Peter was appointed as the first leader of the Church when Our Lord said:
And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. (Matthew Chapt. 16)
Peter assumed the position upon the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven. The term 'pope' did not come into usage until many years later but Peter was still considered a pope even though the establishment of the office of pope and hierarchy was yet to come. All the apostles, even Paul, deferred to Peter for important decisions.
One thing needs to be pointed out here. Our Lord and Peter were speaking in Aramaic and not Greek. In Aramaic there was but one word for 'rock' and that is cephas. There is no confusion in usage as in Greek depending upon the size of the 'rock' which is an argument that many non-Catholics seem to ignore. The confusion in vocabulary arose years later when the gospel was translated to Greek.
And, yes, Peter did reside, at least for a time, in Rome and died there under orders from Roman Emperor Nero. Francis A. Sullivan SJ in his book From Apostles to Bishops states unequivocally that Peter was in Rome and died there. His statement is based on both scripture as well as the writings of early Church fathers.
Peter would have assumed leadership about the year AD33 and he died sometime between AD64 and AD67.
The pope in Rome is the leader of the entire Catholic Church.
Catholic, as all the Popes are. The Pope is the leader of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church did not exist in 4 BC.
The Roman Catholic Church
The pope is the leader of the catholic Church on earth.
Pope Francis is the supreme leader of the Catholic Church.
The leader of the Catholic Church is the pope. Today (2011) that is Pope Benedict XVI.
There is no "Roman Catholic Church." It's just Catholic, not Roman Catholic. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the official Catholic Church. . The leader of the Catholic Church is always Jesus Christ, who promised to be its head, and with it until the end of the world. His Vicar on earth is the Pope, who was Pope Benedict XVI for the months of January and February 2013, and then on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, in the second day of the conclave, Francis was elected, the first Holy Father of that name.
The Catholic Church has the pope as its leader.
The pope in Rome, today that would be Pope Benedict XVI, is the leader of the ENTIRE Catholic Church, even in Russia.
As of March 2013, Pope Francis is the leader of the Catholic Church.
The pope is the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church.