What Is a Pope?

From Bishop Anthony Fisher, a Dominican in Australia:

From the earliest times the role of the papacy has been this: to be the authentic witness to Jesus Christ “the Son of the Living God” and to His Gospel of life and love, of truth and goodness, of beauty and glory; to be, as binder and looser, the teacher and guarantor that what we receive we receive from Christ; to be also chief shepherd of the flock of Christ, a pastor who tends faithful in needs, feeding as much binding and loosing; to be a principle of continuity-in-change and on unity-in-diversity; to be servant of the servants of God.