If this priest did have any sincere dispute with the rite at hand, wouldn't standard procedure be for him to voice his misgivings to his superiors? Wouldn't any criticism (or more like condemnation here) first have to be "vetted" and approved by his superiors before being published?
To me, this is tantamount to an active officer in the U.S. military writing a Letter to the Editor severely criticizing the actions of the Chief of Staff.
The fact that his criticisms are mostly of an aesthetic nature actually makes it worse, in my eyes. If a priest felt that some terrible outrage were being perpetrated in the name of the Church, by leading Church officials, I could understand his "going rogue." But to subject the Church and his superiors to such embarassment by talking out of turn over mere "undecorous" aspects of the old rite??!
Regards,
Your military analogy is quite apt. Unfortunately, too many bishops don’t take disciplinary action against their wayward priests. Bishop Slattery isn’t this priest’s bishop, but the fact that he wrote this tells us that he doesn’t fear his own bishop, either because his bishop agrees with him, or because his bishop doesn’t exercise his authority to correct or even remove such dissidents.