Matthew
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School Dazed
Fr. Anthony Cekada
How a few complaints about our little parish school
suddenly became a world-wide campaign of lies and calumny.
A GROUP OF disgruntled parents had come into
my office to complain about our school principal
and his wife, Joan. The principal, they said — a
big man with a typical Polish face who was also
our head usher — was gruff, stand-offish; you
didn’t dare suggest anything to him. He didn’t
smile. Everyone was afraid of him and his wife.
They treated the kids unfairly. They were ruining
the school. They controlled the priests and ran the
parish. We were tolerating child abuse, and the
state would be informed…
The foregoing scene played out, not in West
Chester, Ohio in 2009, but on Long Island, New
York, in 1979, when I was just two years a priest.
The targets of the parents’ ire were Gerry and
Joan Mallon, a lovely couple who ran St. Pius V
School for us. They put in countless hours to
make our little school work. Joan used to say that
we managed to hold it together with spit and
chewing gum. Both Joan and Gerry put in hours
of volunteer work to help us with administrative
tasks and our publishing operation.
And for all their selfless work, the only thanks
they got from a certain faction in the parish was
jealousy, criticism, rumors and backbiting. No
good deed, the joke went, ever goes unpunished.
And so it went throughout my priestly life.
Despite all the wonderful benefits that a Catholic
education bestows on children, wherever there
was a school, there was also always conflict, complaints
and trouble, most of it from adults. The
principal is too strict or too loose, too gruff or an
incompetent glad-hander. There’s too much religion
in the curriculum, more science is needed, you
don’t teach geo-centrism, daily Mass is unnecessary,
languages are a waste of time, the school is
full of bullies, my kids never lie, teachers raise
their voices at the kids, teachers don’t control
their classrooms, the dress code is too strict, there
are too many punishments, the bad kids aren’t
being punished enough, you don’t expel troublemakers,
you should always give a kid a second
chance — the litany of contradictory complaints
was endless.
In traditional Catholic chapels, since they are
small operations, disputes over these issues spill
over into parish life in general. Soon everyone —
even parishioners without kids — is taking up
sides and has a strong opinion on the subject.
As you have no doubt heard, the parish where
I now work, St. Gertrude the Great in West Chester,
Ohio, has recently been caught up in such a
dispute. Because of the Internet, word of it has
spread throughout the trad world.
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion or wants to
take a side about what we’ve been accused of
here. Child abuse, financial shenanigans, unjust
dismissals, porn-watching teenagers, pampered
kitties, heroic whistle-blowers, and maligned
priestly champions of "truth and justice" — these
are all issues you can weigh and then issue your
judgments on, courtesy of the Internet forum of
your choice. First-hand knowledge of how our
school or parish actually operates is not required;
just a rumor, a grudge and high-speed access.
But since I do have first-hand knowledge of
how our school operates — there are no paddleswinging
ogres roaming the corridors, and the
kids seem plenty happy to me — I thought I
would set down my thoughts on the causes and
course of this unfortunate controversy.
What got all this started?
Initially, the green-eyed monster of jealousy.
After we moved our parish and school operation
to West Chester in 2005, two men, both former
seminarians who had serious difficulties
holding down steady jobs, had set their sights on
becoming principal of St. Gertrude the Great
School. One of them taught in the school for several
months and was fired in 2007; the other ran a
tutoring business.
Each one approached me on at least one occasion
to propose that I fire our current principal
and hire him. Now, neither man has any organizational
skills; indeed, one of them is unstable,
and later confided to some students that he was
"the prophet of the last days," not part of the
ideal skill set I look for in a principal.
When I rebuffed these offers, both men made
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themselves into magnets for any and all petty
gossip and criticism against our school and our
principal. If one of them couldn’t have the principal’s
job, well, neither could he.
