Do Tigers Ever Change Their Stripes?

A Swiss mathematician, Dr. Charles E. Guye, once calculated the odds of a real protein being formed “by chance” -- that is, by “primordial bits of material bumping together” to form that single protein molecule (as evolutionists contend).  The odds of that happening are “100¹⁶⁰ to 1” (that is, “the number 100 multiplied by itself 160 times, to 1”) against.  To put such a number in perspective, imagine that the known universe was tightly packed with – not atoms – but electrons.  It would contain 100¹⁴³ electrons, which means that it would take sextillion sextillion sextillion universes to supply that much material (and an equal number of years) to form that one protein molecule – and we’re not talking “cell” yet (nor have we reached 100¹⁶⁰ yet).  And, that single protein molecule is just one of the building blocks of a cell.  Then, after scaling this (insurmountable) hurdle, we must consider that the cell must be alive – have life – and we haven’t even touched on cell specialization yet (i.e., why some cells become hair, why some become heart tissue, why some become lips or toes or brains, or “whales and snails and puppy dogs’ tails”).  You get the picture: it’s IMPOSSIBLE (even using “evolutionary” numbers).

The foregoing is excerpted from a book entitled The Death of Evolution, by Wallace Johnson (the book is available from Amazon.com; click on the link).  It goes on to disprove evolution in so many ways that it is a wonder why any rational creature could ever imagine evolution in a serious light, let alone as a “science.”  It is a false religion, an unimaginable leap of faith -- the most laughable leap of faith ever conceived by mankind.  Actually, it is something beyond that: it is demonic delusion of the first order.  The aforementioned book (and many more) should be in everyone’s home, and it should be preached from every pulpit.  Why? -- because evolution is the theoretical basis for atheism: it is the house-of-cards foundation on which atheism is built.  Without evolution, there is no basis for atheism; the former is a prerequisite for the latter.

Not only that, evolution is an insidious thing; it gnaws away at the subconscious, undermining the very foundations of one’s faith: if we start buying into the myth that we “evolved” from “space dust” or whatever, then we are swallowing a seed that, tumor-like, takes root and grows within us, eventually destroying our faith.  And, of course, we have a mainstream academia and media that are incessantly repeating this swill in the hope that it will grow.  The fight to refute it has been, as many know, an uphill battle.  In America’s public schools, it is taught as accomplished fact; and anything even remotely resembling “Creationism” counts as “religion” – and is therefore prohibited. 

Now one would think that evolution, or anything resembling it, would not be tolerated (much less, taught) in any Catholic school – yet it is.  Many of the textbooks in Novus Ordo “Catholic” schools -- especially its universities -- openly teach evolution as an accomplished fact.  And it doesn’t stop there: even the “Catholic” high schools and grade schools teach it.  Open up any of their textbooks, and it will talk about how animals (and we) “evolved,” about the different “eras” and “epochs,” etc.  It’s taken for granted that these things just “happened.”

Fortunately, evolution is not promoted in “traditional” Catholic schools (at least we hope it isn’t!) -- but how much of an active effort are those schools making to promote the opposite?  For instance, some years back, the aforementioned book, The Death of Evolution, was presented to Daniel Dolan by one of SGG’s parishioners.  Dolan simply “accepted” the book, then proceeded to ignore it.  If it ever made its way into the SGG school library (if they have such a thing), it assuredly never became prescribed reading for any of SGG’s students, or even recommended reading (perhaps because it was thought to be too “heavy” for a school of SGG’s truncated academic preeminence). 

The problem, however, with this book is not so much that, but that it is not a “profitable” venture, i.e., it does not further the cause of the SGG cult.  The dynamic duo are more interested in their own stuff -- like Work of Human Hands – to further their own cause (and hopefully to turn a profit for them).  Their problem, though, is that the perpetually dead-on-arrival WHH has been a box-office bust, selling only to the catatonic and to the morbidly curious.  Another “fiscal” problem is that their flock is dwindling: many of their most generous benefactors (including their biggest, who almost single-handedly bankrolled their entire West Chester operation) have already left; and the coffers are shrinking.  They have had to resort to "paver-stone memorials,” bake sales, and other short-term vehicles to keep them afloat – none of which have really done the job.

What these short-sighted charlatans fail to realize is that none of these measures work for the long haul; short-term expedients are just that: short term.  And all too often, those “short-term expedients” have taken the form of trampling on whomever gets in their way – sure to scare “return customers” and “future business” away.  And in their frenetic single-mindedness to do so, they are blind to just how nakedly maliciousness they really are.  Take, for instance, Cekada’s cheap shot against the late Abbot Leonard Giardina – a deceased man unable to respond; or Dolan’s attempted character assassination of a fellow priest (see Pistrina’s The Poison Pen).  They cannot see how their motives betray them (and their own words destroy them), and that -- although their attacks may score them some short-term “points” with their catatonic culties -- they have “turned off” everyone else.  Their vitriolic barbs turn out to be like so many boomerangs, coming back to skewer them in the end (no pun intended).

