The Pope is not a successor of Jesus Christ indeed that would be a great heresy. That is why the Pope is the successor of St Peter, and a vicar of Christ.
Vicar is a representative or deputy of a bishop. This means that a vicar is not in charge, there is a higher position. So much false information has been spread over the centuries that people fail to see it for what it truly is. People are deceived in thinking the Pope is God, or Jesus etc. We are all slaves to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person in the Trinity. The Pope is as well. Go ahead and focus on the few bad popes as you call it. That is like the people who get hung up in Judas iscariot as a model disciple. Not all apostles were perfect were they? One betrayed Him, one denied Him and one doubted Him. Yet all were chosen by Jesus Christ himself. If you look for a flaw you will find a flaw, if you trust Jesus you will see beauty.
Every christian argues how Jesus saves sinners, but somehow believe the Pope can not sin. That is impossible because the Pope is not Jesus. People have faith that God works trough their pastor or spiritual leader but somehow can not believe God can work trough a Pope. That is a bias view. That is thinking only of yourself "God is only showing us the true meaning of His words"[/QUOT
Rock22 can you explain Why the pope is direct sucesser of the peter.
Can you explain Why you think roman catholics gave us the bible .