Nothing in catholicism can be taken at face value. Growing up Catholic, you learn obfuscation, and to work through abstractions of ideas rather than literal ones. Anyone considering the literal words in the bible was considered some kind of idiot zealot barbarian. Frankly we looked down on the rest of the christians who were limited to what was written on the paper. Only the priests could translate the text into what we actually truly believed, and thats what they were good for-- telling us what was meant rather than what was actually written.

Its a system that worked out great when the priests had charisma and could sell it, but when they lacked that personal touch it all fell apart pretty quickly. Being a catholic priest looks hard.