This is so crazy it is causing me to choke on my beer. Jesus didn't predict He knew. Jesus didn't attach any special significance to the "rock" interpretation which would become so important in the world of Catholic inventiveness.
The “tend my sheep” episode reinstates St. Peter as the head of the Church after his denial of Christ.
Tell me you're just joking.
You mean He calls Him by Peter’s birth name? What of it? You doubt it is the same person?
If you are not aware just how stupid this question is I can be of no help.
Have you considered that Jesus made no distinction between the significance of the name "Peter" vs "Simon"?
OK.
Tell me you're just joking
Why should I be joking? Peter denied Christ three times. Christ asked him if he loved Him. Peter responded, "I do -- thou knowest I do" (John 22:15). Then Jesus tells him to feed and guide his sheep. That is reinstatement in the Petrine Office.
Have you considered that Jesus made no distinction between the significance of the name "Peter" vs "Simon"?
That idea would not agree with the fact that this name, Peter, is mentioned in reference to the rock on which Christ will build His Church. Further, St. Peter receives aspecial role right there: to hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, and to "bind and loose". Indeed, the office of Peter would be no less if his name had remained Simon, but the fact is he was renamed, the name is synonymous with rock, and the rock is said to be the foundation of the Catholic Church. So your idea that the renaming should be simply left out fo the equation is unwise.