No, that's not my Church

                            
                        A happy group of traditional Catholics 
                               all laced up and fresh from sniffing incense

I had an opportunity recently, to speak at some length with a Catholic priest of the liberal variety.
One who, by all accounts, likes to strut his stuff on the sanctuary and devil take the hindmost.

I cannot speak in anyway to verify that fact as I am careful to avoid the occasion of sin by never attending a modern Mass.

But he does have every look of the liberal about him. Not quite shell suit and trainers but close.

He spoke to me about puritanism and that had me foxed for quite some time until I realised that he was talking about me - Me! A Puritan?

Not just me, of course, he meant all orthodox Catholics, you know, us Papes who are so hung up on the smell of incense and lacy cottas.

I never, ever, enter into an argument with a liberal. You do not win converts by arguing and it generally ends up with both parties walking away bruised and embittered.

I do stand up for my Faith in a secular arena, provided again, that it is not some dreary, booze fuelled debate over the dinner table.
I am too old a serpent too be drawn by such detractors.

My priest friend droned on and on about how he wished for a dumbed down Marxist type simpler, less ritualistic Church and I only intervened when he blatantly went over the top with his comments.

Just enough for me to show him that I was not in accord with his train of thought but not enough to provoke a blazing row.

Where is this ramble leading?

Ah, yes, two things.
One, it is ignorant and insulting to believe that we traditional Catholics are only interested in the smoke and mirrors side of the Faith.

Yet this view is frequently bandied around by all who are not part of the hermeneutic of continuity.

Two, that there is nothing, absolutely, nothing for me and mine in the Ordinary Form of the Mass as celebrated by the bulk of the clergy today.
Those last nine words are, of course, critical.

There are many good priests who celebrate both forms reverently, ad orientum and in Latin. But by far the majority do as my NBF does and that is make up the liturgy as they go along, dragging the congregation behind them in a weird assortment of antics and pantomime.

That is not for me. I do not even believe it to be Catholic.

It is, in fact, another Church. Maybe it should have a distinct title; something like, the Partly Catholic Church or the Church of Latter Day Omadhauns.

Or am I being un Catholic also?

Any name suggestions will be forwarded to Eccleston Square. Anonymously.