MC Chris
Christopher Brendan Ward, better known by his stage name MC Chris, is an American nerdcore rapper, voice actor, improvisational comedian and writer. Associated with the genre of nerdcore hip hop, his trademarks include the high pitch of his voice and the combination of his "geek" heritage with the "gangster" image associated with most hip hop artists, he has released ten albums, five EPs, one re-release and a tenth anniversary edition of his recordings with The Lee Majors. Ward was born in Illinois, he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Ward has appeared on, worked behind the scenes on and contributed original lyrics to, many of Williams Street Studios' shows on Adult Swim, most notably Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he worked as a production assistant and starred as the character MC Pee Pants in the episodes "MC Pee Pants", "Sir Loin", "The Last One" and "Little Brittle", as well as the young Carl in episode 18. He reprised the role of MC Pee Pants in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters and in the PlayStation 2 video game Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am.
Ward had a role in Sealab 2021, as a writer and as the recurring character Hesh Hepplewhite, as well as the twins who play Dolphin Boy in a behind-the-scenes type of episode. He worked as a production assistant and writer for The Brak Show and voiced a character on the episode "Brakstreet", he was a contributing writer for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast with a cameo in the episode "Baffler Meal", voiced Ward Willoughby in the 2002 pilot for Welcome to Eltingville. In October 2004, he announced his resignation from Cartoon Network on his blog to focus on his recording career, he made his return to Adult Swim in the form of a red Gummi bear by the name of Gummi on the show Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge. He will be working on a new cartoon called The mc chris Cartoon, plans to work in conjunction with the creators of Metalocalypse, although it will not air on Cartoon Network. Since August 2010, he has created the theme songs for several of the SModcast Internet Radio programs, including those for the original SModcast, [Blow Hard, Bagged & Boarded, Jay & Silent Bob Get Old.
Ward performed with The Lee Majors. While he is one of the artists most associated with the genre of nerdcore hip hop, he has been hesitant to accept the nerdcore label for most of his career, preferring to describe his style as "mc chris music" as well as expressing concern over limiting himself to such a narrow audience and subject matter, he has lashed out at the media for focusing more on the nerdcore scene than his music, as well as the nerdcore community as a whole. Despite these issues, he has periodically apologized to those in the nerdcore community for the aforementioned conflicts and has appeared in news stories dealing with nerd culture and nerdcore, he has done more than apologizing. It's embarrassing how I used to think I was the only one playing with'Star Wars' toys and making music, it just wasn't true. I have no problem with the label now." He self-releases with no record label. In 2012, Ward forcibly ejected a fan from the audience at his show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for posting a critical comment on Twitter about Ward's opening act, Richie Branson.
After receiving criticism from fans for the incident, Ward apologized in an online video. The fan complained on Reddit that he was humiliated by the experience. Life's a Bitch and I'm Her Pimp Knowing Is Half the Hassle Eating's Not Cheating Dungeon Master of Ceremonies MC Chris Is Dead MC Chris Goes To Hell Race Wars Foreverrr MC Chris Is Dreaming MC Chris Is Good Music Marshmellow Playground Marshmellow Campground The New York University 8-Track Discography 10th Anniversary Edition Apple Tummy Apple Bum Apple Lung Part Six Part One Part Six Part Two Part Six Part Three Friends Kickstape Foes Official website Chris Ward on IMDb TV.com entry for Chris Ward Slashdot Interview FilmForce Interview Interview From September 2005 Interview from April 2008 on Deviant Nation mc chris on The Grave Plot Podcast
Game show
A game show is a type of radio, television, or stage show in which contestants, individually or as teams, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles for money or prizes. Alternatively, a gameshow can be a demonstrative program about a game. In the former, contestants may be invited from a pool of public applicants. Game shows reward players with prizes such as cash and goods and services provided by the show's sponsor prize suppliers. Game shows began to appear on television in the late 1930s; the first television game show, Spelling Bee, as well as the first radio game show, Information Please, were both broadcast in 1938. Q. a radio quiz show that began in 1939. Truth or Consequences was the first game, its first episode aired in 1941 as an experimental broadcast. Over the course of the 1950s, as television began to pervade the popular culture, game shows became a fixture. Daytime game shows would be played for lower stakes to target stay-at-home housewives. Higher-stakes programs would air in primetime.
