Four Popes: Another Look at Christianity

When people hear the words Christianity and the Pope one understanding is generally determined; that of the Pope in Rome, leader of the Roman Catholic Church. However there are actually several different understandings of these terms and the concept of Papal power. Across the Mediterranean there are four Popes; all recognised as the head of their respective churches:

• The Roman Catholic Pope – Benedict XVI
• The Coptic Orthodox Pope (Based in Egypt) – Shenouda III (The position is currently vacant following Shenouda’s death in 2012)
• The Greek Orthodox Pope (Also based in Egypt) – Theodore II
• The Palmarian Catholic Pope – Gregory XVIII

The simple existence of the four Popes within Christianity illustrates the complicated and dynamic nature of Christianity across the region, and highlights complexities over Papal power and the Pope as head of the Church; forcing us to look deeper into religious leadership. It is a well-known characteristic of Christianity that it is a fractured religion with Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism representing the three main strands which are subsequently fractured further into the many denominations, but the existence of alternative Popes highlights the everyday differences effecting the lives of Christians.

The Pope in Rome, Benedict XVI, is the most well-known of the four leaders both because this role is the oldest Papal seat and because the Roman Catholic Church is the largest of the four churches, with 1.196 billion followers (2010 estimate, Annuario Pontificio). The combination of the age of the organisation and the size of its membership has meant that the influence of the Roman Catholic Pope is beyond comparison in the world of religious leaders. It has also meant that the person occupying this seat of power has an effective monopoly on the term Pope and the collective understanding of religious authority in Mediterranean Christianity.

However both the Coptic and Greek Papacy are also ancient institutions with the first Coptic Orthodox Pope, Mark the Evangelist, coming to power in 43 AD and the Greek Orthodox Pope, Proterius, coming to power in 451 AD. These ancient origins have allowed both churches to develop a complex history predating the systems that currently run the country and maybe this replacement in society by alternative systems, explains why their power has waned while the Catholic Pope has retained his.

In Vatican City, in the heart of Rome, Catholicism has continued to dominate the culture of the country and the religious hierarchy still has an important role to play in the politics of the nation. However in Egypt, where both the Coptic and Greek Popes reside, the Christianity that dominated Roman era Egypt has long been sidelined in favour of Islam, which emerged in the country circa 640 AD. In Egyptian society today Islam is the religion of the state and with the Egyptian President, for the first time, an Islamist, the Muslim grip on the country is tightening.

However the Coptic Orthodox Church does account for 10 per cent of the Egyptian population and this makes the Pope (Shenouda III, until his death in 2012) an incredibly important political figure in Egypt, fighting to retain the Copts role in the country as an alternative culture, as they claim, a culture dating back to ancient Egypt.

The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, like the Coptic Orthodox Church, also claims to protect the interests of Egypt’s and Africa’s Christians and believes its purpose is to maintain the importance of Christianity in the face of growing Islamic power and authority. However the divisions in Egyptian Christianity may further explain why these Popes have not achieved the level of political power as the Pope in Rome. Both leaders claim religious authority over the Christians of Egypt and the lack of a single religious interpretation has undermined their individual power. In contrast the Pope in Rome has relatively little opposition to his authority in Italy and beyond and thus retains religious authority.

Opposition to the Roman Catholic Pope does exist, most notably today from Protestantism and secular society, however there is divergence from their authority in Catholicism and the Palmarian Church, whose leader the fourth Pope, is one of the main opponents. This small, localised church is based in Palmar de Troya, Andalucia, Spain and follows a historic tradition of schismatic, anti-Popes. In the 1970’s the church consecrated its first priests and a today a small clergy and congregation has emerged.

What the existence of four Popes shows is the highly complex nature of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean, the cradle for the origins of Christianity. This complex nature is not a new phenomenon and at one point the Popes had a far more equal power throughout the region, however today it is the Pope in Rome who has come to dominate the phrase, with the Coptic and Greek Orthodox Popes’ power waning in the face of growing Islamic power. As Christianity develop so will the nature of Papal power, with alternatives, such as the Palmarian Pope in Spain, potentially appearing to challenge the dominance the Pope in Rome has over the concept of Papal power.

By Peter Banham