The history of the Roman church includes elements that are clearly related to the accumulation of property and power. One might argue that the origin of celibacy was based on the avoidance of the church’s property being inherited by spouses and offspring and thereby undercutting the type of power a group can have with a great deal of wealth spread amongst a limited number of people.
There are, no doubt, those throughout the centuries who have felt it their responsibility to protect the wealth of the mother church. With this line of thinking (limiting the power to an elite few), the notion of many logical decisions in the modern world (married priests, female priests, etc) have no place, as such decisions would dilute the power.
If this is your world view and you are one of those who feel a personal responsibility to “protect” your own sense of perceived power, then you will make decisions in back rooms, you will castigate the complainants as misguided or lying, you will go to many great lengths to maintain the images that are important to your world view.
If reality suddenly creeps in with a very loud voice from a number of continents, you may be ill-prepared to spin an appropriate message if the only messages you know are rooted in protecting the source of your wealth. In this way, the Roman church is much more like a very large, privately owned corporation with no responsibility to share holders (other than their mortal souls, of course). In other ways, the church is essentially a government unto itself, with a ruler who is appointed for life, who is treated like a king, showered with wealth (and funky red shoes), who lives in a palace.
These are not easy things to give up . . .