THE FRENCH CONNECTION

For in a madhouse there exists no law. John Clare

The plague flag flutters fitfully not only above laughing-academy American chapels but also over transatlantic missionary bedlams, thanks to the aggressive malformation at Most Holy Trinity [MHT] Clerical Vocational Program. In this post, the Reader will this time show you something more than canonically irregular ignorance and malign stupidity. You’ll read an account of behavior so neurotically bizarre, so pathologically disordered, so chronically erratic, so morally unworthy that it renders our subject unfit to continue serving as a Catholic priest. We will narrate the account straightforwardly in the hope you may perceive the unfiltered horror of a lost clerical personality in deep distress.

It was during early Spring 2009 that Anthony Cekada announced to several hopeful traditionalists in England the possibility of establishing an “English Sede Mission.” During May, on the recommendation of Cekada, a number of these expectant traditionalists had made contact with a certain French priest who had completed MHT. By July, our Frenchman affirmed he would be able to return regularly after the September ordination of a seminarian studying in Italy. Therefore, starting in October, he began serving the newly established mission every second Sunday. By the next month, some rather alarming behavior had become manifest.

WEIRD EPISODE I. According to prior arrangements, the Frenchman would normally contact the mission upon arrival in England so the people could prepare everything for Mass. Late on a November 2009 afternoon, after the mission coordinators had heard nothing from the priest at the expected hour, they texted him without response. They next attempted to phone him, also to no avail. Despairing, one of the coordinators decided to secure the keys to the priest’s guest-house room before the cut-off time when all would be too late. When he arrived at the guest-house, however, the landlady informed the man that the priest had arrived almost two hours earlier. The gentleman was kindly shown to the room and thus knocked at the door for nearly two minutes. Finally, the exceedingly drowsy and bleary-eyed Levite appeared. Upon questioning the sleepy priest, the Frenchman insisted he had arrived at the guesthouse just five minutes beforehand!

WEIRD EPISODE II. During this visit to England, the MHT-trained Frenchman decided to contact a Belgian “parishioner’s” friend, who opportunely lived in a city not far from the mission. This friend and her daughter, it turned out, were in fact practicing Novus Ordites. During the priest’s visit to this family, he said Mass in their home and distributed Holy Communion to the Modernist pair.

WEIRD EPISODE III. When the scandal broke out at St. Gertrude the Great Church in Ohio, the Frenchman “demanded” that a Yorkshire family not talk anymore with the Rev. Mr. Bernard Hall (a friend of the family and a fellow Yorkshireman), who had protested the shameful abuses at St. Gertrude School.

WEIRD EPISODE(S) IV. In March 2010, in order to save on costly lodging fees, an English family had purchased a sofa-bed, which they offered for use to the visiting Frenchman. At first he reluctantly accepted, but soon after it appeared that he had begun to regard the sofa as his bed and their home his private hotel, apparently considering such as part of a ‘deal’ in respect of his visits there. In May 2010, after his travel arrangements were fouled up, he arrived at the home in an ugly mood and, near the conclusion of his visit, threw what can only be described as a mini-tantrum. Strangely, for his next scheduled visit in June, he had inexplicably altered his usual departure time, leaving a day early (ostensibly to save money on vehicle rental), but by October, he had bizarrely announced he would resume his former departure schedule. When pressed about his reasons by the confused family, the priest became irate, unexpectedly arose from the dining table without answering the question, and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him, all of which was performed in front of the now scandalized parents and children alike. To his very evident chagrin, the Frenchman found he had to return, rather sheepishly, a few minutes later to acquire his forgotten travel-expense money.

WEIRD EPISODE V. For this same October 2010 visit, the French priest had invited a young man to assist at the evening Sunday Mass, albeit failing to take into account certain inconveniences that were presented to the hosts thereby. However, the generous English family cordially received the cheerful visitor to their home. Later they learned that their guest was traveling back home quite late the following Monday afternoon, even though he wasn’t staying for the Mass of that morning. The family asked the priest why the devout young Catholic had made such odd travel plans. In the Frenchman’s words, the young man was unable to plan things well because that was how he was “in the mind.” It was with dismay that the family later learned the young man had made the inopportune travel booking on the advice of the priest!

WEIRD EPISODE VI. After the aberrant behavior of October 2010, the mission heard nothing more from the French priest about his already booked and confirmed November visit, scheduled for five weeks later. A month passed by, and, by happenstance, a third party informed the sponsoring family that the priest was now unsure about visiting them because the family had a new dog. The priest had never mentioned that ‘a new dog’ would present any sort of problem. Then to the family’s shock, they learned from their mutual associate that, behind the family’s back, the priest had been attempting to arrange to say Mass that November weekend for other traditionalists in another part of the country. The family e-mailed the Frenchman to determine whether he intended to honor his commitment, whilst candidly sharing their defensible frustration and disappointment over the priest’s anomalous behavior. After a flurry of flimsy excuses and awkward attempts at misdirection, the priest finally assailed the family for breaking the aforementioned ‘deal’ by acquiring a dog! He concluded his criticism by writing, “I am sincerely surprised at your frustration…I have to find a way to overcome that you will have a new pet in the house.” Needless to say, our Frenchman never did say Mass for the family that November, and indeed, hasn’t arranged to serve them since.

Deplorably, this is not the end of this depressing story, but discretion restricts what we can further report, only to say that one of the families involved has learned that they have now been tarred by our French priest with the calumny of ‘mental illness’ so often favored and employed by the Triumvirate and their MHT completers.

You don’t need to be a Sigmund Freud or a Richard von Krafft-Ebing to recognize that something is very wrong here. To be sure, the problem goes deeper than the man himself, for he shares the same characteristics with other MHT completers, affiliated clergy, and its management. Lying, failure to keep promises, irrational outbursts, sudden reversals of practice, extreme defensiveness, abuse of discretion, charges of mental illness and the like are all behaviors sadly too familiar to Catholics who have had any dealings with the Dolan-Cekada-Sanborn cabal.

As an institution, MHT Clerical Vocational Program has for years been in a steep social and intellectual decline. In the opinion of many priests and laymen, the place has hit rock bottom. It is becoming clear now that it should be closed, but as long as Catholics keep sending the rector money, he can keep it running and continue to produce misfits like this man. Only good Catholics can put an end to this mockery of priestly formation. Please ignore Sanborn’s appeals for more and more cash. If your chapel sends money to MHT, speak to your priest and demand that he stop immediately. Should he refuse, withhold your contributions to the chapel. Instead of a check, put a protest note in the collection basket, and encourage your fellow Catholics to follow suit. If you know people who contribute privately to MHT, advise them in Christian candor to cease for the good of their soul and the survival of the traditional movement.