The Catholic Church must end its culture of 'clericalism' )

Michael Higgins is Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University. (Sacred Heart University)

Michael Higgins is one of North America's leading thinkers on matters of the Catholic Church, the Pope and the Vatican. 

He's the author or co-author of more than a dozen books and he's the former president of St. Thomas University in Fredericton. He's currently distinguished professor of Catholic thought at Sacred Heart University. 

He told Michael Enright a culture of "clericalism" is at the root of the problem. 

"Clericalism is an attitude, a culture, an ethos that ensures male exclusivity. It's built upon a sense of entitlement — a sense that by virtue of your calling, you're separate; you're a species unto yourself," he said. 

"It results in the end in the existence of a whole world of expectation and understanding that sees you as somehow insulated and protected and self-governing and, in a very fundamental way, accountable only to yourself and latterly, to [the Pope.]"

He believes ending the seminary system would help address that culture.

"It's the grooming ground, it's the womb that nurtures the clerical culture," he said. 

"Although the seminary came into existence as an instrument of reform — and it was a good thing — after the Enlightenment, it becomes a redoubt of conservatism and resistance to modernity. Now it's an archaic structure committed primarily to forming new clerics with the same way of thinking."