More than one human soul has been attracted by the idea of fame and popularity. We see hollywood littered with people who sold their souls to the spiritual wood chipper called entertainment. They want to be "an actor" and end up doing numerous unspeakable things all in the name of "making it big". Of course, in the process many (not all, but most) give in to the modernist and pagan lies of immorality and then find themselves engaging in the same shameful behaviors as the heathen.
Even more sad is when priests cave to this temptation. No, I do not mean priests who want to be actors (I pray that there are none, though when I see things that go on in some parishes, I have my doubts). I mean priests who want to be "popular". This temptation can lead a priest to neglect correcting his people. It can make a priest refuse to remove someone from a finance council because he wants people to like him. Priests have even gone so far as to seek popularity with outsiders by being "nice" to them. By "nice" I do not mean "kind"; they are two different things. Kindness is a virtue, enabled by the Holy Ghost, but niceness is a compromise and avoids even good conflict.
In essence, priests who are tempted to be popular will usually compromise the faith in some way. They will pretend that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is merely one denomination among many. They will avoid saying certain things in the pulpit because they want to make sure people come back the next Sunday. They will fail to tell a cohabiting couple that they are sinning and have to stop. The list could go on and on; but you get the idea.
I remember the temptation hitting me many years ago, and as crazy as it sounds I decided back then to try (as best as I could) to be unpopular. No, not in the sense of being hated by everyone, but rather in the general sense of not being well known. Someone once asked if I would rather be at a big parish in a large city, and I told her "no", I said that I liked a bit of healthy rural obscurity. It keeps me humble and reminds me that I am only a little hammer in God's toolbox. Pray for me, and pray for all priests. Pray that we would lead rightly, and that we would resist the temptation of popularity.