What If Somebody Threw a Party, and Nobody Came?

In SGG’s May 2015 Newsletter, there is a picture of Dannie Dolan (and his entourage) in front of the church’s Lenten Altar of Repose (click here and scroll down to see picture).  And if one clicks here, he can see another of Dannie’s extravaganzas: a YouTube video of the Gloria being sung on Holy Saturday.  These are just two examples of Dannie’s “show” for all the cyber-world to gaze and gape at.  Impressive, huh?  Of course, these are only two of the many “visual treats” to “wow” the reader as he wades his way through SGG’s website.  The website even has a “photo gallery” containing 50+ pictures of SGG’s school children “enjoying” all the good things that SGG has to offer.  According to the pictures, SGG is a “Shangri-La,” where “a good, wholesome time is being had by all”: children at play; happy, smiling faces; impressive “church scenes,” where the kids are experiencing “real Catholicism”; etc., etc.  Again, how “impressive”! 

The photo of Dannie & Co. in front of the Altar of Repose is annually one of his favorite “publicity shots.”  Note that there are about fifty or so candles on the altar.  (In past years, there have been close to a hundred at times.)*  Starting on Holy Thursday evening, men in server’s uniforms – Dannie’s “guard of honor” volunteers – kneel there (each man taking an hour turn).  Several of these men, in the past, have fainted from the near 100*F heat and/or from oxygen deprivation.  Note also that Dannie expects them to do their hour, yet he himself spends only a few minutes there (probably just long enough for the “photo op”).  But what does Dannie care?  The photo looks good on the website page – and, after all, that’s what it’sall about: “the show.”

But in recent months, people haven’t been coming to “the show,” and Dannie has been chiding them about it (see Guilt-tripping Won’t Work Anymore, Dannie).  In fact, his guilt-tripping harangues have become almost a regular thing.  Of course, how could one blame a parishioner for not wanting to sit through (or kneel through) one of Dannie’s multi-hour bore-a-thons, day after day, on a regular basis?  Dannie’s hard-core brain-dead might put up with such marathon tedium, but it’s a tall order to expect anyone else to do it.  Besides, those who do come are often hit up for a donation -- as they are on Friday evenings during Lent.  (Yes, for making that extra effort to come on those Fridays for Stations, they get fleeced for their trouble!)

But Dannie has always been able to count on his Gerties to at least show up for his “social gatherings” -- especially his main summer bash, Saint John’s Evening, which, in Dannie’s words, is “the main church event here between June’s Octaves and July’s summer camps.”  Well, guess what?  It seems that this “cherished tradition” too has fallen by the wayside.  In his June 28, 2015 Bishop’s Corner, Dannie started out by waxing poetic on what a wonderful shindig it was: “It was sheer poetry, although none was declaimed in the midst of the prose and song. First we had Solemn High Mass and sermon in church, as befits Christians met to honor the birth of ‘the greatest of those born of women.’ Then we retired to the cloister for a fine summer’s supper of Brots [yeah, that’s how he spelled brats] and sauerkraut and salads, remarking the while on such a dry and mild evening in the midst of our very wet and warm weather. Then we retired to Helfta Hall for another of Fr. Cekada’s inimitable stories, full of imitations and clever topical allusions.”

After that, “a magnificent bonfire was kindled and blessed in St. John’s name,” and then some songs were sung by SGG’s school choir (who were, no doubt, required to attend), and then “Sticks and marshmallows were marshaled next for the obligatory roast, all calm and happy, the fiery marshmallows glowing in the nigh [night?] air, seconded by the lightning bugs.”  Then, after exhausting every opportunity to “applaud the ordinary” (and trying to make an evening of mediocrity sound “magical”), Dannie chided his Gerties, commenting  “Most of you were not there, perhaps because we neglected to put out the Internet “compelle intrare” (‘compel to come in,’ remember?).”

Well, shucky darns!  Most of his Gerties didn’t show up!  (Oh, sure, the usual “hard core” of brainless bootlickers were there, but most folks stayed away.)  Well, Dannie, perhaps they’re wearying of spending their Sunday afternoon sitting through a one-to-two-hour Solemn High Mass and sermon, and then spending the rest of the evening eating brats, sauerkraut, and roasted marshmallows [burp!], and then listening to one of Tony’s “stories” “full of imitations and clever topical allusions” [ y-a-w-n! ] (Tony’s “stories” must be SGG’s answer to American Idol and America’s Got Talent – except that they should call it Tony’s Got Tedium.)  We’re sure that most Gerties would prefer to be in their own homes vs. sitting in front of a bonfire on a warmish evening while being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and listening to Tony’s nasal droning.  (The only possible “plus” about one of Tony’s “stories” is that it’s probably a good cure for insomnia.)