But that’s what the SGG vipers are all about: taking cheap shots, and then “crying foul” when they are found out and exposed.  That’s what they did in the two examples cited in the last paragraph; that’s what they did so many times with Schiavo; that’s what they did with so many of their own parishioners (especially during the SGG School scandal of recent memory); and that’s what they’ll continue to do with whomever gets in their way.  The victimizers will keep on victimizing --and then, of course, “play the victim” and holler “slander.” 

Their hypocrisy and duplicity (not to mention their shameless worldliness) is nothing short of disgusting (as are their pathetically amateurish attempts to appear otherwise).  At a time when they should be preparing young minds with a real Catholic education (and giving them and their parents real Catholic principles to live by), they are feeding them a diet of sentimentalism, sanctimony, and mind-control, while simultaneously draining their wallets in order to quench their never-ending thirst for ”apostolate” boondoggles and epicurean adventure.

There are so many things that they could be doing to benefit the faithful (and themselves).  As this article intimated earlier on, they could be exposing (and combating) the evils of evolution – or, for that matter, those of Islam, which, as Belloc so prophetically warned, has risen “like a phoenix from the ashes” to once again threaten Christendom.  Ironically, it is the Protestants who are taking the initiative on both of those fronts.  Meanwhile, “Franken-pope” openly courts Moslems, while the SGG hucksters bury their heads in the sand, concerning themselves not with things like evolution, but instead with feathering their own nests, and furthering their own schemes of worldly self-interest.  Like the true politicians they are, they say and do whatever they think will get them material gain.  And, also like the politicians they are, they don’t practice what they preach (nor, probably, do they even believe what they preach).

Will these tigers ever change their stripes? (Does a tiger ever change its stripes?)  Don’t bet on it.  Based on their behavior to date, there is no reason to expect that they’ll ever “reform.”  As long as there is a critical mass of SGG boot-lickers for them to feed upon, the parasitic pair will continue to intimidate and exploit until either 1) they retire with “enough,” 2) things dip below the break-even point of “sustainability” for them (in which case, they’ll have to retire with whatever they’ve salted away so far), or 3) a parish lynch mob decides the issue in the interim.

Silence is NOT Golden

The calamity of Vatican II precipitated a reaction by disgruntled Catholics – both clergy and laity – to return to “traditional Catholicism.”  But for those who think that this has resulted in a return to real Catholicism, think again.  The change that has occurred – at least in traddieland -- has been largely cosmetic, not substantive. “Traditional Catholicism” has, to a large extent, mutated into a sterile, superficial caricature of Catholicism, not much different than what existed in pre-Vatican II days – only worse.

As many of the older generation will recall, the Church by the 1950’s had become, in many respects, an institution concerned more with the letter of the law than with its spirit.  However, it did stand for – and observe – that “letter.”  It stood for – and upheld -- Catholic precepts: the sanctity of life, for instance.  But traddieland, by contrast, doesn’t – in many cases -- even achieve that.  Anthony Cekada, for instance, defended a philandering husband’s “right” to “pull the plug” on a spouse who was neither in danger of death nor in “a vegetative state.”  In the “old days,” such a position would have been universally condemned, both by Church hierarchy and by one’s fellow priests.  But how many of traddieland’s clergy have condemned Cekada’s morally wrong (and utterly reprehensible) position?  Precious few.  (Ironically enough, the bulk of condemnation has come from the Novus Ordo clergy. whom the traditional establishment looks down on as “Samaritans.”)

Another example of traddieland’s apparent lapse of moral conscience concerns something that we’ve so often noted before: Daniel Dolan’s dismissing the watching of porn and animal torture videos (by the SGG school principal’s sons) as “boys will be boys.”  This and other scandalous behavior by the SGG clergy caused half the parish to leave in protest – behavior which became known throughout much of traddieland -- yet was there any groundswell of indignation from outraged clergy?  No.  And when Dolan excused the SGG’s school principal’s son’s fornication with (and impregnating) a fellow student, how much of a hue and cry of denunciation was there?  Again, none.  (And as for Dolan and Cekada themselves, the only thing that came from their lips on the matter was to blame the girl; the boy’s guilt was never mentioned.  In fact, he was actually feted in a subsequent SGG Bulletin article, for his organ-playing ability.)

Astonishingly enough, just about every aspect of the dynamic duo’s misbehavior – thoroughly substantiated and well recognized throughout traddieland – has been largely ignored by traditional clergy.  They are well aware that this pair has shown – not just on Schiavo, but in many other instances -- utter disdain and contempt for Catholic morality and principles; yet how many have protested?  Not many – at least, not publicly.  The SGG pair continue to slander and slam with impunity, yet no one seems to care: there has been nary a peep of protest from traddieland’s clerical establishment.  They seem to have taken a laissez faire attitude with regard to these two, perhaps because they don’t want to slander or slam “their own kind” – or perhaps because they think that these two have (finally) “cleaned up their act.”

But they HAVEN’T.  The dastardly duo is at it again:  In a recent official missive dated November 12, 2013 -- and addressed to his constituents in Europe -- Daniel Dolan has accused a fellow priest of being invalidly ordained.  Coming from someone with “One-hand Dan’s” track record, such an accusation is downright laughable; and the feeble arguments he used to back up this accusation (and others) were easily and thoroughly picked apart in a recent Pistrina Liturgica article.  But, aside from that, dastardly Dan’s latest bit of mischief confirms this: that nothing has changed, that he’s up to his old tricks again, providing yet another instance of his wanton disregard of Catholic principles and charity, in making a preemptive, unprovoked attack (with unsubstantiated charges) on a fellow priest – against a young man who has neither done him any harm nor has ever uttered a unkind word against him.

