ok im not gonna lie im not to eductated on th subject of the pope. mostly im just wondering about his basic functions? and has there ever been any sort of scandle surrounding the pope or pope like people?

a-sassy-black-lady :

First, I am trying to get into the habit of calling the "Roman Catholic Church" just the "Roman Denomination". Technically, "catholic" means "universal", and I wish to emphasize that I do not believe the teachings of their denominations are 100% correct. Also, I am not Roman, but I attend a Roman school in Houston where I learn lots of theology and philosophy.

The pope is "the visible head of the visible Church", according to their catechism (book of basic teachings). The Church is divided into two sections, those alive (visible Church) and those dead (invisible Church). The pope, in the absence of Christ himself, leads the visible until the return of Jesus on the Last Day.

His basic function is leadership. For example, Pope Francis recently instructed the Romans to stop solely focusing on homosexuality and abortion. There is more to the Roman denomination than the condemnation of homosexual activity and abortion (although Francis still totally agrees that both are immoral). So, most of the Romans take his words to heart and are exploring other means to promote their denomination.

There are regularly scandals surrounding the pope or the cardinals (next guys in line). The ongoing scandal (since the 60s/70s) is about pedophilic activities of the priests. In the 1500s, the Borgia family dominated the papacy as a form of political power. In 1550s, Protestantism began denying the authority of the papacy. In 1045, the Romans and the Easterns (my terminology for the Orthodox churches) split due to the papacy.