Tuesday, July 5, 2011

SPECIAL POST: BOUND IN WITH SHAME


Woe to you that call evil good...that put darkness for light. Isaias

Ed. Note: This week Pistrina posts for a second time owing to late-breaking news about alarming events in France. It’s sometimes difficult, we know, for some readers outside the U.S. to comprehend the near universal contempt for “One-Hand” Dan, Anthony the Blunderer, and the rector. After reading this grotesque post, we’re certain that no one will fail to see that only a monster of self-interest could have acted as “One-Hand” has. Remember that the Terrible Triad always works in concert and thus all three share the ignominy that has attached to the lowest point in the traditional Catholic movement.

On Sunday, July 3, 2011, Fr. Bernard Hall bid farewell to the gentle people of the charming little chapel of the holy Curé of Ars in Chambéry, France. Father’s sojourn in the capital of Savoie département was brief – four Sundays in all. He didn’t seek to leave. He had traveled to France for the honor of God and for the spiritual welfare of traditional Catholics who were without a priest. The kind souls of the chapel didn’t want to see him leave either, not even the dutiful men who were compelled to ask him to return to his native land. In the mere fortnight during which Father had served the chapel by saying Mass, hearing penitents' confessions, and coming to know his flock, everyone felt he had become their priest.

The faithful, however, had no choice other than to submit to the outrageous demand from abroad for Father's departure. Throughout two weeks of frenzied maneuvering, Daniel Lytle Dolan made it clear that the little chapel would never have another priest if Fr. Hall were to continue ministering to them. The desperate faithful were aware that Father was applying for a new visa for re-entry into the United States and a return to St. Albert the Great. Fearful of the dire prospects of never receiving the sacraments again, of being branded a sect, of splitting apart in the kind of internecine warfare that has characterized Dolan’s chapels, they sadly bowed to the oppressive and unjust threat.

All they had wanted was a resident priest for the cure of their souls. The problems in West Chester, Ohio, were thousands of miles away. These Catholics didn’t know of the SGG School scandal. The raging blogs and websites were alien to their simple hope for a valid, good priest to minister to their spiritual needs.

Who would have thought that a bishop would be so selfish, so destructive as to export American disunity to Europe? Why would an American bishop, who so often preaches harmony and love from his pulpit, drive a distant chapel to the verge of collapse, setting friend against friend, brother against brother? Why would any Catholic bishop, even one who harbored a personal animus against a priest known for his sterling moral qualities, work so relentlessly to bar Catholics from regular access to the sacraments? Why couldn’t Daniel Lytle Dolan leave the people of Chambéry in peace? Moreover, why did Daniel Lytle Dolan resort to naked coercion against decent French Catholics who were not in the least interested in far-off American feuds?

The answer is simple. Daniel Dolan was afraid that the French, including his client priests, would learn the whole truth about him. He tried everything possible to undermine Fr. Hall’s apostolate in Savoie. When those shameful efforts failed, he acted according to his character and sank to compulsion. Indeed, he achieved his end: Fr. Hall will no longer make the sacraments available in France. However, Daniel Dolan also brought about what he tried so brutally to prevent: Now the cruelly abused French people see this bishop for who he really is. Daniel Dolan has, ironically, defeated himself.

Yet helpless Chambéry has lost its beloved priest.

1 comment:

  1. This is the problem with splinter sects from the Catholic Church. They are only self serving to their own ends. The only thing the flock is goof for is financial support. Join the Fraternity of St. Peter or Christ the King Sovern Priests.

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