Of course, this is not the first time that Dirty Dan has done such a thing – nor will it be the last.  How he victimized so many of his parishioners at SGG -- and then accused them of victimizing him – is common knowledge throughout traddieland. All of traddieland – and especially its clergy – are well aware of what Dolan and Cekada are, and of what they’ve done; and, indeed, there are many who have PRIVATELY condemned their behavior.  But, except for perhaps the one or two who protested against Cekada’s Schiavo travesty, no one has publicly spoken out against them (or even privately admonished them), in the mistaken notion that that would be “scandalous.”  They fail to realize that what is actually scandalous is Dolan and Cekada’s behavior.  He and his blundering sidekick are ruining – and HAVE ruined – scores of peoples’ lives, both materially and spiritually.  They have split up families, caused divorces, and caused dozens to lose their faith -- especially the young.  But what is perhaps even more scandalous is the DO-NOTHING attitude of the clergy who possess irrefutable proof of that and more, but who do absolutely nothing about it.

Ironically, this do-nothing attitude that allows these guilty men to continue to misbehave with impunity also works to the detriment of the innocent: when Droleskey wrote his scandalous lies about Bp. Paul Petko, for instance, the latter was mercilessly blacklisted by clergy and laity alike.  But when the lies were exposed and proved to be patently false, who came to Petko’s defense?  Who exonerated him?  Who came forward?  And, more importantly, who castigated Droleskey for his vicious slander?  No one.  In fact, a priest who was ordained by Bp. Petko was ostracized for that very reason: he was considered “damaged goods” for having been ordained by a man under such a “cloud of suspicion” – “guilt by association.”  To this day, traddieland’s clergy treat Bp. Petko more or less as an outcast, yet continue to accord the SGG vipers a respectability that they don’t deserve or possess.

This kind of silence is despicable – and possibly mortally sinful.  To be silent in the face of known malfeasance is not just acquiescence; it is aiding and abetting; it is being an accessory to that evil.  By the same token, to treat someone like a pariah, even after the accusations against him have been proved to be false, is equally despicable – and both are cowardly.  Why this silence that protects the guilty and imperils the innocent?  Why this double standard?  Why? -- because much of traddieland really ISN’T Catholic, that’s why.  Like the SGG “show,” it is all too often a caricature of Catholicism, where the letter of the law is preached, but where neither that letter nor its spirit is practiced.  It is a realm where cowardly men are quick to accept hearsay, to ignore truth, and to hide behind their Roman collars and remain willfully non-committal rather than have the courage and decency to stand up for and to do what is truly right.

Instead of taking a stand for real justice and for real Catholic principles, many simply emulate what Dolan and Cekada do: give ‘em some fancy of “R&R” (Rites and Rubrics), flowery sermons, and superficial, goody-two-shoes “morality.”  But when it comes to real morality -- standing up for the right of Terri Schiavo to live, for instance – many traditional clergy bury their heads in the sand, and refuse to take a stand.  And when it comes to a choice between morality and expediency, many have often chosen the latter, as another example illustrates: when a wealthy parishioner in another well-known traditional group (and who was one of its major contributors) asked whether it was morally permissible for his child to receive a donated organ (harvested from a living person who, of course, was then pulled off life-support), this was “okay” – because it was “good for business.”  Money was more important than morality. 

This is not Catholic; it’s not even Christian. It’s all about looking good, not being good.  It’s about expediency.  It’s about self-interest.  It’s about money.  The traditional clergy who are not active participants in such chicanery – but who let it happen – must realize that it will have disastrous consequences.  Leopards like Dolan and Cekada are not going to change their stripes, as Dannie’s latest pathetic attempt to discredit a fellow priest has once again proved.  To allow these predators to continue to sell their snake oil will be truly “bad for business” – both God’s and man’s.  It’s time for traditional clergy to “wake up and smell the coffee” – to put the illegal firm of Dolan, Dummkopf & Co. out of business.  They must realize that, left unchecked, the dastardly duo’s behavior will only bring everyone down – including them.  They must realize too that their continued silence is NOT golden, but tragic – that it is nothing more than dysfunctional acquiescence.

Like Macro, Like Micro

One of the songs popularized back in the 1970’s by The Carpenters (the brother-sister singing act of Richard and Karen Carpenter) was entitled Bless the Beasts and the Children.  The Carpenters had a mellow, “heart-warming” singing style, which was very well suited for this particular song, because it dealt with the “innocence” and “helplessness” of children and animals.  The song’s opening lyrics were the following: “Bless the beasts and the children / For in this world they have no voice / They have no choice.”  The song’s message was that animals and children are both powerless and unprotected, and have no advocate -- no “voice” -- to stand up for them and shield them from harm's way.

