For what it's worth, these 'growing pains' took the form of the wars of religion in Europe, which in Germany killed up to 30% of the population, that's in relative terms significantly worse than the casualties of World War I and II. So maybe the Catholic Church had a point
Is that really the take-away? If the Catholic Church had not been so belligerent, those wars would not have been needed. Now that we are past that time, we should surely be thanking those combatants who helped disseminate knowledge in spite of the Church whose interest was in hoarding it.
More importantly I certainly wouldn't want to live through that period for any reason, and much less repeat it. If an ordinary printing press caused that much chaos I'm not sure I want to figure out what one on steroids is going to do