Moreover, administrators must make certain that children view any educator-initiated interruptions from a proper perspective: they're often refreshing, at times useful, and can support indirectly children's mastery of their subjects. However, at no time are they ever to be allowed to surpass in value teaching and learning the curriculum. School officials, when scheduling extra-classroom activities or events during the school day, must plan them such that their duration is short and that they do not weaken children's emotional commitment to academics. Otherwise, it's educational malpractice.
Those who follow this blog with any regularity know our low opinion of the SW Ohio cult center's "school," the so-called principal (LOL) of which stood at the center of the 2009 scandal that rocked SGG to its creaky, rotting foundation. Most of the Gerties, even the beady-eyed fanatics, at least know enough not to send their kids there (enrollment seems to be confined nowadays to a couple families). Well before the online exposé began in earnest in 2008, troubling stories and parents' uncanny sixth sense for the welfare of their offspring warned most people to steer clear of the creepy and kooky despite the hype from the "Bishop's (?) Corner." Good parents -- even the cult-addled ones -- recoiled at the thought of leaving their children to the harsh mercies of the Addams Family of lower Tradistan.
Although much of the shocking behavior that precipitated the catastrophic November 2009 SGG School Scandal appears to be under control (for the time being, at least), for one reason alone all Gerties should demand a thorough housecleaning before giving any more money for the support and maintenance of the "school": precious learning time, time that may never be recovered, is being wasted on the school choir.
Web watchers are aware that the "school" boasts of a daily sung Mass. (How unlike the 1950s when priests and nuns understood the importance of educating young Catholic minds and therefore offered Low Mass). To make sure the cult's poorly attended daily Big Show goes on, starting in the first grade, SGG children -- it seems to be only the girls -- must learn to chant. Now the choir isn't an after-school, extra-curricular activity optional for the kids who're interested. Reliable reports say it's required (no doubt because choral groups seem to be dear to Dannie's heart: maybe he imagines he's being serenaded -- the "Donkey Serenade," we'd venture).
Based on observations and first-hand intelligence, rehearsals and performances must consume about 90 minutes each day! So if, say, an instructional day is about six hours long, that's 25% of the time spent on just one activity, which isn't even a core academic subject!! (That estimate is all the more terrifying in view of research findings indicating that, on the average, students spend just 42% of the school day actively engaged in learning.) On some days, the loss of instructional time is more scandalous because all funerals appear to be scheduled to take place during the school's daily High Mass. Since staff members must also sing, the boys serve, and the disgraced principal act as the officious usher, a large portion of a "Requiem school day" goes to support a single, non-essential activity.
This waste of invaluable instructional time is all the more reprehensible when you read self-serving remarks like the following, which were made in a 2008 Restoration Radio interview with Dannie and Checkie:
... we’ve gotten students here who have come from a homeschooling background and they are really behind. I mean, there are some real exceptions, of people who do really well. But, my impression is that a lot of the mothers just aren’t up to it time or education-wise.*What a load of self-serving bull feathers! Well, it's more than our impression that SGG School personnel aren't "up to it time or education-wise" either. The cult masters were obviously trying to shame the poor moms who don't feel secure in sending their children to that educational black hole. (Bear in mind that the exposure of SGG School's administrative troubles began in 2008, so there might have been another agenda at work in the interview.)
For our part, we'd like to see how these cult-bred kids perform on the state's proficiency tests against the public schools and homeschooled youth. The result might be eye-opening for everyone. If only the cult masters had the sense and conscience to weep over the time lost forever, never to be restored, rather than harass what they call "highly protective...and sometimes critical" parents whose hearts tell them not play the cult's game. Say what you will about these well-intentioned moms, but at least they don't fritter away a huge chunk of valuable learning time on choir.
In the real world, which Sedelandia despises, no real school -- public or private -- could long survive if most of the students squandered a quarter of each instructional day on choir activities. Right-thinking parents along with the authorities would have stepped in long ago to save the poor children's future. You Gerties who support this farcical "school" with your contributions must step up to the plate and go to bat for the innocent. First you must withhold all moneys. Only then will Dannie know you're serious. Once he's desperate enough to hear you out, you must tell him to close that disgraceful place down for good and get rid of the whole crew.
