Well, maybe none of the 12 would have made it thru seminary, but one thing i think they all but Judas had was a basically honest heart, despite their carnality. They were raw recruits, but seekjing souls mouldable lumbs of clay, more so than i, to my remorse.
And impetuous Peter did have integrity, despite his pride, which had to be broken if he would strengthen his brethren.
And i want to say that i find you to be the most reasonable, humble, and candid and easy to converse with informed Catholic i have ever debated and discused things with, though i am grieved by your tagline.
As regards the exaltation of the pope, this issue was not your attitude but that of men who made him, or popes who afforded themselves, a type of demi-god status.
And while trusting God to lead imperfect men is Biblical, affording them implicit trust based upon their declaration of formulaic infallibility is not, which is the real issue. Almighty God preserved Jewish faith via a remnant without an assuredly infallible magisterium, sovereignly raising up prophets to reprove those who might have assumed they were, and Jesus Himself reproved them using the only assuredly infallible material source, the Scriptures.
It may be argued that this renders fallible human reasoning infallible, yet this is not what 2Pt. 1:20,21 censures as regards interpretation, and texts such as 1Jn. 5:13 sanction it in obtaining assurance (worth analysis) , but no one is assuredly infallible based upon the subject or the object of address, and any degree of surety claimed by an advocate of SS is contingent upon demonstrable Scriptural warrant and its attestation, using principles of doctrinal exegesis it manifests.
One of my standards of life hermeneutics is the last line of one of Shakespeare's sonnets: Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. I take this to mean that if you REALLY want to mess something up, start with something really good. I like to think that Popes like Alexander VI (Favorite quote: "The Papacy at last is ours, let us at least enjoy it!") were experts in smelling far worse than weeds. And even we Dominicans have spat up a few choice stinkers (hard as that may be to believe .... yeah, right.)