During the late 1950s, high-stakes games such as Twenty-One and The $64,000 Question began a rapid rise in popularity. However, the rise of quiz shows proved to be short-lived. In 1959, many of the higher stakes game shows were discovered to be rigged and ratings declines led to most of the primetime games being canceled. An early variant of the game show, the panel game, survived. On shows like What's My Line?, I've Got A Secret, To Tell the Truth, panels of celebrities would interview a guest in an effort to determine some fact about them. Panel games had success in primetime until the late 1960s, when they were collectively dropped from television because of their perceived low budget nature. Panel games made a comeback in American daytime television in the 1970s through comedy-driven shows such as Match Game and Hollywood Squares. In the UK, commercial demographic pressures were not as prominent, restrictions on game shows made in the wake of the scandals limited the style of games that could be played and the amount of money that could be awarded.
Panel have continued to thrive. The focus on quick-witted comedians has resulted in strong ratings, combined with low costs of production, have only spurred growth in the UK panel show phenomenon. Game shows remained a fixture of US daytime television through the 1960s after the quiz show scandals. Lower-stakes games made a slight comeback in daytime in the early 1960s. Let's Make a Deal began in 1963 and the 1960s marked the debut of Hollywood Squares, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game. Though CBS gave up on daytime game shows in 1968, the other networks did not follow suit. Color television was introduced to the game show genre in the late 1960s on all three networks; the 1970s saw a renaissance of the game show as new games and massive upgrades to existing games made debuts on the major networks. The New Price Is Right, an update of the 1950s-era game show The Price Is Right, debuted in 1972 and marked CBS's return to the game show format in its effort to draw wealthier, suburban viewers; the Match Game became "Big Money" Match Game 73, which proved popular enough to prompt a spin-off, Family Feud, on ABC in 1976.
The $10,000 Pyramid and its numerous higher-stakes derivatives debuted in 1973, while the 1970s saw the return of disgraced producer and host Jack Barry, who debuted The Joker's Wild and a clean version of the rigged Tic-Tac-Dough in the 1970s. Wheel of Fortune debuted on NBC in 1975; the Prime Time Access Rule, which took effect in 1971, barred networks from broadcasting in the 7–8 p.m. time slot preceding prime time, opening up time slots for syndicated programming. Most of the syndicated programs were "nighttime" adaptations of network daytime game shows; these game shows aired once a week, but by the late 1970s and early 1980s most of the games had transitioned to five days a week. Game shows were the lowest priority of television networks and were rotated out every thirteen weeks if unsuccessful. Most tapes were destroyed until the early 1980s. Over the course of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as fewer new hits were produced, game shows lost their permanent place in the daytime lineup. ABC transitioned out of the daytime game show format in the mid-1980s.
NBC's game block lasted until 1991, but the network attempted to bring them back in 1993 before cancelling its game show block again in 1994. CBS phased out most of its game shows, except for The Price Is Right, by 1993. To the benefit of the genre, the moves of Wheel of Fortune and a modernized revival of Jeopardy! to syndication in 1983 and 1984 was and remains successful. Cable television allowed for the debut of game shows such as Supermarket Sweep, Trivial Pursuit and Family Challenge, Double Dare, it opened up a underdeveloped ma
Catholic liturgy
This is an article about liturgy in the Catholic Church. For liturgical practices in other churches, see Liturgy. In the Catholic Church, liturgy is divine worship, the proclamation of the Gospel, active charity; as explained in greater detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its shorter Compendium, the liturgy is something that "the whole Christ", Head and Body, celebrates — Christ, the one High Priest, together with his Body, the Church in heaven and on earth. Involved in the heavenly liturgy are the angels and the saints of the Old Covenant and the New, in particular Mary, the Mother of God, the Apostles, the Martyrs and "a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues"; the Church on earth, "a royal priesthood", celebrates the liturgy in union with these: the baptized offering themselves as a spiritual sacrifice, the ordained ministers celebrating at the service of all the members of the Church in accordance with the order received, bishops and priests acting in the person of Christ.
The Catholic liturgy uses signs and symbols whose significance, based on nature or culture, has been made more precise through Old Testament events and has been revealed in the person and life of Christ. Some of these signs and symbols come from the world of creation, others from life in society, others from Old Testament sacred history; these signs are linked with words. Though in a sense the signs speak for themselves, they need to be accompanied and vivified by the spoken word. Taken together and action indicate what the rite signifies and effects. Sacraments in the Catholic Church are efficacious signs, perceptible to the senses, of grace. According to the Church's theology, they have been instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, through them divine life is bestowed on us, they are means by which Christ gives the particular grace indicated by the sign aspect of the sacrament in question, helping the individual to advance in holiness, contributing to the Church' s growth in charity and in giving witness.
