The Church is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship. A comparison of the Church to a type of government only reveals a gross misunderstanding of the Church.
What is the Church? The best way to view the Church is as an escape. It is the new exodus making its escape through the hostile desert of godlessness on the escape route from slavery under the yoke of pharaoh to freedom with God and his holy family in the promised land. The hierarchy of the Church are responsible for the logistics of the escape. The mission God gave the hierarchy of the Church is to facilitate the escape - not to frustrate it, not to filter it and not to foul it up. Their job is to be grease for the wheels of the escape not an obstacle in its way. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect. Only by making our escape from holy place to holy place that define the escape route from godlessness to paradise can we be sure that we are heading in the right direction. The movement of the escape forms the needle of the compass that always points to God.
“The Holy Spirit is tugging at our souls. The curious are following the tug back to its source.”