And on this rock I will build my church

We had an interesting service this morning at church. Evergreen Christian Community is celebrating 100 years, and we learned about ECC's history. The part I found most interesting was a discussion of an exchange between Jesus and Peter from Matthew 16:15-18
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.


I went to a Catholic high school, so I learned all about church history. The early church used the phrase "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" to make Peter the early leader of the church and eventually became the first Pope. This authority is what give the Catholic Church its authority on Earth.

But what if Jesus wasn't talking specifically to Peter? In verse 16, Peter tells Jesus that they believe the he is the son of God. Pastor Dale said that when Jesus replies back to Peter, the rock he is referring to is the admission Peter made, not Peter himself.

I hadn't thought to much about this, so I was thinking about this for the rest of the service. I can't see how Jesus would ever give that kind of authority to one man. I did some googleing and found this article:
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=4319

I find the Catholic point of view very interesting, but wrong.