I don't see a huge biblical problem with the office of "Pope" as a position or organizational leadership role, but there are some serious issues in the doctrines and traditions that surround and uphold that office.
Do you means serious issues like "Our Rock (kepha) is bigger than your rock (evna)"?, or "Peter didn't really lose his keys"? or "He who hears YOU (Apostles and their successors, not each believer) hears Me."
As Believers, we are all intercessors for the world and our fellow Believers, with Christ as the chief intercessor
We are all priests of the Most High, with Christ as our High Priest.
the three-fold model of the priesthood which was in use at the time of Aaron was carried over into the New Testament and thus we find there also a high priest, ministerial priests, and universal priests. In the New Testament age the high priest is Jesus Christ (
Heb. 3:1), the ministerial priests are Christ’s ordained ministers of the gospel (
Rom. 15:16), and the universal priests are the entire Christian people (
1 Peter. 2:5,
9).
So the Bible clearly states that all Christians are priests (
1 Peter 2:5,
9), as the Catholic Church clearly teaches for all who bother to read its teachings.
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Leadership, and respect for leadership, is commanded within Scripture,
Indeed.
Hebrews 13:17 "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."
SolidGround, what is the expiration date of this verse???
but when tradition turns the leadership into more than mere mortals who are serving others,
then there is a huge issue.
The dominating dictator image projected by The Christian Taliban?
Doctrines of infallibility of any person,
That's totally warped. Surely you don't mean
The Doctrine of Papal Infalliblity because if you are, you really need to do sojme reading.
or any spiritual inequality of priest and laity,
I don't know of any. Our priests are constantly telling us they are no holier than any body else. Ordination does not remove a man's humanity.
New Testament Priesthood
or any worship (veneration, or whatever you want to call it) of anyone but God,
Catholics don't worship anyone else but. You know that worship and veneration have different meanings, so maybe it has been explained to you before, maybe you ignored it.
The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. It comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which means the condition of being worthy of honor, respect, or dignity. To worship in the older, larger sense is to ascribe honor, worth, or excellence to someone, whether a sage, a magistrate, or God.
For many centuries, the term worship simply meant showing respect or honor, and an example of this usage survives in contemporary English. British subjects refer to their magistrates as "Your Worship," although Americans would say "Your Honor." This doesn’t mean that British subjects worship their magistrates as gods (in fact, they may even despise a particular magistrate they are addressing). It means they are giving them the honor appropriate to their office, not the honor appropriate to God.
Outside of this example, however, the English term "worship" has been narrowed in scope to indicate only that supreme form of honor, reverence, and respect that is due to God. This change in usage is quite recent. In fact, one can still find books that use "worship" in the older, broader sense. This can lead to a significant degree of confusion, when people who are familiar only with the use of words in their own day and their own circles encounter material written in other times and other places.
In Scripture, the term "worship" was similarly broad in meaning, but in the early Christian centuries, theologians began to differentiate between different types of honor in order to make more clear which is due to God and which is not.
As the terminology of Christian theology developed, the Greek term
latria came to be used to refer to the honor that is due to God alone...
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these are against the Word!
It is not that these can be simply added to onto the sound doctrines of the Word,
because they directly contradict the Word.
Sola Scriptura vs Prima Scriptura has nothing to do with it.
There are many Catholics who do not worship mortals (dead or alive), and who do not hold to the infallibility of the Pope, and do not suffer themselves to require the intercession of another mortal for the forgiveness of their sins.
To these Catholics, I call them brothers and sisters. To those who hold to these traditions, I would ask them to read the words of Peter in his letters to the Church, and read the pastoral epistles.
I have never met a Catholic who worships mortals (dead or alive)
You confuse ethical Catholics with practicing Catholics, and you obviously haven't a clue what Papal infallibility means. Please read the above link.