ALL ABOUT THE LAY PULPIT

Monday, June 13, 2011

…Or It Will Deal With Thee


Three recent developments have come to pass which should illustrate, even for the most die-hard, brain-dead apologists of Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada, the depths to which these vipers – make that vermin – can sink.  The first involves Cekada’s role in the attempted smearing of the character of Bishop Paul Petko (with the intent to discredit Bp. Petko’s ordination of Bernard Hall to the priesthood); the second involves Cekada’s embarrassingly amateurish attempt at convincing his fellow clerics that Fr. Markus Ramolla was to be deported (Cekada’s aim here was obviously to convince those clerics to withdraw their support from Fr. Ramolla, since his deportation was, according to Cekada, virtually a “done deal”).  And the third incident – and this just happened in the past few weeks, involves Cekada embarrassing himself (once again!) with a cowardly attack on a priest known and loved by just about every known traditional Catholic:  Abbot Leonard Giardina.

The first “development” -- Cekada’s role in spreading “dirt” about Bp. Petko – has been thoroughly documented by Dr. Thomas Droleskey.  It was he who did the investigative work to ferret out Cekada’s involvement here; hence, rather than “re-invent the wheel,” I refer the reader to the following article, entitled Removing All Doubt, for details.  However, it is suggested that the reader first finish here before doing so, for two reasons:  first, Dr. Droleskey’s article, being the excellent exposé that it is, covers a lot of territory, in much detail; therefore it is necessarily lengthy.  Secondly, the piece about Bp. Petko comes late in the article, after several other topics (including the other two “developments” with which this article deals).  Hence, this would probably be too much for the reader to “digest” in one sitting.  But, by all means, read it; it is well worth the time spent.  The doctor does his usual masterful job.

For those who have not yet read Dr. Droleskey’s article, let me just say here that the details he relates illuminate Cekada’s past betrayal of (the then Rev. Mr.) Bernard Hall in such a way that makes Cekada’s actions all the more despicable.  And, until the reader has a chance to read Dr. Droleskey’s exposé in full, let me summarize here that it was Cekada who – while Bernard Hall was in the U.S. these last several decades -- was supposed to be (i.e., was personally responsible for) keeping his immigration papers in order, but didn’t.  He used Rev. Mr. Hall, thoroughly exploiting him (while paying him next to nothing), and then, after all his years of faithful service, not only discarded him but reported him to the immigration authorities besides.  What kind of exquisite low-life does it take to do such a thing?

Concurrent with the attempted smearing of Bp. Petko and of the ordination of Fr. Hall, rumors are being circulated about that Fr. Hall’s ordination is invalid, i.e., that he is not a priest.  It is not yet certain who or what the source of these rumors is, but we could hazard some guesses as to where they started (and who is helping them along). There are other ugly rumors, too, being spread about Fr. Hall in Europe – by a priest who was ordained by Dolan.  Rest assured that all of this slander, whether on this side of the Atlantic or the other, will be exposed – and dealt with.

Bp. Petko, by the way, in a subsequent interview with Dr. Droleskey, related how he quit a novus ordo seminary because of its raging homosexuality -- a move that caused him quite a bit of grief, especially from the seminary faculty.  Bp. Petko goes on record as being adamantly opposed to homosexuals and their perverted life-style.  Dolan and Cekada, on the other hand, set a more-than-dubious example for their SGG flock in that regard.  For instance, Birideshead Revisited, British author Evelyn Waugh’s novel about an upper-class Catholic family in pre-WWII England, was one of the books read by SGG’s high-school students for the past several years.  The problem here is that this story deals with upper-class decadence, homosexuality, marital infidelity, and alcoholism, among other things, not to mention a quasi-homosexual (or, to some critics, openly homosexual) relationship between the novel’s two main characters.  In the end, the novel paints a redeeming picture of Catholicism – but it drags itself through a lot of mud on its way there.  At best, it is a novel for mature, seasoned readers, not high-schoolers – especially those in a high-school that bills itself as traditionally Catholic.

