While Rome is Burning…

There has been much in the news lately about issues that should cause much concern to Catholics: the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling legalizing “gay marriage,” and Planned Parenthood’s selling of “aborted baby parts” for profit, to name two.  This has given our clergy much about which to talk in their sermons.  Sermon after sermon has dealt with issues such as these, and the dangers that they represent.  And what has Daniel Dolan been sermonizing about during this same time frame?  Has he been speaking out against the Supreme Court’s decision on “gay marriage,” or Planned Parenthood’s use of aborted babies as “spare parts”?

The answer, in a word, is NO.  Dannie’s typical sermon deals with some event that happened in the distant past (i.e., the Middle Ages, or ancient times), and which usually involves someone being persecuted for the Faith -- usually by meeting a gruesome end (after undergoing several draconian ordeals along the way). More often than not, it’s an anecdotal piece plucked from The Lives of the Saints, or it involves something “miraculous” or “inexplicable” (such as the Loretto Chapel Staircase – a story that Dannie has repeated umpteen times).  His sermons, of course, are delivered with typical Dolanesque theatrics – dramatic pauses and gestures, and emotionally charged, über affectation.

So why does Dannie dwell on the past – and on such gruesome, grisly tales?  Firstly, Dannie’s whole emphasis has always been about the past: about “the good old days” with the “traditional” rites and rubrics – in other words, about “the show.”  He even digs up archaic rubrics* to make everyone think that what he’s doing is “authentic.”  And those anecdotes about long-dead saints?  That too is to keep his Gerties focused on the past.  And dwelling on the grisly ones?  That’s perhaps to make the Gerties think that, compared to these poor souls, their lot “isn’t so bad,” and that their “cross” isn’t so hard to bear -- and, consequently, that they should be tickled pink” to “give their all” for the cult center’s cause.**

The only time that Dannie ever mentions anything pertaining to the present is when he’s “Bergy bashing” (which is understandable, since Bergoglio is such an easy target; Dannie can always score a lot of points by bad-mouthing him).  But even here, Dannie manages to skirt the issues affecting us today.  Instead, he dings him by harping on the same tired old themes, laced with the usual buzzwords:  “On his way to one world Washington from Communist Cuba, Francis brought up the subject of his apostasy. Out of the blue, he declared, ‘I am not an antipope or antichrist.’  Well, what would you call him, a ‘pope’ who has the same agenda as Obama, two Marxists who walk hand in hand? ***

But, other than “Bergy bashing,” Dannie doesn’t want to mention current events, because that takes away from his “dwelling on the past” agenda.  Dannie must keep his Gerties focused on the past, because that keeps them focused on HIM.  He doesn’t want them to get involved with opposing “gay marriage” or Planned Parenthood.  He wants to keep them occupied in coming to his pontifical pageants and his processions – in coming to “the show.”  (And, of course, he “guilt-trips” them if they don’t.)  He also wants them to be totally absorbed – and to work hour upon hour -- in decorating and preparing the cult center for those shows (such as SGG’s Lenten Altar of Repose, which takes a small army of “holy helpers” to erect, only to be torn down after one day.)****

It is interesting to note that not only has Dannie failed to speak out against the Supreme Court’s ruling on “gay marriage” (other than to criticize the Kentucky woman who opposed it), but he (or Tony, for that matter) has never spoken out against homosexuality at all.  One of Tony’s sermons, however, did have some glowing words to say about a novel (Brideshead Revisited, by British author Evelyn Waugh), whose two main characters had what many critics allege was a homosexual relationship, and whose other characters were engaged in other immoral schemes.  (The book reportedly was, for a time, required reading at SGG’s high school – hardly appropriate, especially for a “traditional” high school.)

Rather than deal with real issues, Dannie and Tony would rather rail against “una cum” Masses, and invent things like “sedevacantism” to deny the sacraments to anyone who doesn’t “comply”; or, they’d rather spend their time writing lengthy tracts defending one-handed ordinations (or defending the brutal policies at their school).  And why?  To keep their parishioners thinking about them and their little fantasy world – that’s why.  In short, Dannie and Tony would rather ignore what’s going on around them in the real world, and concentrate instead on their insular little world -- and doing whatever it takes to convince the sheep that they’re “the only game in town.”  This keeps the sheep, and consequently, the revenue, in the pen.

The sermons that Dannie and Tony should be preaching are, again, not historical anecdotes about long-dead saints butchered or barbecued for the Faith, but about the threats facing us today.  While Moslems are overrunning Europe and terrorizing Christians everywhere, Dannie and Tony are condemning people for going to una cum Masses (or for not accepting sedevacantistism as “dogma”).  And while nations everywhere are pushing the homosexual agenda (including our own country's legalizing “gay marriage”), all Dannie could do was to criticize the Kentucky woman who opposed that agenda.  And while Planned Parenthood is selling aborted babies as “spare parts,” the SGG “theology experts” are deciding such “weighty” issues as how short a woman’s blouse sleeve (or hemline) must be before it is “sinful.”  (One of Dannie’s “assistant priests” even “determined” that wearing a sport-logo headband in church – and riding roller coasters – were mortal sins.)