Not every individual receives every sacrament, but the Catholic Church sees the sacraments as necessary means of salvation for the faithful, conferring each sacrament's particular grace, whether forgiveness of sins, adoption as children of God, confirmation to Christ and the Church. The effect of the sacraments comes ex opere operato. Regardless of the personal holiness of the minister administering the sacraments, Christ provides the graces of which they are signs. However, a recipient's own lack of proper disposition to receive the grace conveyed can block their effectiveness in that person; the sacraments presuppose faith and, in addition, their words and ritual elements nourish and give expression to faith. There are seven Sacraments: Baptism Eucharist Confirmation Penance called Confession and Reconciliation Anointing of the Sick called Extreme Unction and Last Rites Holy Orders Matrimony Singing and music Gregorian chant, are associated with the liturgy; the Gregorian chant called cantilena Romana, has been, since its codification, remains the official music of the Latin Rite Catholic Liturgy, prescribed by Church documents to be given "pride of place" in Her liturgies.
This form of music of the Church is contained in the Sacramentary Roman Missal as well as the chant books, e.g. graduale Romanum, liber cantualis. Other Rites within the Catholic Church, have their own forms of chant which are proper to their Divine Liturgies. Gregorian chant provides the Latin Church with a musical identity, like the ancient Liturgical language and still provides Her Liturgies with a unifying element as Her catholicity has become more apparent, via the international travel of recent popes, worldwide media originating in the Vatican, etc. Associated with the liturgy are sacred images, which proclaim the same message as do the words of Sacred Scripture sung to the sacred melodies of the chant, which help to awaken and nourish faith. In addition to the sacraments, instituted by Christ, there are many sacramentals, sacred signs that derive their power from the prayer of the Church, they involve prayer accompanied by the sign of other signs. Important examples are blessings, consecrations of persons, dedications of objects to the worship of God.
Popular devotions are not part of the liturgy, but if they are judged to be authentic, the Church encourages them. They include veneration of relics of saints, visits to sacred shrines, processions, the Stations of the Cross, Holy Hours, Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary. In its devotion the Church makes a distinction between respectful veneration on one hand and adoration or worship on the other. Adoration is due to God alone - this includes the Eucharist, since Christ is present. Veneration of an image or relic of a saint is defined as respect paid to what is represented in the image, not the image itself. Sunday, which commemorates the resurrection of Christ and has been celebrated by Christians from the earliest times (1 Corinthians 16:2.
Papal Mass
A Papal Mass is the Solemn Pontifical High Mass celebrated by the Pope. It is celebrated on such occasions as a papal coronation, an ex cathedra pronouncement, the canonization of a saint, on Easter or Christmas or other major feast days; until the 1960s, there were numerous special ceremonials. Many have fallen out of use. A papal Mass celebrated in the early 20th century, before the liturgical reforms of Popes Pius X and Paul VI, took this form: In the papal Mass a cardinal-bishop acted as assistant priest. Cardinal-deacons acted as assistant deacons. An auditor of the Sacra Rota served as subdeacon. There were a Greek-Catholic deacon and subdeacon, vested according to the Byzantine Rite; the other offices were filled by the assistants to the pontifical throne, the members of the prelatical colleges, etc. Before the beginning of the ceremony, the pope was vested in the falda, alb, pectoral cross, a long cope known as the "mantum"; the papal tiara was placed on his head. The pope's solemn entry into St. Peter's Basilica was accompanied by the Silveri Symphony, a fanfare played on the trumpets of the Noble Guard.
The entrance procession was headed by the cardinals, bishops and those who composed the pontifical capella, vested according to their rank and in their prescribed order of precedence. A thurifer and seven acolytes accompanied the cross-bearer, the apostolic subdeacon carried the Gospel Book. At the end of the procession the pope was carried into the basilica on the sedia gestatoria and with the two flabella borne on either side, he was accompanied by an entourage which included the Swiss Guards in their colorful uniforms and members of the Roman nobility in formal court dress. At times, a canopy was carried above his head. Two protonotaries apostolic raised the front of the falda as the pope walked to and from the sedia, two papal chamberlains carried the train; the dean of the Rota carried the jewelled mitre, two patriarchs or archbishops carried the book and bugia respectively. The pope was received at the door by the Canons of St. Peter's, he knelt leaning on a faldstool, to adore the Blessed Sacrament.
