ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the flow of the infrastructure of religious authority: how it is obtained; how it tends to crystallize into a special monopoly of elites with an accompanying subculture of self-confidence and even conceit; and how it is preserved on an ongoing basis. Substitute ecclesiastical brokers, or the clergy, for political and economic oligarchs in Robert Michels/Gaetano Mosca/Milovan Djilas, and the analysis moves closer to explaining the criminogenic infrastructure or power base that provides a fertile soil for clergy malfeasance to take root, incubate, and spread. When elites in the religious hierarchy can limit access to information on how accusations of clergy malfeasance are being processed administratively, they effectively contribute to keeping the deviant behavior further invisible and indirectly promote the secondary deviance and recidivism. The qualitative study is interesting as an example of authoritative abuse because it demonstrates a step-wise process of ostracization and was conducted long before clergy malfeasance had become a front-page topic in the media.