Although the song pleaded for both “beasts and children,” in reality, it was the “national poster song” for animals’ rights, while the rights of children were being totally ignored.  It was true then, and it is true now: while there is public outrage whenever someone mistreats an animal, the killing of unborn babies is not only routinely tolerated but upheld by law – and even reimbursed at taxpayer expense.  And while someone can be sent to prison for starving an animal, Terri Schiavo was starved and dehydrated to death by legal decree.  When done to an animal, it is “inhumane”; but when done to a human, it is – according to Anthony Cekada -- “exercising one’s husbandly prerogative” and “lessening the burden on society.”

The fact is, wanton mistreatment of any creature is wrong – whether it be human or animal.  But in today’s animals’ rights “climate,” mistreatment has come to mean that animals cannot be “exploited” in any way – whether it be the slaughtering of them as food for human consumption, or using animal by-products (such as milk and cheese) for nourishment – or even using them as “beasts of burden.”  Our Godless generation seems to be of the opinion that humanity should “self-destruct” so that the world can be “given back to the beasts.”  And even some “Catholics” share this opinion – at least in principle.  They conveniently seem to forget (or ignore) the fact that Our Lord Himself -- the God-Man, the Word made Flesh – partook of both animal flesh and byproducts (not to mention that He “exploited” a donkey one Palm Sunday by riding on it) – any of which, according to that line of logic, makes Him a sinner -- which, of course, He cannot be.

As far as “advocacy” for children is concerned, we all know how that has panned out:  Roe vs. Wade has opened up the floodgates for the slaughter of untold millions of human beings that continues to this day.  The only thing that has been “done for children” is that a series of laws was passed that has hampered  parents’ ability to discipline them.  Spanking a child can now be prosecuted as a crime, punishable by imprisonment; and parents can be prosecuted -- with no proof whatsoever -- based on unsubstantiated testimony from children asked “leading” questions by over-zealous prosecutors.  All that these laws accomplished was to give children a license to be licentious.

Parents who try to discipline their children in public are routinely harassed by passersby – and often reported to the authorities.  It is getting to the point where parents have little to no say-so in how to raise their children.  Parents who “home-school” their children, for example, have had to organize into “home-school defense leagues” to protect them from state school boards who want to dictate to them what the children will learn – and who scrutinize everything every move they make.  In fact, in some states, it is illegal to home-school one’s own children!  It has come to the point where “children’s services” can come into people’s homes and take their children away from them – for almost any reason.

And has all of this “children’s advocacy” curbed child abuse?  Not really.  Real abuse is on the rise, becoming ever more heinous and widespread.  Almost every day, one hears in the news about a child who has been brutalized, sexually molested, or victimized in some particularly sadistic way.  And the proliferation of laws passed to “protect” children from being “exploited” by their parents (and holding parents “accountable”) has only resulted in parents becoming less accountable, and -- more and more -- abandoning their parental responsibilities, because the laws are actually punishing them for carrying out those responsibilities.  The result is that children are losing their innocence, and parents are being robbed of their ability and their right to raise their children as they see fit.

Meanwhile, while humans are committing self-genocide through abortion and birth control, animals are overrunning the planet: areas that were once devoid of wildlife are now being deliberately “re-stocked” by animal rights advocates (i.e., the animals are being raised by them, then released).  Urban areas now see not just deer, but their predators as well – including coyotes, and even bears and cougars.  National parks in the American West have been “repopulated” with wolves, that are now decimating ranchers’ livestock.  And in many areas in the southern U.S., giant pythons are multiplying exponentially and threatening animals and humans alike -- especially in the Florida Everglades (the pythons supposedly “accidentally got out” – but other areas of the country have been deliberately “re-populated” with poisonous snakes, as part of “re-introduction” programs).  It is getting to the point where people do not feel safe going outdoors – even in their own neighborhoods.

And while we are being told that we are “taking over” animals’ habitats, the opposite is in fact happening: Not just Florida’s Everglades, but any area designated by the U.S government as “wetlands,” is being set aside for “animal use,” and being declared “off-limits” to humans.  It is now a criminal act to drain such wetlands  – even on one’s own property (and, yes, people have been sent to prison for draining their own land) – because these wetlands “belong” to such things as ducks and other critters who use them as a “habitat.”  In fact, anything can be declared a “habitat” – for any creature – and be declared “off-limits” for humans.  In California, a housing development was shut down because the land was proclaimed to be the habitat of the kangaroo rat – an animal heretofore considered to be a pest.  We have come “one-eighty” from the Biblical view that animals were put on this earth for our use, to the environmentalists’ attitude that we humans are here for their use and convenience.

And what has all this “concern” for animals accomplished?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  As noted before, animal abuse is actually on the rise -- as is child abuse -- leading to new depths in bestial cruelty and de-humanizing debauchery (both of which are being legitimized, systematized, and – through the internet and other media venues – being made accessible to everyone).  Under the umbrella of “freedom of speech,” one can access “on-line” anything from pornography to animal-torture videos (as the SGG principal’s sons did  -- and which Dannie Dolan laughed off as “boys will be boys”).  The day will come – through patient (and relentless) “gradualism” – when things like “child porn” and other forms of on-line bestiality will not only be permitted but be the norm.

