Here We Go Again: More Guilt-Tripping

One can always count on Dannie’s ‘Corner being a disjointed mishmash of mindless drivel, and this one (click here) was no exception.  It was full of the usual ramblings about his cats, and his weekly references to the weather – and, of course, lots of sanctimony.  But beneath the nondescript nothingness, Dannie always has an agenda: he uses these references as “tie-ins” to whatever message he wants to convey; and today’s message was – as it is increasingly coming to be – all about guilt-tripping.

Dannie started off with this anecdote: “I was talking with a nice non-Catholic lady from Southern Kentucky about the crazy changeable weather we had last week and she wisely summed it up in her charming twang, ‘Well, that’s March for you’” – after which Dannie followed with this non sequitur:  “The Catholic in me sees it as symbolic of the greater Lenten struggle going on these days: Light vs. darkness. Fight on, nor be discouraged [sic]. Behold half of our combat is done, less than half remains. Let us rejoice that the true Spring, Easter, comes each year ‘ready or not’ and animate ourselves bravely to fight on, generously to prepare.”

Then, seemingly “switching gears,” Dannie continues: “The biggest enemy we face is not the enemy, in his many guises, but ourselves, as Pogo said. The saints reproach us each day. How hard they were on themselves, how easy on their neighbor. Curious how we manage to reverse it.  But by prayer and penance and…kindness we can change the clock of our crimes, as we did last night with all of our gadgets for Daylight Savings Time. More daylight to do good. Put your neighbor’s virtues in the daylight right next to your own faults.”

Ah, there’s the tie-in:  Dannie is guilt-tripping again: the Gerties must “animate [them]selves bravely to fight on, generously to prepare” -- and “put [their] neighbor’s virtues in the daylight right next to [their] own faults.”  {Alas, if only Dannie would follow his own advice!]  Dannie goes on: “Fr. Cekada and the McFathers were away last week, so several days we did only morning Masses, since that seems to be where the money is.  [“where the money is”: a Freudian slip?]  It’s nice to see the little Baptistry chapel full.  [Apparently, it usually isn’t: more guilt-tripping – and another Freudian slip?]  Still, it was odd for me not [to] be offering my 5 PM Mass. I hope those who are interested in that sort of thing (extra Lenten Masses) are finding our weekday schedule helpful. For the rest, well…?”  Yeah, “for the rest,” it’s more guilt-tripping!  [It also was, by the way, a guilt-tripping allusion to an earlier “survey” that Dannie had sent out.¹}  And then Dannie added this: “Several extra faithful did come to the Vespers on Sunday.”  [But, apparently, not enough – more guilt-tripping!]

Then, to get in one last bit of guilt-tripping, Dannie finished up with two anecdotes, the first of which involved his cats: “I was in my room the other morning, practicing that day’s Vesper hymn. Both cats, however, took exception to my singing, and came personally to remonstrate with me.”   Then, after a little more meaningless banter about his cats, Dannie added, “Well the hymn does say we should be sparing in all things during Lent, except prayer and charity.  I pray your charity increases this Lent, and your prayer deepens.” And in the second anecdote – actually, a post-script to an earlier anecdote about a bird (a robin) who was apparently “obese” from over-eating – Dannie exhorted his Gerties:  “Just don’t end up like that Robin…”

In that first anecdote, Dannie – again hinting that the Gerties were a little “lax” in their “prayer and charity” -- was hoping for a better showing from them this Lent: “I pray your charity increases this Lent, and your prayer deepens.”  And his reminder, “Just don’t end up like that Robin…,” was another one of Dannie’s not-so-subtle reminders for them to be more observant in their Lenten fast and abstinence rules. But such a remark was a bit cavalier coming from Dannie, considering his Mexican “Lent,” when he pigged out on “copious quantities of meat.”  And as for “charity,” what about the “charity” that Dannie and Tony had for Terri Schiavo, and for those SGG school kids back in 2009 – or for all those other people they’ve maligned over the years? Where, we ask, was their charity then? ²