Yes, perhaps they’re getting sick of such “second-rate offerings” -- of settling for brats and sauerkraut, while Dannie “settles” for copious quantities of beef (while “doing Lent” in Mexico). Perhaps they’re tired of paying his “excessive heating bills” while their mothers (with small children) shiver in an unheated vestibule “cry room.”  Perhaps they’re tired of paying for a “white elephant” school that produces no results (or a new organ that’s no better than the old**).  Perhaps, too, they’re getting sick of Dannie’s pretentious flattery and affected sanctimony, and recognizing them as the lip service they are.  Perhaps they’re getting tired of a man who, although he himself has a long history of disobeying his superiors (including breaking solemn oaths of allegiance), demands unquestioning obedience from them, then exacts that obedience by using the sacraments as weapons against transgressors – denying them to anyone he deems as “non-compliant.”***  And perhaps they’re (at long last) getting tired of “the show”: the pontifical extravaganzas, the garish processions, and the over-the-top decorations and displays that take small armies of cult-slaves to erect and dismantle -- and who then get “guilt-tripped” for not coming to them often enough.

The truth is, they ARE getting sick of it all -- and they’re “voting with their feet.”  The bottom line is that Dannie’s “old bag of tricks” -- the sanctimony, the flattery, the manipulative guilt-tripping, the intimidation and coercion, the “sacramental blackmail,” and (of course) the “show”: none of them are working their magic anymore -- and people are no longer intimidated by him.  The truth is, they’re catching on to Dannie’s act (and it IS just that: an act).  The truth is, Dannie is losing control -- and it’s about time.  And it’s time, too, that the pontificating parasite and his sidekick, Tinhorn Tony, fold up their tent and move on.  Dannie, it’s time to stop throwing your parties -- because nobody’s coming to them any more.

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* The truth is, it’s probably NOT a “freebie.”  First off, in addition to the “Solemn High Mass and sermon in church” that preceded the “bash” (required attendance to get into it), the collection basket was probably passed around.  Secondly, this bash – just like everything else at SGG – is funded by parishioner donations anyway.  So, just as it is the case with the proverbial “free lunch,” it really isn’t a “freebie.”

** Several people who have actually heard the new organ say that it’s no better than the old one (and perhaps inferior).  In fact, one person described it as sounding “a bit tinny & unimpressive.”  Another who heard the organ corroborated that observation: “I also heard the sound of the ‘new’ organ and I would agree with the tinny sound.”  Like Dannie with his “apostolates,” Tony wanted a new organ – and he got it.  His and Dannie’s “wants” somehow become “needs.”  But what else could one expect from men who consider their three-climate-zone rectory a “need” – yet expect their parishioners’ mothers and small tots to put up an unheated vestibule “cry room.”  If they could justify that, they can justify ANYTHING.

*** In some cases, Dannie has even banned people from the property – in writing, and by police order -- just for disagreeing with him.  Several of those who dared to question the scandalous events of 2009 were banned in that way (click here and here to a sampling of the documented cases).

The Sore That Keeps On Festering

We have often referred to Daniel Dolan as “the gift that keeps on giving,” because, just about every time he opens his mouth, he unwittingly betrays himself – and, in the process, unwittingly hastens his own self-destruction.  Well, we are here to say that, once again, Dannie has not disappointed us, as SGG’s June 21, 21015 Sunday bulletin reveals.  In his Bishop’s Corner, he did so in all the usual ways, hitting all his usual themes: syrupy sanctimony, a few not-so-subtle hints about begging for money, more “guilt-tripping” for those Gerties who didn’t come to “the show” often enough, lavish flattery for a shut-in parishioner (whose money he’s after), and even a little “Bergoglio bashing” for good measure.  And – oh yes – he asked for “prayers” for a former parishioner who is now in prison.  (This always makes him look “magnanimous” and “forgiving.”)

In his Bishop’s Corner, Dannie started off by flinging some arrows at the local HVAC vendor (a company called Apollo Heating and Air Conditioning), who were called in to repair the AC at SGG’s “convento”: “The local HVAC god Apollo eventually descended from Olympus to repair it, but had to be propitiated with large amounts of money in advance.”*  This, of course, is one of Dannie’s favorite ploys: to insinuate that someone is unfairly charging SGG for its services.  (He referred to Apollo as the “god" Apollo, just as he referred to Duke Energy, the local electrical utility, as “the ‘Duke’ – and the bills paid to them as “the Duke’s ransom.”)  And also, of course, he is (not-so-subtly) hinting to the Gerties that – because Apollo “had to be propitiated with large amounts of money in advance” – he expects the Gerties to “chip in” to pay this bill (just as he did when he asked them to chip in on the “excessive heating bills” the last two winters).**

