I am almost ashamed to say this, but just a few days after having to interrupt the daily message in order to move from Lufkin to Houston, where I now reside, I am going away again for one week on a little vacation that was planned before the move had been foreseen for the month of August.

So, this will by the last CDM until September 2, the day after Labor Day, when I’ll be in my new home again.

The gospel reading for today’s Mass is again, as it was recently, that crucial passage in which Our Lord says to Saint Peter: I will give to you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I ask you to think about this tremendously important mandate which Our Savior gives to the fisherman whom Jesus makes the supreme shepherd of his flock on earth. We can never overestimate the importance of this handing over of divine authority to a human being; we can never be sufficiently grateful for, or aware of the value of, this gift which we call the papacy: the role of the Pope as Vicar of Christ and Head of the Church on earth.

The first Pope was Saint Peter; the present Pope is Benedict XVI. How many there will be, we have no idea. But this we know: as long as the world shall last, the Church shall operate. And as long as the Church exists and operates, it will have a Pope, for it will always be built on the Rock of Saint Peter and his successors as Christ intended and brought about. Thank you for seeking God’s truth. God bless you. Father Victor Brown, O.P.