One great communion, the Roman Catholic, not only concentrates all power in a hierarchy, but also identifies the authority of the hierarchy with the authority of an unchanging God. Theoretically it does not follow that all priestly acts and policies are sound, for distinction is made between the bishop or the Pope acting as an individual and the same person wielding divine authority. Nevertheless in practice this distinction tends to fade out. What the Pope says “goes” without anybody’s stopping to inquire whether or not it is _ex cathedra_. If the bishops in the United States adopt a policy--concerning parochial schools, say--that they have a perfect right to reject or to reconsider, opposition to it is instantly branded as disloyalty to the church. A bishop has been known to go as far as to assert that it is improper to discuss and evaluate episcopal conduct except in official conclaves. In this situation the moral necessity of institutional self-criticism is unprovided for. Minorities can scarcely function at all. Even when oppressive use of power is made by an occasional ecclesiastic, there is no known way to resist it without being accused of straight disloyalty to Mother Church; and when a high official becomes prideful, puffed up, and notorious for pompous display, no way is at hand for deflating him. Protestant bodies, though they offer far more opportunity for reconstruction from within, even providing organs for lay participation therein, nevertheless do not escape the tendencies that accompany the exercise of power, nor provide adequate means for resisting these tendencies. The immunities of officialdom, though they be not denominated in the bond, are there. “Respect for the cloth” leads to the coddling of theological students; by means of easy tests it certifies intellectual weakness along with strength, and then piously puts up with the resulting qualities of pulpit and pastoral skill. For how many of the sermons preached last Sunday was there any real occasion? Where real occasion for a sermon existed, was the needed and serviceable sermon forthcoming? What is an efficient or successful minister? The point of this question is not that ministers are human, fallible, and of varying degrees of ability, but that the immunity from real tests that their official position gives them misleads both them and their parishioners. Keeping the church machinery going and attracting support for it, or even increasing the membership, does not of itself indicate anything as to what is happening within the spiritual life. Here, as in politics, industry, and education, the possession of power generates illusions.