No, he is saying that it was given to the Apostles, and that St. Peter was singled out as first among them (not in authority but in dignity), to lead the church after Christ left until His return. There was no Roman Catholic (or Orthodox) Church then! Just one Church founded by Christ.
Even though today it is not fully united, it is still one Church founded by Christ bcause the apostolic succession guarantees authority and validity of the priesthood, through whom the validity of sacraments is maintained.
Church Tadition (Apostles, Fathers, Bible, Councils) reflect the collective knowledge of the Faith as is has been tught and practiced form the earliest days until today. For example, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is 1600 years old and remains unchanged.
What we Orthodox do when we go to church is the same thing the Eastern Christians were doing 1,600 years ago. We have records to show that it was so. And that Liturgy was based on the liturgy of St. Basil, which is almost identical (except in length), which itself was based on the Litugry of St. James (the Jerusalem Liturgy) which goes back to the very beginning of the Church and is celebrated in Orthodox Churches dedicated to St. James on the feast of St. James to this day, 2,000 years later -- unchanged! So, ours is not a personal interpretation of anything, but as it was known to the Apostles.
In turn, the Apostles passed on the commission from our Lord to their successors (bishops and priests and deacons) directly (by laying of the hands, a Judaic tradition) and invocation of the Holy Ghost in prayers. The only thing that separates the clergy from the laity are the sacraments. Everybody can preach and teach, but only the priesthood can administer the sacraments. Other than that, the Church is a gathering of the faithful, the clergy and the laity.
If Christ is not even with Catholic laity for the purpose of going out and teaching all nations, then why should a lay Catholic even bother to evangelize
But a Catholic lay person will not teach his or her personal, amateur, veriaty of "truth" about God; but a Protestant will and God onyl knows how close that is to the truth. A Catholic can evangelize and you can bet that the person who gets evangelized by one Catholic will believe and know one and the same thing as any other Catholic in the world. Those who are evangelized by protestants have no such connection -- they all believe in something different. That's not what Christ wanted us to do.
No, he is saying that it was given to the Apostles, and that St. Peter was singled out as first among them (not in authority but in dignity), to lead the church after Christ left until His return. There was no Roman Catholic (or Orthodox) Church then! Just one Church founded by Christ.
Even though today it is not fully united, it is still one Church founded by Christ because the apostolic succession guarantees authority and validity of the priesthood, through whom the validity of sacraments is maintained.
My whole point was that you are claiming that "Christ's Church" is only the Roman Catholic/Orthodox Church (with maybe a few others). Whether or not they were called Roman Catholics at the time, through backward succession, you are saying that all the apostles were only Roman Catholic because they only transferred their power and authority to those who would eventually come to be known as Roman Catholics.
You don't even think I attend a real "church", and certainly not a church of Christ. When our pastor performs the Lord's Supper, you would say it is in complete error because my pastor has no power or authority as compared to a priest. To be in or serve Christ, it is your show or no show. So, that's why I say to you that since you claim the apostles only for yourselves, God was only sending out Catholics into the world, not the rest of us.