Besides this, there is the well-documented immorality and depravity that has gone on at SGG’s school.  Then there is the example that Dolan and Cekada set themselves: two priests traveling together to the Bishop’s Lodge, an upscale resort that caters to the hedonistic pleasure-seeker set.  In view of all of this, Anthony, your insinuated misinformation about Bp. Petko is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?  And, oh, by the way, there are other “anomalies” about you and your caro compagno that could be mentioned here too; but that will be the subject of a later article.

In his efforts to get his political bedfellows to defame Bp. Petko and to derail the ordination of Fr. Bernard Hall, Cekada’s attempts at both were cowardly, contemptibly Machiavellian (yet embarrassingly amateurish), and – in the end – a miserable failure – except perhaps to those brain-dead zombies at SGG who crave such swill.  But that’s vintage Cekada: trademark arrogance mixed with equal parts of mendacity, vindictiveness, and ineptitude.

But that bit of Cekadaesque chicanery pales in comparison to this next bit of perfidy: his “meisterstück of mayhem,” a letter (after clicking on link, scroll down a short distance to where the letter begins with “Dear Fathers”) that he has just recently published to several traditional clerics, in yet another miserably failed attempt to discredit Fr. Markus Ramolla.  This time, Tony put the shoe so far in his mouth that it made it all the way through his digestive tract. Like many of his other writings, it is vintage Cekada: arrogance, smugness, cockiness, seditious lies, and vindictiveness, all clumsily pieced together -- a tour de force of turpitude – and, like his other efforts, a total, miserable failure. But what sets this letter apart from all of the other swill that Cekada’s poison pen has put out is the sheer MAGNITUDE of his malice.

It was not enough for this Judas to turn Fr. Ramolla (and Bernard Hall) over to the U.S. immigration authorities; he had to brag about it (“Fr. Ramolla went into "unlawful presence" status as soon as we terminated his R-1 status…”), and then boasted later on, ”The visa that he got … then immediately became toast -- or Zweiback, if you prefer” [Zwieback – not Cekada’s misspelled Zweiback --is the German word for toast; in fact, the Germans usually don’t use that word anyway; they use our word “Toast.  It seems that Cekada’s research here matches that of his unscholarly WHH].  Oh, how cute and clever of you, Tony!  You even had to get cocky and flippant, and use the trendy text-messaging shorthand of the day, “BTW” (“By The Way”) at one point in your discourse.  Well, “BTW, Tony,” Sie sind Zwieback (you are toast), “if you prefer” -- because  Fr. Ramolla’s deportation case has been dismissed.  Yes, this is the joyful announcement (scroll down to the “Note from Father” in St. Albert’s Pentecost Sunday bulletin)!  And, hopefully, you and your partner in crime, Danny Daffodil, will be dismissed too -- by your SGG parishioners (at least those with any brains left).

You went on to triumphantly proclaim, “Fr. Ramolla's CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services] record is now forever stained with the scarlet words ‘unlawful presence’ and subject of ‘removal proceeding.’”  Well, Anthony, little did you realize that in your moment of “triumph,” you cemented your own defeat.  Cekada, you are disgusting; you are vermin.  In your blind hatred and your relentless determination to destroy Fr. Ramolla (and Fr. Hall), you have destroyed yourself.  You and your slime-ball boss should simply go back and crawl into a wormhole where you belong.

You couldn’t wait to boast to your fellow clerics, could you?  In your haste and eagerness to discredit Fr. Ramolla before them, you discredited yourself.  And when you stated, “Fr. Ramolla went into ‘unlawful presence’ status as soon as we terminated his R-1 status…,” you inadvertently tipped your hand  that it was you who turned him into the immigration authorities.  Heretofore, it was a case of “our word against yours” (although there was an eye witness) that this was true.  You have saved us the trouble of proving it, for you have furnished the self-condemning words yourself.  Thank you, Anthony, for rendering us that service!  That fact that you did all of this to a fellow priest (a fellow Alter Christus, if you will) and then boasted about it to other fellow priests – that shows the world, in a way that nothing or no one else can, just how low you can sink, and just what a completely miserable wretch that you are.

