Their alliance with the traditionalist Anglo-Catholics has been one of convenience, because both sides cannot stomach women in positions of clerical authority (for entirely opposite reasons) and hate the idea that homosexuals might be just part of the spectrum of boring normality in God's creation.
Pope Francis has made his position on clerical wheels quite clear: Drive if you must, but keep a low profile.
And she eventually lowered her sights from jobs that paid her former salary, applying instead for any kind of clerical position she could find.
She passed through a series of clerical positions and took courses in credit analysis and accounting.
After holding a variety of clerical positions, she became a secretary with the Democratic Party's New York headquarters.
And, as a result of this, three of the most read authors at the start of the 21st century found themselves in opposition to the pope – a cultural position that, amid the scandals of clerical pederasty, looks strikingly prescient.
Fans will recognise this as an allusion to the position of orangs as a clerical caste in the ape society depicted by the 60s and 70s films and the 1963 novel by French writer Pierre Boule, on which the movies were based.
He does not deviate from the party line even on topics where a variety of positions are theologically permissible, such as the end of clerical celibacy.
More recently, though, the Church in the UK, as elsewhere, has been mired in scandals over its handling of clerical sex abuse, and its positions on such issues as contraception, abortion, IVF treatment and stem cell research.
While the Vatican appeared to be rallying around Brady, organisations representing the victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland said these new allegations made his position untenable.
