Institute of Catholic Culture

In the year 1054 A.D., Roman legates traveled to the ancient city of Constantinople in hopes of healing the strained relations between the Roman Pontiff and the Patriarch of the Greeks. However, the mutual excommunications which followed would rend the Church for a thousand years.

From the Great Schism of 1054 to the Protestant Revolution of the 16th century, from the Avignon Papacy to the French Revolution, and from the collapse of the Papal States to the aftermath of Vatican II, the story of the Church of the second millennium is one of tragedy and triumph.

From the Great Schism of 1054 to the Protestant Revolution of the 16th century, from the Avignon Papacy to the French Revolution, and from the collapse of the Papal States to the aftermath of Vatican II, the story of the Church of the second millennium is one of tragedy and triumph.

“This authority [of the popes] is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven.’ Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God. … Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”- Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (1302)

"When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels'; and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."- Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46

“This authority [of the popes] is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven.’ Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God. … Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”- Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (1302)

“This authority [of the popes] is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven.’ Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God. … Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”- Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam (1302)

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me."– Saint Patrick

On April 29, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI placed his own pallium, the sign of his episcopal authority, on the tomb of Pope Celestine V, the only man ever to abdicate the throne of Peter and the last pope of that name. On that occasion, Pope Benedict announced the “Year of Pope Celestine.” Why? Learn about these two unique Popes in two different ages, both in battle for the life of the Church in the face of the onslaught of humanistic secularism.

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me."– Saint Patrick