Editor’s Note: Continuing in our “winding down” series of articles, we thought it appropriate to mention once again one of Dannie Dolan’s major failures: SGG’s “school” (and one that he continues to deceptively promote whenever he can). SGG’s “school” is just one of the many reasons why the SGG cult center is a total sham – and another reason for people to stay away from this cesspool. Here is our article...
Never since Anthony Cekada’s fictional School Dazed1 has such a preposterous bit of nonsense been written about SGG’s “school” as the “Teacher’s Prayer” printed in SGG’s August 27, 2017 bulletin. Last year, Pistrina Liturgica wrote an article about it (click here). And now, we’ve also decided to write one, because we thought it deserved another “shot across the bow.” (In fact, it cries out to be written about again.) The sheer effrontery and brazenness of it – but most of all, the sheer hypocrisy of it -- simply boggles the mind. Everything said in that “prayer” is the exact antithesis of what SGG’s “school” is all about. Dannie’s Teacher’s Prayer, just as was Tony’s School Dazed, is pure fiction.
What we thought we’d do then – now that SGG’s school year has come to a close – is to follow up with an article of our own about Dannie’s “Teacher’s Prayer.” And, speaking of Tony’s School Dazed, what we thought we’d also do is to answer Dannie’s nonsense somewhat the same way in which Tony’s was (in School Dazed Revisited (click here), i.e., juxtaposing Dannie’s “pulpit fiction” with “honest fact” – except that we’ve replaced the words “pulpit fiction” with “Dannie’s Day Dream.”1 And, rather than juxtapose his words and ours (i.e., side-by-side), we arranged it with his words first printed in blue, followed afterwards by our words (printed in black) underneath. Ready? Here goes:
Dannie’s Day Dream: “Make me ever more worthy of the confidence shown me by parents, by entrusting to me what is dearest to them in this world — their children!” And then this: “…Your mercy, for forgiving and healing; Your wisdom for counseling and directing the young lives entrusted to me.”
Honest Fact: Actually, when the parents entrusted their children to the “principal,” they didn’t get “mercy” and “wisdom”; they got verbal abuse and physical battering (and cruel humiliation in front of their classmates) – in which many of them were reduced to tears.
Dannie’s Day Dream: “Teach me to treat these souls with the delicacy and infinite patience of Your Holy Spirit.”
Honest fact: Patience? Delicacy? What kind of “patience” did the “principal” have when he had a boy beaten with a wooden paddle for missing his homework? (And, for that matter, what kind of “patience” does Dannie have for crying babies who “interrupt” his sermons?) This “prayer” couldn’t have been any more sadistically mocking, than if it had been written by the Marquis de Sade himself. Dannie and the “principal” must have collaborated on this abomination.
Dannie’s Day Dream: Grant me Your light, the better to read hearts; Your perspicacity for discerning Your work and penetrating Your designs; Your mercy, for forgiving and healing; Your wisdom for counseling and directing the young lives entrusted to me.
Honest Fact: Well, Dannie, your “perspicacity” doesn’t quite “measure up,” does it? However did you “discern” that watching porn and animal torture videos amounts to “boys will be boys”? Dannie, you are simply astounding! How did you ever get to be so erudite and caring?! Oh Dannie, you’re just “marvy”!
Dannie’s Day Dream: May my actions be Your actions, my hands, Your hands; my lips, Your lips; my life, Your life; so that nothing may touch these children that is not divine, and that I may not impede Your action in their souls.
Honest Fact: Dannie, here again, your actions don’t quite “measure up.” And, Dannie, may our actions be light-years away from yours; and may we sincerely hope that “nothing may touch these children” – especially any wooden instrument wielded by the “principal.” And may our children not be subject to your “boys will be boys” code of morality. That is, Dannie, may we “impede your action” both on their bodies and on their souls!
Dannie’s Day Dream: Grant me not to deviate in my teaching from the great laws of Your Redemption; never to forget that the one essential is for the Kingdom of Heaven to be preached to every man born into this world, and for it to be transmitted to my students in all its truth and beauty. And to you, Mary, whom God gave to the Child Jesus as an educator, you to whom men in these recent times have given the beautiful title “Our Lady of the Schools;” obtain for me your docility to the Holy Spirit and your submission to the divine will; so that I may always be able to recognize the Heavenly Father’s plans for each of my pupils, and assist them in finding the place destined for them by your Beloved Son in the great task of the world’s redemption. Amen.
Honest Fact: May your “truth and beauty,” Dannie, never "be transmitted to my students” – or anyone else's students, for that matter! And Dannie, we thank our lucky stars that “the Heavenly Father’s plans for each of my pupils” don’t match your plans!
