How can there be damage to control? Someone doesn't believe what he preaches, "the gates of hell" yada yada yada.
The Church's 2,000 year history is nothing but a story of damage control.
"The gates of hell", yada, yada, yada....is not a promise that the Church will be free of conflict, persecution or heretics.
Quite the contrary. It's a promise that through all of this, the faith will be preserved somehow, somewhere until the coming of Jesus.