What did you hope to gain, first, by slandering Bp. Petko, and then following up with your bone-headed blunder about Fr. Ramolla?  Whom did you think that you were fooling?  And why, if you really don’t care whether Fr. Ramolla sinks or swims, did you, as you mentioned in your letter, follow so closely what was being said about him in the SAG bulletin?  Why take such a keen interest in it?  Why so hell bent on wishing him ill?  And why so eager to report it to the world that you had to send out an unsolicited letter to so many priests to let them know that he was “toast”?

This time, you and/or your lying, groveling apologists at SGG cannot hoodwink a Fr. Stepanich with your misinformation and trick him into being your cat’s paw again.  This time, you cannot command support or acquiescence from him or any other of your fellow clerics; you cannot even expect “neutrality” from them, for you have tipped your hand so openly, so publicly, to so many people, in such an embarrassingly obvious way, that it cannot be kept unconcealed – and you did it yourself.  You cannot refute it; you cannot deny it; it is unimpeachable -- because it’s from your own lips; you are its author.   Even the sniveling SGG saps who usually fall for your “song and dance” cannot deny or explain this one away.

It will be interesting to see who among the SGG faithful will (at long last) come to their senses. Will those who have heretofore turned a blind eye to what’s going on – will they have the intellectual honesty to admit (and face up to) the truth?  And those who simply stay for “the show” – those Barnumesque extravaganzas that Dolan puts on to dazzle the senses of the senseless: will they come to their senses?  Or, lastly, those whose excuse for staying is “Well, we have the valid Mass here,” or “Well, we’ve gone here for years, and see no reason to change now:  will this be the wakeup call that jolts all of them out of their stupors?

The truth is, any SGG parishioners with any brains at all should have figured out long ago what Dolan and Cekada are.  They knew what the score was.  What has kept them from admitting it?  What has kept them at SGG?  Complacency?  Habit?  No, it all boils down to one thing: pride.  Their pride, in one form or another, keeps them there. Pride – like all vices (and it is the worst of them all) – is a self-destructive thing; humility – true humility -- is a self-healing thing. Pride handcuffs people into holding on to their errors, and it makes them willfully blind to the truth.  Humility frees them.  And that’s what the folks at SGG need to do:  get over their pride and accept the truth.

Those who have the courage to do so will be richly rewarded.  The people who have left SGG for SAG (St. Albert the Great) have not regretted it.  At SAG, there will be no recriminations or “I told you so’s.”  You will be warmly welcomed, as a lost sheep is welcomed back into the flock.  And, should you leave there for whatever reason, there will be no “guilt-trip” brow-beating to shame you back into the holding pen, as there is at SGG.  Lastly, you will not be fleeced: SAG’s books are open to its parishioners, not hidden behind a smoke screen, with a Lotarski there barbecuing the books.

Those who, in the past, have sided with Dolan and Cekada against innocent people like Fr. Ramolla, or who have spinelessly remained “neutral,” should now have the courage (and decency) to come forward and openly, i.e., publicly, give him their support – and, conversely, to give Dolan and Cekada the public denunciation that they deserve.  As a previous article pointed out, this is not a time for evasive, acquiescent reticence; it is a time for speaking up and speaking out – especially for those priests who know them from their seminary days – who know who and what they are.

It should by now be clear to everyone that the Dolan-Cekada modus operandi has consistently been one of mendacious slandering and duplicity.  Although Cekada has been of late the main mouthpiece (make that foot-in-mouth piece), Dolan has done his share too (see Daniel Dolan Outdoes Himself This Time, and also his apology sermon, to name just two examples). Dolan and Cekada’s covering up of the abuses at SGG’s school is widely known and well documented, as is their legendarily extravagant life-style.  Cekada’s dubious “accomplishments” are, of course, legion: his celebrated Schiavo folly (see Schiavo Revisited et al) and his School Dazed, both of which were thoroughly and convincingly refuted, are two of his more glaring faux pas.  Actually, just about every time he opens his mouth, one of his feet usually ends up tickling his tonsils.

