[FactQuest]

"Whose sins YOU forgive, they are forgiven them, whose sins YOU retain, they are retained." (St. John 20.23)

Jesus said this to the 12. Okay, actually, just the 10, Judas was gone, and Thomas wasn't present. So, how is it we make the leap from there to anyone else? And, if we somehow find valid, scriptural grounds to decide we can extend this promise to others, why just RCC Popes? Why not everybody? Or at least all Christian leaders?

It seems clear this was meant for the 11, and the 11 alone, Thomas' absense notwithstanding. We can't automatically extend every promise given to the apostles.

[conservonator]

We can't automatically extend every promise given to the apostles.

Why not? Or more precisely, which promises are extended and which are not? By what authority do you make such a pronouncement?

[Campion]

So, how is it we make the leap from there to anyone else?

We look at what the Apostles did, and said, and what the early Church believed. The Apostles' powers of preaching, teaching, and administering the Sacraments were given to their successors, the bishops. See 2 Timothy 2:2 for an early example.

We have instructions already from the early 3rd century on how to choose a good confessor. So if the 3rd century church thought that that power was passed down from the Apostles to their own time, why should we go with your assertion that it wasn't, 17 centuries after the fact?