Abstract: This text is a lecture held in a public debate in Lugano, Switzerland, in January 2006. The author presents the point of view of the Waldensian theology on the papal primacy. The starting point is the critique of the doctrinaire and historic basis of the Roman bishop authority brought by the Waldensians (among the first in the West) and then by Luther. The author notices the difficulties in connection to the canonization of the papal primacy nowadays. As for the future, the author insists on the necessity of an “ecumenical conversion of Peter”, i.e. of his successor and implicitly of the institution of primacy, so this would  be re-established as an instrument of the Christian unity.

Keywords: papal primacy, Waldensians, Luther, Vatican II, Ut unum sint