What’s It Going to Take?

Every week, one can always count on Dannie Dolan to fill his Bishop’s(?) Corner column with “copious quantities” of syrupy sanctimony – fulsome flotsam that is the specialty of the SGG flophouse -- that his culties just love to lap up.  Especially every Guardian Angel Sunday, when Dannie trots out the same tired old lies about “protecting our innocents.”  And this past Angel Sunday was no exception.   In his Bishop’s Corner, he had the following to say: “Be an angel for your Angel Guardian, and help him and us guard the innocence of our children. I’m thinking of Mass, of Catechism Class, and so much more. What a joy it is to bless the little ones today. What a blessing.  How the man can continue to spout out the same sanctimonious lies every year is beyond our comprehension.  To that, we must repeat what we have said so many times: Dannie, if you were so concerned about “guard[ing] the innocence of our children,” then what about all those SGG school kids traumatized back in 2009 -- and how you did NOTHING to guard their innocence (not to mention, the innocence of the girl whom the principal’s one son impregnated)?

Dannie went on to say, “Katie tells me that when she was little, in kindergarten, she received her Guardian Angel medal, and kept it safely, wearing it to church each year on this day. But medals, like growing up children anymore, have a way of going astray, so we “stickerize” the little ones for the day, praying the blessing and protection, like the assigned angel, will stick.  Well, Dannie, it’s a good thing that “Katie” wasn’t at SGG’s school, the day the principal’s sons were watching porn and animal torture videos on the school computer (which you claimed was just a case of “boys will be boys").  Dannie, were you wearing your medal (or were the Lotarski boys wearing theirs) when all this went on, or did your and their medals find ”a way of going astray”?

Dannie then proceeded to urge everyone to “pray for those who built up our missions and churches years ago. Pray for the many children and grandchildren who have forgotten that same Faith [our emphasis] which was salvaged and handed on to them, for them, with great sacrifice.”  Yes, Dannie, how about all of those “children and grandchildren” of SGG parishioners who have lost their Faith?  (And there are many.)  SGG’s young people have left in droves, with an alarmingly large percentage of them going morally astray: having children out of wedlock, at least one confirmed case of a girl becoming a lesbian, and another becoming a “transgender.”  And do you know why, Dannie?  Because there is no real morality at SGG, that’s why.  Because you conveniently overlooked real moral wrongs, brushing them aside as “boys will be boys,” that’s why.  And because you gave a blind eye to the brutality suffered at SGG’s school, that’s why.  And also because you looked on with cold detachment at the tragic murder of Terri Schiavo, that’s why.  In fact, there’s a whole litany to which we could add the “that’s why” response.

And why did Dannie overlook all of this?  The reason is simple: HE IS NOT CATHOLIC.  He is merely a depraved caricature of Catholicism -- a self-serving, conniving PHONY who tells people what they want to hear, so that they will give him what he wants: M-O-N-E-Y.  He gives them sanctimony instead of sanctity, he gives them puritanical pap instead of morality, and he gives them gaudy cosmetics instead of substance.  He is nothing more than an opportunistic con man, using people such as the late Bernie Brueggemann to his advantage (for one example, click here) or the late Fr. Martin Stepanich (as we just noted in our last article).  Yet, at the same time, he and Tony slander those whom they suspect as being their “competition” (such as the late Abbot Leonard Giardina, whom Tony so shamelessly slammed in a May, 2011 Quidlibet article).  (Click here for more on this.)

When one thinks about the hypocrisy of it all, it is positively overwhelming.  Here’s Dannie, the consummate “fox guarding the hen house,” talking about “protecting our innocents” -- when he has absolutely no intention of doing so (nor ever had, nor ever will).  Dannie and Tony are no more Catholic than Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, or any of the other Sunday morning TV preachers who prey on the gullible.  As they have proven so many times, they care NOTHING for Catholic truth and morality, but only for lining their own pockets (at the expense of their followers), just as these other hucksters do.  If they were really “men of faith,” they would devote themselves to the spiritual needs of the parish, and not go on boondoggle “apostolates,” etc. -- nor would they insist on complete financial control of their respective cult centers (accountable to no one, of course) -- nor would they try to wrest control of lay-run churches (as Big Don Sanborn is now trying to do at Our Lady of the Sun in Arizona).

Dannie and Tony are hell-bent on exploiting their Gerties.  But – guess what? – the Gerties just lap it up, like so many thirst-crazed, stampeding cattle at a watering hole.  But when they get there, they find out that it’s swill, not water.  The Gerties keep swallowing that sanctimony that passes for “sanctity,” and all the other BS that “His Excremency” and “His Chexcremency” (Dannie and Tony) ladle out either from their “poopy pulpit” or from Tony’s poison pen.  What is it, we may ask, about Dannie and his “show” that mesmerizes these people -- and what will it take for them to awaken from their stupor?  What will it take, too, to get those who know the truth (but who stay at SGG and put up with Dannie) to get off their inertial backsides and leave the cult center?  Why is it that these people, knowing who and what Dannie and Tony are, sit around and do nothing? What is it that makes them stay, knowing full well that these two vipers are simply lining their pockets (and those of the Lotarski family)?

An old quote (mistakenly attributed to Edmund Burke) is this:  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – and that seems to be the case with these people.  Another way of stating that – in fact, a better way (and one we’ve mentioned before) – is this quote from Pope St. Felix III:  “Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.”  This quote says much more than the former, because it reminds us that to do nothing (or, as that saintly pope put it, “to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it”) is, in fact, a SIN  -- a sin of omission. 

That is what today’s Gerties must remember: that their silence and their “inertia” are actually sinful.  Yes, they can do some good by, as we say, “starving the beast.”  But, in the end, they must do more than that.  “Passive” opposition,” such as withholding one’s financial support, only goes so far. (Besides, Dannie always seems to find new suckers to replace the old ones who have left.)  “Do not,” as Dylan Thomas admonished us, “go gentle into that good night.”  DO something.  But what can Gerties do?  (And, for that matter, what can people at MHT and other cult centers do?)  Well, they can do plenty.  But before exploring what action can be taken, the first thing to do is to be sure of one’s reasons for taking that action.  After all, effort without purpose is pointless.  In our next two articles, we’ll do just that: first, to give those reasons for taking action, and second, to offer some action steps to take.  In the interim, take that first step by STARVING THE BEAST!