I think you're right, I think he is laying the groundwork - possibly without realizing it - to conclude - as you do - that expecting a priest to teach with the Church is akin to "George Orwell's Ministry of Truth" and "clearly promulgated by raging control freaks."

That's the Episcopal Church, not the Catholic Church, which was divinely commanded to teach all nations and given the Holy Spirit to lead it in all truth, and constituted with a hierarchy to shepherd it.

Thus a valid "let's not overdo it" can quickly generated into "whoopee! there are no rules!", which you never tire of demonstrating.

Of course because God really loves us, He gave use the Natural Law, the Ten Commandments, and a Church to preserve and pass on the teaching, just as parents who really love their children impose curfews and limits on what they watch.

But sometimes we have children with oppositional-defiant disorder.