Members at other sede cults operating a "school" also need to take a good, long, hard look to determine whether their kids are being miseducated. They should ask their children every day about what they're doing in school. They should then write everything down. If parents notice inordinate amounts of time being wasted on activities not related to the curriculum, then their kids are at risk, too. Like the Gerties, parents stuck in other cult centers have a duty to intervene decisively. The best way -- no, the only way -- is to
If they are using the kids as their main choir and servers, what else are they using these students to do around this school? Janitors? Maids? Teaching staff? Cooks? This place makes me sick! How many of these students end up having a religious vocations? How many end up staying at this church or do they go to ICC? Or do they lose their faith all together?
ReplyDeleteThe lucky ones go to ICC. And you ask a very good question: In what other ways are these kids being taken away from learning?
DeleteEvery parent who belongs to a sede chapel with a school attached -- not just the Gerties -- needs to ask the question you have posed -- if they have the guts.
That’s just like Dannie and Tony: to REQUIRE the school kids to perform in “the show.”! It’s not enough that they vacuum up the GROWNUPS’ time for the choir; now they have to recruit the youngsters. BTW, the one commenter’s question about whether they did any other non-curriculum “choirs” is very cogent: yes, they’ve been used to do everything from janitorial work to yard work at times. Actually, it shouldn’t be called “SGG School,” but “SGG rent-a-kid”!!
DeleteTo Anon, Nov 28, 10:24 PM
DeleteAs you guessed, the cult must use the students for a lot more than just choir. In today's "Bishop's (?) Corner," in what could be viewed as a direct reply to this post, "One Hand" writes that, in addition to gratitude for their work in the choir, "I am grateful that our children... are helping us here."
We bet he is.
That sounds suspiciously like cleaning/maintenance chores work to this ear. Gertie parents should ask their children about all this "helping." Does it take place during the school day? Must they remain after school to "help" or give up weekend time? If so, they're breeding a lot of resentment in those little hearts forced to surrender their recreation time.
I was going to a sede school many years ago. Due to its small size, classes were cancelled on days when the school basketball team had non-home games. Since the good sisters weren't allowed to let us go home, we spent most of those days helping around the grounds (moving furniture, cataloging books, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if the youngsters at St. Gertrude the Great are doing the same things during their school days.
We're sure too. The loss of instructional time is deeply troubling. Had the sisters been properly supervised by real educators, they would have offered academic enrichment activities for those of you who stayed behind rather than use you as unpaid help.
DeleteEnrichment for you wouldn't have put the jocks behind in regular course work, but it would have been of advantage to the non-roundballers at the school, who endured a punishment of sorts (even if they didn't realize it.) With well-designed enrichment work, kids can both have fun and cement academic skills.
The sedes attack the public schools, but such misfeasance would not be tolerated on a regular basis in most public sector schools nowadays. Professional educators make a big difference, and amateurs, no matter how good their intentions, are dangerous. These sede schools should be dissolved at once. In the rough future today's kid face, these poor victims of incompetence will not be able to compete against those who were educated by properly credentialed teachers and administrators.
You have lost me as a reader. It is evident that you are only concerned with bringing down SGG. I'm not a sede; in fact, I'm a home aloner at this point, so I have no bone in this dog fight.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you write about the sodomite altar boy trainer and camp counselor at the SSPX chapel in Post Falls? You know, the one who was tossed out of the sspx brotherhood novitiate because they caught him trying to circumcise himself? If this had happened at SGG, you'd be all over them nonstop.
There are others who have the SSPX in their sights, and we trust they'll do their best to expose any scum there.. Our focus is, as you note, the SGG-Brooksville cult. We'll keep to our objective until they're finished.
ReplyDeleteWe're glad you're a home alone. You've made the right decision.
Dear Reader, thank you for saying that. It was hard at first - sitting home on Sundays - but as time goes on, I am more certain it is the right thing to do. Lunacy abounds all over. There is no hiding place. Nor is there a sane place. If you manage to find one or the other, it won't stay that way for long.
ReplyDeleteEvil reigns supreme in this world.
Truer words have never been spoken, and we know exactly what you mean. Staying home on Sundays feels odd and a bit disconcerting at first, but it is much better than coming into contact with weird, malformed, or venal "clergy" and their reprehensible antics. Cultilandia will always disappoint, and there's no safe haven for the soul other than home for most people. You've been given the grace to see that, and spiritually you're in better shape than the benighted to continue to support cult clergy. In spite of all the empty, pious talk, their souls are in mortal danger by remaining at those fundamentally disordered chapels.
DeleteWe may sound naïve, but we really believe that if the cults can be shut down, some sanity may return. They suck all the oxygen out of traditional Catholicism and render the atmosphere as poisonous as it is. They are models for clergy who might otherwise be good and decent priests. Without their presence, it may at least be possible to assist at Mass and not have to endure the "lunacy" abounding in Tradistan.
