A REALLY EXCELLENT NEW YEAR'S SUGGESTION

Each venture/ Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate. Eliot

We're afraid we have a little bit of disappointing news.

St. Nick wouldn't let ol' Krampus load up the sled with the pack of Tradistani clergy he'd corralled.   They were so bloated with gourmet food and weighed down with the laity's hard-earned money that the groaning sleigh couldn't take off.

To make it worse, the stench of their greed was so overwhelming that Rudolph's nose went dark temporarily. With all the bad weather in the forecast, the nasal blackout scared all of the other reindeer something awful: The team made a frightful mess on the cult center's sagging, leaky rooftop. Luckily all that steaming muck masked the foul odor of clerical rapaciousness.

But we weren't too disappointed. Santa left us a wonderful present --  a brand, spankin' new domain name -- so we can fulfill our promise to restore to the web all the info about the 2009 SGG School Scandal that ended the cultists' Reign of Error.

As soon as our webmistress comes back from her Christmas-break secret mission to Mexico, she'll create the templates and upload all those files you've been clamoring for! We hope to make the new site available sometime after New Year's as a handsel to our enthusiastic supporters and out-of-joint adversaries.

Meanwhile, we encourage all the captives of Tradistan to make a firm New Year's resolution to leave the cult in 2015. There are plenty of alternative Latin-Mass chapels with decent, well-adjusted priests unaffiliated with the vile, money-obsessed cult masters. All you have to do is open your eyes to rescue yourself, your family, and your savings.

Isn't it time to stop wasting your treasure on prodigal, globe-trotting clergy and their wild-and-crazy spending plans? That money should be devoted to your family or to your retirement fund, not to the clergy's. Krampus gleefully told us how many tearful kids in Traddieland woke up with their usual aching hunger pangs to find nothing under the scraggly tree or on the breakfast table because Ma and Pa had squandered the Christmas Club money and the grocery budget on the cult masters' latest appeal for more cash. (The ever-thoughtful Krampus did leave bundles of stinging switches, which depraved cultist parents can donate to the school in case the rug-rats get too resentful about meager meals and no presents.) 

If you leave the cult early in 2015, think how warm you'll feel next Christmas Day when those smiling, well-fed little angels give you a big hug after they unwrap all those nice presents you were finally able to afford.

Once the shadows of the cult have been altered by your exit, Tiny Tim himself couldn't be happier than your little ones as they shout with the  joy of the ransomed, "God bless us, every one."

YULETIDE MUSINGS

You better watch out! Popular Holiday Song (Gillespie and Coots)

Jolly old St. Nick needs to know who's been naughty so his trusty sidekick Krampus can prepare a fitting comeuppance when they arrive together in bleak Tradistan.  This year, we think the enormous untruth at the heart of the sede cults -- their claim to represent the unchanging Roman Catholic Church -- is worthy of the grisly creature's grim attention.

We're not talking here about malformed clergy gone rogue, the suppressed moral imagination of the lay folk who tolerate and support bad behavior, the self-regarding clericalism run amok, the absence of oversight and accountability, or the leadership's petty rivalries and dirty tricks.  What we have uppermost in our mind is Sedelandia's visible disunity of practice.

Tradistan is nothing but a tangle of isolated cult centers, with only a superficial resemblance to the true Catholic Church. Each little enclave is an entity to itself, with its own peculiar, if not deviant, notions about the liturgy and Catholic life. Before the reforms of Vatican II, Catholics could expect no surprises when they visited another church. Now, however, when we assist at a chapel other than our own, we immediately notice how strangely different it is. The impression is that of an artisinal commodity -- an object that thrives locally but cannot survive in the general community.

In one chapel, for instance, a morose priest -- a notoriously malformed, hectoring moralist -- languishes unzipped from reality. He cleaves to the rubrics of Pius XII, yet on Palm Sunday at his second Mass, he reads all the wrong Gospels. Obsessed with women's clothing, he concocts bizarre rules for ladies' summer footwear and threatens not to perform a baptism unless a young, female bystander, whom he deems improperly dressed, leaves. He denies communion to the faithful when he can't remember whether they went to him personally for confession. In the confessional, he has the wicked habit of postponing absolution so he "can think about it."

