I usually find Mr. Tammeus' columns to be well thought-out and interesting. This one was an exception.

The main problem is in the extraordinary role he assigns to the CDF. In fact, Catholics have a substantial body of canon law to deal with church governance and various other Vatican offices, as well as courts, that administer it. Evolving doctrine is based on documents of bishops' ("ecumenical") councils and papal encyclicals. (So far none of our trads have turned out to yelp that our doctrine is unchanging, but it does, in fact, at least evolve.) 

I don't know much about Presbyterian polity and am confused when two Presbie friends (one of them an elder) talk about "Session." However, I know that any comparison between the CDF and Presbyterian governing documents is, at best, misleading and that the whole subject of comparison between Catholic and Presbyterian practice (leaving aside doctrinal differences) is much more complicated than what is presented here.