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Notes -
Sorry for the double response, thought about editing the first comment but this is turning into a proper thought:
I think part of it is also that there is a centralized authority in the Catholic Church. My priest is teaching under the authority of our diocesan bishop, who receives his authority through his Holy Orders but maintains his authority by remaining in communion with the Bishop of Rome.
My local priest either is teaching what the Catholic Church teaches or is not. If he is preaching what the Catholic Church preaches, then it's redundant in the Information Age. Everyone who cares will have already looked it up, everyone who doesn't care about doctrine has already tuned the priest out if they were ever tuning in at all. If he's good, he'll be able to synthesize something from the readings and the present age and pull together some kind of advice or insight.
If a priest is not preaching what the Catholic Church preaches, then ignore him. If he is in heresy, try to be charitable, correct him in private, write a letter to his bishop if he persists. But there are lots of various mediocre steps between "teaching in lockstep with the Church" and "outright heresy." And when that happens you just kind of grin and bear it.
My pastor is just one person in a network of people with teaching authority I have regular access to. 100 years ago, or even just 50 years ago, I think Catholics did take their parish priests more seriously and have to trust them a lot more, just because of technology.
I'm skirting around The Scandal, but that has a lot to do with it, too. Lots of devout Catholics told God, "I'll take The Church, You can keep Your priests" because that was the only way to resolve the angst there.
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