What is happening today is truly frightening – in every sense of the word -- and we’re not just talking about “the beasts and the children.”  What is happening on all fronts is frightening.  Many things that used to be wrong are now right -- and vice versa: one’s “right” to an abortion is protected by law, yet attempting to prevent Terri Schiavo from being put to death is a criminal act; homosexuality, which used to be considered a crime, is now a guaranteed “right” under the law; and teaching utterly fictional Evolution is “exercising one’s freedom of speech,” while teaching Creationism is “violating freedom of religion.”  Pretty soon, homosexual “marriage” will not only be universally legal (as abortion and the teaching of Evolution already are); but anything short of caving in to the entire “gay” agenda will be treated as a “hate crime” (just as defending oneself against a hooded, drug-crazed black thug was prosecuted as “attempted murder”).

Today’s world is one of self-contradictions and double standards – an increasingly Orwellian world, where truth and fiction are merging, where words are losing their meaning, where demagogues wax poetically about “rights” yet consistently deny those rights -- where they say one thing but do another: a world that Dannie Dolan and Tony Cekada fit right into.  Dannie can wax poetically about “protecting our innocents” on Guardian Angel Sunday, yet tolerate (actually, condone) a school principal's institutionalized brutality on those innocents (while he and Tony callously ignore the pleas of their outraged parents).  He can excuse one of the principal’s sons fornicating with (and impregnating) a fellow student, yet have another student beaten with a wooden paddle simply for missing a homework assignment.  And, as noted before, he can dismiss the watching of porn and animal-torture videos as “boys will be boys.”  He can do (and has done) all this and more – all the while maintaining a cool façade of faux piety. 

This is what Dolan and Cekada do – and have done -- for years.  In their own little “micro” world, they have faithfully mimicked the “macro”: they preach one thing but practice another.  They give their parishioners “the show” – a caricature of Catholicism – but ignore (and violate) its precepts.  As long as they put on a glitzy extravaganza every week, they can lie, cheat, victimize, and intimidate; and the cultlings lap it all up -- like mother’s milk.  But what they are serving up is not “mother’s milk,” but something more like chalk water – all appearance and no substance.  They are charlatans, not shepherds, who can only thrive in SGG’s dumbed down, numbed down environment.  We only hope that one day these folks will wake up, and come to the realization that there is more to Catholicism than elaborate rites and rubrics, that being Catholic means keeping God’s commandments – and that the “dynamic duo” are nothing more than a couple of mammon-loving hucksters who are out to lift their wallets, not their souls.

The REAL Tragedy

While “channel-surfing” one evening recently, I came across a documentary about the sinking of the Titanic.  At approximately 11:40 P.M. on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic, having left Southampton four days earlier, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.  By 2:20 the next morning, it disappeared beneath the waves, along with 1519 of its 2224 passengers.  In terms of loss of life, it wasn’t the greatest sea-going disaster of all time, but it was certainly the most famous.*  At the time, it was the largest vessel afloat, and it was considered by its builders to be “unsinkable.”  Since this was its maiden voyage, the Titanic was carrying much of the crème de la crème of American and British society, including the millionaire John Jacob Astor and others.  And since the ship was thought to be unsinkable, its builders didn’t think it needed lifeboats; and it was therefore outfitted with barely half the number needed.

One can only imagine what went through the minds of the Titanic’s passengers, when the realization hit them that they were going to die – that they were doomed, and that there was nothing they could do about it.  The sense of tragic irony must have been particularly acute for those wealthy passengers, many of whom sailed on the Titanic only because they wanted to “see and be seen” on this glorious “floating palace” – and who now realized that all their millions could not save them from the same fate that was befalling the lowliest steerage passenger. 

But the sense of frustration and dread must have been no less acute for those steerage passengers, most of whom had pawned their life’s savings to book passage to go to a new and better life in America.  For both the lofty and the lowly, their sense of impending doom -- of the certainty that they were going to perish in the icy waters of the North Atlantic -- must have been overwhelming.  One can only imagine the horror and the dreadful anticipation that passed through their minds.  This “unsinkable” ship -- as its builders (and the media of the day) so haughtily proclaimed it to be -- sank on its first outing: a sober and terrible reminder from our Creator that He is Everything and we are NOTHING.

While watching this documentary, it got me to thinking about another “T”: Terri Schiavo; and it struck me that, as horrendous as the Titanic’s sinking was, it did not compare with what happened to her.  The Titanic disaster was an act of God -- an accident. Terri’s death, on the other hand, was no “accident”: it was a totally pre-meditated, deliberate act of men, not God.  The Titanic sinking was God’s retribution for culpable men’s pride and arrogance.  Terri’s death wasn’t; it was the murder, by men, of a helpless innocent who did nothing to merit her fate, and whose only “crime” was costing her husband too much “insurance settlement” money – a man already shacked up with a new concubine, and who wanted to keep the money for himself and his bimbo. Terri’s continued care constituted, for him, a waste of money – and, in Anthony Cekada’s words, “a grave burden on society.”  Teresa Marie Schiavo expired on March 31, 2005.

