PRESENT HELP IN TIME OF TROUBLE

Come on, baby, and rescue me. Aretha Franklin

Drifting in like a malodorous cloud of atomized effluvia on a current of thickly oppressive, swampland hot air, the MHT Newsletter made its unwelcome July appearance last week. It’s one of the most shoddily written and spiritless missives ever to issue from the rector’s doubtlessly expensive word processor. It appears as though no one bothered to give the piece a moment’s thought (or a quick proofreading). The Readers were mildly amused by the gauchely impolite “Both I and Fr. Selway,” and we howled with laughter at the phrase “Fr. Adam Cyr, desirous of living a more hermetic life.” Unless that priest really wanted to be sealed in an airtight compartment to escape the laity, the correct word is hermitic, or eremitic. (This is the kind of howling blunder that Anthony Cekada makes; that’s why no literate reader can tolerate Work of Human Hands. Ah, well! As they say, birds of a feather….)

In addition to all the thigh-slapping linguistic gaffes, the July screed suggests why the rector hasn’t delivered us of his promised, big $30K proposal. Just look at this quote: “we are very hopeful and confident that our relationship to [Our Lady of the Sun Chapel, Arizona] will become permanent.” The chapel, irrevocably split by an internecine court struggle between the former pastor and the board, still has an enviably healthy bank account as well as some prime acreage, in spite of the legal fees.

Yes, of course, we have heard over and over again from those close to the chapel that the lay board now running the place won’t turn over the funds or the deed to the considerable property holdings to the rector. However, very few traditionalist laymen are up to resisting the cash-starved, hell-fire-invoking rector: he is relentlessly single-minded in his pursuit of money for his pet projects.

Once the rector and his pesthouse pals get their foot firmly in the door of that poor, little, rich chapel, we fear the game will be over. The rector is firmly opposed to lay governance and will immediately begin to undermine the board’s authority. Therefore, we ask you to come to the assistance of Our Lady of the Sun. Contact Peter Reiss of the lay board and beg him NOT to make the chapel’s relationship with MHT and its priests permanent. Remind him that in May the rector pledged to bring forth a plan to get his hands on an additional $30,000 a year and then, all of a sudden, there was silence. He knew that “One-Hand Dan’s” cult members would never give him that kind of money. (Neither would "One Hand," for that matter.) Warn Mr. Reiss and the whole board that the rector may have targeted Our Lady of the Sun chapel to make up for the shortfall caused by the flight of former benefactors. Here’s the contact info we have:

P.O. Box 981

Scottsdale AZ 8525

rockyreiss@gmail.com

ACT NOW TO RESCUE OUR LADY OF THE SUN & MAKE SURE THE PESTHOUSE CLOSES!

BACK-TO-SCHOOL ADVICE

Sons are anchors of a mother's life. Sophocles.

Ed. Note: We offer some advice to mothers whose sons are coming to the United States to study for the priesthood. A French translation follows. We ask our friends in France to make sure these mothers receive these helpful suggestions to make sure their sons do not suffer any of the indignities that Pistrina has reported.

Note de la rédaction: Nous proposons quelques conseils pour les mères dont les fils sont à venir aux États-Unis pour étudier à la prêtrise. Une traduction française suit. Nous demandons à nos amis en France pour faire en sorte que ces mères reçoivent ces suggestions utiles pour s'assurer que leurs fils ne souffrent aucune des indignités qui Pistrina a rapporté.

Dear mother of a new seminarian,

In September when the seminary begins the 2011-12 academic year, your son’s vocation and faith may be in grave danger. Since he will have no advocate on the faculty and will not be able to rely on his friends, you must prepare now to help him. Most young men who have only known love and goodness are overwhelmed by the culture and spirit of the place. In order to protect your son and the investment of several thousand euros you have made in sending him to the United States, we offer the following six suggestions, which we collected from former seminarians who left under very difficult conditions:

1. Before the new term commences, contact seminary officials by e-mail to put them on notice that you are holding them accountable for the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and physical welfare of your son. Let them know in no uncertain terms that you will not tolerate verbal abuse, harassment, or overly punitive disciplinary interventions.

