Waking Up and Smelling the Coffee

If all of the electrons in the known universe were tightly packed together, they would amount to 10¹⁰³ electrons (the number 10 raised to the 103^rd power); that’s the number “one” followed by 103 zeros – an unimaginable number.  In the mathematics of probability, the odds of anything happening that are less than 10⁵⁰ to 1 are considered to be a zero percent chance.  Now, imagine the chances, according to evolutionary theory, of molecules randomly “bumping together” to form a single cell (either animal or plant).  The chances of that happening are 10^119,850 to 1 – yes, the number “ten” raised to a power of almost one hundred twenty thousand -- a number beyond comprehension.  Of course, all of this presupposes that these “molecules” also somehow “come to life” from inanimate matter – and that this matter “just happened to be there” (with no explanation offered as to how it got there to begin with).  And, remember, we’re talking just one cell here – and we haven’t even mentioned the other impossible hurdles that have to be overcome to make the evolutionary myth become reality.   Even to the leading evolutionists of the day, all this equates to UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE – yet they “believe.”

This is the same sort of thinking that seems to pervade the minds of the followers of Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada.  No matter what these two do or say, their brain-drained devotees excuse all (or explain it away), and blindly support them -- no matter what.  It doesn’t matter that Dolan and Cekada have committed a long laundry list of misdeeds (witnessed by many of their parishioners, half of whom eventually left in disgust), including (but not limited to) the following: ignoring (and even abetting) the cruelty and sadistic behavior that went on at SGG’s school; the watching of porn and animal torture videos on SGG’s school computer (that Dolan dismissed as “boys will be boys”); liquidating a satellite parish, and then pocketing the proceeds (including the parishioners’ “building fund”); taking expensive travel junkets to Europe and Latin America, and passing off vacations to a luxury resort in the desert southwest as “sabbaticals” -- all of this, yet they still blindly “believe.”

The latest example of this “blind belief” by Dolan and Cekada’s cult followers is their fawning defense of Anthony Cekada’s “explanation” of why (he thought) Daniel Dolan’s one-handed priestly ordination was valid.  As many are already aware, Dolan’s ordination (by Archbishop LeFebvre) was reportedly done with only one hand, instead of the prescribed two hands.  Nine of Dolan’s fellow priests, who had doubts about the validity of his one-handed ordination, urged him "to stop saying Mass, hearing confessions, and administering the sacrament of  Extreme Unction until this problem is solved."  It would have been a simple matter for Dolan to do so -- but he never did.  Instead, he had his buddy Anthony Cekada pen a lengthy explanation stating why one-handed priestly ordination was valid.  The problem was that there were lingering doubts about the accuracy of Cekada’s “explanation” as well.  Dolan could quickly and painlessly allay those doubts by submitting to that re-ordination -- but his pride won’t allow him to do so (nor will Cekada’s allow him to admit that his “explanation” was seriously flawed).

Those lingering doubts, which have never really gone away, have been a continuing thorn in Dolan’s and Cekada’s sides ever since they took the path of refusing to get things “fixed.”  A few months ago, a traditional Catholic blog suggested that they do, since Dolan is slated soon to ordain a young African seminarian to the priesthood, which of course requires that he himself be validly ordained and consecrated.  Miffed that an “anonymous layman” should even suggest such a thing, one of Dolan’s cult followers challenged the blog’s author to offer proof of his contention that Dolan’s ordination was invalid (actually, the author was simply raising doubts about it, not actually refuting it).  However, this cult follower, one “Introibo ad Altare Dei,” demanded the proof, and, in the process, opened up a Pandora’s box that Tony (and Dannie) wish that he never had -- for it has shown Cekada’s “explanation” to be a clumsily crafted comedy of errors, riddled with mistranslations and “misrepresentations,” i.e., lies.  As a result, what little that was left of Cekada’s reputation as a “scholar” is now a thing of the past -- a downhill slide that started with his preposterous interpretation of Schiavo, and that has been continuing ever since.

Because of Introibo’s challenge, the series of articles written that blog has shown conclusively that Cekada not only mistranslated official papal teaching, but actually fabricated words (that didn’t exist) to support his own faulty claims.  The blog’s revelations, all factual and well-documented, were immediately attacked by Cekada’s cult followers (eager to “defend” him), who tried their best to misconstrue what was said in the blog, and to belittle the credentials of its author.  In doing so, they only managed to make both themselves and Cekada look all the more ridiculous, and to provide the blog’s author with even more opportunities to prove him (and them) wrong.

