What ever...

...happened to the Liturgical Pimpernel? That mysterious character who set up a blog in defiance of this one and in grandiloquent style would rail constantly against me for pointing out the want of consistency in Roman Catholic traditionalism. He accused me of cowardice for refusing to answer a question he once posed (I forget what it was), of "cafeteria traditionalism" for wearing a Roman biretta with a surplice during my experimental days, and generally disparaged the integrity of my blog because I made a mistake about the precise year in which folded chasubles were abolished. You will all know that my full name is Patrick Sheridan, that I was once a student at Heythrop and that I was for a time very active in the parish of Blackfen. You can contact me any time using my personal e-mail address. But what do we know about the Pimpernel? Do we know where he goes to Mass, or what his right name is? It seems to me that such a charge as cowardice is more apt for persons who launch ad hominem attacks from the safety of anonymity. The Pimpernel's pontifications were upheld, while they lasted, by the New Liturgical Movement, among other traditionalist blogs, because the Pimpernel was "respectable," arguing that it would do us well to defer our judgements to the authority of the Apostolic See; in other words, just complacently get on with 1962. In which case, what he was arguing was hardly new or refreshing! It was all very of-this-age and demonstrably not in keeping with the sentiments of real traditionalists like Mr John Tyson or Geoffrey Houghton-Brown, some time chairman of the Latin Mass Society.

But I do miss the Liturgical Pimpernel. It is a consolation to know that Liturgiae Causa was once interesting enough to inspire others to start up their own blogs.