2. In the same e-mail, remind authorities that you have sent your son to America to become a priest, not a janitor or a waiter. Make it clear that you expect your child will have ample time for his studies, prayer and meditation, and recreation. Insist that authorities inform you how many hours of each day will be devoted to mopping, dishwashing, sweeping, table-setting, table-waiting, yard work, and other menial duties. Then tell your son to keep a thorough record of hours spent per day in household chores.

3. While your son is at the seminary, tell him to keep a detailed diary of everything that happens. Instruct him to note the time, place, and the name of the official who administers punishment and scolding. Demand that he write a summary of any incident that results in disciplinary activity. If possible, provide him with a small digital tape recorder or be sure he knows how to activate quickly the recording feature on his cell phone.

4. Warn your son never to confide to an advisor anything that he doesn’t want the authorities to discover. Tell him never to give his confessor permission to share anything mentioned in the confessional with another person. Gently advise him not to speak too freely among the other seminarians, even to a friend.

5. Call him once a week and directly inquire how he is being treated, whether there are problems of any sort and how much academic progress he believes he is making. If he takes a laptop with him, be sure to download Skype so that you may see your child’s face: One glance from a loving mother usually reveals more than a hour’s conversation.

6. Remind him to stand up for his rights at the first sign of anything that even appears to be bullying, and insist that he call you immediately. Also, for the sake of safety, tell him to enter the local police department telephone number into his mobile phone’s speed dial.

_____________________________________

Chère mère d'un séminariste nouveau,

En Septembre quand le séminaire débute l'année 2011-12 scolaire, la vocation de votre fils et sa foi peuvent être en grave danger. Depuis, il aura pas d'avocat à la faculté et ne sera pas en mesure de compter sur ses amis, vous devez préparer dès maintenant pour l'aider. La plupart des jeunes hommes qui n'ont connu que l'amour et la bonté sont submergés par la culture et l'esprit du lieu. Afin de protéger votre fils et l'investissement de plusieurs milliers d'euros que vous avez fait en lui envoyant vers les États-Unis, nous offrons les six propositions suivantes, lesquelles nous avons recueilli des anciens séminaristes qui ont quitté dans des conditions très difficiles:

1. Avant que le nouveau trimestre commence, communiquer avec les responsables du séminaire par e-mail pour les mettre sur un avis que vous les tenez pour responsables du bien-être spirituel, intellectuel, moral et physique de votre fils. Faites-leur savoir dans des termes sans équivoque que vous ne tolèrez pas la violence verbale, harcèlement, ou trop punitives interventions disciplinaires.

2. Dans la même adresse e-mail, rappeler aux autorités que vous avez envoyé votre fils en Amérique pour devenir prêtre, pas un concierge ou un serveur. Faites bien comprendre qu'il faut que votre fils aie amplement de temps pour ses études, pour la prière et la méditation, et les loisirs. Exigez qu'ils vous informent combien d'heures de chaque journée sera consacrée à la vadrouille, laver la vaisselle, balayer, service, travaux de jardinage, et autres tâches subalternes. Alors dites à votre fils pour garder une trace complète d'heures passées par jour aux tâches ménagères.

3. Alors que votre fils est au séminaire, dites-lui de tenir un journal détaillé de tout ce qui arrive. Demandez lui de noter l'heure, le lieu et le nom du fonctionnaire qui administre la punition. Demandez qu'il rédige un résumé de tout incident qui entraîne l'activité disciplinaire. Si possible, lui fournir un magnétophone digital ou être sûr qu'il sait comment activer rapidement la fonction d'enregistrement sur son téléphone cellulaire.

4. Prévenez votre fils de ne jamais confier à un conseiller qui rien qu'il ne veut pas les autorités à découvrir. Dites-lui de ne jamais donner son autorisation à son confesseur afin de divulguer quelque chose mentionné dans le confessionnal à une autre personne. Doucement lui conseiller de ne pas parler trop librement parmi les autres séminaristes, même à un ami.

5. Appelez-le une fois par semaine et directement demander comment il est traité, s'il y a des problèmes de toute sorte, et s'il a fait progrès scolaire. S'il prend un ordinateur portable avec lui, être sûr de télécharger Skype afin que vous puissiez voir le visage de votre enfant: Un coup d'oeil d'une mère aimante révèle généralement plus de la conversation d’une heure.