After that bit of sarcasm and poor-mouthing, then came these tidbits of guilt-tripping: “It would be nice to see all of you who have asked something of the saint [Anthony] at least once at his Summer Novena,”  then adding, “Besides, now that we have asked St. Anthony, we seem to have lost him from view, don’t we? His first day of devotions was practically abandoned.”  Wow, Dannie, that was really “tactful” of you to chide the Gerties again (as if they haven’t done enough).  Dannie, did it ever occur to you that the Gerties are getting sick of your "guilt-tripping" – and that they are ”voting with their feet”??

Dannie next mentioned that he “set up a little secondary St. Anthony shrine in the side chapel, with votive candles you can light in the saint’s honor.”  Nice touch, Dannie!  Are you going to make them FIVE-DAY votive candles, so that you can get more for them -- and then extinguish them right away (so that they can be “recycled”), as one woman found out?***  Oh Dannie, you “fund-raiser” you!!

Dannie’s next ‘Corner piece was about one of SGG’s “shut-ins” celebrating her 96^th birthday: “Bee (sic) had a wonderful 96th birthday, surrounded by Our Lord, His priest (Fr. McGuire brought Holy Communion in the morning) and many of her church friends, and cards, prayers and greetings from us all.”  Note that it wasn't Dannie or Tony who brought her Holy Communion; errands like that are reserved for lackeys.  The Dynastic Duo themselves are too important to attend to such “grunt” details.  However, they did send their lackey, because they know that “Bee” (Bea) has money – and they hope to get the lion’s share of it when she passes away.

Next, Dannie "spiced" his ‘Corner with some “public relations” electioneering, exhorting the Gerties, “Pray as well, if you would, for a very poor soul now in prison. [Name omitted] attended several churches here in succession a few years ago, but has now been sent to prison for a very grave crime indeed. I do not have any further information, but do ask for prayers for him, his wife and family, who must all be suffering very much. God reward your charity.”  Another “nice touch,” Dannie!  Although your school principal’s treatment of the family’s school-age child resulted in them removing that child from the school  (and quitting SGG altogether), you “remembered” him, because it makes you appear, as noted earlier, as “forgiving” and “magnanimous.”  (We also recall your “magnanimous” concern for Bp. Clarence Kelly when you reported that he had a debilitating disease that rendered him incapable of speech. (Of course, you referred to him as “Father” Kelly – which betrayed your true sentiments toward him.) 

Because this particular Sunday was Father’s Day, Dannie finished his Bishop’s Corner with this hackneyed bit of syrupy sanctimony: “Whatever you do, dear Fathers on your day, have a blessed one. You have first place in our prayers today, as we remember just what a blessing a good father is!”  Luckily for Disingenuous Dan, most of the fathers (and families) who left back in 2009 were not there to witness this over-the-top affectation.  Otherwise, they might have responded with some “over-the-top” words of their own, because they realize that Dannie’s words ring about as true as those he habitually expounds on Guardian Angel Sunday, “waxing poetic” about “protecting the innocence of our children,” while simultaneously sanctioning the brutal mistreatment of SGG's school kids kids by the school principal (after which, Dannie told their irate parents that, if they didn’t like it, they could leave SGG).

But what else could one expect from someone who states that watching porn amounts to “boys will be boys,” or who doesn’t raise an eyebrow when a boy impregnates a fellow student -- yet who has another boy thrashed with a wooden paddle for missing his homework?  And what could one expect from an operation whose “priests” tell the school kids that wearing a “sports” headband or riding a roller coaster is a mortal sin?  And what could one expect from someone who exhorts his parishioners to pay his “excessive heating bills,” while he himself is vacationing in Mexico (during Lent) at their expense?  And what could one expect from someone who denies the sacraments to a long-time parishioner just because he attended a “rival chapel” (SSPX) while on vacation, yet holds a “triple-play” funeral (three priests celebrating three Masses simultaneously) for a woman who wasn’t even a “traddie”?****  And what could one expect from someone who justified the putting to death of Terri Schiavo, and who dismissed gross sexual immorality as “boys will be boys”?

SGG’s parishioners, oddly enough, are aware of most of these things – perhaps all of them.  But, up to now, Dannie’s “show” has been such a big magnet, that they are drawn to it in spite of themselves (and against their better judgment).  Down deep, they know that Dirt-bag Dan’s “Catholicism” is counterfeit, and that his words are nothing more than lip service -- that he tells his parishioners what they want to hear, then proceeds to do exactly what he wants to do.  But “the show” has kept them coming back.  However, because “the gift that keeps on giving” keeps “reaffirming” himself, perhaps it’s finally starting to sink in (and becoming irrefutably evident) that “the gift that keeps on giving” is more like the sore that keeps on festering – and that, one day, it will culminate in Dannie’s self-destruction coming to fruition.  That day cannot come any too soon.

