I remember a visit I had in 1965 with a young priest was was serving two parishes in a Texas country district. He ws full of strange talk, such as whether the priests authority came from the bishop or from the people. He also said something that also bothered me. I was single and teaching school. "he said, "Well, that is your whole life." I stared at him and said, "Well, father, I hope not." I never darkened his door again. Luther was written across his forehead. although I did not think that at the time. Just that what he was saying was false.
We hsve been fed with so much baloney by priests whose education was shallow and which wholly inadequate to enable them to honor the Holy Tradition. Many of these men have become theologians and bishops and have never in their whole lives bothered to revisit the past and ask if the master plan for remaking the Church might not have been flawed and their youthful impulses misdirected? I fear that like Gary Wills, the only thing they regret is that their will has been frustrated.