Jesus didn't promise the position of any Vicars on earth...Fact is, when Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, he was speaking of his chosen people, the Jews...And Peter went on to be commissioned to preach to and teach - the Jews, while the apostle Paul was commissioned to preach to and teach the Gentiles, which we are...
You are told to listen to and believe what your Church tells you as opposed to reading, studying and believing the words of God in the scriptures...And that's what you guys do...And now your same Church is just starting to teach you that there must be a one world gov't and a one world religion to save all of you...You may not buy into it but young Catholics will accept it along with accepting queer married priests and all kinds of deceptions...
Er, I'm sorry I don't know what you're replying to--but it could be by me.
In any case, you can rest assured that Catholics read and hear the Scriptures every time they go to Mass. Many of us read them daily at home in addition. To me, the "vicar" commission to St. Peter seems quite clear in the Gospel, the Acts, and the various letters among the Apostles. You and your favorite Scriptural commentators may interpret things differently, and your mileage may vary.
If you read the history of the Church, it will become clear that uncritical acceptance of Papal edicts has rarely been a major problem!
What Catholics hold as infallible is the teaching of the Pope when 1) he is calling on the faithful, from the Chair of St. Peter, to accept a particular statement as infallible; 2) it concerns a question of faith or morals; and 3) it is consistent with immemorial Catholic teaching.
Half-heard airplane interviews don't count. Political opinions concerning events of the day don't either. Nor do scientific or academic opinions--or picks for the Final Four. The Papacy is about eternity.
And finally, I don't believe you're interpreting the popular culture of Catholics today accurately. For example, the continuing lament of the old, liberal priests (who believe homosexuality is okay and One-World government is the answer to Original Sin) is that the young priests coming out of the seminaries today are so darned conservative. And they worry for the future, considering that the young Catholics they see attending Mass tend to be traditional and conservative as well.
You can imagine why this would be the case. In these times, who among the young would bother to undertake the sacrifices of being a faithful Catholic, Protestant, or Jew? It's not someone who is concerned with being popular. And it is these young people, who are marrying earliest and having most of the children, who are the future of our culture.
The current Holy Father loves to talk informally in public, and tolerates many opinions of some very nutty German bishops, and some American ones as well. But we are not bound by his choice of friends or his choice of breakfast cereal.
To read the history and careers of all the Popes since St. Peter is edifying, considering the martyrdom so many endured; scandalizing, considering that they were not all good; entertaining, because they were men; and inspiring, since they kept the Faith so consistently.
As a chaplain famously said during the Pearl Harbor attack--and accounts vary as to whether it was the Protestant or Catholic chaplain, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!"