Trouble is though, Joe, that the bottom line of the Papacy/Catholic Church lies in Paragraph 43, that I pasted in above.
More specifically point 3 of that passage:"3) The truth and authority of its Head is the source of infallible teaching in the Body of Christ."

What the Pope says goes, in other words...., when he wants to say it 'authoritively'.

I think that whereas married male priests may become the norm; female priests, perhaps in a few generations. Gay and lesbian; never.
Birth Control; not in a million years (counter productive...) Divorce; only if you circumvent the doctrine by wangling an annullment, through a sympathetic priest. Abortion....., well, hardly worth getting into that one neither, really, is there?

What we have here, therefore is a shopping list that will never get filled, because there are a few unalienable truths that the Roman Catholic Church will continue to uphold. The Papacy is the Rock upon which the Church was built, after all, and the College of Cardinals are duty bound to return a Pope that upholds those unalienable rights, and as you must surely know, Joe there is only so far down the road the Roman Catholic Church will go.

If John Paul II called homosexuality a 'disorder', authoritively or not, it is a very powerful statement, and in societies outside the fairly liberal (using the term advisedly, here) North American one, there are those who take that statement as fact, anyway.
It is those peoples' Catholic Church you would reform, Joe.

To bring democracy to Iraq is one thing. To bring it to the Catholic Church, is a much different proposition entirely. There are those who are quite happy with it the way it is. Remember that all that 1000 years of reforming has led us to the point where the Roman Catholic doctrine and morality is being challenged.

And that's where the Pope comes in...

I don't think the RC Church will move much more Joe.
What it is been asked to do, will be too much for those who believe in the Sanctity of marraige, the right to life, the fact that one must sacrifice to get to heaven.

The European and Asian Churches are still quite fundemental in their outlook. It would be a crime, almost to take their faith out from under their feet. Because America has always been a bit more inclusive in many ways, it is not un-natural that the Church should have evolved this way.

But I think that the Progressive faction of the Catholic Church, with respect, should really go their own way, on this. They will probably achieve a lot more, in a shorter space of time.

$0.02