Fittingly, this took place at the St. Gregory's Altar in St. Peter's, he went to the small throne for the chanting of Terce, during which he received the obedience of the cardinals and abbots. While the psalms of Terce were being chanted, he read the prayers of preparation for Mass, during which his buskins and papal slippers were put on, he sang the prayer of Terce. After Terce, his outer vestments were removed, leaving only the falda, amice and cincture; the pope washed his hands, put on the following vestments, assisted by the deacon: sub-cinctorium pectoral cross fanon — a two piece vestment worn only by the pope during Solemn High Mass, with the two pieces connected only by a central buttonhole. It resembled a shoulder cape with alternating stripes of gold. Stole tunicle dalmatic episcopal gloves chasuble fanon — The upper piece was pulled out from under the other vestments, was worn over the chasuble and under the pallium; the lower piece remained under the other vestments. Pallium mitre episcopal ring He gave the kiss of peace to the last three of the cardinal-priests.
The Mass proceeded according to the order of a solemn pontifical high Mass with the following differences: At the Confiteor, the cardinal bishop stood to the right of the pope, the cardinal deacon to the left, with the other ministers behind. The pope put on the maniple; the Pope wore a special maniple intertwined with red and gold threads, symbolizing the unity of the Eastern and Western rites of the Catholic Church. After the first censing, the cardinal deacons kissed the pope on cheek and breast, the Pontiff retired to the throne before the Chair of Saint Peter in the apse; the senior deacon, who wore a mitre, facing the throne. The Epistle was sung first in Latin by the apostolic subdeacon and in Greek by the Byzantine Rite subdeacon, following the ritual of the Greek Church. After the Epistle, the two subdeacons kissed the feet of the pope; the Gospel was chanted first in Latin by the cardinal-deacon and in Greek by the Eastern Rite deacon. The Latin Gospel was accompanied by the Greek Gospel by two.
After the Gospel both Gospel books were brought to the pope. While elevating the Host and the chalice the pope turned in a half circle towards the Epistle and Gospel sides as the "Silveri Symphony" was played on the trumpets of the Noble Guard. Eight prelates held torches for the elevation, but no sanctus bell was used at any time in a papal Mass, it was customary for some of the bread and wine used at the Mass to be consumed, as a precaution against poison or invalid matter, by the sacristan and the cup-bearer in the presence of the pope, first at the offertory and again before the Pater noster in a short ceremony called the praegusta
Liturgy
Liturgy is the customary public worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activity reflecting praise, supplication or repentance, it forms a basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy. Technically liturgy forms a subset of ritual; the word liturgy, sometimes equated in English as "service", refers to a formal ritual, which may or may not be elaborate, enacted by those who understand themselves to be participating in a action with the divine. Not every religious ritual is a liturgy. A daily activity such as the Muslim salah and Jewish synagogue services would be ritual but not liturgy; the word liturgy, derived from the technical term in ancient Greek, which means "work of the people" is a literal translation of the two words "litos ergos" or "public service". In origin it signified the expensive offerings wealthy Greeks made in service to the people, thus to the polis and the state.
Through the leitourgia, the rich carried a financial burden and were correspondingly rewarded with honours and prestige. The leitourgia were assigned by the polis, the State and Roman Empire and became obligatory in the course of the 3rd century A. D; the performance of such supported the patron's standing among the popular at large. The holder of a Hellenic leitourgia was not taxed a specific sum, but was entrusted with a particular ritual, which could be performed with greater or lesser magnificence; the chief sphere remained that of civic religion, embodied in the festivals: M. I. Finley notes "in Demosthenes' day there were at least 97 liturgical appointments in Athens for the festivals, rising to 118 in a Panathenaic year." However groups of rich citizens were assigned to pay for expenses such as civic amenities and payment of warships. Under the Roman Empire, such obligations, known as munera, devolved into a competitive and ruinously expensive burden, avoided when possible; these included a wide range of expenses having to do with civic infrastructure and amenities.
Buddhist liturgy is a formalized service of veneration and worship performed within a Buddhist Sangha community in nearly every traditional denomination and sect in the Buddhist world. It is done once or more times a day and can vary among the Theravada and Vajrayana sects; the liturgy consists of chanting or reciting a sutra or passages from a sutras, a mantra, several gathas. Depending on what practice the practitioner wishes to undertake, it can be done at a temple or at home; the liturgy is always performed in front of an object or objects of veneration and accompanied by offerings of light, incense and food. Jewish liturgy are the prayer recitations; these prayers with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book. In general, Jewish men are obligated to pray three times a day within specific time ranges. While, according to the Talmud, women are only required to pray once daily, as they are exempted from obligations that are time dependent. Traditionally, three prayer services are recited daily: Shacharit or Shaharit, from the Hebrew shachar or shahar "morning light", Mincha or Minha, the afternoon prayers named for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, Arvit or Maariv, from "nightfall".
