Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. (Acts 8:14, NRSV)
This is an important text for those who interact with Roman Catholics, especially on the authority of Peter and how it relates to the later dogmatic teachings of Catholicism thereof. Why? According to Vatican I, after the resurrection, a singularly unique authority was bestowed upon the person of Peter and he was the chief apostle, not a “first among equals” as Latter-day Saints and others would accept. Notwithstanding, this text shows that Peter was not the supreme leader of the Church; instead, he held a subordinate authority to that of the rest of the apostolic band as they send him to Samaria, showing a functional subordination of Peter to the rest of the apostles. As Joseph Fitzmyer notes:
they sent Peter and John to the people there. Peter and John are sent by “the apostles,” i.e., the Twelve; they are thus the emissaries of the apostles. The verb apostellein is used, implying an official mission, as Jesus “sent” the Twelve and other disciples out on missions (Luke 9:2; 10:1). As earlier (Acts 3:1-11; 4:13, 19), John is Peter’s silent partner. (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary [AB 31; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1998], 405)
This is in stark contrast to the dogmatic teachings of Catholicism. As Pastor Aeternus (1870) dogmatically stated:
WE therefore teach and declare that, according to the testimony of the Gospel, the primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church of GOD was immediately and directly promised and given to Blessed Peter the Apostle by CHRIST the LORD For it was to Simon alone, to whom He had already said: “Thou shalt be called Cephas,” that the LORD, after the confession made by him, saying, “Thou art the CHRIST, the Son of the living GOD,” addressed these solemn words, “Blessed art thou, Simon, Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but My Father, who is in heaven. And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” And it was upon Simon alone that JESUS after His resurrection bestowed the jurisdiction of Chief Pastor and Ruler over all His fold in the words, “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep.” At open variance with this clear doctrine of Holy Scripture, as it has ever been understood by the Catholic Church, are the perverse opinions of those who, while they distort the form of government established by CHIRST the LORD in His Church, deny that Peter in his simple person preferably to all the other Apostles, whether taken separately or together, was endowed by CHRIST with a true and proper primacy of jurisdiction; or of those who assert that the same primacy was not bestowed immediately and directly upon Blessed Peter himself, but upon the Church, and through the Church on Peter as her minister.
If anyone, therefore, shall say that Blessed Peter the Apostle was not appointed the Prince of the Apostles and the visible head of the whole Church militant, or that the same directly and immediately received from the same our LORD JESUS CHRIST a primacy of honour only, and not of true and proper jurisdiction; let him be anathema. (The Decrees of the Vatican Council [ed. Vincent McNabb; New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1907], 36-38)
