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Skatingraccoon t1_j2eth7l wrote

Catholicism is a form of Christianity. The Pope is the head of the Catholic church and is the one who can interpret the bible. There is a hierarchy or organizational structure to it - under the Pope you'd have Cardinals and under them you'd have Bishops and then Priests (there might be others, don't remember off the top of my head).

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deep_sea2 t1_j2evqmu wrote

One nitpick. The chain of command isn't so much that Cardinals rule over Bishops, but rather that Cardinal is a special title that some Bishops have. The title of Cardinal does not come with any territorial administration. A Cardinal is a bishop that can vote for the Pope.

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surreal_blue t1_j2f0w0i wrote

Nitpick on the nitpick: while a cardinal does not rule over other bishops, there are metropolitan archbishops and suffragan bishops. A metropolitan is the head of an ecclesiastical province and doesn't rule over other bishops as such, but is more like a general overseer and symbolic head of the province.

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deep_sea2 t1_j2far82 wrote

Indeed. No nitpick cannot be picked apart itself.

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