The True Mission of the Pope

BY POPE LEO XII

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Blessed Peter, Prince of Apostles, and his Successors have been given the power and care of feeding and ruling the flock of Christ, Our God and Savior. Hence, the more grave the evils threatening the flock, the greater the solicitude the Roman Pontiffs ought to employ in preventing them.

Those who have been placed in the topmost watch tower of the Church can discern from afar the artifices which the enemies of the Christian family undertake to destroy the Church of Christ (which they will never achieve); they can point them out and expose them to the faithful, who may then guard against them; they can drive away and remove them by their authority. Our predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs, understanding this most grievous duty imposed upon them, have unceasingly kept the watches of a good shepherd, and by exhortations, doctrines, decrees, and by their very life given for their sheep, have been solicitous about restraining and utterly abolishing the sects threatening the complete ruin of the Church. ■

Taken from Apostolic Constitution Quo Graviora (1826).