Additional prayers: Musaf are recited by Orthodox and Conservative congregations on Shabbat, major Jewish holidays, Rosh Chodesh. A fifth prayer service, Ne'ila, is recited only on the Day of Atonement. In Christianity, a distinction is made between "liturgical" and "non-liturgical" churches based on how elaborate or antiquated the worship. Others object to this usage, arguing that this terminology obscures the universality of public worship as a religious phenomenon, thus the open or waiting worship of Quakers is liturgical, since the waiting itself until the Holy Spirit moves individuals to speak is a prescribed form of Quaker worship, sometimes referred to as "the liturgy of silence". In Christianity, the term "the liturgy" refers to a standardised order of events observed during a religious service, be it a sacramental service or a service of public prayer. In the Catholic tradition, liturgy is the participation of the people in the work of God, the saving work of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy, Christ continues the work of redemption.
The term "liturgy" in Greek means "work for the people", but a better translation is "public service" or "public work", as made clear from the origin of the term as described above. The early Christians adopted the word to describe their principal act of worship, the Sunday service; this service, liturgy, or ministry is a duty for Christians as a priestly people by their baptism into Christ and participation
Heckler
A heckler is a person who harasses and tries to disconcert others with questions, challenges, or gibes. Hecklers are known to shout disparaging comments at a performance or event, or to interrupt set-piece speeches, with the intent of disturbing performers and/or participants. Although the word heckler, which originated from the textile trade, was first attested in the mid-15th century, the sense "person who harasses" was from 1885. To heckle was to tease or comb out flax or hemp fibres; the additional meaning, to interrupt speakers with awkward or embarrassing questions, was added in Scotland, perhaps in early nineteenth century Dundee, a famously radical town where the hecklers who combed the flax had established a reputation as the most radical and belligerent element in the workforce. In the heckling factory, one heckler would read out the day's news while the others worked, to the accompaniment of interruptions and furious debate. Heckling was a major part of the vaudeville theater. Sometimes it was incorporated into the play.
Milton Berle's weekly TV variety series in the 1960s featured a heckler named Sidney Spritzer played by Borscht Belt comic Irving Benson. In the 1970s and 1980s, The Muppet Show, built around a vaudeville theme, featured two hecklers, Statler & Waldorf. Heckles are now likely to be heard at comedy performances, to unsettle or compete with the performer. Politicians speaking before live audiences have less latitude to deal with hecklers; such conduct may constitute protected free speech. Strategically, coarse or belittling retorts to hecklers entail personal risk disproportionate to any gain; some politicians, have been known to improvise a relevant and witty response despite these pitfalls. One acknowledged expert at this was Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister in the 1960s: Heckler: What about Vietnam? Wilson: The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam. Heckler: Rubbish! Wilson: I'll come to your special interest in a minute, sir. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech was a response to supporter Mahalia Jackson interrupting his prepared speech to shout "Tell them about the dream, Martin".
At that point, King stopped reading from his prepared speech and improvised the remainder of the speech - this improvised portion of the speech is the best-known part of the speech and rated as one of the best of all time. During a campaign stop just before winning the Presidency in 1980, Ronald Reagan was heckled by an audience member who kept interrupting him during a speech. Reagan tried to go on with his speech three times, but after being interrupted yet again glared at the heckler and snapped "Aw, shut up!" The audience gave him a standing ovation. In 1992, then-Presidential candidate Bill Clinton was interrupted by Bob Rafsky, a member of the AIDS activism group ACT UP, who accused him of "dying of ambition to be president" during a rally. After becoming visibly agitated, Clinton took the microphone off the stand, pointed to the heckler and directly responded to him by saying, " I have treated you and all of the other people who have interrupted my rallies with a hell of a lot more respect than you treated me.
