I think Sarah was almost on to the thing - religious conservatism is getting taken to an extreme. Not just in conservative Catholicism, but also in Protestant fundamentalism. My mother experienced the exact same phenomenon with her father, who was a Protestant Pastor: men control the family.
These ideas are finally getting torn to shreds in Theology and Religious Studies. Pope Francis had a whole study done about women in the Church to see if women should be able to become priests. He decided women can be deacons.
What we've found in reaction is that US Catholic priests are significantly more "conservative" than many other countries! And they are certainly more conservative than a lot of the laity. That's because these "conservative" Catholics are heavily influenced by Protestant Fundamentalism.
And while I'm sure JVL understands this, because he's mentioned it before, it is one of the biggest holes in the Bulwark's analysis, in my honest opinion. So I say this: The only way out of this mess is to not attack the academics working to get us out of this religious fundamentalism.
P.S. All the men in this faith group were Gen Z.