Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on some Forms of Clericalism

          Here are some more sharp observations the pope made in on Heaven and Earth, the book he co-authored with Rabbi Skorka.

  "The risk that we must avoid is priest and bishops falling into clericalism, which is a distortion of religion. The Catholic Church is the entire People of God, including priests. When a priest preaches the Word of God, or when he reflects he feelings of he whole people of God, he is prophesying, exhorting, catechizing from the pulpit. Now when a priests leads a diocese or a parish, he has to listen to his community, to make mature decision and lead the community accordingly. In contrast when the priest imposes himself, when in some way he says "I am the boss here", he falls into clericalism. Unfortunately. we see in some priests ways of leading that do not correspond to the principles of seeking harmony in the name of God. There are priests with the tendency to clericalize with their public statements. The Church defends the autonomy of human events. A healthy autonomy is a healthy laity, where different competencies are respected.  The Church does not tell doctors how to perform an operation. What is not good is militant laicism, that takes an anti-transcendental position or demands that religion not leave the sacristy. The Church gives values and people do the rest. "  pp 138, 139

"...There are some [seminarians] that feel that by themselves they are not going to be successful in life and look to organizations that can protect them. One of these organizations is the clergy. ...we keep our eyes open, we try to know those who demonstrate interest, we give them in depth psychological tests before they enter the seminary. Later in the yer of community life before they enter, during weekend meetings, we an see and discern who has a vocation, and those who are only seeking a refuge or were mistaken in their discernment of a vocation. Assuming all who enter have a vocation, there can also be infidelity to that call...An example would be the case of worldliness. Throughout history there have been both worldly priests and bishops. one might think that having a woman on the side is being worldly, but that is only one of the double lives that are mentioned. There are those that seek to compromise their faith for political alliances or a worldly spirituality...the worst that can happen to those that are anointed and called to service is that they live with the criteria of the world instead of the criteria that the Lord commands...If this were to happen throughout the Church, the situation would be much worse than those embarrassing periods with libertine pastors. The worst that can happen in the priestly life is to be worldly, to be a 'lite' bishop or a 'lite' priest." pp. 44, 45

"Taking up he theme of religious ministers, humility is what gives assurance that the Lord is there. When someone is self sufficient, when he has all the answers to every question, it is proof that God is not with him. Self sufficiency is evident in every false prophet, in the misguided religious leaders that use religion for their own ego." p.33