In other chapels under a different cult master, the Leonine prayers have been banned. In their place, we often hear weird, jury-rigged centonizations. (However, sometimes young clergy have been known to recite defiantly the prayers when at a mission, so even there we find no consistency.) Still in other chapels, we learn that the wandering bishop who controls them has been declared a "missionary" bishop with jurisdiction throughout the world! In another, the goofy priest attempts to coerce the male laity into making their confession to him face-to-face, not in the confessional. The one thing common to all these splinter groups is how differently the clergy say Low Mass. The casual observer notices wild incongruities in the time each priest takes, while the trained eye spies glaring inconsistencies of gesture and screaming defects.

The one thing that seems to unite all these warring practitioners is their fixation on money. They trot out more fund-raising efforts than a PBS station. Yet even the non-stop cash solicitation varies in intensity and purpose. Some of the clergy are content to go off their rocker only if they don't get their pay immediately before Mass. Others have greater ambitions for lavish building ventures, luxurious foreign travel, and fine dining. In these latter chapels, everything is monetized. The appeal for more money drowns out every other message, and no fund-raising opportunity goes untried. Each visit to these lucre-loving chapels greets Catholics were ever new projects worthy of their financial sacrifice, from apartments for foreign priests living abroad to garish holiday decorations.

This Christmas, the same disparity of practice will be on parade again for the disedification of the faithful. One chapel will go all out on a hugely expensive, grotesquely over-the-top Midnight-Mass extravaganza never seen in the good old days, while another will have to wait until Christmas Day to suit the shoddily vested, minimally formed priest's whims. Cultlings may tell themselves that this wild variation is Catholic and normal, but wiser heads know better. All this idiosyncrasy is repugnant to the true Catholic spirit and does not differ in kind from what we see in the Novus Ordo, the Protestant denominations, and the evangelical sects.

This year, put an end to the sede circus. Smash the fun-house mirror of Tradistan by refusing to give any more money until the hard-hearted clergy clean up their act. When they pass the hat, just drop in a lump of coal -- and then let Krampus do his job.

A HOLIDAY GIFT

Here comes Santa Claus,/Right down Santa Claus Lane. Popular Holiday Song

And just in time for the holiday season also comes Pistrina's summary of its 2013 series of posts rebutting/refuting the Blunderer's defense of the validity of one-handed priestly orders.

Our THE DUBIETY OF ORDINATION CONFERRED WITH ONE HAND will also be found on a separate resource page together with the September 1990 letter from the nine priests and "One Hand's" reply to one of the signers.

Now instead of clicking through our many posts, inquiring minds can turn to one document for all the answers they need. As we've said before -- ♫ many times, many ways ♫ -- we don't know whether priestly orders conferred with one hand are invalid. That decision awaits a restored Church. What we do know is that such a conferral is defective -- and that Tony Baloney's now discredited monograph can no longer be used to make a case for validity.

So, when in doubt, opt for pars tutor, just as the Catholic Church used to do. 

BTW, one of our colleagues is busy working on the Spanish version, which will be available to the Spanish-speaking world in 2015. We do hope we have it in time for Dannie's expected junket to Mexicali, Mexico.

A GRAND MEMORY FOR FORGETTING

Like a flower as the dawn is breaking/The memory is fading. From Grizabella's song in "Cats," the musical

Editor's Note: This is the second of our two-part series aimed at discrediting the statement of a European priest, who swore "before God" -- and some 35 years after the fact! -- that the notorious June 29, 1976, priestly ordination took place at Écône without defect. Last week we demonstrated how common sense assures us his testimony is highly suspect. This week we'll summarize the scientific findings and forensic insights that argue compellingly why traditional Catholics of good conscience should ignore this priest's statement. N.B. At the end of today's post, we have a special announcement, both in English and in Spanish.

Defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges all are aware of the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. In fact, the forgetting curve begins to drop off swiftly after 20 minutes. Thereafter, it continues to decline exponentially until the second day, where it levels off at a considerably reduced accuracy. Moreover, the inevitable decay of memory is irreversible: the more that time goes by, the greater the likelihood of faulty remembrance. This means that earlier testimony is, on the whole, more accurate than later testimony. Consequently, the longer the interval, the greater the probability that post-event information will become confused with the target memory. Indeed, with the passage of time, memory is increasingly susceptible to contamination.

Human memory, as Bartlett showed in 1932, is reconstructive. A witness uses several sources to reconstruct a memory, only one of which is the actual memory itself. Our memories have gaps. To fill in the gaps, we recruit prior knowledge, expectations, biases, attitudes, prejudices, and information fed to us by others. Once our recollection has been contaminated, it's impossible to recover the original memory intact.

As well-founded research teaches, we don't record and recall memories as we would store and play back sounds and images on a recording device. We store the gist of any memory in a way that makes sense to us. Our mind organizes --  makes sense of -- the information by forming our memories into schemata or units of knowledge corresponding to stereotypes of people, places, things, and circumstances. We then use these schemata to predict outcomes of near-term events as well as to plot the courses of action we should undertake.

To the extent that the schemata can be influenced by our values, unconsciously unacceptable information can be distorted so as to accommodate the schemata we have created. Our mind makes an effort to reduce dissonance by adjusting our memories to our knowledge and understanding of the world. All this is to say that we often alter our memories to make them more meaningful to us, to shape them in accordance with our firmly fixed beliefs.

Inasmuch as human memory is so malleable, it's fair to say that no one can put any stock in the European priest's jurat regarding the 1976 ordination, even if he did sign it solemnly "before God." Quite frankly, thirty-five years is too long an interval to wait, so it's easy to see the schemata at work in this case: Holding the archbishop in such high esteem, this hero-worshiping priest could not fit the well-reported fact of the one-handed ordination into his stubborn belief in the venerable prelate's unerring competence. 

For this man, the archbishop still towers over the traditional Catholic world from his lofty pedestal. To admit that this heroic figure -- perhaps even a saint -- had made a serious mistake was simply too unthinkable. Our witness's human memory, compromised by the suggestions of partisans and possibly aided by unconscious transference (confusing one event for another), reconstructed the priestly ordination rite of June 29, 1976, so that it would make sense to him, the great archbishop's starstruck acolyte. Since he could not comprehend his hero's making so grave an error, his reconstructed "memory" came to rescue his challenged understanding. The desperate and unscrupulous defenders of one-handed orders simply took advantage of his psychological dependence and the unreliability of human memory to support their now utterly defeated position.

THE BOTTOM LINE: We cannot take, without a grain of salt, the European priest's sworn statement. There are too many threats to its reliability.  Both common sense and awareness of the inherent weakness of tardy eyewitness testimony lead the prudent man and woman to reject it out of hand. Anyone who appeals to this priest's statement stands impeached before Catholics of good will and sound intellect.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Next week, Pistrina will publish its much-anticipated English version of its rebuttal/refutation of blundering Cheeseball Checkie's failed monograph defending ordination with one hand. We've repackaged our series of 2013 posts in an easy-to-use, downloadable question-and-answer format. A colleague is currently working on a Spanish translation, which we hope to make available here and in Spanish-speaking countries sometime in the spring of 2015. We're also considering a French version, but the urgency is less pressing since most of the French will now have nothing to do with "One Hand." At this time, Mexico and South America have the greater need to know the truth because Dannie considers any country south of the border as his private territory. Although we'll be sending out the English version to everyone we know in the countries where "One Hand" likes to pretend he's the "metropolitan of Tradistan," a Spanish translation will convince these good Catholics to use their own undoubtedly valid bishops, not doubtful, gringo interlopers who like to stir up as much trouble in other countries as they do here in the U.S.

