I am sure Bp Lopes would like to know the source of various items of information leaked to you, not that my identity would get him any closer to that information. But I think he would find the post below quite offensive, and rightly so. Mr Campbell’s relationship with the OCSP is problematic and as I have mentioned he often posts snide comments about it on Catholic Ordinariate Anglican Facebook Forum and elsewhere. Although he remains on the Parish Council of Incarnation, Orlando (his wife is an “Event” co-ordinator and frequently uses the Incarnation parish hall as a venue) he regularly attends mass at the St Thomas More SSPX Priory in Sanford, FL and has done so for years. He effectively parted ways with Msgr Steenson over the question of whether the EF could be offered in OCSP parishes and I think the Ordinariate has failed to meet his expectations in a number of ways. At what point will TKBS members begin to question his agenda?Referring to a bishop as "his lordship" and making references to indulgences, which have been an anti-Catholic meme since Luther, does not suggest Mr Columba Campbell is speaking as one of the loyal opposition. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the stalwarts in The Karen Bruce Society are as angry at the Catholic Church as they are at Karen. They actually remind me of the original dissident faction at the St Mary of the Angels Hollywood parish, whom for convenience I used to characterize as "the angries".
These folks aren't angry at Karen or my regular correspondent, they're just angry, and they've actually been angry for a long time, though they have more reason to be so now.
I think we're seeing a parallel to a larger trend in society, which has been a realignment of the center-left and center-right coalitions. The center-left coalition had been made up since the 1960s of labor, minorities, Catholics, and to a lesser extent sexual outliers and feminists. The center-right coalition had been made up of traditional conservatives from the early 20th century, quasi-aristocratic National Review types, and corporate country-club Republicans.
By the 2016 election, Democrat leadership had dropped blue-collar labor and Catholic support in favor of a new emphasis on radical feminism and sexual outliers. Open-borders policies placed labor and naturalized or native-born minorities at a disadvantage, and enough of those groups became Trump voters to swing the 2016 election.
At the same time, with no effective successor to William Buckley, the quasi-aristocratic Tories, along with the corporate Republicans who'd supported the Bush family, became never Trumpers. All the rump remnants of the old center-left and center-right coalitions, now without political leverage, are angry. The center-left remnants are really, really angry.
There's a much smaller trend taking place with the disgruntled-Anglican faction, which has been allied, at last in social media, with far-right traditionalist Catholics. COVID is putting pressure on all churches by damaging social networks and reducing income, but the pressure will be particularly severe among the small parishes of the angry fringe groups, of which people like Messrs Reed and Columba Campbell ae stalwarts. This blog has had some role in damaging their credibility -- we wouldn't see The Karen Bruce Society if it hasn't -- but I've been posting on the bigger reasons here in any case.
I think it's becoming plainer that the angries in the ordinariate have never been interested in being Catholic so much as they've just wanted a good place to be angry. The COVID crisis is just one factor that shows this isn't really working out for them, but COVID or not, appealing to fringe groups of angries isn't a winning strategy for the Church. I have a feeling there are wise heads here and in Rome who already understand this.
Heck, if I were in the hard core at the Karen Bruce Society, I'd be angry, too.
