The mere fact that my bishop may be a total dweeb does not make my obeying him necessarily wrong or disobedience a virtue.
Actually I think the current Bishop of Richmnd may turn out to be okay, but that's neither here nor there.
If the Church has the authority to put out the G.I.R.M. and as long as it does not require me to do something immoral, seems to me I ought to do what it says.
Mind you, one of the hopes I had about becoming Catholic was that I could get away from this kind of debate. But my thinking is that most of us are wilfull and enamoured of having our own way, and that generally in matters of moral indifference it is preferable to do the silly ass thing others ask of us than to indulge our frowardness.
If I waited for everyone to be as brilliant, tasteful, pious, and just generally as wonderful as I before I did what they said, I'd never obey anyone but Jesus, and He'd have to show some ID.
I'm always reminded of John of the Cross in these situations. I think his bishop ordered him not to preach publicly and into a monastery and he obeyed. For ten years.
Probably not the best move by the bishop.
I've tried standing after the Agnus Dei, due to a mistake by my pastor. Didn't really care for it. Was happy when the bishop made it clear we were to kneel.
All this monkeying around with the liturgy seems silly to me but if my bishop is actually a successor to the apostles and has the authority to choose one posture or another, I will obey. I might complain a lot, but I'll obey.
Fr. Tran's letters to his parishoners on the linked article show him to be not very diplomatic but at least one shows that someone promised him they would obey and then broke their promise. Bad form.
Hear hear!
-Theo