For Dannie, “charity” is a “one-way street”: he expects it from others, but has none himself to give.  Dannie’s “charity,” as he has proved so many times, is non-existent.  Like the new MHT “bishop’s” hokey coat-of-arms, Dannie’s “charity” is as phony as the proverbial three-dollar bill.  The other thing to remember is that when Dannie says, “I pray your charity increases this Lent,” what he really means is, “I hope your obedience increases,” because that’s what Dannie is all about: manipulation and control (because, ultimately, that translates into MONEY).  Dannie knows that obedient people give – and the way to make them give more is by everlastingly guilt-tripping them – to make them feel that they are “never doing enough.”  And, as it is with all cults, he wants them to “sacrifice” and to practice “self-denial” (as he did when he asked them to pay his “high heating bills,” while he was on his “apostolate” in sunny Mexico, pigging out on “copious quantities of meat”).  Dannie and Tony want their Gerties to “do without” -- to “offer it up,” so that they can “live it up.”

But the problem with such a strategy is that people eventually figure out what’s going on.  They come to realize Dannie’s “apostolates” are nothing more than mid-winter getaways, that Dannie’s “CAT” (Car Airport Transportation) Club is just a free taxi service for Dannie and his fellow drones, and that – while they’re being asked to pay Dannie’s “high heating bills,” their young mothers with babies are shivering in SGG’s unheated vestibule.  (They are also beginning to notice – and resent – being constantly tapped for money to fix SGG’s prematurely crumbling infrastructure, and for its know-nothing “school.”)  This kind of exploitation can go on for only so long, and then such a “strategy” becomes unsustainable.  People can only take so much of this before they “get a belly full of it,” and revolt – and that is precisely what is happening. 

Unfortunately, there are still many Gerties who haven’t woken up to the obvious fact that they are gradually (but inexorably) being squeezed by Dannie and Tony.  Like the frog that is put in a pot of tepid water, and then slowly “cooked to death” (because it doesn’t notice that the pot is being heated), the Gerties are unwittingly being “cooked” by Dannie.  But the good news is that many are “waking up” – because both attendance and revenues are down at the cult center.  The other good news is that this “waking up” will continue (because Dannie will keep exploiting, and hence more and more Gerties will “get the message”) – because Dannie just doesn’t know when to quit.  In time, people will realize, at long last, that Tradistan is just a mechanism for self-serving parasites to profit at the expense of the unsuspecting and the gullible.

Pistrina Liturgica’s recent article (click here) on the new MHT “bishop’s” coat-of-arms – and what a pretentious, shabbily crafted bit of fakery it is – is yet one more proof underscoring just how phony Tradistan really is: a place where costumed con men fabricate their own heraldic “pedigrees” and “play church,” and make up rules for everyone else but themselves -- and where “self-denial” is for everyone but themselves.  From Schiavo on, the cult-masters have shown over and over again that they’re bogus – and that they are not about “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but about “doing unto others as they damn well please.”  For the cult-masters, there are no rules, no accountability -- and certainly no charity.  In short, there is no Catholicism.  To repeat, Tradistan is “all for show”  -- and nothing else.  It’s time to put an end to this “show” – to trade in this sham for the real thing – and that time is long past due.  So, how about doing it now?

Starve the Beast!

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¹ Dannie recently sent out a “survey” to his Gerties, where he asked them which Mass times would be good for them.  Later, after not getting much of a response to his survey, he followed up by sarcastically asking them, in one of his ’Corners, “What would be the best Mass time for you not to attend?”  (Click here for more on this.)

³ The litany of abuse and cruelty is a long one – and one with which most of our readers are familiar.  So, rather than repeat it here for the uninformed, we simply ask them to “get up to speed” by reading past Pistrina) and Lay Pulpit articles.  (Actually, we recommend that they start by checking the website sggscandal.com.)  It’s a lot of ground to cover – but a necessary step for anyone who is really serious about seeking the truth.