AVISO ESPECIAL

La semana entrante, Pistrina publicará la versión en inglés de la refutación muy anticipada de la obra fracasada del "Tonto Toño el Chapucero" (Anthony Cekada),  donde él defiende la validez de ordenes conferidas con una sola mano. Hemos redactado nuestra larga serie de posts publicados en 2013 a un formato de preguntas y respuestas.  Ahora mismo, un collega está traduciéndola para los hispano-hablantes de Sur América y México. Esperamos que esté lista en la primavera del 2015 (en el hemisferio norte).  Es importante que los Latinos sepan tan pronto como posible la verdad, por que "El Manco Danielito" ('One-Hand" Dannie Dolan) considera países de América Latina como su proprio territorio. La buena gente católica del mundo latino tiene que saber que este dudoso arma líos dondequiera que él viaja. Es mejor  -- y más seguro -- utilizar obispos ciertamente válidos de países de habla española. Mientras tanto, la versión en inglés será disponible a todos.

DOWN IN THE FLOOD OF REMEMBRANCE

Editor's Note: We know the above illustration has nothing to do with today's comment, but since this is the last post for the month of November 2014 -- the fifth anniversary of the SGG School Scandal -- we just had to publish another memorial image of what brought Dannie's cult down and prompted the long series of articles that led to today's topic. "One Hand's" mood must get really sour when he thinks about the "principal," who has laid so much at his creaking doorway.

The past exudes legend: one can't make pure clay of time's mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly as it was. Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction. Malamud

A couple of years ago, an adversary sent us a photo of a European priest's sworn statement -- made some 35 years after the fact --  to the effect that Archbishop Lefebvre did not confer priestly orders with one hand at the infamous June 29, 1976, ordination in Écône. On that very day, the affiant was ordained to the diaconate, so his presence at and participation in the ceremony guarantee the reliability of his affirmation, right?

Wrong!

This week and next, we'll examine the probative value of this very late testimony to see whether it merits any consideration in the decades-long dispute. Through informed imagination, let's look this week at what our clerical eyewitness's state of mind might have been on that fateful Tuesday so many, many years ago.

Perhaps our Johnny-come-lately witness awoke early that summer morn from a restive sleep. Surely the anticipation of the grand occasion had preoccupied him in the preceding week: Today, June 29, 1976, his young soul will again be indelibly marked, as it had been first at his baptism and later (as some would hold) at his subdiaconal ordination. This day's diaconate would mean he would soon be a Roman Catholic priest, the envy of angels, an alter Christus, with the power to celebrate Mass both for the living and the dead in the name of the Lord.

It will prove a very busy, psychologically stressful morning. Europe was sweltering under a major heat wave in 1976, and the air may have already turned enervating.  Entering the crowded sacristy, he encounters a whirlwind of activity: masters of ceremony busily whispering last-minute instructions, senior clergy earnestly conferring among themselves, ordinands hurriedly vesting, servers scurrying about, seminarians entering and exiting.

Likewise, his conscious mind is hectic: he has to rehearse his ceremonial responsibilities all the while trying to control his exuberant emotions. Yet everything about him is a cause for distraction. The chapel is ablaze with the day's liturgical color. The revered archbishop, vested in splendid pontificals, flanked by his attendants, stands at the center of it all. Our impressionable witness knows he must not disappoint the great man! He must focus with singular -- correction: with obsessive -- care on the rôle he has to play in today's ancient and awesome sacred drama.

As the ordination Mass with its solemn dignity begins, our youthful witness mayhap loses himself for an instant amid the ritual beauty. Just in time, however, he manages to reclaim his self-possession at the Collect for the Ordinands. Now, his hour is at hand. He must concentrate on what he is required to do. By all that's holy, he cannot disappoint the good archbishop. Soon, however, overcome with anticipation and nerves, he forsakes the private rehearsals, surrendering his will and attention to the sober direction of the vigilant MC's. He has faith in them. And in the legendary archbishop. Lying prostrate with eyes closed during the litany, he may have dozed off for a spell -- something many ordinands experience -- adrift in lilting chant, suspended in sacred space.