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* Ironically, what Dannie calls the “convento” is NOT a convent, but a rectory for housing priests.  When the “convento” was built, Dannie suckered the Gerties into paying for it by telling them that it was for SGG’s nuns, who were, at the time, “temporarily” housed offsite (necessitating a lengthy commute back and forth between their quarters and SGG – an inconvenience that added a good hour or more to their already long workday).  But, as it turned out, it was used instead to house SGG’s assistant priests (and visiting seminarians), NOT nuns.  (The nuns, overworked to the nubs, eventually left SGG in disgust.)  Why Dannie still refers to it as the “convento,” we do not know.

** What Dannie could have done (to avoid that big repair bill) was to not fix the “convento’s” air-conditioning at all.  That would put it on a par with SGG’s church vestibule, where moms with small kids are expected to sweat it out during the summer, and freeze in winter. Like those moms, the “convento” priests could just “offer it up.” After all, “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

*** A former SGG parishioner stopped in at SGG one day for some holy water, and then lit a “five day” candle, only to discover -- when she stopped back the next day -- that it had been extinguished.  (see It’s the Little Things, Dannie).  It seems that this is a favorite tactic of Dannie’s: get them to pay for more, but give them less (and hope that they don’t find out).

**** The woman was not only “Novus Ordo,” but actually loathed Dannie, Tony, and the whole SGG cult regime.  So why did Dannie put on such an impressive “show” for her?  Simple: her husband was a prominent SGG cultie – and, more importantly, a big contributor to SGG’s coffers -- hence, the “big show.”  If he had not been “a source of revenue” for Dannie, she – of course – would have been denied the Mass (just as other “non-traddies” are).  So, in the end, it's not one’s religion that counts, but one’s bank account.

SGG’s School: A Bad Bargain

In his Bishop’s Corner in SGG’s May 3 Sunday bulletin, Dannie Dolan stated that this year’s SGG school enrollment was “more than any in the history of our little school” -- obviously intending to give the impression that the school was doing “better than ever” – and to refute the bad press that it has been getting.  Dannie’s comment, however, brings to mind one of Mark Twain’s more memorable quotes: “There are lies, there are damned lies -- and then there are statistics.”

Statistically, Dannie’s comment was correct.  The enrollment there is at the highest it has ever been; and since last year, it has grown by 25% or so. But what Dannie doesn’t mention is that this 25% increase is the result of one family (with six or seven kids) who recently joined up at SGG.  This information came our way by virtue of an e-mail that Pistrina Liturgica received recently from one of its readers (someone obviously intimately familiar with what’s going on at SGG).  The e-mail was reprinted by Pistrina in the comments section of one of its articles, and we have excerpted the following from it:

The swell in enrollment from last year to this year is due to the coming of one new family with 6 or 7 kids. Don't know the story behind it, and who knows what may become of them after the bloom is off the rose. I have a feeling this is another single parent situation or something, I could be wrong but I have strong doubts they pay any significant tuition.

The e-mail then went on to add:

Eight of the children belong to two families, let's call them the X family and the Y family. Now Mrs. X and Mrs. Y are sisters, and their parents are diehard Gerties of 30 years or more. Mrs X and Mrs Y are the youngest in their family, the older ones attend Immaculate Conception and send their kids there. Not that it's much better but it seems to at least be a real school. Mrs X and Mrs Y are probably the only families that pay tuition. Two of the children are kindergarten age. Interestingly, there would be one more but he was pulled OUT two years ago to go to a real (public) school with a music program as the boy is very talented. So you see one of 'our young organists' isn't really 'ours' anymore.

And then,

Another set of siblings, second-generation Gerties, accounts for four or five more of the children. This is another typical traddie low income scenario, almost guaranteed they don't pay.

It’s obvious from the foregoing that these four families account for the MAJORITY of the “student body” (18 or 19 students, out of a total of 25 or 26); and this does NOT include three of the principal’s kids (who go there tuition-free).  So, adding them in, the running total is 21 or 22 (out of the overall total 25 or 26) -- with only eight or so out of that total paying any meaningful tuition.  This is why the school is such a millstone around Dannie’s neck: with that few children paying tuition, how can he afford to pay the principal (and others in his family who are on the payroll – which, at last count, included his wife and at least one of his daughters)? 

