http://christorchaos.com/RemovingAllDoubt.htmlRemoving All Doubtby Thomas A. Droleskey
'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.
This quote, often attributed, perhaps apocryphally, to Abraham Lincoln, is actually a variation of the final verse of the following passages from the Chapter Seventeen of the Book of Proverbs:
[11] An evil man always seeketh quarrels: but a cruel angel shall be sent against him. [12] It is better to meet a bear robbed of her whelps, than a fool trusting in his own folly. [13] He that rendereth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. [14] The beginning of quarrels is as when one letteth out water: before he suffereth reproach he forsaketh judgment. [15] He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, both are abominable before God.
[16] What doth it avail a fool to have riches, seeing he cannot buy wisdom? He that maketh his house high, seeketh a downfall: and he that refuseth to learn, shall fall into evils. [17] He that is a friend loveth at all times: and a brother is proved in distress. [18] A foolish man will clap hands, when he is surety for his friend. [19] He that studieth discords, loveth quarrels: and he that exalteth his door, seeketh ruin. [20] He that is of a perverse heart, shall not find good: and he that perverteth his tongue, shall fall into evil.
[21] A fool is born to his own disgrace: and even his father shall not rejoice in a fool. [22] A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones. [23] The wicked man taketh gifts out of the bosom, that he may pervert the paths of judgment. [24] Wisdom shineth in the face of the wise: the eyes of fools are in the ends of the earth. [25] A foolish son is the anger of the father: and the sorrow of the mother that bore him.
[26] It is no good thing to do hurt to the just: nor to strike the prince, who judgeth right. [27] He that setteth bounds to his words. is knowing and wise: and the man of understanding is of a precious spirit. [28] Even a fool, if he will hold his peace shall be counted wise: and if he close his lips, a man of understanding. (Proverbs 17: 11-28.)
Refusing to accept the simple fact that Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church in Fairfield, Ohio, is an established fact that exists within the Providence of God, one priest, Father Anthony Cekada, used an e-mail sent on April 6, 2011, of this year to traditionalist priests, some of whom forwarded the letter to others, in this country and elsewhere in the world to predict with great confidence that he believed the removal case against Father Markus Ramolla would probably result in his deportation. A copy of the e-mail was forwarded to me from one of those priests:
Dear Fathers
I just talked with our immigration lawyer and told him we'd gotten a couple of questions about this. He says that nothing in the recent St. Albert the Great bulletin announcement corresponded with the way U.S. immigration law really works.
Here's a summary of the lawyer's explanation:
• Fr. Ramolla went into "unlawful presence" status as soon as we terminated his R-1 status and after he was put into "removal proceedings" by ICE in December 2009. This was automatic.
(BTW, the next hearing in Fr. Ramolla's removal proceeding is slated for May 19 in Cleveland. His bulletin didn't mention that at all.)
• The visa that he got though us until November, 2011 (called an I-94) then immediately became toast -- or Zweiback, if you prefer. It doesn't matter what the expiration date said. The mere existence of an ongoing removal proceeding automatically voided it.
• Once a foreigner is in "unlawful presence" status, the immigration regulations won't allow him to change to legal status while he remains in the U.S. (Exceptions: contracting marriage in the U.S., or facing political persecution and/or torture in the Fatherland).
• To apply for an immigrant visa or a non-immigrant visa again (together with R-1 [religious worker] status sponsored by ORCM, say), Fr. Ramolla would have to go back to Germany and try to apply for the visa and religious worker status at the U.S. Consulate.
• However, even assuming ORCM could jump through the regulations minefield of the interminable and expensive INS procedure for admitting religious workers -- will Bishop McKenna, Bishop Neville and the Sisters let the the Federal Customs and Immigration Service "inspect" their facilities at Monroe and Highland, as required? -- our friend would be up against another problem.
Fr. Ramolla's CIS record is now forever stained with the scarlet words "unlawful presence" and subject of "removal proceeding."
• And since his permanent record will also show that he remained in the U.S. for a full year after the removal proceeding began (from Dec 2009-Dec 2010), the Consulate will inform Fr. Ramolla that U.S. immigration law imposes an automatic 10-year ban on him re-entering the U.S. So, if he'd care to try applying for another visa in connection with ORCM, he would be welcome to come back again in 2021, but not before then.
