It is possible that the visiting priest isn't opposed to the propers, that he actually believes that one is supposed to do only a hymn or the proper. Such is the implication of his words as you relate them. Was this just a casual remark, or did he seem ill disposed toward the proper per se?

For a visiting priest, he seems, intentionally or not, to be the cause of far more liturgical furor in your parish than a visitor should. Far more! This is a matter solely for you and your pastor.

So, here's a question - my old parish is just starting to use Fr. Weber's propers (God be praised) but the cantrix has started chanting them before the announcements at the beginning of mass. Shouldn't she do this right before the processional hymn? Thoughts?

Should be part of the procession. The announcements interrupt and confuse the meaning of the introit.

Maybe they could use some of @Kathy hymn tune introits during the procession to introduce the idea of a proper text at the beginning of mass, and then eventually replace it with the chant.

We did that at my previous parish - about 6 months with familiar hymn tunes with proper text (or a poetic reinterpretation, as such), with psalm tone verses in between each repetition of the hymn. Once the concept sets into the minds of parishioners that the mass of that day has a particular text to be sung, switching to a chanted introit during the procession is not such a jarring experience. They'll know what is happening and why.

Actually, yes many stepping stones in places:

Was it stepping stones in 1970 when the vernacular was introduced?

-Started in 1965. Even before the Council in places.

Was it stepping stones when ancient chant was replaced by banal, saccharine songs, some of which can barely be called hymns?

-Well, those kinds of hymns long predate the Council, and many many places never had that chant in a meaningful way, sadly.

Was it stepping stones when altar rails were ripped from sanctuaries,

-Typically, that came after precursors....

armies of EMHCs began to distribute Communion

-definitely appeared gradually until approved - especially not until after reception of the Precious Blood became permitted.

girls appeared as altar servers,

-Ditto; part of this was the decline of the parochial school census....

new churches designed to resemble amphitheaters instead of temples?

-The baleful architectural trends definitely started before the Council, as economic concessions rationalized by the Great Depression and war era and then pressures to expand schools in the post-war boom. (First started with reduction of plans to simpler, cookie-cutter designs, then went down from there. Lots of new suburban parishes didn't even bother with building a church for a couple of decades at least.)


PS: And the changes in canon law in 1983 have given parishioners in more densely populated areas an upper hand: they can parish-shop now if they don't like what's going on in their parishes.

I have used Introits as preludes before the entrance hymns. We have no announcements until the end of the mass. The other Propers can be fitted into the mass. However, those hymns are not going anywhere but are here to stay.

Softly softly catchee monkey!
That's how the vandals subverted Sacrosanctum concilium, and that's how to recover the vision. Of course that's no good if you disagree with the vision. John Cardinal Heenan:

"At home it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday in the Sistine Chapel we would soon be left with a congregation mostly of women and children."

http://www.chantcafe.com/2015/03/the-omega-effect-wait-for-it.html

We were advised to sing a hymn during the procession, as many verses as necessary, then start the introit as the procession moves onto the altar. The reasoning behind that was that the introit is part of the Mass but the entrance hymn isn't.