He used the wrong word, he should have said "hierarchy", not "magisterium". The problem is that when one sees the leaders of a church acting in an unchristian manner, why should one follow them?

I read the "catholicculture" article. It isn't particularly good, since it (1) doesn't address the clerical abuse scandal in any way, and (2) it relies heavily on "natural law", which it simply assumes as a given. Since, as I have said previously, "natural law" is often used in one of two ways: Either as a form of handwaving when one does not have an actual argument or as a way of trying to universalize one's personal opinion. This article does both.

The second article is simply an uninformed anti--progressive rant. 

If you want to see what passes for conservative Catholic thought, then look at them. Otherwise, don't bother.