The position of a cleric is different than, say, a celebrity or a professor. Adherence to religious dogma (in both thoughts and actions) is a strict requirement.
In Catholic teaching forgiveness does not mean there isn't just punishment due, or that prudential decisions need to be made. An embezzler may be truly sorry but keeping them in a position where they control money would be bad for a variety of reasons (such as putting them in a near occasion of sin). In catholic Theology even those sins which are forgiven still require cleansing due to retained attachment to sin after death, this punishment / purification is called purgation and occurs in purgatory.