Every orgnisation has those who are fully committed, those who are lacklustre and those who have lost all belief in the grouping.
Our attitude or feelings to the group to which we belong hangs by a thread. It can so easily depend on our personal experiences, how we have been treated. It can also depend on the sort of person we are.
Every grouping has its sycophants, detractors too and those who sell their souls to the institution. No grouping is free of fanatics.
Like every organisation, all those types of people live and survive within priesthood.
Why should anyone be surprised at the 'goings-on'? But maybe with priesthood there are some 'unusual rules and regulations' that makes it more prone to odd behaviour.
A wise Dominican, the late John O'Gorman, once said that, at least within the Dominicans, there should be a greater freedom and ease about people leaving the Order. He strongly believed that it would only be natural and inevitable that men would lose their faith, lose their enthusiasm and so there was little purpose in their remaining in the Order. He believed many people would be far happier and 'productive' by leaving and that the Order in turn would also be a better place.
But he was also concerned about how fanatics and incompetent people can have such a say in religious orders.
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