So, beginning around Christmas 2008, they
started cranking out e-mails and web-postings
attacking our parish and our school. These included
all sorts of wild calumnies, distortions,
speculations and denunciations directed against
our principal, his family, our students, Bishop Dolan
and myself.
And then?
Everything metastasized, Anyone who had a
gripe of any description against any of the targets
piled on.
Internet forums are ideal breeding grounds
for sowing such dissension and wickedness. Postings
can be made anonymously or under a pseudonym.
Slackers who have nothing better to do
can keep the controversies stoked. Lies and distortions
stay posted forever, and by merely by
repetition, they are eventually assumed to be
"true."
If it’s all really lies and distortions, though, why
can’t people see through it?
Traditional Catholics are particularly susceptible
to any bad news, because they tend to be
pessimists anyway — about the Church, politics,
the economy, human nature, etc. So, it’s relatively
easy to con them into believing or suspecting the
absolute worst.
And if you dress lies and distortions up like
some great moral crusade (Stop child abuse! Save
the children! Financial shenanigans!), the truth or
falsehood of the underlying allegations becomes
irrelevant in the fog of righteous indignation.
How many times since this campaign started
have I heard otherwise sensible traditional Catholics
say "Well, where there’s smoke, there’s fire."
But what they should be saying is, "Where
there’s steam, there’s fresh manure."
Soon, there was a torrent of lies flowing about
our parish and school, so many that no one could
possibly correct them all, even if he had the inclination
to do so.
And that’s the "beauty" of how calumny
works, and why it appeals. In Barber of Seville, a
19th-century comic opera, one character sings a
satirical aria praising calumny, because what you
start as a tiny breeze ends up "a mighty cannon
roaring," and your target ("reviled, trampled")
finally bursts under his public scourging.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the character is
both a tutor and a priest.
One of your former ushers got involved. If all
this stuff isn’t true, why would he say what he
said?
I had inadvertently gored his ox in 2005, when
I wrote an article criticizing a pompous doctor
who presumed to pronounce on matters of moral
theology. It turned out to be the usher’s son.
Ouch! Though I personally apologized to the man
for giving offense, it seems he never got over it.
When on Palm Sunday 2009 our school principal
(also the head usher) tried to get the usher to
ring the bell at the proper time during the procession,
said usher took offense. Later in the week,
he wrote to tell us he was leaving the parish.
But this wasn’t enough. In July 2009, he produced
a nine-page letter denouncing the school
(he had no kids in it, and no first-hand knowledge
about how it ran), where we located the church,
procedures for ushers, koi fish in the grotto pond,
my article on his son, my opinion on the Terry
Schiavo case, my taste in restaurants, staff management,
elaborate liturgical ceremonies, church
flowers, my ideas on SSPX, building an "extravagant"
rectory (at $127 a square foot?), pastoral
trips to Europe, funeral costs and a "kitty spa" (he
misunderstood a joke in the church bulletin).
All this sounds petty, and it is. I mention it
only to illustrate one sad truth that resurfaces
throughout this whole affair. Many people seem
to nurse smoldering resentments forever; they
simply can’t let go. One perceived offense or even
a simple misunderstanding is enough to dredge
up everything — everything — you can think of
against your target.
So, if I’ve criticized your son four years ago, or
if the school principal uses the wrong tone of
voice when he asks you to ring the bell, well, you
have the automatic right by any means available
to portray me as venal and the school principal as
a nasty child abuser.
Never forget, never forgive. And if anything
bad is said about someone who once crossed you,
believe every word and put it on the Internet.
Was this sour outlook common among your parishioners?
Only with a few. But the lies and distortions
these folks believed and then endlessly repeated
eventually upset other, more charitable souls,
who then began to swallow at least some of the
lies. They mistook steam for real smoke, and then
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assumed there was fire.
And remember: anyone who has been in a position
of authority in a church for a long time —
priest, principal, teacher, choir director — will
have inevitably offended someone, no matter how
hard he may try not to.