At length, the moment arrives for his ordination to the diaconate. He almost doesn't recognize his Christian name in Latin form when the notary bids him to step forward, but, recovering, he replies in a quavering voice: "Adsum!" Approaching the imposing archbishop face to face becomes an out-of-body experience as he completes each ritual action with the welcome assistance from skilled hands, watchful eyes, and sotto voce directives.

When he returns to his place as he makes way for the candidates for the priesthood, he feels a little lightheaded. His heart, he observes, is racing. A rushing noise resonates in his head, muffling the cadences of the confident archbishop:  it's as though unseen hands were pressing a massive conch shell to each ear.  As he tries without success to focus, the rite of priestly ordination passes before him in a benign haze. His mind is all joy, gratitude, and benediction. He has done his part for the saintly archbishop, who by God's good grace had made it possible for him to be sitting there, a deacon of the Roman Catholic Church. Floating on a buoyant cloud of relief, he may have just then noticed he was a bit peckish, for he had been fasting. He could look forward to a good lunch, a nice glass (or two) of wine, and sincere congratulations.

There's no reason to spoil that golden hour by small-mindedly scrutinizing every gesture the courageous prelate makes. Who, anyway, would be so impious as to presume to second-guess the well-practiced archbishop? He'd done this many times before. Besides, our young witness wouldn't have been able to, even if he had so desired. At the time, Écône was no center of deep liturgical study, and, as we know, seminarians have much more to learn than the rubrics of the Pontificale Romanum.

It's the Gestalt of the unfolding rite that intrudes upon his spinning consciousness, not the minutiæ. What's most important is that the masterful archbishop could never err in these matters. Moreover, to be brutally frank, in the midst of so much ennobling solemnity, why would he even let his rapt attention stray to light upon a squat, foreign vulgarian, the obnoxious and chattering "door" mouse whom his fellow Europeans had so often mocked?

No, he will cast his admiring gaze upon the venerable archbishop's fatherly visage, or perhaps he will follow with evanescent interest the gesturing ministers. He will imagine the day in the not-too-far-off future when he himself, resplendent in folded chasuble, will kneel before this giant of the Catholic Church to receive the august power of the priesthood. Consequently, it's only common sense to suppose he won't have noticed whether the archbishop imposed both hands, or just one.

He won't care either way. The archbishop is ALWAYS RIGHT.  He could do no wrong in those years.  And anyway, how could our witness really affirm with certitude what the archbishop actually did after witnessing all the other clergy impose their hands immediately afterwards? Furthermore, we must consider the influence of his many memories of other ordinations where the archbishop performed the rite flawlessly. If he received his minor as well as major orders at Écône, he would have been witnessed the ceremony so often that he might have filled in details missing from the 1976 fiasco. So crowded a mental picture after so long a time could easily have induced an episode of paramnesia, leading him to believe that he saw the archbishop use two hands, when in fact the great man had acted amiss and employed but one.

The mind plays so many tricks on us when we try to recall after the long march of years complex events saturated with emotion, doesn't it?


THE BOTTOM LINE: The circumstances argue against the admissibility of this European's statement. The statement, therefore, merits suppression. Bear in mind that the moment of imposition was so fleeting that it may not have registered at all on his conscious mind, such that what he "remembers" now could well be a fiction contrived by unconscious bias and wishful hindsight. Additionally, consider, too, that our witness might not have thought anything was wrong when the archbishop imposed just one hand, so it stands to reason that he "remembered" that nothing went wrong in 1976.

