That's precisely why we need ever more stringent checks and balances the higher the role or function ... the papacy being no exception. As Lord Acton said, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it." And this assertion has been empirically verified by scientific experiments ... see "Leader corruption depends on power and testosterone" at  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984314000800?via%3Dihub I'm not sure where women fit into this (patriarchal?) picture ... your thoughts? Pope Francis is somehow transcending this tendency ... perhaps his Jesuitical worldview and youthful experiences have helped him become more integrated, more Christlike? He fascinates me for this very reason! He is giving "power" away!