Some offendees keep score. So in a dispute
like this, all the old baggage has to be sent up the
chute and ride around the conveyor belt for anyone
to claim.
But the Gospel, the faith, prayer, and the sacraments
are supposed to be the antidote to such
bitterness.
I heard that you fired a qualified high school
teacher who criticized your school.
Here, unfortunately, the back story descends
to the level of soap operas and telenovelas.
Beginning in May, the teacher in question had
inserted himself into an internal dispute in the
principal’s family, and had taken up the cause of
an adult daughter against the rest of the family.
This was not a wise move, since (naturally) emotions
run high, and it is almost inevitable that a
conflict like this will spill over into the workplace.
Nevertheless, I tried to reconcile the parties
when school began in September. I treated the
teacher to a lunch; he treated me to a denunciation
of the principal and various school rules.
I tried to maintain a truce, but by mid-October
this became impossible for another reason. Bishop
Dolan and I learned that the teacher had been
feeding the Prophet of the Last Days derogatory
material about the principal and his family. The
Prophet would then post the material on the section
of a web forum he had dedicated to attacking
our church and school. Imagine if your family
were being mercilessly pilloried this way.
The teacher admitted these contacts to Bishop
Dolan, and made no apologies — the school was
paying this guy’s salary, remember. That night,
another derogatory nugget that could only have
come from this teacher popped up on the
Prophet’s web-site. We immediately fired him by
e-mail.
This wasn’t easy for us. Bishop Dolan and I
had known this man since 1978, when he entered
SSPX. He was on the same side with us in many
theological and liturgical wars, and we considered
him a good friend.
But imagine what he did being tolerated
where you work: interfering in a dispute involving
your supervisor’s family, and then feeding
someone information to attack your employer on
the Internet. We had no choice.
A young priest at St. Gertrude’s who taught in
your school, Father Markus Ramolla, got involved
in the controversy. What is his background
and what were his duties?
Markus Ramolla, a German, was trained at
our seminary, Most Holy Trinity, which is now
located in Florida. Bishop Sanborn is the Rector,
and I am one of the professors. St. Gertrude parishioners
provide regular financial support for
the seminary, and many have contributed very
generously to the seminary building fund.
In 2007, during his final year of seminary
studies, Father Ramolla was ordained by Bishop
Dolan here at St. Gertrude’s.
On March 8, 2007, prior to his ordination to
the subdiaconate, Fr. Ramolla signed a promise
that, upon ordination to the priesthood, he would
"assist and obey" Bishop Dolan or his designated
successor, according to norms laid down for an
Assistant Pastor in the Code of Canon Law and
the 1954 Cincinnati Archdiocesan Statutes.
The latter (§§ 39–40) state that the is assistant
"is subject to the pastor in all matters of the ministry
of the parish," that he "shall keep the pastor
informed of all things in connection with his duties,"
and that "he shall not initiate anything new
without the consent of the pastor, and shall not
interfere in any matter which the pastor has reserved
to himself."
The rationale behind such legislation was that
a newly-ordained priest should serve a fairly
lengthy period of "apprenticeship" during which
his pastoral ministry would be supervised by a
more experienced priest who was a Pastor.
In September 2008 Father Ramolla began his
pastoral ministry as an Assistant. He taught religion
and German in the school, supervised sacristy
work, and took care of St. Clare’s Church, our
mission in Columbus.
These duties he performed zealously and
competently. He was personable, friendly and a
good preacher. Bishop Dolan looked upon him as
an eventual successor as Pastor here.
We had enough confidence in Father Ramolla
to announce on September 23 that he would become
school principal once the Second Quarter
began on November 7. Experience shows that
having a priest or a sister in that position in a traditional
Catholic school often heads off many of
the complaints you inevitably get with a lay principal.
So, Father Ramolla’s appointment seemed like
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an ideal solution, and it was well received all
around.
Great. So what was the problem?
The whole thing immediately blew up in my
face.
