Telltale Traddie Traits

The “Traditional Catholic” movement promotes itself as being real Catholicism, the one and only truly Catholic answer to the debacle of Vatican II.  But the joke of it all is that it really isn’t.  First off, it is not one unified movement, but a motley collection of different sects, each with its own agenda, each going off in its own direction, each often trying to outdo its rivals – and each often condemning or disqualifying its rivals on this or that technicality.  The epitome of this cutthroat one-upmanship is, of course, Daniel Dolan and Anthony Cekada, who have set the standard for others to emulate.  And, because the different trad groups are answerable to no hierarchy (and therefore have no one to police them), they often become mini-potentates, developing the following traits that have come to typify the SGG clergy, and others like them:

1.   They’re overly authoritarian.  It is one of those ironies that, the less authority there is in traddieland, the more authoritarian it becomes – especially places like Dolan and Cekada's SGG cult-center.  They pass themselves off as “the only way to salvation” – “the only game in town” – and anyone who disobeys their precepts is denied the sacraments, or “disciplined” in some other way – as if Dannie and Tony were “mini-popes,” whose every utterance is to be treated as if it were “ex cathedra.”

2.    They’re above the law.  They can make (and break) rules at will – rules that apply to everyone else, but (of course) not to them.  If Dannie wants to fill up the church pews on a Friday, he simply decrees that anyone who shows up for Mass that day is dispensed from abstinence (and anyone who doesn’t come is not dispensed).  If Dannie doesn’t want to follow the Lenten fasting and abstinence rules he lays down for everyone else, he simply goes to Latin America, where he can exempt himself from our Gringo rules that don’t apply down there.  And he can make up whatever rites and rubrics he wants, so long as they look “traditional” -- because he knows that the culties probably won’t notice (and wouldn’t dare question him, even if they did).

3.  They really have no principles.  They will compromise (or even abandon) their principles, depending on the circumstances.  If the SGG school principal’s sons watch porn on the school computer, Dannie Dolan simply proclaims that it is a case of “boys will be boys”; or if one of those sons fornicates with (and impregnates) a fellow student, no problem!  But if another student misses his homework, that merits being beaten with a wooden paddle; and if student wears an “inappropriate” headband in church, that is a “mortal sin.”  And, of course, Tony Cekada can justify the starving and dehydrating to death of Terri Schiavo as “her husband’s right.”

4.   They never admit they’re wrong.  It is one of those universal truisms that people will readily believe rumor and hearsay, but not truth.   Truth, as they say, “is an orphan.”  This was never more evident than in the case of the accusations made against Bp. Paul Petko (see articles: Lie No. 1, Lie No. 2, and Lie No. 3), who was falsely (and unjustly) accused of wrongdoing by two men (Markus Ramolla and Thomas Drolskey).  Ramolla, who was pastor of St. Albert the Great Church at the time, convened a “parish meeting” (which Petko was barred from attending); and Petko was given “kangaroo court” justice by these men and by the parish lynch mob they convened (an audio recording, which this writer possesses, captures the whole sordid affair).  Although the accusations against Bp. Petko were later proved to be false, none of those parishioners (nor Droleskey or Ramolla) withdrew their accusations, nor did any of them ever apologize to Petko.  To this day, they all pretend as if the whole thing never happened.

5.   They take the moral high ground.  Because they never admit that they’re wrong (and are therefore “always right’), many traddies invariably take the moral high ground, even when they’re standing on quicksand (which is usually the case).  It’s always “the other guy” who’s wrong: sometimes he’s a “pompous doctor who presumes to pronounce on matters of faith and morals,” or sometimes he’s black-balled for using “inappropriate language” -- like the former SGG parishioners who referred to Dolan’s pack of lies about his deceased father as “bullshit” – and was roundly condemned for it (see A Pristine Example of Hypocrisy).  Like the Pharisee who looks down his nose the publican, they cloak themselves in their faux piety, condemning everyone else.

6.    It’s appearances that matter.  As has been pointed out so many times, it’s “the show” that counts – especially at SGG.  Whether it’s a pontifical pageant with wall-to-wall polyphonic music, or a sumptuous “triple-play” funeral for a rich parishioner's deceased spouse, or a Palm Sunday procession complete with donkey, the glitter of spectacle has always been Dannie Dolan’s modus operandi (as has been his flattery, syrupy sentiment, and all the rest of the saccharine insincerity that he doses out daily to the SGG gullible). 

The examples given in the foregoing have been confined, for the most part, to SGG; and not all of traddieland is so blatantly superficial (and mercenary) as they – but the tendency is there in varying degrees, just the same.  One traddie group, for instance, sanctioned a couple’s child getting a heart transplant – a couple who just happened to be major benefactors of that group.  What good is “being traditional” when one does not respect the sanctity of human life?  Harvesting an organ from a live donor, who is then taken off life-support and left to die, is just as clear a violation of Catholic morality as was the murder of Terri Schiavo.  And even for those traddies who do not partake in such travesties, they seem to tolerate it in those that do.  Who, for instance (save for a precious few), raised an eyebrow at what Cekada said about Schiavo?  This alone should have put the SGG vipers out of business – but it didn’t.

And, as noted earlier, traddies in general have this snobbish notion that they are superior to everyone else – that they are “the elect,” simply because they say all the right words and follow all the right rubrics.  All too often, they have failed to realize that there is more to Catholicism than "dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s."  They have become like the hypocritical Pharisee in the parable, who looks down his nose at the publican or the Samaritan.  The plain truth is that many “Novus Ordo” Catholics and protestants will make it through heaven’s door, while many letter-of-the-law traddies won’t, because of their pride, and their lack of charity, and their failure to be Catholic in deed as well as in word.

And until traddieland stops practicing its superficial brand of Catholicism that follows its letter but ignores its spirit, until it stops its sectarian bickering and in-fighting, and until it rids itself of self-serving, parasitic hucksters like Dolan and Cekada, it will remain a rag-tag pack of aimless renegades, going nowhere in a hurry.  What it needs is some clear direction -- and good men who will get back to putting truly Catholic principles into practice, not just preach them (and certainly not completely ignore them, as Dolan and Cekada have done).  Until it does this, it will not prosper.  It will not survive.