6. Rappelez-lui de se tenir debout pour ses droits au premier signe de tout ce qui semble même être l'intimidation, et insister pour qu'il vous appelez immédiatement. Aussi, pour des raisons de sécurité, dites-lui d'entrer le numéro téléphonique de la police locale dans son téléphone mobile.

DISPATCHES FROM THE PROPOSAL PATROL

By evil report and good report. 2 Corinthians

It looks as if the rector's been out recruiting more vermin for the pesthouse: it's now the middle of July, and there's no sign of this month's newsletter and the long-promised proposal to capture $30K a year now that the donations have dried up. The hard work of trapping new seminarians as well as rounding up the returning critters must be distracting him from his most important panhandling enterprise to date. No doubt, it's hard work trying to keep them all from scurrying away with the looming threat of pinched resources. If things get too bad, there might be talk of tuition hikes, and then we'll see the proverbial exodus from the sinking ship.

Our alert band of vacationers reports seeing bulletin notices urging--rather unenthusiastically we might add--support of "our" seminary. The normal surrender of the periodic second collection seems to be still active, but at one of the cult sites, a local was overheard boasting she didn't contribute a thing because it would be wasted in Florida. (When she noticed the attentive strangers behind her -- our eyes and ears this summer in Cultilandia -- her ears reddened, and she nervously turned away; after Mass, the visibly terrified woman rushed off with her head held low and her arms plastered stiff against her sides.)

The curious thing, our watchful travelers report, is the mixture of supine fear and bold-as-brass contempt the laity feel for their clerical chain-gang bosses. Whereas in summers past, visitors were welcomed with a smile or a nod, in this season of the cultmasters' discontent, strangers' faces were searched for a sign of opposition to "One-Hand" and the rector. (Do they read Pistrina?) Yet, when the people felt themselves unobserved or at least safe from their minder's penetrating and twitching stares, they were shockingly frank in expressing their displeasure at the men who jealously control their spiritual lives.

On two occasions, our trekkers into the dark heart of Traddieland spoke frankly with some well-heeled couples, who had the independent air (as well as good teeth and posture) that professional social status and good genes give. These folks had no doubts about the cult leaders' motives and admitted they had long go determined to keep their acquisitive clerics poor. But for them, convenience outweighed principle. Furthermore, they knew their awkward, dull-eyed, beaver-toothed priest was ill prepared. Then, in a move that surprised our reporters, they wished everybody in the opposition movement the best of luck! How refreshingly different from the snarls and high-pitched yelps of the usual mouth-breathers who loiter around the cult's satellites.

September is around the corner. If we hear nothing this month, surely the rector will have to unveil his proposal in August or run the risk of financial disaster. We're certain the three new French attendees will not take kindly to any Spartan arrangements. Hasten the moment of reckoning and

KEEP YOUR WALLET SHUT!

UNDER THE BLUDGEONINGS OF CHANCE

There are no second acts in American lives. Fitzgerald

A decent man has no tolerance for injustice. We formed the first picture of the rector’s high threshold for clerical bad behavior when he actively supported “One-Hand” Dan, Blundering Tony, and Murky “The Principal” during the SGG School scandal in 2009. This frightening image grew sharper as Pistrina reported how he condoned the unfair treatment of his few intelligent seminarians at the hands of Scut the Prefect, the Clone, and the Toady. Now, in the wake of “One-Hand’s” coercing the people of Chambéry, France, to send their gentle, justice-loving priest away, the rector has declined to redeem himself in publicly condemning “One-Hand” for his heavy-handed treatment of traditional Catholics overseas.

Here the rector missed a rare opportunity to confound his critics, including the Reader. More than that, he could have taught the slow-witted young men interned at the pesthouse an object lesson in moral courage. These backward boys know that Danny’s cult supplies MHT with a lot of money; they are keenly aware that one whispered command from a pettish “One-Hand” (or “Dollar” in seminarians’ argot) will turn off the cash flow. Therefore, what a magnificent occasion it would have been to show dim but impressionable minds that virtue must prevail over personal interest. That’s what Fr. Hall did when he spoke truth to power and appealed to “One-Hand’s” conscience and sense of duty, for which act of moral courage he was subsequently dismissed (by a cowardly email) from his teaching post.

