On one hand, it's worth examining Anglo-Catholicism as a cultural and social phenomenon, since the industrial revolution and its consequences that inspired it are very interesting in themselves. On the other, I think Anglicanorum coetibus is an example of what happens when intellectual misunderstandings play out in the real world -- Marx and Engels writ very small.
The story of St Mary of the Angels, founded by Fr Neal Dodd, a Nashotah House graduate who intended the parish to be Anglo-Catholic from the start, is at the heart of contemporary Anglo-Catholicism. One of Dodd's successors, Fr Jack Barker, was closely involved in talks with Bp Bernard Law in the context of the 1976 Congress of St Louis that led to the 1980 Anglican Use Pastoral Provision, which in turn led to Anglicanorum coetibus.
For the parish and many connected with it, this story has been an ongoing fiasco. This is certainly due in part to the limitations of some of the key players like Msgr Steenson, Fr Hurd, Bp Strawn, and Canon Morello. But if that were the whole story, it would be only a faint modern echo of Barsetshire.
My own view is that the story is playing out as a result of basic dishonesties connected with Anglo-Catholicism. This is what makes it worth the attention, at least, of a small group of people. The legal cases connected with the parish -- this year is the 40th anniversary of the First Lawsuit -- also suggest there are continuing cultural reverberations, not just from Trollope, but from the example of Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Bleak House.
Trollope and Dickens, by the way, are much better writers than TS Eliot.
