Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky: Opinion: Clericalism and the Four tiers of the Bureaucracy

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By Father Jerry J. Pokorsky, Catholic World Report, Nov. 13, 2023

Father Jerry J. Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington. He is pastor of St. Catherine of Siena parish in Great Falls, Virginia.. He holds a Master of Divinity degree as well as a master’s degree in moral theology

Jesus doesn’t criticize the structure of the hierarchy. He objects to the abuses.

The dismissal of Bishop Strickland as the Ordinary of the Diocese of Tyler prompts us to consider the pathology of clericalism in today’s hierarchy. In happy times, the following Four Tiers of the Bureaucracy describe the way of the world. In times of doctrinal disobedience, the Tiers facilitate clericalism.

Jesus gives an apt description of garden variety clericalism:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. (Mt. 23:2-7) …

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