The Pope is not the vicar of Christ on earth. There is no such thing. Some pope declared this of himself, and that is pride. He was fallen. There are hundreds of bishops in the Orthodox Church, and all are equal before God. There are patriarchs and Metropolitans, but they have no more access to God than any other cleric. We do need pastors to help us understand God and his Word, but we do not elevate others to the kind of place the Pope claims for himself. That's not Christianity. Anyone who struggles for holiness can access God, in many different ways. The most humble is the closest, not the one in a grand palace like the Vatican.
The Pope is not the vicar of Christ on earth. There is no such thing. Some pope declared this of himself, and that is pride. He was fallen. There are hundreds of bishops in the Orthodox Church, and all are equal before God. There are patriarchs and Metropolitans, but they have no more access to God than any other cleric. We do need pastors to help us understand God and his Word, but we do not elevate others to the kind of place the Pope claims for himself. That's not Christianity. Anyone who struggles for holiness can access God, in many different ways. The most humble is the closest, not the one in a grand palace like the Vatican.