Well, so much for Dannie's "prayer"! We wonder in open-jawed astonishment that anyone whose school has such a track record as SGG’s could conceivably publish such a forgery. But it just proves that, when it comes to sheer audacity, arrogance, and hypocrisy, Dannie has no equal. And the fact that virtually no other school feels the need to go to such drastic lengths to promote itself is proof that Dannie is getting desperate. But Dannie’s promotional efforts here are an exercise in futility, because nobody is listening to his drivel. They all know that it really is just a “Day Dream.”
SGG’s parishioners are painfully aware of how abysmally substandard the school is – and they still haven’t forgotten what happened there in 2009. And, although they’re too spineless to leave SGG altogether (and give up their “show”), they realize that those same underlying forces of 2009 are still at work. (That is, the “principal,” at whose hands the students suffered back then, is still there.)2 And SGG’s parents are smart enough to know that their kids will still be in harm’s way at the “school” (both physically and “academically”) -- which is why so many of them home school their kids (or send them elsewhere – even to Protestant schools3). So, why take the risk? Only the terminally gullible (or uninformed) could ever trust their kids to SGG’s “school.” And, consequently, the enrollment there continues to dwindle. In the 2015-2016 school year, the total enrollment (K through 12) was twenty-five -- and in 2016-2017, it was eighteen (Click here for picture). We don’t have figures for the current year’s enrollment. But, whatever it is, the total is paltry, considering that the physical facility was built to hold at least ten times that many.
The sober truth is, that in promoting SGG’s “school,” Dannie is beating a dead horse – and an expensive one at that. For the pathetically small number of students enrolled there (and for the even more pathetic “education” obtained there), SGG’s “school” is still the woefully bad bargain it’s always been. Note, too, that this year, there is no picture of SGG’s “proud graduates” in the Sunday bulletin – because there aren’t any. (Dannie did mention something on Trinity Sunday (click here) about “congratulat[ing] our five home schooling graduates, whose Mass was offered yesterday on Ember Saturday”– but nothing about graduates from SGG’s “school” itself) This is yet one more confirmation that SGG’s “school” is a miserable failure – and one more reason for prospective cult-center clients to stay away.
And even if enrollment were to increase tenfold, the school still wouldn’t be “paying its way” – either financially or academically. What SGG’s parishioners are in effect doing is subsidizing the Lotarski family for operating a know-nothing establishment (whose only “contribution” is to help drain the parish coffers every year). SGG’s “school” is a cadaver on life support – or rather, a corpse about ready for rigor mortis to set in. It’s time then for Dannie to admit defeat and pull the plug on the “school.” But, of course, we all know that this won’t happen, because “the principal” won’t let it happen, will he?
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1 There were actually six installments of School Dazed Revisited, on the “2009 Scandals at SGG” website. (Click here for website, then scroll down to find the articles.)
2 The principal’s wife, by whom the school children were also subjected to cruel mistreatment, is also still teaching there at the school. And, ironically, she and the principal are the only two at the “school” who receive any kind of meaningful financial remuneration for their efforts. The other instructors either teach on a "volunteer" basis, or their compensation is so meager that it barely amounts to being a “subsistence wage” -- Sharon Patton, for instance. She was “paid”: but when she died recently, she didn’t even have enough money in her personal estate to pay for her own burial: it was funded by donations. (See SGG bulletins here and here.) (P.S. We wonder if Dannie “took his cut” from the donations as well.)
3 Yes, you heard right: among the “SGG” graduates for the 2016-2017 school year, four went to Protestant academies, because their parents realized that they wouldn’t get a good education at SGG’s “school.” (See SGG’s School: Still a Bad Bargain.)
We noted with special amusement Dannie’s ‘’Corner (in today’s SGG Sunday bulletin, June 17, 2018), where he instructed his Gerties on “etiquette.” It seems that now, anyone returning to his pew after confession (during one of Dannie’s sermons) must not only walk quietly, but must go to the nearest pew, then remain there until the sermon is over, before returning to his or her original pew. It seems that too much walking is “distracting” to His Self-Importancy, so one must minimize it by following this new directive. [We also fondly remember his other directive in that vein: anyone leaving during the sermon (to use the restroom or anything else in the vestibule) cannot return into the church until after the sermon.] We can’t help but wonder, “Who does this tinhorn tyrant think he is?!!”
ReplyDeleteDoes this pretentious pus-bag really think that his tiresome sanctimony is worth listening to? Does he really think that people should remain transfixed in their seats, in awe-struck silence, listening to his tedious drivel? Dannie, you should get the Nobel Prize in ARROGANCE!!.