In fact, just in the past few days, lightning has struck again – which brings us to the third “development”:  In his latest installment of Quidlibet, Cekada has once again made a complete ass out of himself – this time by hurling poison darts at the late Abbot Leonard Giardina, that humble and holy man who has never done or wished anybody any harm -- a man who was loved and respected by the whole traditional community; a man who had been a priest for over fifty years!  Cekada, how could you be so abysmally, recklessly stupid?!!  Are you “losing it”?  Is your mind rotting?  This latest faux pas of yours is so embarrassingly blatant that it merits another article all to itself.

And, in fact, another article – actually, two articles – have already been written (doubtless, more will follow).  Therefore, in the interest of saving myself the effort, I refer the reader to those two pieces: one is on-line (see link on cathinfo), and the other is an editorial slated to be in the June issue of The Four Marks (due out shortly). In it, Phony Tony’s blundering malfeasance is thoroughly, totally laid bare – so much so, in fact, that there is no need for this writer to provide further elaboration.  Simply pick up a copy of The Four Marks, and read it.  The only thing that I will add is to say that Cekada’s slurs against Abbot Giardina are, like those against Bp. Petko, once again, a case of the pot calling the kettle black – except that in BOTH cases, the kettle is hygienically clean, and the pot is the blackest of blacks.  In fact, in the abbot’s case, Cekada’s slurs are unspeakably more despicable: as The Four Marks editorial pointed out, the abbot is deceased and thus unable to answer the slander -- a case of the detestably wicked slandering the saintly dead.

It seems that Dolan and Cekada can’t leave anyone alone.  And, as noted so many times, this has been and continues to be their downfall: they just don’t know when to shut up.  Their tongues continually provide their opponents with fresh and copious quantities of ammunition.  These three latest occurrences of foot-in-mouth disease should convince everyone that SGG is the Titanic -- and Dolan and Cekada are its captain and first officer.  If it is not obvious to one by now, then it will NEVER be.  To SGG’s parishioners: get off the sinking ship.  These two, by their latest perfidy, have (unwittingly) thrown you a lifeline: an excuse to leave SGG.  Seize the opportunity -- use that lifeline!  Get out, while you still can.

A word to Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada:  we must thank you vermin once again for providing the rope with which you hanged yourselves.  We didn’t have to lift a finger – you did it all yourselves.  For that, you have our undying gratitude.  You have, of course, once again exposed yourselves as the consummate scoundrels that you are – in a league all by yourself.  To anyone who is at all rational, your credibility and respectability should be ZERO.

You probably never dreamed back in Christmas 2008 that the little snowball that started with Eamon Shea’s standing up to you would grow into the mighty avalanche that it is today.  You probably figured that a little bit of slanderous intimidation on your part would silence him, as it did with so many others.  Well, it didn’t.  The more that you tried to suppress it, the more it has “snowballed.”  You have apparently forgotten all that you were taught about martyrdom and persecution being the fertilizer that makes the Church flourish and multiply – and so it has been in our case: the more you have tried to hurt us, the more we have grown – and the more you have hurt yourselves.  Like that stalking cartoon coyote who keeps trying to “dynamite” his roadrunner prey, your efforts are deliciously futile: they all come back to blow up in your face -- like a boomerang fitted with a nuclear warhead.  What a poetic and fitting manifestation of God’s justice!  In your headlong rush to bring harm to others, you bring God’s retribution upon yourselves!

The little seed that started with one man’s courageous stand back in December 2008 has, thanks to your firing of Fr. Ramolla, grown into St. Albert the Great Church, a thriving congregation, with two satellite locations, and more to come; and your firing of and deportation efforts against Bernard Hall resulted in his becoming Father Bernard Hall.  And, because he was forced by your treachery into returning to England, there is now a satellite operation going on there as well (amazing, isn’t it, how God allows evil, to bring good out of it?!!).  You two, by your persecution, made it all possible.

