The chain that leads to Peter

Peter’s story is the story of the restored man: our model, our example. There are over two hundred fifty popes reaching back to Simon. They are links in the great pontifical chain. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and the weakest link of the chain of popes was the first. But that weak link was held in the hands of Christ. That is why the papacy will never fall. When our Blessed Lord gathered his apostles around him on one occasion, he said, “Satan would sift you as wheat.”