Steven, I think the church leadership has embraced a separation from the laity. How do they do this?
They feel their hierarchy gives them power and they believe they are closer to God because they provide the sacraments. They feel the celibacy makes them purer and thus superior. They also tend to look down or reject LBGT as sinners and women as non equals. I think they are like the Pharisees who looked down on others as sinners and separated themselves. It is this separation that Jesus saw as the true sin.