For that, again we thank you.  And to our thanks, we must add those of Mr. Dennis Gaye.  He, a retired member of the NYPD who, along with his wife Janet has known Fr. Hall for thirty some odd years, has written you a letter, where – with the no-nonsense eloquence of a New York cop -- he too thanks you for setting Fr. Hall’s career-path on the course that it has taken.  To his Bronx brevity, we would like to add a few Bronx “cheers” as well for you two inept Dummkopfs (or Dummköpfe, if you prefer).  As Mr. Gaye so aptly pointed out, thanks to your bungled efforts, we now have another Alter Christus in our fold.

To label Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada as scum-sucking pigs would be an absolute disservice to that porcine segment of the animal kingdom; pigs, at the very least, serve a useful purpose in the long scheme of things.  These two don’t.  And they don’t ingest scum; they are scum.  They are vermin.  They are worms.  Someone recently commented that Judas at least derived some pecuniary benefit by getting paid for his treachery; and the fact that he hung himself at least showed some sense of shame on his part.  These two dolts betrayed Frs. Ramolla and Hall “just for the hell of it” -- out of sheer vengefulness and spite – and, of course, have no sense of shame at all.  The reason that they have no shame is that they have no conscience.   These latest acts of treachery should demonstrate to all but the utterly callous just how low these two can sink – and have sunk.

I hope that you folks at SGG are listening.  I hope that you folks at Our Lady of the Sun in Arizona are listening.  And I hope that traditional clerics of every stripe are listening.  Those of you at SGG: how much more of Dolan and Cekada’s monumental arrogance and Byzantine bungling are you willing to put up with – or ignore, or pretend that it’s not there?   To all doubting Thomases (and Thomasinas), and to all those sitting on the sidelines, playing the spineless “hear no evil, see no evil” game: how much longer will you sit there, pretending ignorance and remaining silent? The time for silence and acquiescence is past.  It is time for you to choose which side you want to be on -- and time is running short.  How can it not now be clear to all of you just what kind of creatures that Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada are?

Try as they might to disparage and malign innocent men like Fr. Ramolla and Fr. Hall, they will never succeed.  These latest antics of the vipers should vanquish them, and vindicate those whom they have so maliciously slandered.  Frs. Ramolla and Hall, and those of us who support them, have invoked the help of the divine Infant of Prague to our cause.  We know that with His help, we will succeed; we know that God will take care of us – and has:  we have been and continue to be richly rewarded.  The reptiles of Rialto Road, who seek to destroy us, continue to see all of their disruptive efforts go up in flames, because they are not of God; they are not on His side.  And if you follow them, you will follow them into ruin.

To all those folks at SGG and to any still-doubting clerics out there, please remember that you are thinking, rational creatures, and that faith – that any virtue, for that matter – must be based on reason, not on blind, mindless obedience.  A blindly obedient “traddie” is just as bad (and as dangerous) as a blindly obedient Moslem suicide bomber.  Remember too that to blindly ignore the truth is bad, but to knowingly, willfully ignore it is even worse.  Use the brain that God has given you.  Let this Pentecost be your own personal Pentecost:  let the Holy Ghost descend upon you and let His Wisdom enlighten your mind.

Such enlightenment ought to come easily, since, by now, things have become too glaringly obvious to be denied or ignored.  Those who have been paying attention well know that Cekada’s recent acts of treachery are just the latest chapter in a long and continuing process – except that, lately, they have become more and more blatant, and almost devoid of subtlety.  And to anyone with even rudimentary perception, it should be clear that these acts can be neither written off as “anomalies” nor minimalized as “insignificant.”  They cannot and must not be ignored.  “Pretend” time is over, folks.  It’s time to get real.  Deal with reality… or it will deal with thee.