For this reason, we home aloners do have a dog in this fight: we want to go to Mass on Sundays and regain that sense of normality and balance. We want a chapel that will stay normal and balanced for a long, long time, so we can live fully Catholic lives. We have every faith that can come about once the cult bishops are sent packing, and chapels and priests come under beneficent lay governance.
Ending the reign of the cult masters will only come about by stopping the flow of money that enables them to continue. We play our small part through this blog. Other can help may spreading the word throughout the traditional Catholic community. The more people who hear the message of starving the beast and getting out from under the cult influence, the better are our chances of being able to go back to Sunday Mass.
There is a vast fault line running throughout the cult membership and supporters. The witness of home aloners and continuous exposure of the scum cult clergy can produce the seismic activity needed to bring down the cult edifice and allow us to rebuild on stronger, genuinely Catholic foundations.
Here's a question for you: why are the majority of MHT's seminarians always foreigners? Why won't American seminarians come to MHT? If you look at CMRI and SSPV, you see American seminarians. Are these cult schools not producing any seminarians?
ReplyDeleteNo, they are NOT producing priestly vocations, and that's telling, isn't it? SGG has never had a priest from the SW Ohio cult center. The closest they've come is Lurch, whose family belonged to the satellite in Columbus.
DeleteThe MI cult center has produced one priest (the Clone, from a benefactor family) and there is now another man who appears to be headed toward ordination. We don't know if the latter attended the cult school, but his family is beholden to Big Don. Another priest-completer had attended the MI school, but we hear he got homesick and left. He returned after he had earned a real university degree. We heard that he almost didn't get ordained and does not care for Big Don.
The Donster may not recruit too heavily among the American cults because he knows the educational level at these dumps is so very low. He may be relying on the the fact that the Europeans, Latin Americans, and Africans who enter have had a real high-school education and/or some college.
And we must, of course, bear in mind that a number of the kids in cult schools have seen it all and loathe the clergy.
From what we can see,the main CMRI center Mt St Michael has not produced any vocations to the priesthood either.In the days of Bishop Francis Schuckardt,my parents can remember an excess of 80 brothers/clerics in the Mt Chapel for daily Mass.
ReplyDeleteThat makes perfect sense. The smart kids don't want anything to do with these rotten clergy.
DeleteI hardly think the CMRI priests are rotten! From what I have seen, they do a lot of work, driving to all sorts of far flung places to say Mass for people that otherwise would never have Mass, and always visit the sick no matter how far they have to go. They get nothing in return, no salary, no benefits, just the reward of helping Catholics during this crisis and in the absence of the lawful diocesan clergy.
ReplyDeleteThere's no disputing tastes so we won't gainsay your witness to the charity of some individuals. Very edifying, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteAs for us, the matter of authentic, rigorous formation looms large in our assessment of all clergy. Without it, even the biggest-hearted fellow is still rotten, if he dares call himself a Catholic priest.
Well, I think in this case, you are mistaken, as most Catholics are these days. The priests are not clergy at all, they are in effect suspended.
ReplyDeleteThe Church is clear on how one becomes a cleric, and none of these priests meets the definition.
Due to this, their training is not as much of an issue, they bring us the sacraments at our (the laity) request, and that is their only justification for what they do.
When the Church at some future time returns to normal, the diocesan bishops, or the Pope will judge their fitness, training, and whether or not they have a vocation to the priesthood, and if they are found worthy they will be trained and made clerics.
In the meanwhile, we should just be happy that we have access to the sacraments and priests to confess to in danger of death,
We're pleased that you agree with us that these men, irrespective of cult affiliation, don't even come close to the Church's former high standards. (But how they and their "bishops" would disagree!).
ReplyDeleteWe would respectfully disagree with you -- in the strongest terms possible: training DOES matter in the Catholic faith. Sacrament machines are not enough, especially when the question of validity is so unnervingly present.
In danger of death, may we recommend the following: http://pistrinaliturgica.blogspot.com/p/act-of-perfect-contrition.html?
I didn't say training doesn't matter, it does. What I am saying is that any training given in our current situation is not approved training, therefore it is not legitimate training no matter how well it is done. There are no dimissorial letters given, and the vocations of these men have never been judged.
ReplyDeleteThere is no functioning authority, for the most part, so almost all Catholics are living in dioceses with no ordinary, nor pastors of their parishes. In such a situation as this, there is a grave need, as explained by the Code, that Catholics can request sacraments from priests under censure.
