"The Catholic Church has for millennia used the power to set norms.."
Exactly.  And after centuries of exercising that power. the institutional hierarchy has become addicted to it, and the current set of hierarchs cannot bring themselves to give it up.  As society evolves, the hierarchy will be imprisoned in norms of its own creation that society as a whole no longer accepts. Perhaps Francis has a key to the prison door, but if he does, so far he has not used it.