I haven’t posted on this forum much. This is my take on the discussion here.
We have to accept two facts. First, that Jesus established His Church upon Peter (Kepha). Jesus, after all, was the One Who named him Kepha. His birth name was Shimon, or Simon. Why would Jesus call Shimon “Petros” or “little rock” and then use “Petros” and “Petra” in the same sentence to refer to two separate things? You’d have to believe Jesus wanted to confuse us with pointless word play.
Second, Paul did establish churches. He said he didn’t build on another man’s foundation. Revelation speaks of “the churches.” So there are two ideas. There is The Church, the undivided Body of Christ, and then there are the various churches, or local places of worship for different communities.
So, needing to accept these ideas because they are Scriptural, we need to put them together. There are several churches that are part of The Church. The several churches have successors of the Apostles as their heads. Primacy HAS to be given to one of these, or they will separate into differing sects with differing ideas. (Evidenced by history.) So which apostolic church has the primacy? Well, obviously that of Peter/Kepha, as stated above. So it is no contradiction to say that the Catholic Church is the True Church and that other churches get their legitimacy from their relationship with the True Church.
I know on a Catholic forum I am preaching to the choir, but we are called to properly discern. That’s the central struggle of Christianity, to properly discern the Truth. If you have to twist and bend Scripture to make your point, you’re probably wrong, and it’s up to you to right yourself. God demands this of you, not me.