In October Bishop Dolan went with Father
Ramolla on a pastoral visit to Europe. One of the
priests expressed surprise that Father Ramolla
would be travelling with Bishop Dolan, because
during his July vacation, Father Ramolla had been
very vocally criticizing our seminary, our parish,
our school, Bishop Sanborn, Bishop Dolan and
our clergy. Word of this had spread through
Europe.
In the meantime, a friend of Father Ramolla
informed me of the contact between the soon-tobe-
fired teacher and the Prophet of the Last Days.
Father Ramolla surely knew of this. Why didn’t
he tell us? And what was going on?
At the same time, I noticed that one of our
faithful benefactors had not passed along his generous
monthly contribution to our school. This
occurred after Father Ramolla had taken the man
to dinner, supposedly to "reassure" him about the
school. The gentleman had never needed "reassurance"
before, and always spoke admiringly of
our school, its students, its principal and his family.
Again, what was really going on?
Other bits of unsettling news about Father
Ramolla’s conversations with various laymen
started to surface: Complaints about his clerical
peers. Statements that he would not recommend
our seminary. Encouraging someone to read a
web site that calumniated our church and school.
A picture started to form. Instead of being a
priestly peacemaker, Father Ramolla was engaging
in a stealth campaign to foment unrest about
seminary, school, parish, and fellow clergy. Petty
complaints were welcomed and then sympathized
with. All this was done behind the back
and in secret.
This was a long way from the duty of a new
Assistant to assist a Pastor and to be subject to
him in his ministry. In this case, you’re not only
biting the hands that feed you, but also the ones
that ordained you. And why? Certainly not over
any doctrinal issue. Power? Resentment? Who
knows?
One year on the job, and you’re already undermining
thirty years’ worth of work. And the
man who built it all up from nothing suddenly
has to watch his back.
How did this all end?
On Tuesday, November 3, Bishop Dolan and I
met with Father Ramolla. Bishop Dolan outlined
these problems, expressed his reservations, and
laid down the conditions Father would have to
fulfill in order to serve as school principal. If the
conditions were not agreeable, Bishop Dolan
would arrange another assignment for him. Father
deferred giving an answer at that point.
The next day, however, another priest informed
us that Father Ramolla was leaving St.
Gertrude’s. His chalice, an ordination gift from
Bishop Dolan, had already disappeared from the
safe, a sure sign that a priest is leaving.
On November 5, Bishop Dolan met with Father
Ramolla and asked him to leave quietly
without doing further harm. He encouraged him
to make a retreat in Europe with Father Schoonbroodt,
perhaps with a view towards another assignment
in Europe.
This advice went unheeded. Father remained
somewhere in the area, where he immediately set
up a competing chapel, complete with a deceptive
web-site with "information about" (=attacks on)
St. Gertrude the Great Church. The mask was off.
What about some of the various stories circulated
about your school?
When I asked a worried parishioner about
specific charges, he referred me to the November
15 and 8 postings on Dr. Thomas Droleskey’s
Christ or Chaos.
Here’s what I found: "tragic events," "scandals,"
actions "not tolerated," "wrongdoing,"
"suffering sheep," "tarnished glories," "shame,"
"minimizing evils," "mind games," "problems,"
"longstanding patterns of stonewalling," "abuse
of clerical authority," "misrepresentation of the
truth," "sanctimoniousness," etc.
No factual allegations, just gas — and I don’t
mean the type that powers an RV.
The goofiest charge to surface against our
school was the catch-all smear of "child abuse."
This can mean anything. We heard this accusation
from parents when I was on Long Island in the
1980s. If a teacher raised her voice at a misbehaving
child and the child complained to mom,
"child abuse" could be solemnly intoned. It was
generally uttered in close proximity to the phrase
"My child never lies."
In fact, the teacher whom we fired in West
Chester earlier this year had worked with me on
Long Island in those days. He even wrote a little
ditty about the accusation:
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"Wars and tumults fill the school,
No one there obeys the rule;
Crazy parents on the loose,
Charging us with child abuse."
