An analogy for the situation would be a forest ranger who knew trees inside and out. He knew everything about their biochemistry, ecology, evolution and taxonomy. Therefore, he concluded, everyone should move into the forest and become like trees. He didn't know enough about things other than trees. The same applies, more or less, to all professionals.

The Catholic clergy were aware of that problem and were self conscious of it, but they didn't exactly understand it. So at the Second Vatican Council, (1962-65) they tried to open up the religion and become more worldly. All they did was open it up to the sin that destroyed it.

What was really needed was a greater understanding of socialized morality. But that subject cannot easily be grasped from positions of power and affluence. It is primarily powerlessness and vulnerability (formerly called poverty) which teaches that subject.

What Christ taught was that on judgment day, when the sheep are separated from the goats, the basis is who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick, etc (Mat 25:31-46). There was no mention of religion, sacraments or the Ten Commandments. Religious authorities, being associated with power and affluence, can't believe that Christ meant what he said, so they align religion on gimmickry which they control.

The Catholic clergy are aware of the subject of socialized morality, and they integrate it into their theology. But at the top of the structure, they can't really understand it. It's sort of a tack-on. They assume that it is a nicety but not the critical part of religion that personalized morality and sacraments are.

To understand the significance of socialized morality, it is necessary to feel the forces of socialized sin, which only occurs when victimized by it. This is why Bishops Oscar Romero and Helda Camera said they were transformed when assigned to impoverished parishes in Latin America at the time they were newly ordained. When the injustices became their own problems, they felt the forces. The forces of sin are like a hail storm falling on the victims at the bottom of society but which cannot be seen from the top of society.

And then, simply knowing about the injustices is not enough, because acts of producing justice are needed for overcoming sin and related ignorance inside of one's own soul. The focus on personalized morality does not touch the basic forces which create sin, which are pride, jealousy, bigotry, prejudice, elitism, etc. Only acts of justice reverse those forces.

Therefore, The Catholic clergy could not overcome their own corruptions. They claimed the opposite—that they could achieve a higher state of perfection than anyone else, but they didn't know what they were talking about. The subconscious forces which cause sin, and which they could not remove, left them with attitudes related to domination, elitism, etc. which took the form of authoritarianism.

Trying to resurrect traditional Catholicism could of course never succeed, and it would not be constructive. The problem was not just the authoritarian errors of the hierarchy. It was also an inability to integrate such an intense ritualistic relationship to God into the hectic pattern of modern life-styles.

Therefore, the best solution would be to use a dual system, where the traditional rituals are available to those who can relate to them, while the common ritual is watered down for integration into worldly patterns. But the sacrilege should be removed from the common ritual called liturgy.

Conservatives point to modernists who replace religion with social do-gooding and say it proves them right. But conservativism and modernism are not the only alternatives. Religion which relates to God combined with the do-gooding is what is supposed to exist.
 

Every organization has its rules, but it does not decree reality. The pope is supposed to be running an organization, not playing God, because he gets everything all screwed up.