"NO ONE does more harm in the Church than he who has the rank of holiness and acts perversely. This is because no layperson presumes to refute the delinquent. Moreover, because such a sinner is honored by the dignity of his rank, his offenses spread considerably by way of example. And yet everyone who is unworthy would flee from such a great burden of guilt if, with the attentive ear of the heart, he pondered the saying of the Truth: "He that scandalized one of these little ones who believes in me, it would be better for him that a millstone was hung around his neck and that he was cast into the depths of the sea" (Mt 18:16). Indeed, the "millstone" symbolizes the circuitousness and labor of the secular life, and the "depths of the sea" suggests final damnation. Whoever, therefore, gives off the appearance of sanctity but destroys another by his words or example, it would be better that for him that his earthly acts, demonstrated by worldly habits, would bind him to death than for his sacred office to be a source for the imitation of vice in another. Indeed, his punishment in hell would be less terrible if he fell alone."

~St. Gregory the Great: "The Book of Pastoral Rule," I, 2.

(I think pastors and spiritual advisors would do well to study this work, and, of course, take it to heart. --Ben)