Note also that there were at least two other teachers on the faculty as well (one was, we believe, a “volunteer,” and the other got a “nominal” salary).  But even granting that these two teachers received nothing at all, two things are certain: first, the principal and his family are getting the lion’s share of the “school money”; and second, tuition from eight or so students isn’t even going to begin to cover that “lion’s share.”  So where’s the bulk of the money coming from?  The Gerties, of course.

And what have they gotten for their money?  Not much.  In its first ten years of operation, the school graduated ONE student outside the principal’s family.  In fact, the vast majority of graduates have been the principal’s children.  (This year was no exception: the only graduate was one of the principal’s sons.)  And of those who do manage to “graduate,” NONE have achieved what one would call “academic distinction.”  The school, in fact, is woefully inadequate in preparing a student for competing academically in today’s world.  Perhaps this is why the older sibling of those two sisters (the “Mrs. X and Mrs. Y” mentioned in the e-mail) sends his children to another school (Fr. Jenkins’ Immaculate Conception School).  As the e-mail’s correspondent put it, IC “seems to at least be a real school.”

And although the school’s enrollment is now “more than any in the history of our little school,” twenty-six students (for grades K through 12) is a pathetically small amount, given the size of SGG’s congregation.  Actually, most of SGG’s parents with school-age kids home-school them – or send them elsewhere (as that sibling of those two sisters does).  They know that not only will their kids get a better education, but they also won’t be subjected to the principal’s brutality (that resulted in half the parish exiting SGG back in 2009.*) 

The school’s physical facility itself has eight classrooms – for 25 or 26 students.  So, what are most of the rooms used for?  It turns out that  most of them are filled, not with students, but with Dannie’s junk.  The facility has turned out to be a huge waste of money.  But the biggest waste of money is its running cost.  Consider, for example, that the total remuneration that the principal and his family get for running this “school” is probably close to $100,000/year (and perhaps more).  Then consider that SGG’s weekly collection averages around $4000 (actually, it’s been running closer to $3000 lately); but assuming the  $4000/wk. figure, that’s $200,000 a year — which means that potentially half of it is going to the principal and his family. 

Remember, too, that there are other salaries to be paid, whether they be for other teachers, or for people who work in the parish office.   This doesn’t leave much for Dannie and Tony to live on – including “extras” (“doing Lent” in Mexico, “convalescing” in the posh desert southwest, or doing European “apostolates”).  That is why he needs to “put the squeeze” on the Gerties to pay his “high energy bills,” etc., to make these “extras” possible.

So, unless the school tuition is astronomical (which it can’t be), the bulk of the “school” cost (i.e., the cost to support the principal and his family) has to come from parishioners’ donations.  And what are they getting for their money -- besides giving the principal’s kids a free ride?  Nothing, basically.  The school is a financial (and academic) sinkhole, and parishioners are beginning to realize this.  That’s why most parents keep their kids out of it (that, and also because they don’t want their kids to be subjected to the principal’s sadistic “discipline”).  But as bad as the school is academically, spiritually it is even worse.  Just as Dannie focuses on irrelevant ceremonial minutiae (while ignoring fundamental Catholic morality), the school does much the same: children are told that “infractions” such as wearing an “inappropriate” head-band in church are mortal sins – yet, according to Dannie, watching porn isn’t.  It’s just a case of “boys will be boys.”

The school’s raison d'être is simple: to give the illusion that SGG a “full-service” operation.  In reality, the school is just another facet of Dannie’s “show” – long on cosmetics, and short on substance.  And what has it really “accomplished”?  In its more than twenty years of operation, how many priestly vocations has it produced?  Answer: ZERO.  And how many “graduates” (other than the principal’s children) has it produced?  Answer: less than a handful.  (The principal’s family accounts for more grads than all the rest combined.)  What the school has “accomplished” so far is to drive away dozens of SGG’s youth -- especially boys (and especially those who were recipients of the principal’s “discipline”).  And for such nonsense, the parishioners have paid a premium.

And the worst part is, they have no idea what that premium is.  So far, the Gerties have just “accepted” it.  But it’s time that they “un-accept” it.  For their own wellbeing, they need to insist on accountability – or, better still, insist on eliminating the school – because, whatever its cost, it’s a bad bargain.  But what could one expect from an operation run by Dannie Dolan?  And because of that, what they really need to do is to eliminate the whole SGG regime -- and the sooner, the better. 

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* One “telling” thing is that among those “home-schoolers” are many SGG “stalwarts,” including the man whose father wrote several books that Dannie and Tony keep (and sell) in SGG’s bookstore.  This man, although he has first-hand knowledge of the abuses that occurred in 2009, pretends that “nothing bad” ever happened and that “all is well” – BUT, the fact that he doesn’t send his kid to SGG’s school “says something.”  He probably knows “down deep in his heart” that the school is a cesspool, and that the abuses that occurred there were for real -- but he “pretends along” for (perhaps) “appearance’s sake.”

