Lack of humility explains it all. The Devil like a roaring lion...
People who do not have the protection of an authority structure or something that keeps them humble are virtually bound to fall.
The Church stopped providing the authority structure back in the 1970s, and it’s been bad news since then.
The other problem is that with the increasing Protestantization of the Catholic Church, the faithful have been taught to look to individual preachers rather than to the body of doctrine and faith and history that is the Church.
This could be a perfect moment to fight back. Opus Dei priests are very good at rejecting the cult of personality, and perhaps we need to consult with el Opus to find out how to deal with this. They are very devout and very popular, but they never set themselves up individually as something people should follow after. The whole focus is on Christ.
This was how it used to be in the Church. I think one of the first celebrity priests was Thomas Merton, whose order gave him all sorts of breaks and essentially let him live outside the rule and at his own whim because he brought a lot of money into the monastery. His death may or may not have been accidental, but whatever it was, his life at that point was going downhill and there are many people who thought he was going to leave the Church and strike out on his own as a sort of guru.
That’s what happens when authority and order break down. We’ve got to use this moment to bring them back.
All excellent points! Thanks for the ping and post.
When I was first back in the church, I went to my local parish. What a wonderful priest was there! Then within a few months of my return, we were given a different priest.
On the altar, the priest was so reverent it made the Mass even more a thing of beauty.
Off the altar, he was not a nice person. I will not go into my own experience with him but I spent a lot of time with him as a CCD/Confirmation teacher. It was not pleasant.
My husband encouraged me many times to go to another parish.
Many parishioners did leave and the parish has suffered because they did so. Now that priest is gone, but the parishioners have not come back.
I explained that I did not go to church for the priest, I go for Jesus in the Eucharist. Catholics need to remember who they serve and who they worship.