"They concluded" -who is this "they"?  And, "they" have been making "discoveries" and changes for 2000 years - creating sacraments and figuring out what dogma and doctrine are, what good and evil are.  It has all unfolded, and not always perfectly.

I don't care if John Paul II taught "the Church has no authority"  - there are theologians who don't agree and it doesn't make sense.  He is presuming because Jesus didn't select a female apostle  that "proves" anything.  It is a presumption - that is all it is.  If Jesus gave the power to "bind and loose" to the Church, then they have the power, if you believe in that sort of thing.  

Circumcision, beards, and marriage are no more "red herrings" than the presence or absence of particular genitalia.  All of that is of the body, not the spirit.   God made men and women both, spiritually and physically, Jesus came for both, and He is/was not a misogynist.  This should not be about the body - but about the spirit.