In the most recent SGG Bishop’s Corner, did anyone else catch the news about Sister Jeanne Marie? She is moving to Illinois to be with her family, and is going into a nursing home. The convent is her property and will be sold, with her assets going to the state. The state will assume the cost of her care. This leaves the remaining 2 sisters literally homeless at this time. I understand why Sr. J would have the assets in her name, otherwise any trad priest she entrusted with her convent and assets would immediately have devoured the assets for any number of reasons, primarily bogus, leaving the sisters destitute and reliant on such a priest for their survival. Slaves, in other words. A smart move by Sr. J.
ReplyDeleteBut, what is to happen to these 2 sisters? Upon entering this convent, were they aware the day would come when Sr. J would no longer be in control and they would need to make their own living arrangements? It’s apparent no provision was made for these 2 women or for the continuation of this little community. I feel awfully sorry for them, they are so vulnerable now. I don’t mean to put Sr. J down, but this appears quite irresponsible. But, I would guess these extraordinary times we live in compounded by the total lack of trust one can place in so many trad priests resulted in this scenario.
It is also apparent Sr. J, when informally associating her convent with SGG, made it quite clear the sisters wouldn’t be terribly involved with the day to day life of SGG. In other words, they wouldn’t allow the clergy to interfere with their community and wouldn’t become slaves to SGG. Again, another smart move. I assume Sr. J was informed of the mistreatment past sisters received at SGG before making her decision to move to West Chester, and SGG was desperate to have some respectable religious presence a part of their agenda and public profile, and agreed to her terms.
At this time I can’t think of any viable solutions for these women. Dolan stated they might have to seek employment. Depending on how worldly, or not so worldly they were when they entered this convent, this might be a terrible way for them.
Out of desperation, if they had to stay with a trad family or individual, imagine the horrors and control issues they would confront with such people. Right now all we can do is pray for them and hope for the best. If SGG is somehow or another able to take them on, they will be destroyed in a short while with the workload demanded of them.
Yes, we saw that too about Sr Jeanne Marie. We weren’t aware that the convent in which she and the other two nuns lived was owned by her – in other words, that she, not Dannie, had to provide for their housing. There was, of course, a “convent” (built on SGG’s grounds) that was originally intended for nuns; but the “convent” ended up housing SGG’s assistant “priests” instead. Typical Dannie: gets the Gerties to fund a “convent” (on the understanding that it’ll be used for nuns), then pulls a “switcheroo” and uses it instead for men. (Shows you where women rate at SGG, doesn’t it!)
DeleteOf course, nuns have always been treated like non-entities at SGG. And now Dannie wants to saddle his Geties with the expense of housing the remaining two nuns (and probably feeding them too). What we suggest is this: have the assistant “priests” live with Dannie and Tony in their over-sized rectory (where there’s still plenty of room), and put those two nuns where they belong: in the “convent” (as originally intended). Or perhaps Dannie could have his "priests" do as he suggested for these two nuns: seek employment. (After all – what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, huh?) (But you know that won’t happen in misogynist, double-standard Tradistan!)
Realistically, what these nuns should do is leave their so-called “vocation” and return to civilian life (which is what previous “nuns” have done at SGG). Perhaps those two could go back and live with their families, where they could at least lead normal, cult-free lives. (And, as you say, if they remain at SGG, they’ll become cult slaves.)
One last thought: I don’t think that Sr. Jeanne Marie had much choice in deciding her fate. It is obvious that she was no longer “useful” to the cult, and hence had to go – and this was the most expedient way (for Dannie) to dispose of her. The main “irresponsibility” lies with Dannie, whose only “solution” offered (for the other two nuns) is to have his Gerties “pick up the tab” for them – as he has always had them do.
Wouldn’t the more gentleman thing to do be to move the nuns into Dolan and Cekada’s places, and then move Dolan and Cekada into the “convent” that is now inhabited by priests? It seems like someone is too good for themselves to live a simple life? That would solve the problem, would it not?
DeleteGreat idea -- and it would give Dannie and Tony some firsthand experience at humility (for a change)!!
DeleteRemember once reading on PL blog about another group of 2 sisters living somewhere around there - one was former SSPV - maybe these 2 could join them?
DeleteWe're not sure who they are. Of all the nuns (we know of) who were once at SGG, one died (Sr. Gerard Vincent), and the other two left (and are no longer nuns).
DeletePretty sure neither was ever at SGG--one was once at SSPV convent at Round Top NY and sister of a priest. Could be they are residing in WV(?)
