Papal supremacy

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Papal supremacy is the dogma of the Catholic Church that the pope has full, supreme, immediate and universal power and authority over the whole Church. This is given by reason of his office as vicar of Christ, the visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful, and as priest of the entire Catholic Church, and it is a power which he can always exercise unhindered. The doctrine had the most significance in the relationship between the Church and the State in matters such as ecclesiastic privileges, the actions of monarchs, and even successions.

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