text: Yes, RickinMD---true.  Then they carry it over to the laity as well.  Hey, if the priests are 'not in the know'----for sure the laity ---who are 'poorly formed [doctrinally or theologically].  Back in 19th Century England---John Cardinal Newman believed that the laity should be consulted on the matters of faith AN ESSAY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE [believe me, it's a book, not a short essay].  In this 'essay,' Newman developed a detailed concept of the "sensus or consensus fidelium" which DID come out in the Vatican II Document---Gaudium et spes.  
  
  However, at the time, Msgr. George Talbot, the highest-ranking English-speaking member of the Curia at that time, thought Newman's ideas were nonsense. "What is the province of the laity? To hunt, to shoot, and to entertain. These matters they understand, but to meddle with ecclesiastical matters, they have no right at all."
  
  In today's world, the critics of Pope Francis probably think that of priests and the laity, too.