I too am a former Catholic. My impetus to move away from the church was the realization that I really don’t need to confess my sins to a middle man when I can go directly to the boss any time.
Unfortunately we are, as God tells us repeatedly through His Word, like sheep. We prefer to follow a leader that has skin on him, so we follow priests and bishops and preachers and elders rather than the Holy Spirit. Protestants are just as guilty of this as Catholics, we just do it on a local level since we have no pope. We all must renounce the following of a person rather than the living Christ - thus we become true Christians.
1 Corinthians 1:10-13 (NIV):
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas[b]”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
...”We all must renounce the following of a person rather than the living Christ - thus we become true Christians”....
It is when we dare to stand alone with Jesus Christ that I believe He reveals Himself the most. There are times in life which He gives us that time where all and any “crutches” we lean on are simply not there or have left. He wants us to fully lean on Him and He will meet us there in that place we find oursleves in.