SGG’s “School”: Still a Bad Bargain

Dannie Dolan’s May 21 Bishop’s(?) Corner was the usual mix of wall-to-wall sanctimony, coupled with his never-ending pleas for more money (ncluding a heavy-handed hint to “remember us in your will”).¹  (The only “saving grace” was that there wasn’t any of his tasteless banter about baby bunnies being shredded by his feral felines.)  But, sandwiched in between the aforementioned claptrap – since it is now “graduation time” -- was a “plug” for SGG’s “school,” after which he lamented, “We only wish more parents would take advantage of the excellent education we offer.”  But why the lament?  Well, it’s pretty obvious why: the enrollment at SGG’s “school” is even lower than last year’s pathetic total.  (Last year there were about two-dozen kids there; this year, there were nineteen.)

But an even more “telling statistic” is that -- buried somewhere else in that same SGG bulletin, safely out of sight of Dannie’s ’Corner -- there was an announcement about four of SGG’s “graduates.”  And what was so “telling” about it?  The four listed “graduates” graduated not from SGG’s “school,” but from “Christian” academies – that’s what!  Yes, they graduated from Protestant schools!  Here, at SGG, whose “school” was created so that the Gerties’ kids could get a “Catholic education” – and whose whole raison d'être is to keep them from (“committing the mortal sin of”) attending a “public” or “Protestant” school – these kids are being sent to a Protestant academy.  Does that tell you something?”

Of course, Dannie could not mention this “in the same breath” with his glowing words about his “school,” because that would make it too embarrassingly obvious: that parents would rather risk sending their children to a Protestant school than send them to Dannie’s sewer.  Knowing full well that they ran the risk of those kids “absorbing Protestant values and beliefs,” they still sent them there, instead of sending them to SGG for a “catholic” education (not to be confused, by the way, with a Catholic education).  Again, “does that tell you something?”

Now Dannie did mention (in a subsequent bulletin) that there were actually three graduates from SGG’s “school” this year – but two of the three were Lotarskis (i.e., the children of the “school principal).” ²  In fact, other than “Lotarski” graduates, the number of graduates in the “school’s” twenty-odd year existence can probably be "counted on one hand.”  Yet Dannie still extols its “virtues.”  And of all the “graduates,” how many have gone on to distinguish themselves academically?  (Hint: the answer begins with a “z,” and rhymes with “hero.”)  “But,” one of Dannie’s trolls might counter, “What about the spiritual life?  What about getting a ‘Catholic’ education?”  Well, the answer to that one (again) is ZERO. As a “for instance,” how many “priests” has SGG produced?  (So far, again, none.)

Those parents who sent their kids to those Protestant academies know this; that’s why they sent them there.  They know full well that the best “career” that an SGG “grad” can aspire to is “supermarket stock-boy.”  These folks want their kids to “be something,” so that they can compete successfully in today’s world – and they know that SGG’s “school” won’t even come close to preparing them for a good career. ³   And the fact that they will even risk sending their kids to a Protestant academy “speaks volumes.” ⁴

But if they think that they can “insulate” their kids against absorbing the “spiritual” side of that Protestant education, they’d better think again.  And the reason is simple: those “Protestant values” to which those kids are exposed, besides being genuine, are consistent – not like the selectively enforced double-standard claptrap that gets dished out at the cult centers every day.  And, although Protestants preach “fides sola” (i.e., that “faith alone,” not “good works,” are necessary for salvation), in practice, they are “functionally Catholic.”  In practice, these people realize that people must adhere to moral standards – and they do.  These people, for the most part, live by Catholic moral standards; and, more importantly, we reiterate that they apply them consistently.  

In double-standard Tradistan, on the other hand, whatever “moral standards” that there are (and there aren’t many) are – to reiterate -- selectively enforced.  That being the case, these kids are not stupid: they’ll “pick up” on that (just as many of SGG’s kids already have in the past); and when they do, chances are that they’ll opt for moral consistency, not for the letter-of-the-law dogmatism wrapped in hypocrisy (that Dannie passes off as “Catholicism”).  Young people in their “formative” years are “sponges”; and they absorb, both consciously and unconsciously, that to which they are exposed.  So, their parents had better not be surprised if their kids come home one day as “evangelicals.”  Given what goes on at those schools vs. what passes for “Catholicism” at places like SGG or MHT, such an outcome is almost inevitable.

The other thing that one must stop to consider is how these Protestant academies “market’ themselves: they welcome people with open arms, and they make them feel “wanted.”  In Tradistan – both in its “churches” and its “schools” – newcomers are treated with suspicion -- like incoming inductees at a boot camp for lepers.  And many newcomers showing up for the first time are unceremoniously turned away at the door for wearing “inappropriate attire” (as if they were supposed to have some foreknowledge of the cult center’s “dress code”).  (Some are even physically “man-handled” by “ushers” as they “escort” them out the door.)  And in some cases (at MHT, for instance), newcomers are even met with open hostility.  What an advertisement for Tradistan, huh? ⁵

So, between the superior “marketing skills” and the vastly superior academics of these Protestant academies, Dannie and Tony (and “the principal”) should have much to worry about.  The fact that “dyed-in-the-wool” traddies are sending their kids to Protestant schools, despite of all the associated “risks,” should make people start to wonder why those parents are not “taking advantage of the excellent education we offer [at SGG].”  After all, if SGG’s “education” is so “excellent,” then why did those parents send their kids, not just to “another school,” but to a Protestant school?”  To reiterate, wasn’t the whole idea of SGG’s “school” to give kids a “Catholic education” – to keep them from “committing the mortal sin” of attending a public (or, “God forbid,” a Protestant) school?  If so, then why are those loyal SGG “Catholics” sending their kids to a Protestant academy?  Once again, the obvious answer: SGG’s academics are abysmal.  