And it's time to start thinking about that!" Clinton was met with raucous applause. One modern political approach to discourage heckling is to ensure that major events are given before a "tame" audience of sympathizers, or conducted to allow restrictions on who may remain on the premises; the downside is this may make heckling incidents more newsworthy. This happened to Tony Blair during a photo op visit to a hospital during the 2001 general election campaign, again in 2003 during a speech. In 2004, American Vice President Dick Cheney was interrupted mid-speech by Perry Patterson, a middle-aged mother in a pre-screened rally audience. After various supportive outbursts that were permitted, Patterson uttered "No, no, no, no" and was removed from the speech area and told to leave, she refused, was arrested for criminal trespass. In 2005, Cheney received some heckling, broadcast during his trip to New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area; the heckling occurred during a press conference in Gulfport, Mississippi, in an area, cordoned off for public safety reasons, further secured for the press conference.
Emergency room physician Ben Marble got close enough to the proceedings and could be heard yelling, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney." Cheney continued speaking. The heckle was a reference to Cheney's use of the phrase the previous year, when during a heated exchange with Senator Patrick Joseph Leahy, Vermont, he said "fuck yourself" on the floor of the senate. On 15 October 2005, The Scotsman reported "Iranian ambassador Dr Seyed Mohammed Hossein Adeli... speaking at the annual Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament conference... During his speech to the CND several people were told to leave the room following protests at Iran's human rights record. Several protesters shouted "Fascists" at the organisers of the conference. Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old peace campaigner, forced out of the Labour Party conference last month, was in the audience." Since 2005 heckling of performing artists has become more commonplace in Switzerland. Musicians of Basel and Zurich have become an increasing focus of hecklers.
This shift is perpetrated by foreigners and is met with a positive response by the non-Swiss performers who welcome the audience interaction. On Thursday, 20 April 2006, a heckler from the F
Pope
The pope known as the supreme pontiff, is the Bishop of Rome and ex officio leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. Since 1929, the pope has been head of state of Vatican City, a city-state enclaved within Rome, Italy; the current pope is Francis, elected on 13 March 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI. While his office is called the papacy, the episcopal see and ecclesiastical jurisdiction is called the Holy See, it is the Holy See, the sovereign entity of international law headquartered in the distinctively independent Vatican City State, established by the Lateran Treaty in 1929 between Italy and the Holy See to ensure its temporal and spiritual independence. The primacy of the Bishop of Rome is derived from his role as the apostolic successor to Saint Peter, to whom primacy was conferred by Jesus, giving him the Keys of Heaven and the powers of "binding and loosing", naming him as the "rock" upon which the church would be built; the apostolic see of Rome was founded by Saint Peter and Saint Paul in 1st century, according to Catholic tradition.
The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history. In ancient times the popes helped spread Christianity, intervened to find resolutions in various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of secular importance in Western Europe acting as arbitrators between Christian monarchs. In addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, the defense of human rights. In some periods of history, the papacy, which had no temporal powers, accrued wide secular powers rivaling those of temporal rulers. However, in recent centuries the temporal authority of the papacy has declined and the office is now exclusively focused on religious matters. By contrast, papal claims of spiritual authority have been firmly expressed over time, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra—literally "from the chair"—to issue a formal definition of faith or morals.
Still, the Pope is considered one of the world's most powerful people because of his extensive diplomatic and spiritual influence on 1.3 billion Catholics and beyond, as well as the official representative of the Catholic Church being the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world, with a vast international network of charities. The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century; the earliest record of the use of this title was in regard to the by deceased Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Heraclas of Alexandria. The earliest recorded use of the title "pope" in English dates to the mid-10th century, when it was used in reference to the 7th century Roman Pope Vitalian in an Old English translation of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.
The Catholic Church teaches that the pastoral office, the office of shepherding the Church, held by the apostles, as a group or "college" with Saint Peter as their head, is now held by their successors, the bishops, with the bishop of Rome as their head. Thus, is derived another title by which the pope is known, that of "Supreme Pontiff"; the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus appointed Peter as leader of the Church, the Catholic Church's dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter, in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles. Some historians argue against the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, noting that the episcopal see in Rome can be traced back no earlier than the 3rd century; the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD 180 reflect a belief that Peter "founded and organized" the Church at Rome.
Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter's presence in the early Roman Church. Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the "struggles in our time" and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, "first, the greatest and most just columns", the "good apostles" Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, such as Emperor Constantine's erection of the "Old St. Peter's Basilica" on the location of St. Peter's tomb, as held and given to him by Rome's Christian community, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero, although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches. Episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas.
Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome. In Rome, there were many who claimed to be the rightful bishop, though again Irenaeus stressed the validity of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary Pope Victor I and listed them; some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus and Clement were prominent presbyter-bishops
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