Friends, Fulton Sheen observed that Simon Peter had a dual nature signified by his name—a nature that also applies to his successors and to the Church as a whole.
The Simon side—unsure, unreliable, vacillating, impetuous—stands for the fallen, flawed, and scandal-ridden side of the Church.
But the Peter side, Fulton Sheen insisted—Peter, Petrus, Cephas, the Rock—stands for the Church knowing who Jesus is and embodying that knowledge in its sacramental life and the witness of its saints.
The Church has a Simon dimension, sure, but it also has this Petrine dimension. This is why it endures through the ages, and why the gates of hell will not prevail against it.