I looked up the regulation on the 10-year ban. If you're interested in slogging through the legalese, it's discussed on page 8 of this docuмent:
(
http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/Static_Files_Memoranda/2009/revision_redesign_AFM.PDF.)
• On the $3,000 legal fee, the lawyer says that potential deportees will sometimes want to string the proceedings along for as long as possible to stay in the country, even when he's told them that in that in the long run, they'll be deported anyway. He makes them sign a statement saying he's told them they'll finally be deported.
I asked him if he were handling Fr. Ramolla's case himself, what defense would he use? After trying to spin out a couple of ideas, he said he couldn't come up with one that could ultimately work.
• The lawyer's conclusion on the rosy claims in the SAG bulletin: No way.
• As regards Fr. Ramolla's trial with CIS on May 19, the lawyer thinks that because their cases are essentially the same, the outcome for Fr. R. will be the same as it was for Bernie Hall: CIS will "allow" Fr. Ramolla to depart "voluntarily" within a certain period of time -- though perhaps a little more than the 60 days Bernie got.
Thus the principal points of how the lawyer reads the situation. He's been handling our immigration work for nearly twenty years now, and he's almost always been right, so I think this is probably the way things will end up.
-- Fr. Cekada
Father Cekada expended a great deal of verbiage on the outcome that he thought would "probably" occur in the case of Father Markus Ramolla's "removal proceedings." The actual outcome was slightly different than the one that Father Cekada believed was "probable:"
A few weeks ago on Sunday, May 22, we announced to you in our bulletin that we had received an answer to the prayers for a very special intention being offered for a long time to the Infant of Prague by the clergy and faithful of St. Albert’s. We said we would make a special announcement today regarding this special intention. Today, on the Feast of Pentecost we invite you to participate in our thanksgiving to Almighty God and in particular to the Infant of Prague that he has heard our prayers and miraculously caused the resolution and termination of my removal proceedings by the Department of Justice. The Infant of Prague proved again his own words which he spoke to Father Cyrillus, while he was praying before the Statue of the Infant of Prague when he heard these words: “…The more you honor Me, the more I will bless you.”
As many of you already know, this was not a battle easily won, as the proceedings had been pending since early 2010. The enemies of St. Albert’s were fully confident that I would shortly be deported, even going so far as to make this prediction public in an e-mail sent to traditionalist clergy everywhere. My imminent removal from the United States was announced by one priest in Europe as recently as just this last week. However, on Wednesday, May 18, and on the cusp of my hearing in front of the immigration judge in Cleveland, we received word that the Judge had granted my attorney’s “Motion to Terminate,” that my removal proceedings had been terminated, and my case thus dismissed. A few days later we received the official notice from the Immigration Court in Cleveland indicating that my removal proceedings had been fully terminated by order of the Court dated May 12, 2011. The date of the judge’s decision, May 12, convinced me that it was indeed St. Joseph who had rescued me and resolved the deportation case just as he had rescued the Child Jesus from his enemy Herod, because May 12 was the day after the Church had celebrated the great Solemnity of St. Joseph and was in fact the first day of his Octave.
Thus, with great joy and deep gratitude, I will offer today’s High Mass in Thanksgiving to the Infant of Prague for his miraculous intervention in my deportation case. After the High Mass we will solemnly chant the TE DEUM in praise and thanksgiving for God’s Divine Providence which came so miraculously to the help of St. Albert’s and myself. I invite you to participate in our Thanksgiving today, on the Feast of Pentecost, for such a great miracle.
“I will praise Thy name continually, and will praise it with thanksgiving, and my prayer was heard.” (Ecclesiasticus 51:15)
With my priestly Blessing
Father Markus Ramolla (Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church Bulletin of Pentecost Sunday 2011.)
The Infant of Prague did indeed hear and answer Father Ramolla's prayers, conceding to His foster-father, our Good Saint Joseph, the privilege of choosing the date for the resolution of this case to fall within the octave of his solemnity in Paschaltide.
Although there was every indication from what I knew that Father Ramolla's removal proceedings would have the outcome that Father announced in his bulletin yesterday, Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 2011, this was not a certainty until a judge signed the order to terminate those proceedings. The "probable" outcome was far different than the one predicted by Father Cekada. It was thus prudent to remain silent until the matter was brought to a close.