The great man had just imposed one hand on his head at his diaconal ordination, and the great man, as everyone at the seminary thought then and in the years that followed, was beyond a serious mistakes. And when the mistake did come to light, the Écône party-line assured everyone that all was right in their world. That's why those who knew what really happened never thought to protest.

It would be difficult for a prudent man today to admit such circumstantially compromised eyewitness testimony even if the witness had affirmed it way back in 1976, immediately after the ceremony. However, it is impossible to give this testimony, albeit offered in good faith, any credence at all when the witness delivers it half a Biblical lifetime after the event took place.

A SECOND CHANCE FOR THE THIRD RATE

Of making many books there is no end. Ecclesiastes

Editor's Note: Today's image is in remembrance of the unspeakable events behind the cult's November 2009 catastrophe, which we are commemorating throughout this month as part of our the fifth anniversary celebration of the beginning of the end of Tradistan.

BTW, recently you asked for the return of the SGG School Scandal material from the old sgginfo and Vipers of Vaudeville sites. We found the disk with the files and acquired the upgraded software we need. We still have to repopulate the folders, which shouldn't be too difficult. Once that's done, we'll buy a domain name and get a new site up and running. We hope to make the announcement soon, and we'll post the new link on our home page.

For today, we get a chance to revisit the inspiration for our blog, the Blunderer's incompetently executed, mistake- filled Work of Human Hands.

In an October "Bishop's (?) Corner," we found the following remark (emphasis ours):

May God bless the work of our young priests in the missions, and our own work here at “the motherhouse” of St. Gertrude the Great! Fr. Cekada was working last week on his latest “Work of Human Hands” video. The first edition of his book is now just about sold out, and he will have to work on funding for a second edition. In the meantime, he’s working on training future priests at the seminary this week.

Our first reaction was: Why does Tony Baloney need to get funding for a second edition? Weren't there any profits from the first edition to underwrite a second? We mean, if Work of Human Hands was such a big seller, the revenue should have been sufficient to print a new edition. Why must all the Blunderer's endeavors be underwritten by the efforts and money of others?

Oh, well, who can understand the wild-and-crazy economics of Tradistan anyway? As long as the mouth-breathing suckers are willing to throw away their money on such goofy projects, common-sense financial management and a proper balance sheet are unnecessary.

We can tell you that, in all honesty, we are eagerly looking forward to a second edition of the Blunderer's ridiculous Work of Human Hands.

Yes, we really are! Cross our hearts!

Why? 

We want to see whether the blundering, ill-educated author corrects all the numerous errors we pointed out starting in June 2010. Furthermore, we can't wait to read Checkie's new preface where he thanks Pistrina from the bottom of his heart and gives the Readers all the credit they're due for uncovering his multiple misspellings, bad Latin, errors of facts, dreadful style, facetious slang etc. Surely we'll see something like the following:

First and foremost, I wish to express my profound gratitude to the Readers at Pistrina Liturgica, without whom I could never have corrected the myriad blunders that made the first edition useless to anyone except the barely literate Gertrudians and the cretins confined to Big Don's howling pesthouse in the fetid swampland. As the world knows, my profound ignorance is only surpassed by my soaring arrogance. As a result, I published a tissue of howling errors that shamed the whole of Trad Nation. If Pistrina had not undertaken the merciful work of exposing all the misbegotten errors fathered by my meager education and absence of university-level training, this second edition would prove a greater embarrassment than the first. I stand indebted to the Readers' charitable skepticism, and I look forward to receiving all the fresh corrections they will offer after they comb through this second edition of cringe-worthy nonsense.

We'll buy a copy just to be verify that we received our just recognition. You, however, should not be so foolish. Save your money, for no matter how many mistakes the Blunderer corrects, Work of Human Hands will always be worthless trash.

FALL 2014 MAILBAG #4

Editor's Note: Today we offer the last entry from our October mailbag series, which we interrupted in order to bring you the report on the sedes' attempt to disrupt the ordination in Lawrence, Massachusetts. In remembrance of the fifth anniversary of the SGG School Scandal, we've replaced our usual postal illustration with a commemorative image highlighting the theme behind the events leading to the Ohio-Brooksville cult's November 2009 downfall.

