As much as I admire Papa Francesco and his season of mercy, it's good to remember that he is a very successful politician in the world's oldest, all-male feudal oligarchy.  Francesco has very few political degrees of freedom in which to operate.  Francesco was elected in the conclave with the support of many of the most regressive hierarchs.  As a politician, those hierarchs are part of Francesco's political base.

How can he reform the church, or heal the wounds of sexually exploited children, without these very same hierarchs [think: Raymond Burke] who are maneuvering every day to block every one of his reforms?

The only real way out of this mess is for Francesco to call for the resignations of any hierarch who was even remotely complicit in the sexual assault and exploitation of children by priests and bishops.  

This will take the courage and faith of an apostle like James, Peter and Paul.  The question is:  Are there any men in Catholic hierarchy today of that caliber?