Most of the arguments of Cekada’s defenders centered around citing theologians such as Regatillo as “authorities” to counter the “anonymous blogger.”  The problem here is that Regatillo (or any of the other theologians they trumpeted out) is not the POPE, who is the one and only authority to be cited.  This has been pointed out to these bozos several times, but they keep dredging up Regatillo, as if they had never been informed.  It is obvious, too, amongst the “anonymous” replies in support of Cekada, that one of them is none other than Tony himself; it seems that the amateur bonehead just can’t refrain from getting into the fray (and turning the “comments” section of the blog into a “Cath Info”-style free-for-all).  Even now, he has resurrected another “Regatillo” comment again for the umpteenth time, long after that issue was put to bed.  A chronic sufferer of “last-word-itis,” Tony keeps beating his “Regatillo” drum in the fervent hope that repeating it over and over again will somehow gain it credibility.

But that has been Tony’s “formula for success” all along.  For a time, it worked: his special blend of arrogance, condescension, intimidation (especially with women), and lying.  But then along came Schiavo, and that’s when his arrogance and false logic became so blatant then that people started “waking up and smelling the coffee.”  His bombastic, autocratic intimidation that once “carried the day” with both clergy and laity were no longer working so well (except with the hard-core at SGG and a few other flat-liners).  After Schiavo, he followed up with his mega-blunder “opus” (WHH); and now, with the exposure of his one-handed ordination “explanation,” his credibility with most traditional clergy is now gone.

But Cekada has failed to realize this: he’s still going on with “business as usual,” using his same old modus operandi, thinking that it still “works.”  True, it “still works” on some of his more fulsome culties, who are still “circling the wagons” – but the circle is getting smaller.  People are coming to realize that authoritarian arrogance and bombastic intimidation (and shoddy scholarship) are no substitute for truth, justice, and true scholarship.  People are no longer automatically (and unquestioningly) swallowing Tony’s haphazardly crafted swill.  They are starting to think things through for themselves, and the days of blind obedience to his faulty decrees are over.

One might still wonder why Dolan never got his situation “fixed” (or why Cekada went to such lengths to craft his faulty “explanation” to avoid Dannie having to get that “fix”).  The reason, of course, is obvious: they’re both proud, arrogant men, who have always been totally unable to admit wrongdoing.  Another reason is that back then, both of them had the traddie world pretty well bamboozled as to their credibility and their “scholarship.”  Prior to Schiavo, traditional priests trusted Cekada’s judgment and “expertise” – and they somehow overlooked his monumental arrogance.  But Schiavo changed everything.  And Schiavo also gives a clue as to why both Dolan and Cekada won’t come clean now, because -- long after the true facts about Schiavo came out -- Tony never “recanted” any of the preposterous claims that he made on it (although he’s had numerous opportunities to do so).  So if he didn’t recant about Schiavo, why would he recant about his “explanation”?  The fact is, man is utterly incapable of doing so.

These articles exposing Cekada’s bone-headed defense of Dannie’s one-handed ordination have, of course, ignited a firestorm of protest from CCC (Cult Control Central); and Tony is, of course, furious, because he is caught, naked and open, in the glaring spotlight of the truth – and he can’t stand it.  That is why all his culties have tried to come to his rescue, attacking the blog’s author in every way imaginable (as the cyber loonies so often do on Cath Info).  They have tried every trick in the books: misconstruing and misrepresenting what was said, misquoting (and outright fabrications), using “straw man” tactics, pursuing irrelevant arguments, playing the “Alter Christus immunity card,” even attacking the blog author’s character and credentials – you name it.  They’ve also tried to “gang up” on him en masse, in an effort to “overwhelm” him.  None of it has worked: they have been “beaten down to parade rest” every time, for the simple reason that they don’t have the truth on their side – and are defending the indefensible.

The inexplicable thing about Introibo and these “anonymouses” defending Dolan and Cekada is that they are totally aware of the dynamic duo’s sordid track record at SGG.  Like those evolutionists who ignore the evidence and still pretend that evolution is “for real,” Introibo et al do essentially the same:  they have personally witnessed – first hand --what the dynamic duo have done to their fellow SGG parishioners; yet they pretend that it never happened, so long as they “get their show” every Sunday.  It’s time to stop pretending.    It’s time to stop defending these lepers.  It’s time to wake up and sell the coffee.