But it’s not just about “academics,” because they’ll also start noticing that, in addition to superior academics, those Protestant academies are teaching their kids real moral standards – which, again, their kids will let their parents know. And those kids will let other kids know: they’ll no doubt start “networking” with their young SGG counterparts, letting them know that, instead of the cult center’s selectively enforced double standards, they’re getting real (and universally enforced) Catholic morality at these “Protestant” schools.  And, in time, both those children and their parents will come to the sobering revelation that SGG is both an academic and spiritual wasteland.

The fact that this year’s SGG “student body” has shrunk to nineteen students should in itself have been enough to convince them that something is very wrong about SGG’s “school” (and reason enough for parents to keep their kids away from this miserable dump).  But this latest revelation -- that those parents are sending their kids to Protestant schools: this is “the icing on the cake.”  It tells us that these parents, whether they choose to admit it or not, are probably aware of SGG’s shady “morality,” and therefore want their kids going somewhere else to get something better.

Sometime back, we wrote an article entitled SGG’s School: A Bad Bargain (click here).  Well, it’s still a bad bargain.  Our advice, in light of this latest “revelation” about those kids going to Protestant academies, is run, don’t walk, away from SGG’s “school.”  In fact, let’s go one step farther: run, don’t walk, away from SGG itself.  Everything about it is POISON: its “school,” its “clergy” – everything.  The cult masters are counting on you to stay, out of “respect for the cloth” (which is just “human respect wrapped in a Roman collar”).  These men are not Catholic.  They are not good.  Leave them.  Leave the cult.  You’ll be glad you did.

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¹ Pleas like this are one of Dannie’s staples, as the atrocious turnover rate at the cult center (coupled with the Lotarski millstone around his neck) necessitate the constant begging of money for his “big ticket” expenses (as he puts it).  Dannie is always calling for people to “remember us in your will” – especially older women – because they are the most vulnerable.  For one thing, women (in general) are more emotional than men – and more likely to fall for Dannie’s sugary sanctimony.  And since, statistically, women are more likely to survive their husbands, there are more of these widows for Dannie (and other cult-masters, such as Ramolla) to prey on.  In fact, Rambozo has one bankrolling him right now.  She’s not a widow per se, but her husband is reportedly in poor health (and probably not aware that she’s feeding the Ham Sandwich his hard-earned money).  And when he dies, she’ll probably “sign over” her entire estate to Rammy.

² The bulletin did mention five other “graduates”; but these were “eighth-graders.”  Normally, when referring to “graduates,” one means graduates from high school or college, not grammar school.  Besides, many of those eighth-grade “graduates” go on to other schools to finish their education.  Dannie listed them as “graduates” (and included them with the high school graduates in the “class picture”) to give the impression (on its web page) that SGG has “a lot of graduates.”

³ Ironically enough, Dannie talked about “A Catholic Education” in his Trinity Sunday sermon, where he implied that teaching a student a trade or skill to be successful in today’s workplace was a “Marxist” notion.  If that’s the case, then the medieval guilds were “Marxist,” as were any “secular” courses (math, science, medicine, astronomy, etc.) taught at the medieval universities to prepare students for professions in those fields.  Dannie seemed to imply that the kids at SGG were getting the “classical academics” that “counted” (including “the sacred liturgy,” as he put it).  Such an education would be at least partly beneficial if that were the case – but it isn’t.  The “academics” at SGG are woefully substandard – and Dannie knows it.  And he also knows that’s why those parents chose to send their kids to Protestant schools, where the academics are good.  Dannie knows that SGG’s “school” is a failure, both academically and spiritually; and he also knows that people are starting to wonder why “the principal” is being paid big bucks to run such a dump -- hence his recent desperate attempt (playing the “Catholic education” card) to “justify” it in any way that he can.

⁴ What also “speaks volumes” is that these parents are most certainly paying big bucks to send their kids to those Protestant academies.  And if SGG’s “school” were “excellent” (as Dannie contends), then it should also be charging “big bucks” for its tuition -- but we bet that it isn’t.  (The families whose kids go there are not “well-to-do,” and can’t afford steep tuition; and “the principal’s” kids, of course, pay nothing.  And who would want to pay big bucks to send their kids to that dump anyway?)  But, even if the SGG “students” were paying steep tuition (which they’re not), nineteen students is not enough to cover the Lotarski family’s “salary” (one of those “big ticket expenses” that Dannie mentioned in his ’Corner, and which, of course, is nothing more than “hush money” that he’s paying “the principal” to keep his mouth shut).  (“The principal” has boasted – more that once – that “they can’t fire me; I know too much.”  So, we wonder, is that why “the principal” survived the 2009 “school debacle”?)

⁵ Whatever one’s opinion of Protestantism, one must admire their “marketing” skills.  That is one of the reasons why, within barely a generation, Protestantism in “Catholic” Latin America has grown form virtually nothing to over 25% of the population – and their percentage of “quality” people – the upper middle classes – is even higher.  Demographically, Catholicism in “Catholic” Latin America is dying: Protestantism is the fastest-growing religious segment in Latin America.

True, in Latin America, the traditional Faith is still strong among many – both rich and poor.  There is, in fact, a well-grounded traditional movement there.  But the difference between there and the U.S. is that the Latino clergy are much more intelligent and much better formed than the gringo “clergy” – and, unlike the cult-masters, they’re not so worldly and self-seeking.  If there is hope for “traditional Catholicism,” it is much more likely to be “south of the border,” not here in the U.S. – and certainly not in Dannie’s or Big Don’s dumpster bin.