PAPACY. – A synonymous term for the Roman Pontificate, indicating the permanent institution willed by Jesus Christ in the person of St Peter and, through him, in those of his legitimate successors until the end of time, for the purpose of presiding over and governing with full and supreme authority the universal Church.
While the term “Church” refers to the entire body of the faithful gathered under the governance of legitimate pastors, the term “papacy” instead refers to the supreme authority established over the Church itself by divine mandate. To this authority, namely the papacy, belongs indefectibility (see INDEFECTIBILITY) and infallibility (see INFALLIBILITY). By virtue of its universality, that is, of the Primacy (see PRIMACY OF ST PETER AND THE POPE), all the bishops of the world, who govern individual territories and nations, the mission territories and those equivalent to them because the Church of Christ must spread to them, and those religious institutes that, being exempt from diocesan authority, enjoy the privilege of depending directly on the papal authority, are subject to II.
Directly connected with the papacy are those organs necessary for the exercise of its mission, which are situated at the very centre of Christendom: the Congregations (see CONGREGATIONS), and at the periphery the nunciatures, delegations, vicariates and apostolic prefectures.
The history of the Papacy is entirely interwoven with the history of the Church (see CHURCH), though it must always be remembered that in the exercise of its powers a greater or lesser degree of assertion is manifested according to the times and circumstances, and that direct interventions in the internal and external historical events of the Church occur more or less frequently and extensively depending on the needs and possibilities for good presented, without this having ever been able to prescribe the fundamental rights or lend juridical validity to the pretended liberties of any particular nation. For individual popes, see the relevant entries.