The Catholic Church can trace her line of authority through an unbroken chain of succession all the way from Peter, the rock upon which Jesus founded His Church, down to the current Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II. In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors. The Apostles gave the bishops their own position of teaching authority. We know from inspired Scripture that the apostolic preaching was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. We call it "Apostolic Succession" because the validly ordained bishops in the Catholic Church derive their authority through a direct line of succession passed down to them from the Twelve Apostles.
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I think it commendable that the Catholics have had a relative steadiness of doctrine over the life of the Church. But I am dismayed by the horrible, horrible things that were done by the Church or in the name of the Church over the years: the cruel crusades, the Arab and Jewish de-population of Spain, the way they treated Jews through out history, the Star Chamber stuff, the religious wars of the middle ages, the necessity for a Martin Luther to force needed reforms (he should be considered a saint by the Catholic Church) and the inability of the Church to prevent some 50 percent of the Nazi military force being Catholic Church members.
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