Certainly not blank-check authorization that Peter & his successors were infallible or allowed to add or subtract from the canon of Scripture which Scripture itself condemns. No man, including Peter, the Pope, or a group of men called “the Catholic Church” is infallible. An example is just after the exchange you cite, when Jesus rebuked Peter (Mat 16:23). There was more correction for Peter later. In fact Peter was one of the most corrected of all the apostles.
Again, no church or organization is infallible because it is made up of fallible men. The second and third chapters of Revelation show Jesus loving but correcting the seven churches (the Catholic Church is in there). Jesus never counseled to blindly follow man, but he did say the Pharisees are “blind leaders of the blind” (Mat 15:14). Jesus counseled, rather than to blindly follow man, instead to beware of the Pharisees and the deceptions of man (Mat 10:17, 24:4; Mark 8:15, 13:5).
the Catholic Church has been around for 2,000 years
Organizational longevity doesn’t give any special extra-Scriptural authorization nor change the Scriptural warnings against such. The priesthood and Pharisees of the Jews were also of long duration, well-established in Israel, yet they were Jesus’ greatest enemies and the instigators of his crucifixion. Jesus said about them, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mat 15:9). Later, Jesus said, “they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders” (Mat 23:4). This is my complaint about this Church ordinance regarding forbidding communion – it is a doctrine of man and grievous, not a Biblical doctrine. 1 Cor 11:28 is an instruction about communion, but gives no one power to forbid taking communion.
Sacred Scripture is very important, but not the only tool in teaching us how to follow Jesus and do the will of GOD.
Be very careful there. Yes, there are many teaching tools, but nothing of God that takes away or adds to Scripture. God’s ultimate authority is the Bible, not man. God’s ultimate authority is a rule of law, not a rule of man. There is a double curse pronounced on anyone preaching any other gospel (Gal 1:8-9). In its last warning, Scripture warns, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev 22:18-19).
I can see that your mind is made up and not willing to accept the reason, logic, faith and teachings of the Catholic Church, but I caution you not to make false statments about the teachings of the Catholic Church (for your sake).
St. Thomas (II-II:11:1) defines heresy: “a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas”. “The right Christian faith consists in giving one’s voluntary assent to Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching. There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ’s doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be ignorance of the true creed, erroneous judgment, imperfect apprehension and comprehension of dogmas: in none of these does the will play an appreciable part, wherefore one of the necessary conditions of sinfulness—free choice—is wanting and such heresy is merely objective, or material. On the other hand the will may freely incline the intellect to adhere to tenets declared false by the Divine teaching authority of the Church. The impelling motives are many: intellectual pride or exaggerated reliance on one’s own insight; the illusions of religious zeal; the allurements of political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material interests and personal status; and perhaps others more dishonourable. Heresy thus willed is imputable to the subject and carries with it a varying degree of guilt; it is called formal, because to the material error it adds the informative element of “freely willed”.
I hope you continue to seek and find the TRUTH.
PAX VOBISCUM