholic Church because he occupies the position as the leader of the Catholic Church. This means that the pope was chosen to lead the church himself by Christ.

Since the second Vatican council it was decided that the pope should discuss matters relevant to the church with the cardinals. Some people would agree with this decision, that there is a need for other people to help the pope. The pope needs help from others because the Christian faith is one of the biggest in the world so he cannot manage the faith by himself. The pope should discuss his ideas with the Cardinals because other Catholics views should be considered by the pope to make decisions, because the pope is still human so is liable to make mistakes. Discussing matters with others ensures agreeable decisions are made. A strong argument for the need for other people to help the pope would be that he is still human and is not free from making errors. Therefore the pope should discuss his views to the cardinals and bishops to receive there opinions on his ideas.

In my opinion I believe that there is a need for other people to help the pope. This is because the cardinals have high authority in the Catholic Church. Therefore their views and ideas matter too so they should have discussions with the pope. The pope shouldn’t be making decisions by himself which may not be agreed on by the majority of Catholics. He should be open to all suggestions but should consider and agree with the Cardinals dogmas for the church.