Welcome back.  I hope your time in Rome was a wonderful experience.

I do not think the Church has to remain as it has always been, especially when it isn't working to provide a spirit filled life to the 99% of Catholics who are not part of the ruling apparachnik.  The ideas of the bishops equating to the Apostles was and is an attempt to make linkages between the way the Church structured itself and how Christ dealt with the Apostles, but it is not the only way that relationship can be viewed.  I think the formation of the organization mirrored how power and authority were lived out in the times just after Jesus lived and for centuries later.   Just because "we have always done it that way" doesn't mean it is a good way, especially now.

Those times are not these times.  The Curia is less a problem if power is decentralized.  But the bishops ruling as minor despots accountable to no one - that is still a problem.  So is the all male, patriarchical church.  Time to hear women's voices.