[ديار]

“Jesus established here on earth only one Church and instituted it as a visible and spiritual community
that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in
which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted. […] This Church, constituted and
organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter
and the Bishops in communion with him.”
The Pope believes not even the imperfections and sins of some Catholic leaders in the past and present
(we could all enumerate many) have been able to eliminate the “apostolic succession” (or authority
received from Jesus, as head of the Church) passed on from the apostles to the bishops.