While the Titanic’s victims died relatively painlessly and quickly, Terri’s death was a slow, painful ordeal.  Terri's final death agony lingered a full two weeks.  She didn’t die of “natural causes” or even of “malnutrition” – and she certainly wasn’t “terminally ill” or in any danger of dying; her organs weren’t “shutting down.”  The proximate (and official) cause of death was dehydration – forced dehydration by court order.  Anyone – even a child -- who tried even to wet her cracked, bleeding lips, was prevented from doing so by an armed guard; and anyone who tried to give her water or food would be criminally prosecuted.  It was a slow, methodical execution – for a crime that she never committed.

According to Fr. Frank Pavone, an eyewitness, Terri Schiavo’s facial expression in her last hours was one of dread and disbelief.  In his words, “to describe the way she looked as peaceful is a total distortion of what I saw.”  “Her eyes were open but they were going from one side to the next, constantly oscillating back and forth, back and forth.  The look on her face (I was staring at her for three and a half hours) I can only describe as a combination of fear and sadness….a combination of dreaded fear and sadness.”  “Her mouth was open the whole time,” he continued, “It looked like it was frozen open.  She was panting rapidly.  It wasn’t peaceful in any sense of the word.  She was panting as if she had run a hundred miles.”  Like the Titanic’s victims, Terri Schiavo knew that she was going to die, but couldn’t fathom WHY she was being deliberately put to death.  And, because of that, her feeling had to have been one of utter, unspeakable terror.

One of the many facts “overlooked” by Anthony Cekada (that is, ignored by him) in his now infamous account of her death is that Terri Schiavo was actually able to swallow – including the Sacred Species in communion.  Many of the nurses who attended to her (before she was condemned to death) attested to this.  Another piece of public (but not publicized) medical fact is that when Terri Schiavo was first “discovered” by paramedics, she was “face down” (her husband made no attempt to “turn her over” so that she could breathe more easily); and subsequent X-rays in the hospital confirmed that she had several broken bones – breaks that did not look like they were caused by “falling,” but which appeared to be more likely the result of physical beating.

Yet Phony Tony ignored all this evidence (and more) and instead trumpeted out a “make-it-up-as-you-go” pile of bone-headed gibberish (including his absolute absurdity about a feeding tube constituting a painful and “extraordinary means” of sustenance -- an especially outrageous claim, considering the fact that, at that time, one of his own parishioners was being fed from that self-same feeding tube!).  Equally outrageous was Cekada’s proffering his own crude, baseless medical opinion on Schiavo over that of an internationally known neurologist’s – where he not only questioned that doctor’s professional knowledge, but then FALSELY labeled his medical assessment of Schiavo as “presuming to pronounce on matters of faith and morals.”  It seems that the only time that Phony Tony is lying -- as they say – is “whenever his lips are moving.”  It is difficult to distinguish which is Cekada’s more dominant trait: his arrogance or his ignorance.

It is evident too, from what both Cekada and Dolan had to say about Terri Schiavo (both then and afterwards), that they had no REAL compassion for her – but it is not surprising.  After all, what compassion did they show for the scores of children who were abused at SGG over the years?  The only thing that passes for “compassion” from these two is the syrupy sanctimony that they pander day in and day out from their cult-center pulpit (or from the affected, insincere slop that Dannie drivels forth in his Bishop’s Corner column).  The only thing that is really surprising about all of this is that their followers actually swallow it: people who know better – who know who and what Dolan and Cekada are -- and yet who lend their continued moral support to this thoroughly immoral pair: surprising -- and tragic.

The Titanic was an act of God – and, indeed, a terrible tragedy -- but it was a lesson learned (albeit a bitter one).  Schiavo, on the other hand, was man-made -- concocted by evil men with an evil agenda -- where no lesson was learned.  It was simply the “trial balloon” -- the “testing of the waters” -- for euthanasia: the “test market before the rollout.”  What makes it even more tragic is that people like Dolan and Cekada never learned that lesson either.  As men who call themselves “Catholic,” it was their moral duty to stand up for the dignity of life – but they didn’t.  Instead, they stood up for the “right” of a man to have his wife put to death – a position that, to this day, they have never retracted.

But perhaps the greatest tragedy is that people who also call themselves Catholic – and who had supposedly learned that lesson – have apparently “unlearned” it.  Several of those who were thoroughly disgusted with SGG -- and who left in protest -- have come back to these lepers (as Lay Pulpit’s last article illustrated).  They, who not only have valid but legitimate alternative places to go for the sacraments, have returned to and re-embraced the toxic twosome.  What that says about these people is that they themselves are not Catholic, that they really haven’t any Catholic principles, and that “the show” means more to them than their convictions -- more than their Catholic Faith.  That is the real tragedy.

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*An even greater maritime disaster (in terms of loss of life) was that of the riverboat SS Sultana, which exploded and sank on April 27, 1865, on the Mississippi River.  A couple of interesting coincidences it shares with the Titanic are that both carried roughly the same number of people (2224 for the Titanic vs. approximately 2400 for the Sultana), and both sank in the month of April.  Although the exact number of the Sultana’s victim’s is not known, it is estimated that 1800 perished.  Another interesting thing to note is that the Sultana was built by the John Litherbury Shipyard in Cincinnati, Ohio – not all that far from SGG, Dannie Dolan’s southwest Ohio cult center.  

Why Flattery? Because It Works!