It’s All About the Show

In SGG’s May 17 Bishop’s Corner, Dannie Dolan lamented the poor attendance for the High Mass on Mother’s Day: “Mother’s Day was interesting this year. I think I was a little disappointed as I was looking forward to a big attendance, mothers telling their grown up and away children that all they wanted was for them to come to Mass that day, as they used to do. But this has probably passed away with the corsage. High Mass attendance was thin.”  You see, for Dannie, “it’s all about “the show” – and Mother’s Day, with its May Crowning, its procession, and its over-the-top polyphonic High Mass, is always one of Dannie’s more spectacular “shows.”  (The procession is almost right up there with the one for Palm Sunday, except that it doesn’t sport a donkey – at least, not a four-legged one.)

For parishioners to have passed over this two-hour extravaganza for a Low Mass is, to Dannie, downright inexplicable – and almost sinful.  You see, for Dannie, “the show” is the only thing that counts.  Actually, to paraphrase the late Vince Lombardi, one might say that, for Dannie, “the show” isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.  “Dolly Dressup Dannie” doesn’t seem to realize that, in God’s eyes, a Low Mass is just as efficacious as a Pontifical High Mass -- that, for God, they are one and the same.  God does not care how many “bells and whistles” a Mass has.  (The first Mass – The Last Supper – certainly didn’t have any.)

Dannie also doesn’t seem to comprehend that there is more to Catholicism than “spectacle” – Catholic morality, for instance.  It is amazing that Dannie can place so much importance on “the show’ (such as, his “triple play” Requiem Mass for a woman who, ironically, was not only “Novus Ordo,” but who actually loathed Dannie), yet to show utterly no concern for a dying Terri Schiavo.  Speaking of “the show,” just last week Dannie was “waxing poetic” about an arcane “Praegustatio” rubric, and proudly proclaiming that SGG was “the last place in Christendom to observe this rubric, otherwise fallen into obsolescence.”  (The rubric has to do with the Mass celebrant having one of his MC’s consume a host before the rest are consecrated – “as a precaution against anyone poisoning the prelate.”) 

This is just another typical example of Dannie’s “false traditionalism”: he pays attention to superfluous rituals like that (to give the culties the impression that he’s an “expert” of rubrics and that he’s “guarding cherished Catholic traditions”), when in fact he’s resurrecting meaningless superficialities from the past that have long since lost their relevance (and which the Church has long since wisely discarded – and which, in this case, had no religious relevance to begin with).  In this way, he figures that, if he can demonstrate to the culties that he’s “preserving” rituals like “Praegustatio,” he’s taking care of everything else “Catholic.”

Actually, this will eventually backfire on Dannie, as people come to realize that, while he cares about obscure and irrelevant minutiae like this, he (and Tony) never cared one jot for things that matter -- a dying Terri Schiavo, for instance.  Keeping this arcane rubric “alive” is really “important” for Dannie; yet keeping Terri Schiavo alive wasn’t.  According to Dannie and Tony, her death was “justified”: it was okay for her to be starved and dehydrated to death -- not to have even a few drops of water for her parched, cracked, and bleeding lips.  Nor did it matter to them that she was oozing blood from sunken, dried out eye sockets.  This was “okay.”  It was “justified.”  Terri’s life -- and her final death agony -- were not “priorities” for them.

According to Dannie, it was also “okay” for the principal’s sons to watch porn and animal torture videos on the school computer (we wonder if Caravaggio played a “cameo role” in one of them) -- or for one of those sons to impregnate a fellow student.  According to Dannie, these were just cases of “boys will be boys.”  And according to Tony, the reporting of the myriad abuses witnessed by dozens of SGG’s parishioners back in 2009 was just so much malevolent fiction.  (In his words, all of what these people said amounted to “a few complaints about our little parish school [that] suddenly became a world-wide campaign of lies and calumny.”  According to Dannie and Tony, then, all of these dozens of people (all of whom, thankfully, have since left SGG), are liars and calumniators. So much for Dannie and Tony’s “morality”!

Dannie and Tony just pretend that none of those abuses ever happened, and they just go on with their “show” – often two-hour-or-more “bore-a-thons” that Gerties with crying babies are expected to sit through and “enjoy” – and God help the poor wretches whose babies are “disruptive” during the “performance”: their only option is to take the misbehaving toddlers out to the “crying room,” i.e., the vestibule, which is freezing cold during the winter and broiling hot in summer.  For this, they are expected to be “tickled pink” to endure this ordeal – er -- “show” that Dannie and/or Tony put on.

