Truth and Pretext

Power Games of Ego Trippers

      Parading as Piety.
Lets take the case of Jean D'Arc, or Joan of Arc to you.
This was a very devout young woman, rather highly patriotic it would seem, who thought that she heard the voice of angels (Michael at least) direct her how the battles could be won to install on the throne the Dauphin against the guy the British wanted and were sponsoring as Britain was on the march conquering much of normandy, too close to Paris for comfort and large other portions of France.
    The Dominicans- the elite theologian purists of the day- were on the side of and paid handsomely by the British faction.
    They were corrupted by the power, influence and placing their bets on whom they thought would be in power and so were persecuting -literally torturing to death- the person whom they felt most threatened by- a peasant girl who got her orders directly from Heaven.

  Dominicans can't stand that because they are supposed to be the prime moral compass of all catholicism- leading inquisitions across southern france.
  So how do they nail her? She is actually installing the Dauphin, the right heir to the French Royal throne-who was even  Catholic- they catch her on things like-she is wearing men's clothes (hard to win battles in petticoats), and she refuses to renounce her call or the authenticity of her voices.  She is deemed a heretic. Dominicans who had such civil power then were allowed to commit capital punishment on heretics.
    They got it wrong as a retrial some years later proved. But they killed her off anyway. Because they were evil.
Yes, people in clerical garb can be and have been evil. Wrong and Evil.  It should shock nobody that evil parades as piety in the church nor that clergy hedge bets on power grabs.
It never prevails forever- because Christ is in ultimate control of his church and his victory will ultimately always prevail. But some of the people under cloak of his authority misuse his name and play their corrupt self-serving game- at the expense of truth.
Because even monks and priests are people. They are not God, there is but one God. It's the First Commandment as any good Monk or Priest should tell  you.