He is the successor of the apostle Peter, who is considered the ring leader of all of the apostles...thus the leader of the Catholic church. Someone has to be in charge...it is the pope. Even you heathen Protestants that are all going to hell have a similar setup...for example the Anglican Protestants have the ArchBishop of Canterbury. The Pope is cooler though because he is considered to have a direct line to God. I saw the last one in Rome, at a mass at Vatican City. I am not Catholic nor very religious but it was one of the coolest most moving things I have ever been a part of. Ranked right up there with swimming in the wild with dolphins.