A man who was once a parishioner of SGG (St. Gertrude the Great Church), and who had become thoroughly disgusted with Dolan and Cekada – especially for their part in the events of 2007-2009, left SGG shortly thereafter.  He deplored what they had done so much, that he even wrote articles (one of which will be quoted from later) about it -- as did others -- on a dissident website (“sgginfo).  He also had another, particularly personal reason to detest everything that they stood for: he had a daughter who was on both a respirator and a feeding tube at about the time when Cekada was trumpeting out his Schiavo travesty about how “painful” it was to have “a hole poked in you, a tube shoved in and then having to eat and drink that way [that] would be burdensome for any normal man.” 

If this man had taken Phony Tony’s advice, his daughter would have died within days.  Fortunately, he didn’t.  (As just about the whole world knows, what Cekada said about Schiavo was utter nonsense – and a complete pack of lies.)  So, for this and the other aforementioned reasons, this parishioner left SGG, resolving never to return.  He then joined the scores of others who had left because of those same abuses of 2007-2009, and who had formed the new parish: St. Albert the Great (SAG).  Another parishioner, who had left SGG for similar reasons, also joined up with the SAG congregation.

However, both of them are now back at SGG.  Why?  The answer is simple: flattery.  The dynamic duo enticed them back with what has always worked for them: dazzling them with “the show.”  In both cases, it took the form of putting on an elaborate funeral for a family member of each man: in the one case, a deceased wife; and in the other, a deceased daughter.  In each instance, the parishioner fell for the dynamic duo’s naked, unabashed flattery, trading his principles and self-respect in return for a fleeting bit of pompous, pretentious (and insincere) adulation.

The funeral for the one parishioner’s wife was particularly ostentatious: three priests (yes, three priests) “simul-celebrating” Masses for the deceased (yes -- all at the same time) – something never done before (or since) for anyone at SGG.  What was particularly ironic about this was the fact that the deceased detested both Dolan and Cekada.  Not only that: while she was alive, she regularly attended a Novus Ordo church; she habitually never set foot inside SGG.  But why all the hoopla?  Why did Dannie and Tony put on their “three-ring circus” for someone who absolutely couldn’t stand them?  That answer is simple too: it wasn’t done for her; it was done for the husband.

He, like so many others who were (rightfully) outraged at Dolan’s, Cekada’s, and their SGG school principal’s disgusting behavior, left there to join the congregation at SAG; but he always harbored a lingering taste for “the show” – SGG’s elaborate rites and rubrics – which SAG couldn’t match.  He, who was also a board member of SAG, had some points of disagreement with SAG’s pastor, culminating in him resigning from the board.  This combination – his love of “the show” and his disenchantment with SAG’s pastor (coupled with the fact that his son’s family was still at SGG) – eventually caused him to return to SGG. It was probably the former that was the overriding factor: he was absolutely enamored with all the pomp and ceremony that went with “the show,” and was probably looking for some pretense to return.  The friction with SAG’s pastor provided that pretense.  It was a classic case of leaving SGG for the right reasons, but returning for the wrong reasons. 

Since this parishioner’s “returning to the fold” was a good public relations coup for Deacon Dannie – and as a “reward” for him having done so – Dannie then exploited it by putting on his shameless, over-the-top “triple play” pageantry – unprecedented in the history of SGG – for a woman who absolutely loathed him: the ultimate triumph of “show” over substance.  Another probable reason for this bit of brazenness was the fact that this parishioner “has some bucks” and hence represents a potential source of substantial revenue for the dynamic duo.  So, to ensure that his returning prodigal son was sufficiently “reconciled,” he felt the need for “something big” to “seal the deal” – therefore, the “triple-play” tomfoolery.  Let us hope that the parishioner’s conscience eventually supersedes his appetite for flattery, and that he comes to see their maneuver for the calculated ruse that it was.

In the case of the other parishioner (the one whose daughter was routinely nourished for decades on that feeding tube that Phony Tony so vehemently eschewed as prohibitively “painful”), it was also, as we said, a funeral Mass that was the bait that brought him back to SGG.  And, like the “triple-play Mass” parishioner, this man too was always enamored with “the show” – especially the “polyphonic music” part of it.  Also like the other parishioner, he had left SGG in disgust (he even wrote several articles for an anti-SGG website, lambasting Dolan, Cekada, and SGG’s school principal), supposedly resolving never to return).  The funeral Mass was for the man’s daughter, who finally succumbed to the genetic heart condition that necessitated her feeding tube (as well as a respirator).

For this parishioner, it was probably the “polyphonic music” that provided the primary impetus to drive him back into Dannie’s arms: he was at one time SGG’s choir director, and then SAG’s later on.  When SAG liquidated, he then went to “IC” (Immaculate Conception Church), hoping to get the job there.  But IC already had a choir director, so he was relegated to “second fiddle” there (which didn’t fill his needs).  His daughter’s funeral thus provided the “opening” to let him return to SGG in a quasi face-saving way, plus get his old job back.  I say “quasi” face-saving way, because here is a man who (apparently) thoroughly burned his bridges with Dannie and Tony; and it would seem that any return to SGG would be an embarrassing, “tail-between-the-legs”: ordeal for him, in light of what he had said about them in the past.