These are the kinds of meaningless minutia that the cult-masters worry about, while the world around them is falling to pieces.  Do they not know what’s going on?  Are they that naïve?  No, they’re not.  The truth is, they really don’t care if the world is disintegrating, so long as their “world” doesn’t: as long as they can “hang on” until they have enough cash to retire to the desert Southwest, that’s all that matters.  (After all, if Terri Schiavo’s being starved and dehydrated to death didn’t faze them, why should anything else?)  Like two latter-day Nero’s fiddling while Rome is burning, they really don’t care what becomes of their parishioners after they’ve drained them of their cash.

A recent Pistrina article dealt with a letter sent in from an SGG parishioner, who stated, “not all Gerties are the ‘slack jawed, bug eyed’ mindless cult subhumans you describe. There are some good people down here with common sense who are not as blind or stupid as you think.”  The correspondent continued, ”Believe me they are waiting for the right moment to leave. The problem is that so much is at stake in some families, [e]specially with those with younger children.”  Well, we are certainly heartened that there are such concerned folks there; but we remind them that “there is no time like the present” to leave – especially “those with younger children”   (These are their formative years, when they’re most susceptible to “formation.”)  Others who had “much at stake” and who left saw no ill effects at all.  In fact, the opposite was true: they lost none of their old friends; and they (and their children) adjusted quickly to their new surroundings.

As we’ve said before, “why prolong the agony”?  Leaving SGG is not so painful as one would think.  In fact, it’s not painful at all.  And, for those with school-age kids, there are much better schools elsewhere in which to enroll one’s children (Immaculate Conception Academy is one); plus there are several good “home school” groups from which to choose as well.  Staying at SGG, for any reason whatsoever, amounts to throwing good money after bad.  “The right moment to leave” is NOW – so just leave.  But do us this one favor: “Do not go gentle into that good night.”  That is, do not go “silently.”  Let others know that you’re leaving -- and why.  Do not “aid and abet the enemy” (and “facilitate” their victimizing) by slinking away unnoticed.  Be vocal.  Spread the word.  But, by all means, leave.  As we’ve said before, “You’ll be glad you did.”

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* Remember his “Praegustatio” rubric about which Dannie “waxed poetic” in one of his Bishop’s Corners (mentioned in its footnote)?  It’s an archaic rubric that the Church (wisely) discontinued, for it consists of one of the Mass’s MC’s tasting the altar wine (before it is consecrated) to make sure that it’s not poison.  (Perhaps Dannie has good reason for resurrecting that rubric!  We wonder if he uses one of his lackeys as his “food taster” as well!)

** Yes, Dannie always wants his parishioners to “go that extra mile” and “bear your cross.”  And what kind of “cross” does Dannie bear?  Well, he goes on Lenten “apostolates” to Argentina and sunny Mexico in the winter (to pig out on “copious quantities of beef”); and he and Tony go to trendy Santa Fe to “rest,” while his Gerties pay their high heating bills.  (It’s really comical what Dannie claimed recently, in his Bishop’s Corner: “the generosity of faithful everywhere to my Bishop’s Fund makes such missionary journeys possible.”  We wonder, then, why the “Bishop’s Fund” doesn’t cover those high heating bills as well)

But who is Dannie trying to kid here?  The “Bishop’s Fund” a “separate pot” of cash?  (Sure, just as the U.S. Social Security Fund is a separate pot of cash; that is, it’s not separate.)  The “Bishop’s Fund” is just one more imaginary “device” invented by Dannie to squeeze yet more cash out of the Gerties.  Bookkeeping-wise, there are no separate “pots” at SGG, just one big one (which Dannie dips into on a regular basis to satisfy his many cravings).  To its parishioners, SGG’s finances are a mystery known only to Dannie and Tony (and, perhaps, to the school principal) -- a labyrinthine “black hole” which the parishioners are not permitted to see (or question).  The truth is, the cult-masters have no accountability AT ALL to SGG’s parishioners – for that or anything else.

*** Note all the buzzwords and phrases: “one world Washington,” “Communist Cuba,” “apostasy,” “antipope,” “antichrist,” and (of course) “Obama” and “Marxists.”  And Dannie loves to bash Bergoglio, because this is a “fail-safe” theme on which to expound: everyone (at least in the “traditional” world) is against Bergoglio, so this will always be a “safe bet.”

**** The Altar of Repose takes several days to erect -- and it seems to get more elaborate every year.  (Dannie doesn’t tolerate using the same design twice; each year, the altar must be completely “re-done” in a different “style.”)  The altar typically has 50 to 100 candles adorning it; and it gets so warm that the “guard of honor” men taking their one-hour turns kneeling before it (during Holy Thursday all-night adoration) often faint from the heat (and from oxygen deprivation).