Even I, of all people, who have jumped the gun any number of times on various stories, knew that there could be no public discussion of this matter until the case was closed. We just had to wait as we prayed to the Infant of Prague, His Most Blessed Mother and our Good Saint Joseph. Put in naturalistic term, "It ain't over till it's over. (See the appendix below for an explanation of the origin of this Yogism).
It ain't over until its over.
Father Cekada's discourse on the outcome of Father Ramolla's removing proceedings was needless as the final disposition of the case would have been known in due course. It was completely gratuitous and had no bearing whatsoever on the ultimate outcome of Father Ramolla's deportation case. Why not remain in prayer until the outcome was known with certainty?
As one can see from an examination of the news contained in the "Note from Father" section of the Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church bulletin for Pentecost Sunday quoted above, God is more powerful than such confident predictions. God has delivered Father Ramolla from the snares of his enemies. He is now able to remain in this country and to serve the sacramental needs of the nearly two hundred souls at Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church in Fairfield, Ohio, Saint Anthony of Padua Mission in Columbus, Ohio, and Saint Margaret Mary Chapel in Urbana, Ohio. Deo gratias! God will not be outdone in His generosity to those who are willing to embrace the Cross as they suffer unjust persecution for seeking to protect the innocence and purity of the young, knowing full well that doing so would place them in great personal and legal jeopardy. Father Ramolla's pleadings to the Infant of Prague have been heard and answered. God will not be outdone in His generosity.
Although some have rashly accused Father Ramolla of seeking to "prolong" the public conflict that began with his dismissal from Saint Gertrude the Great Church by Bishop Daniel Dolan on Thursday, November 5, 2009, the truth of the matter is that it has been Bishop Dolan and his associate of nearly forty-two years, Father Anthony Cekada, who have prolonged this conflict as they have tried everything imaginable to deport Father Ramolla and to undermine his work for souls in this country and to do so in Europe, where Father Bernard G. J. Hall is establishing missions for Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church.
Bishop Dolan has been praying that God would deliver his "enemy" into his hands. The reverse has happened.
Indeed, there would have been champagne glasses clinking, perhaps at the Grand Finale restaurant in Glendale, Ohio, if it had been God's Holy Will for Father Ramolla to be deported. This private celebration would have been followed by a plea from the pulpit the following Sunday to invite the "strayed" back into the "fold," where their spiritual father, having forgiven their "transgressions," would have welcomed them back, although he would have told those in attendance that it might take time and much prayer for the "rebels" to make their way "home" again" now that their "leader" had been "stricken" for taking them away from him. Such a sermon will not be delivered now, at least not in the context of the imminent deportation of Father Ramolla that Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada so badly wanted to happen.
Whether Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada will accept God's Holy Will as It has been made manifest in the case of Father Ramolla remains to be seen. Their proven, docuмented track record of seeking to prolong disputes long after they should have recognized that it was fruitless of them to do so seems to indicate that they will not accept "peaceful coexistence" with Saint Albert the Great Church any more than they have with Immaculate Conception Church. Needless quarrels are almost a way of life at 4900 Rialto Road in West Chester, Ohio.
Father Anthony Cekada thrives on such quarrels. He did this in the case of the late Theresa Marie Schindler-Schiavo in 2005.
Having staked out a position that her faithless husband, who squandered the proceeds of a medical malpractice settlement that was meant to provide him with the means to provide medical care and therapy for her, had the right to seek to remove her food and water, he scrambled to try to find some moral theological "muscle" to buttress his position, telephoning a layman, whose knowledge of tomes of theology he used to respect and even rely upon in some instances, to ask him to find the text of hard-to-find tome book on moral theology that he thought would help him make his case.