For instance, in a letter to the late Fr. Stepanich, he spoke of the SGG school principal’s “criminal abuses and the SGG clergy’s consent to his iniquitous and soul-destroying words and actions (all publicly proven in the objective, external forum).”  He further added that the principal “has abused, psychologically and even physically, many of the children put into his charge at SGG school.  Parents and teachers have prayed (as you [Fr. Stepanich] suggested) and reported the abuses to the pastor and assistant pastor, who both have refused to this day to take any substantive action to correct the abuses.  On the contrary, those who have tried to protect their children have been privately, and even publicly, castigated and even thrown out of the school and/or parish” [his italics].

And, as if that wasn’t damning enough, he added, “How is it even possible the horrendous crime of child abuse, practiced and rewarded by the perverts of the Novus Ordo, is repeated in our own midst! How is it possible that certain priests show an utter lack of compassion for children, let alone their struggling parents!  I personally believe that such an utter lack of basic human compassion, as typified by Bp. Dolan and even more especially Fr. Cekada, is a very real sign of demonic possession” [again, his italics].

In addition to the foregoing (from his letter to Fr. Stepanich), this man wrote even more damning testimony against Dolan and Cekada.  Yet, here he is, once again, swallowing his pride (and his integrity) and “sucking up” to them, because his penchant for polyphonic music outweighs his principles.  Apparently, he can conveniently forget what he publicly stated in the past, and can "let bygones be bygones” for the sake of being reinstated as choir director.  What makes his behavior all the more despicable is that he made similar allegations against an INNOCENT man (Bp. Paul Petko) -- which were proven to be patently false (but for which he has never recanted) -- yet he can “forgive and forget” when it comes to the serpents of SGG, whose wrongdoing has been proven to be patently true.  This is hypocrisy on a scale that puts this man in a category all by himself.

What motivates men such as these two to utterly abrogate and prostitute their Christian principles?  What motivates them to crawl on their bellies back to the serpentine “shepherds” of SGG?  Again, it’s flattery – and it is appearances, “the show” – that count. What also counts is having a short memory.  These two men conveniently FORGOT (or knowingly ignored) the heinous behavior of Dolan and Cekada because they wanted something.  They didn’t care about what Dolan and Cekada are, and what they stood for – as long as they got what they wanted.  They chose to “forgive and forget” – not for the sake of forgiveness, but purely for the sake of forgetfulness.  Their interest was in expediency, not ethics – and in serving themselves, not God.

Are they alone -- are they unique -- in this regard?  Not by a long shot: several others have emulated their behavior.  It is a sad fact that many who have sworn they’d “never go back to that place” are often seen back there on SGG’s doorstep.  They decide to go back “occasionally”; and their reason for doing so is that “they do a good job there.”  This is a NON-reason.  And, in a way, these people are even more hypocritical and cowardly than the two illustrated in this article, for these two had at least some vested (albeit selfish) interest in doing what they did.  Those who come back “occasionally” (for whatever reason) have no reason whatsoever (other than the pomp and the pageantry).  Their behavior is, at best, irrational – especially considering the fact that they have several viable and legitimate alternatives elsewhere.

The only “good job” that they can expect the SGG clerics to do is that of emptying their wallets – and, ultimately, emptying their souls; and all they are accomplishing by “occasionally” going to SGG is to aid and abet these hucksters -- to reinforce their behavior, and to reinforce the false impression in the minds of SGG’s parishioners that they are “legitimate.”  The only “safe” way for the “occasional” visitor to SGG is to stay away.  Going back there “every now and then” or “for old time’s sake” is, again, only enabling these vipers to continue their mischief.  The only real thing to do is simply not to go there – to STAY AWAY.  As another website so aptly admonishes, STARVE THE BEAST.

I am sure that Dolan and Cekada think that getting back those two parishioners (and, occasionally, the other “part-timers”) was a public relations masterstroke on their part.  Or was it?  These people may have been “won over” for now, but the memory of the dynamic duo’s track record still lingers in their minds; it may be “in remission,” but it has not gone away.  One day, Dolan and Cekada will inevitably overstep their bounds (because tigers do not change their stripes); and these two, who were foolish enough to take the vipers’ bait this time around, will not – let us hope -- be fooled the next time.  They will see through the “tinsel” and once again discover that there is no “tree” there – no substance.  They’ll see the dynamic duo for what they always have been and continue to be: a couple of self-seeking profiteers -- a sham.

This, of course, is something that they should have recognized long before – and probably did.  But flattery is a powerful thing, as is the glitz and emotional appeal of “the show.”  It deceives people, it blinds them, and it causes the weak-willed to relapse.  That is why it is used so often: because it works – and it worked on them.  No matter how nakedly obvious, no matter how insincere, no matter how amateurishly done, flattery always seems to work.  For the brain-dead, it works just about every time.  But for those with any spark of intelligence and principles left in them, it shouldn’t – at least the second time around. 

Let us hope that for those two parishioners – and those “part-timers” who occasionally “window shop” at SGG – that on their “second time around,” they’ll have the wits to “see through the tinsel,” and the strength of character to lay aside their self-interest (and their pride) and act on that conviction.  In the end, their spiritual survival may well depend upon it.