The Code does not say anything not approaching priests under censure who lack proper training, so to add that to the law, one would be creating their own law.
Regarding the danger of death, you are correct that a perfect act of love may suffice, but the Church also supplies jurisdiction to any priest, even to the validly ordained schismatics. In my opinion, while you are within your rights to refuse a priest, it would be gravely imprudent, if a priest were available.
We have no objection to anything you have written. In fact, we have said the same thing, more or less, on many occasions.
DeleteOur objection is that the "priests" laymen approach do not have the same correct attitude. They forget their limitations, both canonical and educational, and behave as though they were legitimate. The "bishops" are worse still.
We advise against commerce with some of these "priests" not as a matter of positive law (we believe it's suspended, anyway) but as a matter of prudence. Their impoverished formation, their usurpation of unwarranted privilege, and their adherence to cult-mad "bishops" make them spiritually dangerous.
If all the faithful were as right thinking as you and viewed these men only as sacrament machines, then a warning wouldn't be necessary (except in the case of "One Hand" and the "priests" he's "ordained"). But unfortunately, most of the faithful fall for the disguise and begin to allow these masqueraders to meddle in private lives for their own gain.
The solution is to dismantle th Trad cults with their "bishops" and let the validly ordained (or probably validly ordained) practice as independent contractors under the supervision of the laity. We would also prefer they have independent means of income in secular life. They would then be free to offer the sacraments on a weekly basis without the need to charge for their services. Under this model, they would never attempt to mount a pedestal that didn't belong to them (and we wouldn't be tempted to put them on it either). Having to go through life 6 days a week as a normal citizen would be a further check on the human impulse to grab a mile when we've only been given an inch. An added bonus is that since the majority of these "priests" don't have a college education, they'd be woking in fairly low-level jobs and consequently be much more humble. They'd also learn the value of a dollar.
I see your points, but I also believe that the solution you are arguing for is also loaded with pitfalls. The reality is that the Church is not meant to have any of these groups, as they are all self-formed private organizations with no proper right to the goods of the Church (holy orders) nor the right to govern Catholics, preach, or hear confessions outside of the danger of death.
DeleteWith that said, Catholics have a right to approach such priests for the sacraments for a grave reason. The CMRI, in my opinion, generally speaking, will not harm those who go to their chapels. They are the only group, that for the most part, grasps their true identity of who they are as priests, and conduct themselves with a minimilist approach.
I can assure you that private independent chapels run by lay people are no more safe than any of these groups. I have been a witness to such situations, and they have not ended well.
The only return to safety is back into the arms of our lawful and legitimate pastors, when God, in his mercy, sends them to us again.
Some of these priests know the value of a dollar; they just prefer to spend it. The priests who you talk about are well known for their lavish lifestyles. IF I think of a priest, I think of sacrifice. Are these men sacrificing when they take vacations to spas? Are they sacrificing when they ask their parishioners for money so that they can go out to lavish restaurants? You lead by example. Do they think that their new cars, pompous lifestyles, pedestals of power, etc. are the way to show people to the Church? Why would you ask your parishioners to sacrifice if you won't sacrifice? It seems to me that the whole idea of one of the commandments of the church (to give money to the church) should be followed by them also. Why are any of these religious not watched by a checks and balances type system? The priests taking spa vacations? Are their parishioners so rich that they are taking soa vacations too or are they sacrificing so these men can lead high end lifestyles which they can't even afford? Are the nuns taking vows of poverty or vows of privilege? Are the school children taking vows of servitude to these religious? I'm all for works of charity, but are these works done for the ones who really need it or is it done to continue the rule of the religious being more privileged than anyone else? Why is it that the acts of these 3 men who you speak of stick out more than the other clergy? You tend to mention a few others, but it is obvious that Cekada, Dolan, and Sanborn are your targets. Are the priests who go along with them loving as lavish of lifestyles? Two are "bishops" and one is a priest. Why are they in the same category as the "bishops"? Why did these three men leave the group they were with before? Is their last group known for excessive spending, vacations to Arizona spas or Europe, high end restaurants, etc? Or were these men kicked out because they had goals that were not aligned with the Church? Please tell me how any parish can look at these men spending money on all these mission trips to wherever or European trips and justify the spending when they claim to not even be able to afford heating bills?
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put.
DeleteThese questions should be on the lips of every Trad who deals with these men and the men associated with them.
If they are honestly answered, then SGG and Brooksville would be empty.