Is it really necessary for a big social institution like the Catholic

Church to have leaders arranged in a hierarchy/hierarchically?

For me, it is still necessary for social institutions like the Catholic Church to
have leaders in a hierarchy for organized supervision of such institution.
They serve as regulating authorities and guidance for us Christian
believers. Having such hierarchical institution of the Church means that we
value what Jesus had established at the very first age of the Church. The
Church has no ordinary hierarchy like the other institutions but a sacred
one headed and started by Jesus and His twelve apostles. The people of
the institution of the Church today are important as they are bestowed the
authority and power to lead the Church as what Jesus and His chosen
apostles used to lead the believers into the right path of Christian faith,
thus, thinking that the institution of the Church is not important anymore
would mean that these believer does not fully understand the Church and
Christian faith.

 In the same way, in order for hierarchical authority to be a completely unifying principle
in the Church, the hierarchy must be accepted as possessing governing authority as
well. Any person or group or local church that is not under the government of the
hierarchy is not fully united to the Body of Christ in the Church. As Pius XII wrote
concerning the Mystical Body of Christ in his encyclical Mystici Corporis, "those who are
divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they
be living the life of its one Divine Spirit." 3

This does not mean that Catholics must never question or criticize decisions made by
members of the hierarchy. While Church teachings on faith and morals must always be
accepted as infallible, it has been made all too clear many times in history that bishops
and even popes are not immune from prudential mistakes and even sins. In some
cases, it may be appropriate to question them and perhaps even address certain
actions and decisions with respectful criticism. However, it should be remembered that,
regardless of their personal failings, members of the hierarchy hold a necessary office.
We often hear in relation to civil government officials about the necessity of respecting
the office, even if one does not respect the man. In practice, we know that all purely
natural offices can in fact lose respect if the person who holds the office is bad enough.
However, the offices of those in the hierarchy have a role in a supernatural reality,
regardless of the personal dignity of those who hold the offices. As such, the hierarchy
itself must always be respected, and every Catholic should be consciously subject to its
authority.

Issues such as the administrative control that a bishop has over his diocese may seem
far removed from questions of grace and salvation and the most fundamental nature of
the Church. However, the distance between these realities is not nearly as great as
might be supposed. All Catholics need to be brought to understand fully that where the
authority of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is in question, issues of authority are
never unimportant or purely administrative matters. Authority in the Church is unlike any
other authority on earth. As Christians, all of us want to be united with Jesus Christ, and
the hierarchical authority of the Pope and bishops helps to preserve for Catholics the
unity of the Church as Christ's Mystical Body. Through humbly submitting to that
authority Catholics are inconceivably exalted by being a member of that Mystical Body.

For nothing more glorious, nothing nobler, nothing surely more honorable can be
imagined than to belong to the One, Holy Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, in
which we become members of One Body as venerable as it is unique; are guided by
one supreme Head; are filled with one divine Spirit; are nourished during our earthly
exile by one doctrine and one heavenly Bread, until at last we enter into the one,
unending blessedness of heaven. 4