Continuity (Peter is Dead, Long Live Peter!)

             

He chose therefore His Apostles, and after infusing into their minds by the power of the Holy Ghost, the gifts in harmony with their high calling, “Go ye into the world,” He told them, “and preach the Gospel.” Their preaching renewed the face of the earth. For if the religion of Christ has withdrawn the minds of men from errors of every kind to the truth, and won their hearts from the degradation of vice to the excellence and beauty of every virtue, assuredly it has done so by means of that very preaching. (Benedict XV: On Preaching)

We read that Christ commanded not only Peter, whose chair We occupy, but all the Apostles whose successors you are: “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” From the fact that the Roman Pontiff has entrusted to you and to your assistants the task of preaching the Christian religion to pagan nations, you ought not to conclude that the role of the native clergy is merely one of assisting the missionaries in minor matters, of merely following up and completing their work. What, We ask, is the true object of these holy missions if it be not this, that the Church of Christ be founded and established in these boundless regions? (Pius XI: On the Missions)