The Pope is the leader of the Catholic faithful on earth and he represents Christ by the authority of Christ. When Jesus made Peter the rock unto which His Chuch would be built, He gave him the authority to forbid and permit. Since the Church and salvation is still very necessary in this world, the successors of Peter retain the authority of Christ to stand in for Christ as a spiritual head on earth. The Church has never claimed that any successor of Peter is in anyway paramount to the divinity of Christ. Once again, God is the Creator and the Pope is a creation.
Catholic priests forgive sins .
Priests do not forgive sins in themselves, but they are used as an instrument for God's forgiveness. God forgives the sins of the penitent through the representation of the priest. Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. Catholics do not condone and consider important the Scriptures . If anyone has ever been present at a Mass, they will quickly observe that it doesn't pay to repeat unfounded Protestant beliefs without witnessing it themselves.