>> In a nutshell, the principal of subsidiarity states that matters impacting the human person should be addressed by the smallest, least centralized, most localized, competent personal authority possible. The opposite situation is realized when personal affairs are managed by larger; more centralized and detached public authorities.
The Vatican is a large, centralized, detatched, global religious authority ...
SnakeDoc
But the local parish Priest and charitable laypeople are not.
Moreover, the Catholic Churchs not in fact centralized as to ownership or management. For instance, there are about 3,000 dioceses in the world, and these do not function as mere franchisees or branch offices of Rome, but each as a jurisdictional unit with its own authority, while recognizing doctrinal unity and the rights of every baptized person spelled out in detail in Canon Law.
Catholic religious orders are separate entities. Catholic Universities are separate entities. Catholic hospitals are separate entities. Most Catholic social services are incorporated separately as well.
Yes, the Catholic Church is certainly centralized in its claims of teaching authority on quesitons of faith and morals. Adherance to such teachings is on a voluntary basis. If you don't like it, you can leave, and nobody will issue a fatwa or any temporal penalty.
That's quite different from the assertion the Catholic Church has a centralized, unitary principle of organization, jurisdiction, and operating program. That notion lacks a basis either in theory or in practice.