Well, perhaps the Gerties are tiring of “the show.”  Perhaps watching twelve middle-aged men getting their feet washed on Maundy Thursday is NOT “an edifying spectacle” for the children, nor is watching a donkey trudging along in a Palm Sunday procession (especially if you’re downwind of the beast).  These “spectacles” are, for those who have seen them umpteen times before -- and especially for those poor little tykes whose parents dragged them to church for the “foot washing” snore-a-thon -- an exercise in tedium.  We’re surprised that Dannie hasn’t come up with some “new material” to “update his act.”

But the truth is, people are catching on to his act -- and coming to realize that things like donkeys in Palm Sunday processions are just so much tinsel (and, for that matter, weren’t really done back in “the good old days”).*  The young, especially, see Dannie’s show as pretentious.  They’re not really impressed by his Barnumesque ostentation – especially after they’ve witnessed his “double-standard” hypocrisy (such as, having a boy beaten with a wooden paddle for missing his homework, while doing nothing about the principal’s sons' "porn escapades"). 

And the other parishioners?  Already worked to the nubs, they’re sick and tired of being “guilt-tripped” by Dannie for “not doing enough” (see “Guilt-Tripping” Won’t Work Anymore, Dannie).  They’re tired of being asked them to “sacrifice” and pay SGG’s “high heating bills” while Dannie vacations down in Mexico (or to “donate” so that Tony can buy himself a new organ).  They’re also probably getting tired of seeing the lion’s share of their donations going to support a school that is little more than a subsidized tutoring service for its “principal's” children.  And they’re getting tired of Dannie’s pretentious “show” – because they see that it’s just a façade, behind which there is no real Catholicism at all (especially, as noted before, Catholic morality).  They’re seeing it for what it is: a caricature of Catholicism – a sham. 

So, again, Dannie’s boastful braying about “praegustatio” will only backfire on him – and reinforce the growing feeling that he’s not about fundamentals, but about superficialities – about “the show.” And as attendance at “the show” (along with revenue) continues to dwindle, Dannie will have to get more and more desperate, and resort to even more draconian measures to stem the tide of the exodus, which means that he’ll try to put the squeeze on the Gerties even more -- which, in turn, will only irk them more.  That, coupled with his well-known “uneasy relationship” with the “principal,” ought to make for an “interesting” situation as time wears on.  As things get more “unsettling,” we shall see that situation “maturing”  -- and the curtain coming down on Dannie’s “show.”

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* People are also getting tired of being in his act.  The choir, for instance: all of its male members have quit (including one who is a really dyed-in-the-wool “cultie”).  It now contains only women, and is “directed” by the principal’s wife.  According to one informant, the choir lately sounds a bit off-key, and has gone “downhill” under her tutelage.  (Perhaps that’s why Dannie felt compelled to make his Mother’s Day comment in defense of it: “Oh, and the choir was absolutely at its best.”)  Perhaps, too, she is the reason why those men quit.

Playing the “Victim” (aka ”The Blame Game”)

One of the many things that Daniel Dolan (SGG’s pastor) likes to do is to portray himself as a "victim,” and the SGG cult-center as being “persecuted” at the hands of outside “evil-doers.”  It’s all part of his “show”: not just the garish pageantry that he puts on for the culties every Sunday, but everything that he says and does: the false humility, the false piety, and the syrupy sanctimony act that he puts on to impress the culties.  It’s all part of his all-encompassing strategy to pass himself off as a "living saint" to the gullible Gerties.

And an important part of that strategy is to portray himself as a victim who is being “persecuted” at the hands of outside “evil-doers.”  In his Bishop's Corner of May 2, 2015, for instance, he mentioned that the church sanctuary’s HVAC unit had been hit by lightening (and was thus supposedly malfunctioning).  He then added, “Here the story becomes impossibly complicated, all caught up with big brother regulations and smoke detectors which never worked correctly in the first place, and companies gouging churches for great quantities of wasted money, backed up by the government oversight. Much patience and a cool head is required to navigate these waters.”

Apparently, “big brother” is unjustly imposing “regulations” on SGG and “gouging” them for “great quantities of wasted money, backed up by government oversight” [whatever that means!]. Apparently, too, the “smoke detectors that never worked correctly in the first place” are the fault of “big brother” as well.  Did it ever occur to Dannie that they didn't work properly because they were not installed properly?  How, we may ask, can “big brother” and his regulations be the cause of smoke detectors not “working correctly”?! Stripped of Dannie’s confusing rhetoric and false logic, what it all means is that he is probably getting ready to soak the culties again for MONEY to meet these “unjust” expenses.  He has to portray himself as “victim” so that the culties can cough up the money for these “meanies” who are “responsible” for it all.

