WANDERING BISHOPS is a terrifying exploration of this mindset and the harm it does to those who adopt it. This blogger seems, OTOH, to be content to live in a church of his own imagination of which he is the only member - to live in thee shadows and illusions and not to seek for the true communion from which one can draw nourishment. It is important to be in communion with the true Church - this is what Newman meant when he asked that his tombstone should be engraved with the words "out of shadows and illusions into the truth" and if, which God forbid, I came to believe what he believes about Papal authority and ecclesiology, I would seriously investigate the possibility that the Eastern Orthodox Church was the true one. What worries me is the whole Church of Me attitude, an ever-present temptation for both very high Anglo-Catholics and Catholic traddies. The reference to high functioning autism certainly does make sense - I think that some people with this problem are naturally attracted to liturgical minutiae. This blogger is particularly critical of liturgiae Causa /search?q=liturgiae I see no reason why traditionalist priests shouldn't use books that have not been affected by 20th century reforms, but only with the permission of the Pope.
He believes that Pope is wrong about the validity of Anglican orders, at least for Anglo Catholics Personally. Indeed the author of this blog prefers a high anglican liturgy to a Catholic liturgy. I fear that some trads are in danger of creating a form of high church party in the Catholic Church. As we see with Anglo Catholicism beautiful liturgy is not guarantee of orthodoxy. But still IMHO some people involved in the London Trad scene (brompton oratory etc) are overly devoted to beautiful church liturgies. (I know we shouldn't set up dichotomies between beauty and doctrine). He seems to place aesthetics above doctrine. In an older blog he spoke about how he couldn't be a priest because he is "psychological abnormal". The author has a mild form of high functioning autism. The author is the son of immigrants from Derry and lives in Fr Finigan's parish, Blackfen and despite his views takes part in ordinary parish life.
He is a real snob, even perhaps a gnostic a la Rene Guenon - he's in a very dangerous situation. This guy seems to take a positive delight in assuming that he is the only real Catholic around and sneering at the great unwashed and their tacky popular piety. He treats ultramontanism simply as a heresy, a papal power grab, without noting that there were certain factors in the sixteenth century (invention of the printing press) and nineteenth century (massive movement away from traditional societies and into urban-industrial centres, the decline of Catholic confessional states and their associated Gallicanism) which necessarily produced movements towards uniformity and away from local customs. I am not an enthusiast for uniformity for uniformity's sake (as some of my posts on the eastern Rite thread testify) but this guy has gone much too far to the other extreme. He suggests that England should revert to the Sarum Rite, and that organic development in the Latin Rite ceased at the Council of Trent. The more I look at this guy, the more over the top I find him.
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