DeleteCould the two nuns go to Brooksville?
ReplyDeleteI doubt Sanborn would accept them unless they had a skill or family money to back them up. From my understanding, there are only three nuns who are from not well off families. One of the girls is always being watched by their mother superior so that she won’t contact outsiders (aka: to leave). The other one has family indebted to Sanborn. The third, Sanborn has always wanted because she’s a seamstress.
DeleteThey don’t want outsiders in that place because there is a great deal of abuse going on, and outsiders may tell. Hence, the lack of enrollment in their schools and the online schooling vs actually having outsiders at the school/church. The place is a cult, and it’s covering up a significant amount of abuse:
Good – actually, great -- analysis! The Donster is not about to take on anybody who can’t pay their own way. And you’re so right about them not wanting outsiders. The place is the textbook definition of insular -- and it’s scary. It’s too bad that somebody don there didn’t have a blog about them (as we did for SGG). There would be much to tell!
DeleteThe issues of why no one will are many. I will just name a few: most of the families there are intermarried or indebted to the Selway’s for jobs or something else. The kids are “programmed” to cover up all the abuses there. The adults feel that Sanborn is the only one to get them to Heaven and the only one who is brave enough to hold the Catholic faith and it’s principles.
DeleteUnfortunately, the Selway’s run the show there and call the shots. Sanborn is only a figure head run by Senior Selway. Many of the women in the church of psychological issues because it is beyond rigorous and no one can live up to the standard that is set. The other women just ignore Sanborn’s crazy rules and tend to live a double life. They are there because they are somehow “indebted” by marriage, job, or because they have psychologically lost it. You would be surprised how many people here have mental issues that have been treated by medical doctors.
You will never see a blog because the people who leave don’t want even a second more of their life ruined by Sanborn, Selway, and the crazies of Brooksville.
Although we haven’t (for some time now) been printing any more articles, we do “keep track of what’s going on at SGG” -- by reading SGG's bulletin every week – especially Dannie's ’Corner. As usual, his ’Corner is chuck full of his trademark “S&S” (Syrup & Sanctimony). And, sandwiched in between all that fluff, are often Dannie's not-so-subtle hints airing all his grievances and his angsts, and also his never-ending hint-dropping about "poor attendance" and "inadequate donations." His August 18, 2019 ’Corner was a perfect example of this. In fact, it was all this and more.
ReplyDeleteIn this latest ’Corner,, we really had a good laugh: in addition to Dannie’s usual drivel, this one highlighted (once again) SGG’s “critter infestation” problems -- this time, it’s (recurring) mice infestation problem. Remember when a mouse got into the refrigerator in SGG’s kitchen? (Yes, the refrigerator! How in the heck does a mouse get into a refrigerator??) Well, this time, even the lady’s room got infested! Notice too, that Dannie reported (once again) that the grotto had to be fixed – yes, again! (More evidence that SGG’s infrastructure is prematurely going to rack and ruin.)
Thirdly, Dannie felt compelled to mention (speaking of mice) that “we are no longer poor as church mice.” No “longer”? He attributed this newfound(?) “abundance” to the generosity of what Tony tagged SGG’s “solid core congregation which tithes regularly and conscientiously” – or, as we've tagged them, the brain-dead “hard core” who give “no matter what.” (Actually, Dannie & Co. are still “as poor as church mice.” They’ve been that way since 2009 – when half the congregation left in protest – and SGG has never recovered since.)
Note also that Dannie got in some “guilt-tripping” about those “floaters” who come but don’t contribute “their share.” Dannie finished this by saying that God will reward the givers, and “He will judge the rest.” (Thank you, Dannie, for that not-so-subtle morsel of guilt-tripping!)
All of the foregoing just confirms and reinforces what we’ve said all along about SGG: that it’s a CULT run by con men, that its infrastructure is falling apart, and that only the hard-core brain-dead are still falling for Dannie’s S&S -- and supporting him. All of the ntelligent parishioners have long since left SGG, and/or are no longer materially supporting it. They see Dannie & Co. for what they are. Only the hard-core zombies remain -- and fall for Dannie's song and dance.
We could have expanded this comment into a full-blown article. (We almost have!) But we’ve stopped short, for we feel that our past articles have given more than enough evidence of the cult-center’s fraudulence. At the same time, however, we felt compelled to mention – yet one more time -- this latest example illuminating Dannie’s sleazy modus operandi– to demonstrate one more time that “tiger Dannie” has not “changed his stripes.” Who knows, though? Maybe, this time around, even the hard-core brain-dead will “change THEIR stripes,” wake up, and leave the cult!