 The probable truth is that the HVAC problems were as much the result of shoddy workmanship as they were of that lightening strike.  (Proper “surge protection” installed up front, for instance, would have prevented such a problem.)  And it’s also probable that the “expenses” incurred are not so steep as Dannie implies: faulty smoke detectors, for instance, are not all that expensive to fix (or replace); and if the HVAC unit was damaged by lightning, that should be covered by insurance.  What Dannie is really “up to” is squeezing more money out of the culties so that he can have more for himself.  Whenever Dannie and Tony can’t meet normal operating expenses (because they “need” the money for trips to Mexico or for new “toys”), they just invent some “crisis” that they blame on some “villain” (such as “big brother”), and then tap the culties for the “bailout” money.

This is what Dannie did, for instance, when he asked the culties to pay his “excessive heating bills” – for two years in a row. Here again, he played his “victim card," referring to SGG’s energy bills as the “king’s ransom the Duke [Duke Energy, the local utility] will be sending round to collect” (Bishop’s Corner, March 8, 2015), and ”You are helping us pay the king’s ransom which the Duke demands for another of our ‘global warming’’ Winters” (Bishop’s Corner, April 6, 2014).  Apparently, it never occurred to Dannie that Duke Energy is a business that actually expects to be paid for providing heating and cooling.  According to him, charging money for energy amounts to persecution.  Of course, the real reason for Dannie “playing the victim” here was that those heating bills were “getting in the way” of his “copious quantities of meat” Lenten boondoggle to Mexico.  So, Dannie instead suckered the culties into paying the heating bills -- and they obliged.

Of course, “playing the victim” has always been an SGG staple.  Dannie’s recent lament about “big brother” and his “regulations” are nothing new.  Back when SGG’s present facility was being built, Tony used that same scam over and over again – especially when there were cost overruns.  It was always the fault of local government “red tape,” “oppressive building codes,” or some other “injustice” with which “the local authorities” were unnecessarily “singling out" SGG for persecution.  (Many SGG parishioners, both former and those still there, recall how Tony continually whined, blaming the “authorities” for everything that went wrong.)  The real truth was that the problems were the result of poor workmanship and/or inferior materials being used, resulting in a shoddy end product.  (SGG’s forever-leaking roof is one conspicuous case in point.)

Now it is just possible that Dannie really does need the “extra” money -- for SGG’s school, i.e., the money needed for the principal and his family to operate the school.  The principal’s salary (and that of his family members who are on the payroll) represents a huge financial millstone around Dannie’s neck, and he wants desperately to be relieved of that burden – but he can’t (see Pistrina article).  And the sad thing (especially for the culties) is that it’s such an unnecessary burden, because the school has a total of twenty-five students in all, K through 12.*   We wonder how the parishioners would feel if they knew that the lion’s share of their weekly donations was going to provide twenty-five kids a substandard education.

But, as Pistrina’s article pointed out, Dannie cannot get rid of the school – or, rather, it’s principal (and vice versa).  Thus, the stalemate must continue -- and the culties must continue to foot the bill.  And the only way that Dannie can meet expenses is to invent ways to get extra revenue – and one of those ways is – as we’ve noted -- using the “blame game” to get the culties to “pay extra” for what are ordinarily routine expenses.  But “playing the blame game” will only work for a while.  Eventually, SGG’s parishioners will see it for what it is: Dannie and Tony “crying wolf” every time they want money – and placing the blame everywhere but where it should be: on themselves.  And those parishioners will also come to realize -- if they have any sense at all -- that Dannie and Tony are not victims but victimizers, and that it is they, the parishioners -- and not Dannie and Tony -- who are the victims.

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*If one counts the number of students in the class picture in SGG’s April 26, 2015 bulletin, he will find twenty-five of them.  As Pistrina’s recent article noted, such an extravagance was “affordable” back in “the old days” when Bernie Brueggemann was subsidizing it; but now it is a real millstone around Dannie’s neck (and the parishioners’ necks).  If the school were “exceptional,” the expense might be justified – but it’s not.  The school is, at best, sub-standard – both from an academic standpoint and from a religious standpoint.  (Oh, yes, as far as “religion” goes, the kids are getting a “good show” – donkeys in Palm Sunday processions and plenty of “pontifical pageantry”; but if Tony’s views on Schiavo – or Dannie’s views on boys watching porn on the school computer (“boys will be boys”) -- are examples of “Catholicism,” then they’re getting no Catholicism at all.)