The papacy

The single thread which links the first ages of Christianity to our own times is the essential work of the popes in the different periods in which each was a vicar of Christ. In spite of the schisms in the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, the essential words, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church", conferring on Peter the primacy and the special mission of the Church, have endured as the basic charter of the Church throughout the centuries.