page_title: Papal supremacy
hierarchical_section_title: Papal supremacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Pope Pius IX at the First Vatican Council. It reads: "The great pontiffs" (above), "Pius IX opens the Vatican Council." (below), "Chocolate factory of Aigebelle editions (Drôme)" (all down)
context_page_description: Papal supremacy is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as the visible foundation and source of unity, and as pastor of the entire Catholic Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief, "the Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls."
  The doctrine had the most significance in the relationship between the church and the temporal state, in matters such as ecclesiastic privileges, the actions of monarchs and even successions.
context_section_description: Papal supremacy is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as the visible foundation and source of unity, and as pastor of the entire Catholic Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered: that, in brief, "the Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls."
  The doctrine had the most significance in the relationship between the church and the temporal state, in matters such as ecclesiastic privileges, the actions of monarchs and even successions.
caption: Pius IX opening the First Vatican Council, illustration. It is during this council that papal supremacy was proclaimed a dogma.
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