The clergy are simply acting in accordance to their class interests.

Socialism is compatible with most religions & their doctrine unlike literally any Right-wing ideology. Yet the clerical class and the institutions have consistently been in support of and in collaboration with the forces of reaction and opposed to the forces of progress. They did this in Spain and Russia during the early 20th.

The clergy which owns property, keeps slaves, profits from war, participates in government, and belongs to a dogmatic & hierarchical dictatorship is naturally at odds with the laity; the majority of religious people. There is a direct correlation between the divide of a priestly class & the common faithful and the divide between property owners & the working class, respectively. The same systems of oppression are in place so that the ruling minority retain control over the exploited majority, but unlike the bourgeois the clergy don’t hide their tyranny behind a faux democracy. They are openly abusive & manipulative and it’s not because of divine will or a sense of piety but rather of material interests.

This of course isn’t the fault of religion itself but rather the fault of the hierarchy which exists in many religious institutions and exist explicitly to control the laypeople and is responsible for all of the abuses against them by the priests. This is why the class struggle needs to be brought into the churches, temples, etc. to drive out these opportunists and return spirituality to the people from whence it originated.