The keys are addressed here as well:
“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:15,16
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. Luke 24:47
“Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” John 20:23
(I’m sure you have Matt. 28:19 memorized)
And indeed Peter was at the forefront, preaching to the Jews:
Then Peter said unto them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38
Praying and laying hands on the Samaritans (part Jew, part Gentile) that Philip had preached to:
“Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost”. 8:17
And the Gentiles:
“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word.....Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as wee? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.” 10:44-48
So, we see that the Lord had arranged it so that Peter HAD to be present for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the three divisions of mankind.
Do you, or do you not, believe that the church is founded upon Peter?
Do you, or do you not, believe that Mary hears your prayers, and everyone else’s around the world, at the same time (which makes her omnipresent)?
The phrase “founded upon” needs to be defined. Of course it is an analogical term. It doesn’t have precisely the same univocal meaning when referring to Peter as when referring to Christ. But it is clear that Peter has some kind of primacy from very early on.
Regarding Mary “hearing” the prayers of people all over the world, and the conclusion that she MUST therefore be “omnipresent.”
The manner in which Mary becomes conscious of people’s prayers is entirely mysterious to us. Of course she is not bodily present everywhere. There is no reason to suppose that she literally hears prayers with the bodily sense of hearing.
But it would be preposterous to deny that it is within God’s power to make her conscious of the prayers of people throughout the world. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what God has ready for those who love him.
Objections that are based on a simple-minded insistence that the conditions of life in the hereafter are precisely as they are for us can hardly be taken seriously. “How can Mary hear or pay attention to millions of prayers simultaneously” is one such. It’s like asking where Mary gets the money to pay for the variety of costumes she has worn for her apparitions in the past century.
As to the “keys,” it seems they have to do with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, the basic gospel belief (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Luke 24:45 tells us that Peter and the apostles had their understanding opened to them by Christ. In the next verse, He said:
Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”
- which would be accompanied by the promise of the Spirit, “endued with power from on high,” at Pentecost, Luke 24:46-49.
At Jerusalem, at Pentecost, Peter, with the rest of the apostles backing him, made that tie-in to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection when the Jews asked them, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”
- didn’t Christ command Peter that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem?” Here they were at Jerusalem, and the promise of the Spirit, “power from on high," had just happened, THIS was the time and place for Peter to use, for the first time, the “keys to the kingdom of heaven.” Peter tying it to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Paul made the same tie-in in Rom. 6 -
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Notice, “buried” with Christ, then raised up from the watery grave of baptism by the resurrection power of the Spirit, are “the likeness” of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
THESE are the keys, not the papal “chair” at Rome.