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The true state of the Catholic Church is the collective experience of those who have been its parishioners student and members. That's reasonably good. The state of the hierarchy is another matter.
This fact means there should be no holding back from ditching undesirables. They are no loss.
The main asset of the church is not the buildings but the information payload in its custody. What has made the Catholic Church resilient despite the numerous abuses of the hierarchy through history is the relative stability of its doctrine, liturgy and creed.
The current crisis will significantly thin out the bureaucrats and force a reacquaintance with the information payload by the laity, who are all too often passive spectators at rituals they don't understand.
There may also be a shift away from schools and more emphasis on delivering the sacraments to people in their daily lives. Crisis is the feedback loop of the truth on men's endeavors.
To be afraid is to miss the entire message of 2,000 years of history. The gospel has survived Rome, it's fall, the Black Death, Islam, Communism and the incessant corruption of its own clergy. It will be here when Howard Beale's networks are a dim memory.
This is why any temptation to alter doctrine simply to suit the bureaucracy's lifestyle will prove fatal. The hierarchy can be replaced but doctrine cannot.
