first and foremost, a church is a community. a church is not one without its faithful. at least that's what was taught to me since i was six years old.

what you are referring to is the church hierarchy, with all its complicated layers and levels of responsibility.

your opinion on its definition obviously varies, so let's leave it at that

and yeah, this discussion is definitely more interesting than the doomsday prophecies that have been appearing on my facebook wall since the pope announced his resignation.