From St. Peter to Pope Leo XIV: Apostolic succession on full display

By Josiah Hanson
Diocesan Seminarian

As part of my seminary formation our class traveled to Rome for three weeks of classes and a pilgrimage this past January. One of the most striking things about the pilgrimage was how often pieces of the faith stopped feeling abstract and became concrete. Things we say and pray every Sunday suddenly had faces, places, and weight. That became especially real to me when we had the opportunity to see Pope Leo XIV. Being able to see him face-to-face during his Wednesday audience was a surreal experience. What stayed with me, though, was the awareness that I was standing before the successor of St. Peter — the man who holds the same office entrusted to the first pope nearly two thousand years ago. Apostolic succession is a phrase I’ve heard countless times, but in that moment it became something visible and human.

That same truth met me again at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Along the interior of the basilica runs a series of mosaics depicting every Bishop of Rome, beginning with St. Peter and continuing all the way to Pope Leo. Walking beneath them was quietly powerful. One by one, face after face, generation after generation, the same responsibility of pastoring the universal Church passed forward through history. What struck me most was the simplicity of it. These were men from vastly different times, cultures, and circumstances, yet they are united by the same apostolic mission: to glorify God and labor for the salvation of souls.

Together, meeting Pope Leo and standing beneath those mosaics helped me grasp something essential: the Church endures not because she adapts herself to every age, but because she faithfully guards what was entrusted to her. As a seminarian for the diocese, I was struck by the fact that I am being drawn — humbly and undeservedly — into that same apostolic mission, entrusted with the sacred work of glorifying God and seeking the salvation of souls. See page 8 for more seminarian stories.