But one question which doesn’t get entertained is “Ought there to be an office of Pope at all, given that its rules are getting it, and the reputation of a large segment of Christendom, into pickles like this?”
If it was good enough for Jesus, its good enough for us. There are plenty of scriptural proof texts to prove the Papacy was the Will of Our Lord, and early Christian writings that fully back up that interpretation of those proof texts. I'm not interested in rehashing that old debate though.