I suppose in normal human interaction I do not have a problem with pressure valves. For example, I support the concept and implementation of the US presidency. But the most a president can do is to order many other people what to do. In a sense, a Pope has much greater power I think, because he can order a billion people not only in what to do, but in what to think and believe. I see that as potentially very dangerous in the hands of a single man, UNLESS he really did have a supernatural pipeline to God. Of course, such is not part of my faith.
Through time I am sure there have been many wonderful Popes, men of God who served well, and for whom I can have great respect, even if I disagree on some things. However, there have been some Popes who have not lived up to this standard, and so that leads me to believe that the office itself is not actually protected in the way it seems it must be to live up to the authority claimed.
I remember reading about Lincoln vetoing some bill of Congress because he thought it was unconstitutional. There's a POTUS acitng in the way I tink of the Pope qacting on BIG stuff. Those who know more church history than I (shouldn't be hard to find) may check me on this, but my impression is that in the BIG stuff, the Pope is more a brake than an engine. Just in terms of social dynamics, leaving religion out of it, the wonder is not that, for example, the Immaculate Conception was declared but that it was not declared earlier.
Canonizing JPII or making a tripe here or there, or declaring oh whatever, such and such a year to be the year of the Sacred Heart (for an example plucked out of my imagination) on such things I imagine the Pope taking the initiative.
I sometimes imagine what it would be like to be the leader of a billion people -- any kind of leader in any capacity. How do you know what they're doing? what they're thinking what they want? what they need? A BILLION?
Zowie! My alleged point is that I think we need to do some thinking about the realities of this mega-super-tanker of an organization, and how hard it would be to get it to turn, and so forth -- how hard it would be to get it to actg with any kind of unity or cooperation at all! Such thinking helps me keep my imaginings about the Pope saying "Jump," and the US bishops saying,'How high?" I bet it's way more like, "With all filial obedience and devotion, we raise the sacred purple to our lips and intend to spend the next ten years studying the meaning of jumping in the larger ccontext of the American culture, whether jumps should be understood as metric or Rnglish system or converted to the Roman stadia. Then after diocesan, archdioceasn, regional and national councils we will convey our findings to the Holy See and await further excuses to have a bunch of conferences. With Fraternal and Filial and we are our own granpa in a spiritual sense affection we beg the honor to remain, yours etc."
As I've said elsewhere, The RC church is NOT a well-oiled bureacratci machine. It's more like a slow inexorable avalanche, seen from a distance, soundlessly, and chaotically rolling down a hill ... Just my guess. I don't know and I don't want to know much.