My understanding is that the transmission of authority is not dependent necessarily on the man in the office, but of the office itself. That is, you may get a bad apple every now and again, but the grace of the Holy Spirit keeps that apple from spoiling the whole bunch--after all, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church.
This is probably a very simplistic and flawed understanding, but that is how it was explained to me by my priest when I asked this very question.
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