The crisis is for sure reason why so many Catholic youth are not running into the religious and/or priestly life, you can bet on that. I wonder sometimes who can blame them when they'd have to deal with such bad superiors.
When I was in Novus Ordo Land (e.g.: youth group, catchiest, alter serving -the whole nine yards - not bad things at all mind you, but nevertheless all imbued with a certain "modern" mindset), I
distinctly remember thinking on multiple occasions how horrible it must be for the priest to have to deal with parish councils, bishops who come down on priests following the least trivial, ego-driven complaint from parishioners, CCD catechism directors, the whole nine years.
As a wise SSPX priest has said, the NO in the United States is a democracy. This is a radical break with how the Church has traditionally been run. Walk into any parish in America. Who's in charge? Not the pastor, no way. The parish council are the folks running the show (busy penning a "mission statement" no doubt). Right behind them is the liturgy committee. Sad to say the dioceses are more often than not run by committees and subcommittees, not by the bishop who is drug out for Confirmations and Ordinations (if any). Everything is turned on it's head in the NO.
Long story short Catholicmilkman, you are absolutely right, the poor and uninspiring leadership in many areas of the Church is a big deterrent to vocations. I would reckon many priests, monks, nuns ended up in their state of life based on the outstanding example of someone they knew who was already in that life. Unfortunately such Christian examples are lacking in our day; good leadership is what we need, now more than ever.
