General Audience of 7 March 2007: Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome
A catechesis by Pope Benedict XVI on Clement of Rome and his letter to Corinth, the first of a series on the Apostolic Fathers. It is cited here as a statement of how the Catholic Church reads that letter.
The address was given at the weekly general audience of Wednesday 7 March 2007. It opens a series on the Apostolic Fathers, following one on the apostles, and presents Clement as the third successor of Peter at Rome, dates his letter to just after the death of Domitian, and summarises its teaching on order in the church and on the succession from the apostles.
The address is not a historical source for the first century. It is a primary source for the Catholic reading of 1 Clement: the pope says that the letter can be called a first exercise of the Roman primacy after the death of Peter, and that it sets out the doctrine of apostolic succession. It is cited in this wiki only for that reading.
Cited in
- about AD 96, estimated date