Serious answer: Jesus said of and to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” And Peter took it from there, preaching throughout the Mediterranean and eventually serving in the primacy in Rome. For fifteen hundred years afterward there was no other church (the Latin church includes all of the Eastern churches as part of the same body). There is no record of Jesus coming back to earth and saying, “I changed My mind, the deal with Peter is off.” The Catholic Church and its leaders are descended in a direct line from Peter who was assigned by Jesus.
“Serious answer: Jesus said of and to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” “
So this statement is the basis of the Catholic Church’s claim to authority?
"The Roman Catholic tradtion that Peter was the first Pope is fiction pure and simple. There is no New Testament hint that Peter was at any time Bishop of Rome. Nor did he ever claim for himself such authority as the Popes have claimed for themselves. It seems that Peter had a divine foreboding that his 'successors' would be mainly concerned with 'Lording over God's flock,' 1 Pet. 5:3."