You can sing it to the tune of "Hark, the Herald
Angels Sing."
We don’t have corporal punishment in our
school. Mostly, misbehavior is punished by writing
lines. This is rarely necessary, because in general
the children are extraordinarily well behaved,
a credit not only to the school but to their parents.
In the one case where we administered corporal
punishment for a serious offense, this was
done in my presence, with parental consent (indeed,
encouragement), and with a paddle provided
by the parent. My only regret was that the
cheap paddle broke on the first whack; I would
have recommended one of my father’s favorite
weapons, a paint stirrer. It concentrates the mind.
If any of that shocks you, sorry, but you may
have unwittingly bought into some liberal theories
on child-raising.
As for the rest of the horror stories, if you’re a
parishioner who has concerns about our school,
please make an appointment with me.
But otherwise, I don’t feel any obligation to
answer lies and distortions spread by chat forum
slackers and then debated by Internet busybodies.
Are you instituting any changes in your school
anyway?
We’re inviting parents to spend one whole
school day per quarter in the school. We’ll provide
the baby sitting, when necessary.
This way, parents will be able to see first hand
the great job our teachers are doing and how the
school actually runs. This will give the parents
themselves a powerful weapon to debunk many
of the lies that have been endlessly recycled.
Our faculty consists of one bishop (an overqualified
middle grades religion instructor, if
there ever was one), two priests, four lay teachers,
and two sports instructors (fencing and archery).
The kids get daily Mass with a sermon, and there
are lots of "extras." We have a lot to offer.
How about some of the other stories spread
since the departure of Father Ramolla? That
you’ve seized bank accounts, closed a church,
expelled parishioners, refused sacraments, etc.
More lies and distortions.
After this problem became public, I phoned
the man who handled the money and church
maintenance for us at St. Clare’s in Columbus. He
had his child hang up on me, didn’t pick up when
I called again and then didn’t return my call. Another
man in Columbus tried to walk off with
some books that were church property.
So, I froze the bank accounts and had the
church locks changed. Otherwise, what? Risk
someone declaring open season on church assets?
Shutting down the Columbus church? Bishop
Dolan appointed Father McGuire, a priest-son of
the parish, to be acting Pastor. He will be assisted
by Father Larrabee.
We were accused of "refusing the sacraments"
to the teacher we fired. Hogwash. We told him to
stay off the property, because we don’t want him
proselytizing against our school.
We were also accused of expelling parishioners
who did not agree with our decision about
Father Ramolla. More hogwash, indeed, pure fantasy.
"Excommunicating" the tutor and SGG principal
wannabee in early 2009? The man sent out a
circular letter suggesting that some students were
engaged in "repeated sexual perversion," a vile
and false accusation for which he had no proof
whatsoever. Since some of the students had heard
of his campaign, I asked him to sign a simple retraction
for me to keep on file. He refused. I told
him he couldn’t return until he signed.
"Shooting the messenger"? Never. Liars and
calumniators? Lock and load…
Any lessons learned? Or any words to parishioners
who may have left you over all this?
• Forget and forgive. Don’t hang on to the
memory of someone’s past offenses, and then
send all the old baggage up the chute whenever
you perceive another slight.
• Internet forums can be sewers of gossip,
calumnies, distortions and lies. Mortify your sinful
curiosity and refuse to read such garbage.
• If you have a problem or a worry about
something at church, make an appointment to
speak with the Pastor about it. In our own case,
Bishop Dolan built St. Gertrude’s up from nothing
over thirty years, so he is in the best position to
help. It is remarkable what good such face-to-face
communication can accomplish.
• Take your worry or complaint to Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, too. Often, it will fade into
insignificance before the tabernacle.
November 21, 2009
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Matthew
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| Posted Nov 22, 2009, 8:59 pm |
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