SADLY,I finally have 2 admit there are corrupt catholic priests and/or parishes...after years of defending priests & catholicism,I have finally come to the 1st-hand realization that there actually are some corrupt priests,and the sad correlation is that corrupt priests lead to corrupt parishes.
The paradox of parish life is that the priest is,in general,the sole purveyor of "truth".So important is the priest (according to catholic rules) ,only he can conduct the eucharist ritual (or occassionally a deacon,I forget if they are allowed to prepare eucharist) & usually it is the priest who writes the messages in the bulletin,and approves any other submissions.
And of course,only the priest can preach a homily (&occassionally a deacon). So,as you see,the priest literally controls "truth" in the parish. If that priest capitulates to sinful tendencies & becomes selfish,self-indulgent,succumbs to human ego issues such as power & control,envy,jealousy,maybe personal prejudices he is or is not aware of,etc, those on the wrong end of the stick are not included in the "truth according to priest x" and thereby become suspect,marginalized,etc.
Unfortunately,many parishioners just want to belong & be accepted no matter the cost,& too many of such passive parishioners simply become "chameleons" in order to keep riding the bandwagon.
Therefore,if the priest marginalizes person A ,the parish sooner or later,in general,does the same (ie that's the way popularity contests happen in teen cliques. If popular "person A" doesn't like the new kid,person A enlists his or her pals to not like the new kid as well).
The priest can marginalize in subtle ways,or even directly thru staring,intimidation,bullying, overtly or covertly,including more invisibly by writing notes,emails,etc (of course any other churches of other traditions can become compromised likewise as well depending on the pastor & their infrastructure,but my most recent negative experience has been at a catholic parish (or two) (see some previous posts).
I will be writing more on this...
