Are you familiar with the concept of Conflict of Interest?

Priests are supposed to preach the truth and fight error. But what if they are tempted to teach their flock to avoid all their competition, thus better enriching themselves -- and they give in to that temptation?

The people are already inclined to believe a priest, especially a Traditional one. And in this day and age, faithful Traditional priests are quite rare and many places don't have access to one. So people are desperate and willing to do anything to keep a priest happy.

The priest is the one with the training, who can teach his flock all truth, and what is good and evil. But what if he uses his position to slice out a nice piece of the Mystical Body for himself rather than for Christ? It is something many priests -- especially talented ones -- can do. And you know the devil tempts every last one of them.

Is it crazy to believe that once in a while a priest gives in to this temptation?

I think we all know of a place or two where this has happened.




What I'm saying is that many priests aren't just preaching the Faith to third parties who won't have any bearing on the priests' own support and financial gain. No, quite the contrary. When a priest is the arbiter of truth, it's very tempting to twist that truth to make YOU the only solution for your flock.

Since this conflict of interest is always there, we have to be on the lookout for it. Beware when a priest starts telling you to avoid _____ or ______. Make sure he has good reasons to back it up, rather than just thinking it "sounds good when he says it". Some priests are charismatic and very convincing. They could convince you to buy a freezer if you lived at the North Pole. Maybe hours after he left, you'd be like "Why the heck did I just buy a freezer, considering I live at the North Pole?" but at the time, coming from the priest's mouth, it sounded perfectly reasonable.