“What kind of Catholic…?”

The following is a series of questions and/or observations for the reader to consider:

·      What kind of Catholic would claim that Terri Schiavo’s death was NOT a “pro-life or anti-euthanasia case,” or claim that feeding tubes [which have been routinely used for decades] constitute an “extraordinary means” of prolonging life – or claim that the cost of using a feeding tube constituted “a grave burden on society” (when the cost of doing so is, in fact, cheaper than conventional feeding)?

·      What kind of Catholic would justify starving and dehydrating to death a woman who had no need of (nor was on) any “life-support equipment” whatsoever, nor was in any way in danger of dying – and then claim that her “husband – and not her parents – had the right before God” to end her life that way?

·      What kind of Catholic, acting as pastor of a (supposedly) Catholic church and school, would tolerate the abuse of children at that school (by its principal), and then ignore the pleas of the outraged parents of those children?

·      What kind of a Catholic pastor would dismiss students’ watching of animal torture videos and porn as “boys will be boys,” and “look the other way” when one of them fornicates with (and impregnates) a fellow student – as long as those students are the principal’s sons?

“What kind of Catholic” would do those things?  The answer is simple: someone who is NOT Catholic.  Oh yes, it would certainly be someone who calls himself Catholic: someone who “says all the right prayers, and who follows all the right rites and rubrics“ – who “dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s”; but it wouldn’t be someone who is truly Catholic.  It would be someone who offers a caricature of Catholicism, who observes its letter, but ignores its spirit -- someone who is “become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  And whom does this (and all of the aforementioned “bullet points”) bring to mind?  Again, the answer is simple: the “shepherds” at SGG.  (And, of course, bear in mind that those bullet points are just a sampling of what these “shepherds” have done over the years.) 

At SGG, the “letter of the law” brand of “Catholicism” IS the law; and it has been raised to an art form – or, rather, it has been elevated to a science.  Parishioners who do not “dot every I” or “cross every t” are severely disciplined – or even denied the sacraments (as one man was for going to a rival church while on vacation).  At SGG, a schoolgirl was told that (her) wearing a headband in church constituted a mortal sin – yet real transgressions (like those in the foregoing “bullet points”) were ignored (or, in some cases, even condoned).  At SGG, eating meat on Friday is a mortal sin – unless Dannie “dispenses” parishioners from abstinence (as he did when he wanted to fill up the church pews one Friday: those who attended Mass that day were “dispensed”; those who didn’t attend weren’t).

This sort of nonsense is standard procedure at SGG: renegades with absolutely no jurisdiction (ecclesiastical or otherwise) exercising their “authority” over their flock -- using manipulation, intimidation, and bluff to convince the flock that they are “the real thing.”  To the SGG faithful, Dolan is a selfless, holy man, concerned about the spiritual welfare of his sheep; and Cekada is a “real scholar,” and his Work of Human Hands  is a “landmark” work – almost as if it were right up there alongside Aquinas’ Summa.  The reality of it us that the only thing Dolan is concerned about is where the money’s coming from for his next travel junket to Latin America or Europe.  And Cekada’s painfully inept WHH would have found more practical use had it been published in roll form – and on softer paper.

Everything that Tony has ever written, in fact, has been a catastrophe, from his criminally insane Schiavo nonsense (still the yardstick by which all ignorance and arrogance are measured) and his cowardly attack on the late Abbot Leonard Giardina (who, being deceased, could not answer Cekada’s malicious insinuations), to his stillborn defense of Dolan’s one-handed “ordination.”  And Dolan?  His track record during the SGG school scandals -- which caused half of SGG’s parishioners to leave -- speaks for itself.  And, as recent events have borne out, his modus operandi hasn’t changed: two recent Pistrina articles, A Tale of Two Faces, and The Poison Pen, show that Dannie hasn’t lost his toxic touch when it comes to hypocrisy, duplicity, and vindictiveness.  The fact is, every time that either Dolan or Cekada opens his mouth, he totally annihilates himself.

As those two Pistrina articles pointed out, Dannie exhorts his flock to be “charitable” and to keep a “dignified silence,” while he himself publicly slanders others at will (both clergy and lay alike): or how he and Tony can do a “180” flip-flop on the legitimacy of Archbishop Thuc’s lineage, or how they can describe his Latin one time as crude, then competent, and yet later as excellent – depending upon which group they’re lying to at the time; or how Dannie can question another priest’s credentials, while his own one-handed “ordination” is in real doubt.  The dynamic duo simply say whatever they want to say, then contradict it the next time, hoping that their audience won’t notice the “inconsistencies.”

And that will be the dynamic duo’s ultimate downfall, because not only do their own words destroy them – but they don’t know when to quit.  They will continue furnishing their adversaries with the best ammo possible: their own words – words whose arrogance, ignorance, and hypocrisy are easily seen through, no matter how much they try to camouflage them.  The dynamic duo has so far gotten away with this camouflaged caricature of Catholicism; but it won’t last.  Eventually, even SGG’s groveling gullible will catch on to their act, and start to realize that “saying the right prayers,” “wearing the right medals, and taking part in ostentatious ecclesiastical extravaganzas -- while consigning Terri Schiavo to the dust heap, and stabbing a deceased, defenseless abbot in the back -- are not “what it’s all about.”

What it IS about is being Catholic, and standing up for real Catholic principles; it’s about loving your neighbor as yourself.  It’s about CHARITY – something which, as we’ve so often witnessed before, the “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals of traddieland” do not possess, nor even know (unless, of course, “Charity” happens to be the name of the manicurist at the Kitty Spa where Dannie’s cats (Puccini, Vivaldi, and Caravaggio) go to get their paws clipped – or perhaps the name of one of the masseurs at the ShaNa Spa).  They’re too busy going to the desert Southwest, to Mexico and the Baja, and to Europe – and trampling over anyone who gets in their worldly way.  The dynamic duo fail to realize that, as St. Paul reminds us, that “if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”