text: Sorry, but your comments reek of the church of pre-Vatican II.  Jesus NEVER set up any government in the church.  That occurred over the centuries.  Peter and the other Eleven were not set up as an absolute monarchy [as one poster on this site keeps insisting].  The eventual development of the pope as a leader of western Europe---came as a result of historical and political situations in time.  Not the work, necessarily, of the Holy Spirit.
  
  The ENTIRE Church [hierarchy/clergy/and laity] are invested by the Holy Spirit.  This occurs at Baptism and is intensified at Confirmation. God is not stingy in giving great gifts to the people.  To state that the "laity does not have this charism" fails to note the many members of the laity who did and have demonstrated, better than the hierarchy, how a true follower of Christ acts in her/his world.
  
  The Eucharist is the Bread of Life, and the FIRST sacrament of Forgiveness.  It is not a trophy for the self-righteous.