The Catholic church publishes its teachings. Anyone can read them. If the laity see the leadership act contrary to those teachings, what are they to do? Lay back and say “Well those guys are so much smarter than I am they must be following the teaching even though I can read and understand that their actions and words say otherwise.” IOW who is one to believe, papal syncophants or their own lying eyes?
Some do, as,
It follows that the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of per sons, the Pastors and the flock...the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors. - VEHEMENTER NOS, an Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on February 11, 1906.
Others do what most of both groups criticize evangelicals for doing: interpreting the teachings of their supreme authority. For the former it is past official historical teachings of their church, while for the latter it is wholly inspired and unchanging Scripture, which is abundantly evidenced as being the transcendent supreme standard for obedience and testing and establishing truth claims for the Israel of God.
....”The Catholic church publishes its teachings. Anyone can read them”....
That’s really nonsense...especially for those without familiarity with catholic jargon, which muddles the message, and further overloads the message with volumes of otherwise unnecessary information....in order to cloak what might be objected to.
So yes many catholics and non will just simply accept the easy way out and let someone else sort out and tweak what’s written....few do...so it’s simply “there”.