Characteristically, the rector didn’t seize this second chance to embrace justice; he refused to show a doubting Catholic world that he possessed a true ethical compass. Instead, the pesthouse hatchlings learned that nothing is sacred in the pursuit of a mean-spirited personal agenda. In fact, they may have witnessed a master class in the art of ruthlessly sharp dealing with innocents: There are some persistent reports about the rector’s intimating that he himself might send a priest who could pass Danny’s muster.*

Deeds reflect the inner man. From the opaque looking glass of the rector’s works peer the dusky likenesses of the host of traditional Catholics who have deserted their chapels, left the faith, and lost their vocation all for want of justice from Diminutive Danny. Added to that multitude last week were the faithful of Chambéry. The tiny chapel of the Curé of Ars, torn apart by clerical vindictiveness, today numbers itself among the casualties that are the fruit of “One-Hand” Dan’s baleful oversight.

Perhaps if the rector had taken the second chance he was offered, he might not have been able to forestall this catastrophe: Almighty “Dollar” rules in the U.S., and most American clergy are meekly groveling subjects. Nevertheless, a courageous protest might have made it easier for the rector to look himself in the mirror (if, indeed, there are any mirrors permitted in the swampland compound).

CLOSE THE PESTHOUSE.

* We’re waiting to confirm the story, but for now, the Reader thinks such an offer, if it had been made,would have been nothing but hot air -- “barroom bloviation” as it were. After all, whom could the rector send? A pathetic socially awkward recent Scandinavian convert? Scut, a silly, shrieking martinet who avoids the laity like the plague? The Toady, a third-rater who couldn’t perform a burial service? Linguistically and liturgically challenged Father “What Me Consecrate”? Sorry, but those terminally handicapped American-trained clerics aren’t the kind of missionary material suitable to regain the hearts and minds of wounded but still proud and free Frenchmen!

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.

LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. Adam Smith

Ed. Note: The first report from our vacationers who are in search of traces of the rector's quest for $30K. Happy Independence Day.

Dear Reader,

As you asked, we stopped by Our Lady Queen of Martyrs [the rector’s chapel] in Fraser, MI, on our way to our cabin on the UP [Upper Peninsula]. There we found the attached [see illustration above] envelope to reduce the church debt.

After Mass, we casually asked some of parishioners about the debt program and how much debt they had to pay off. The nice, unsuspecting people we spoke to were sure the church debt had been completely paid off some years earlier by a very hard working and popular priest, whom the rector inexplicably removed. The envelopes had just appeared recently. When we asked a few more discreet questions, the people became uneasy and hurried off, as though they were afraid of something. Another family that visits frequently explained the locals' fear of banishment.

The chapel is lovely inside, but the priest is very strange, to say the least. After the Gospel, as he left the altar to preach the sermon, he grinned like a Barbary ape. It was unnerving to watch. His English was so bad we couldn’t understand a word, so we weren’t able to tell whether he was asking for money or not. Throughout the audible portion of the Mass, he read the Latin haltingly and often had to begin phrases over again. We're SSPXers so we’ve never quite seen anything like this before. Those poor people!

The Reader Replies: Well, you finally saw, live and in person, the very worst of the MHT completers, viz. Father “What Me Consecrate?” He’s a hopeless case, and best forgotten.

The envelope is a real find. Our sources among traditional priests assure us that the OLQM debt was paid off years ago. We ourselves remember once overhearing the former pastor proudly tell some lay people how his chapel was free and clear of all debt, with a nice little savings account to boot.

This envelope may certainly suggest that something could be afoot. It’s still very hard to understand why the rector has not yet announced his $30K proposal, unless he's found another way to get the money. Our sources abroad report that the rector managed to recruit three Frenchmen for 2011-2012 year, so he definitely plans to continue running the pesthouse. Since the exposure of his French completer’s antics in Europe, the rector will surely want to impress these young men, who are very aware of the difficult conditions in the swampland. If the money is short, we don’t see how he’ll be able to keep a worried and hysterical Scut the Prefect from bullying the new seminarians and driving them away.

There’s got to be a story behind this envelope. We’ll let everyone know if we turn anything up before the July MHT newsletter blows in.