Now for the long-delayed mail. In New England and New York, there's been a lot of fresh talk about "One-Hand Dan's" doubtful orders. A few hardline cultist lamebrains have been trying (and failing) to defend Dannie's "priesthood." Apparently, after Pistrina's withering refutation/rebuttal of the Blunderer's pathetic effort, the CLODs ("close loyalists of Dannie") are making their last stand. 

...this guy [on the East Coast] swears that another priest in addition to Sanborn made a retraction of the [September 1990] letter where 9 priests said Dolan's ordination to the priesthood was doubtful. Do you have more information? Thanks.

Third parties (including Tony Baloney) have reported retractions, but we've never seen one in written form. Without a document, no one can be certain of precisely what anyone may have retracted. For instance,

(1) Did they retract the assertion that Dannie's ordination was "dubious"?; or 
(2) Did they retract the assertion that his "ordination was done with one hand"?; or
(3) Did they retract the letter's imputation that one of the authorities cited therein (viz. Clarence McAuliffe, S.J.) advised that such a case "be referred to the Vatican for Judgment"?

There's a great difference among these motives for retraction, and, as you know, sede priests are notorious for their wanton application of mental reservation. As a result, until the reasons are made plain in a sworn statement (accompanied by a copy of the original written retraction), we dismiss the alleged retractions as not germane to our argument: we continue to believe all nine priests were/are morally certain Li'l Dan had been ordained with one hand.

In addition, if one of these priests had made his retraction based on Tony Baloney’s perverse translation of Pope Pius XII’s infallible teaching, today he may wish to repudiate his retraction and reassert his faith in the doubtfulness of "One-Hand Dan’s" priestly ordination.

In Dannie's October 5, 1990, reply to a signer of the September 1990 letter (his arch nemesis, BTW), he appended a RETRACTION AND PLEDGE for the priests to sign. It should be noted that he demanded only that they (1) retract statements and insinuations “that the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Daniel L. Dolan was (or ought to be considered) ‘dubious,’ doubtful, and/or invalid" and (2) retract the statements and insinuations, pledge to make no further statements impugning Dannie's validity, and pledge to inform people of their retraction.

It's very important to understand that Wee Dan did not require them to retract the affirmation that he had been ordained with one hand.

We have no idea whether those one or two priests alleged to have made a retraction signed the form enclosed in "One Hand's" follow-up letter. For all we know, any retractions may well have been general, informal, and oral. (Sedes hate to bind themselves in writing.) But if they did sign "One Hand's" form, you'll note that they could not have retracted the letter's affirmation that Dan's priestly orders were conferred with one hand.

Now, we must ask, if Deacon Dan had been certain that the archbishop used both hands, why didn't he (or Cheeseball Checkie) insert a clause in the document binding the signatory to retract the assertion of one-handed ordination? As we have stated before, if Deacon Dan affirmatively knew he had been ordained with two hands, then by natural right and in natural justice he had a moral duty to deny immediately, vigorously, and unequivocally the nine priests' allegation that his "ordination was done with one hand." Accordingly, he should have demanded that the priests also retract their affirmation of a one-handed ordination.

But "One-Hand Dan" didn't do that, did he?

This omission, together with the publication of the Blunderer's error-filled, specious defense of one-handed orders with its perverse translation of the infallible teaching of Pope Pius XII, suggests that Dannie knows the account of one-handed conferral to be true. And if he knew it was true, then he should have remedied the defect years ago by seeking conditional ordination before his "consecration."

His prideful failure is responsible for all the doubt that continues.

Should it turn out that one-handed conferral of orders represents more than a defect and, in fact, renders an ordination invalid, then that would explain Dirtbag Dan's failure to remove the SGG School "principal" in November 2009:

The charism of the priesthood would have been missing from his soul, so he had no chance of doing the right thing.