Father Cekada's needless insertion of himself in the Terri Schiavo case resulted in the departure of a number of longtime parishioners from Saint Gertrude the Great Church and has been a scandal to those outside of sedevacantist chapels. (See Father Martin Stepanich on Terri Schiavo and Five Years Later; see also Father William Jenkins' excellent dissection of Father Cekada's sophistry and intellectual dishonesty on the Terri Schiavo case, The execution of Theresa Marie Schiavo.) Father Cekada sided with all manner of pro-abortion physicians on the state of Terri Schiavo's medical condition and even with the conciliar "bishop" of Saint Petersburg, Florida, the odious Robert Lynch, on the moral principles as he dismissed with arrogance and contempt the expertise of Catholic pro-life medical experts, including the son, Dr. James Gebel, Jr., of a longtime parishioner of Saint Gertrude the Great Church, and of other Catholics on the moral issues. He knew his moral theology, he assured these experts. Yes, and Sarah Heath Palin knows her American history. No one is going to tell him he's wrong, certainly not Bishop Daniel Dolan or Bishop Donald Sanborn. I tried, both in person when at dinner with him in May of 2006 and when seeking Father Martin Stepanich's assistance in 2008 to do so.
Seen any public retraction?
No, Father Cekada is a personal "Holy Office," issuing findings on such things how there is no "written record" of the vision that Pope Leo XIII had while offering Holy Mass that prompted him to compose the longer version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer or on how Russia has been "converted," thereby obviating the need to pray the Prayers after Low Mass as the three Hail Marys, which are prayed for the Church in Russia, are no longer necessary because the pretended "collapse" of Communism there on December 25, 1991, had provided more freedom for the Church. Freedom for the Church. Russia "converted"? To what? Another dictatorship, that's what. Consider the commentary of naturalist who has a better grasp of the reality of the situation in Russia than the one Father Cekada had when he wrote his treatise justifying the omission of the Prayers after Low Mass:
Russia is anything but free. It’s a place where investigative journalists and political foes of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin can easily wind up in jail or dead. Corruption is rife.
Statues of Josef Stalin are out of sight, but those of Vladimir Lenin remain in place. Plans to move Lenin’s tomb out of Red Square are off the table. (Morton Kondracke, Is It 1989 in the Arab World — or Is It 1918?)
What need was there for Father Cekada to put the Prayers after Low Mass into question in a public forum, no less to remove them from offerings of Low Masses? What is the harm in praying the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel and the Salve Regina and three Hail Marys after Low Mass? Do we not need protection from the devil and his minions? Do we not need to invoke the intercession of the Mother of God in the prayer based upon the Angelic Salutation? Apart from being wrong on the substance of his argument, Father Cekada has scandalized the faithful as Bishop Dolan has accepted his "findings" at face value. What good for souls has been done thereby? Just another instance of a needless argument started by Father Cekada. To what good end? To what good end? And perhaps more to the point, what if Heaven really does want those prayers after Low Mass said? Why err on the side of personal opinion?
Similarly, Father Cekada also published his study on the matter of Masses offered in communion with the heretic Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI without seeking the guidance of others outside of the West Chester, Ohio-Brooksville, Florida, corridor that is connected by Interstate 75. There is rarely any consultation of anyone outside of this self-reinforcing corridor. Much ill-will was generated as a result. A needless controversy erupted that could have been prevented if Father Cekada had presented his study to those who disagreed with him. Battle lines were drawn. To what end? Little thought appeared to have been given to seeking to unify traditionalist clergy on the matter beforehand. It was, "Here's my study. Refute it if you can."
Father Cekada just can't help himself.
Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada have been consumed these past nineteen months to the point of obsession in attempting to exact revenge on Father Ramolla for establishing what they consider to be a "rival" parish. Bishop Dolan, using the pulpit, and Father Cekada, using his Quidlibet blog, have publicly accused those who left Saint Gertrude the Great Church in November of 2009 variously as being "mentally ill" or filled with "hate." They have accused Father Ramolla of having had a "plan" to rebel against them when his goal was to reform what needed to reform as he was willing to listen to the pleading of the sheep who had been turned away time and time again with such coldness by Bishop Dolan.
If Father Ramolla had a "plan," however, why didn't he have a "plan" for a place to live?
Why did he not have a lot of money squirreled away in a bank account?
Why did he start his "revolution" without having his own automobile? And it just happens to be the case to this very day that Father Ramolla does not have his own automobile. He still uses a vehicle that has been loaned to him by parishioners as Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church simply does not have the funds to purchase one for him, and he drives approximately three hundred fifty miles every week from Fairfield to Columbus to Urbana before returning to Fairfield, Ohio, around 10:30 p.m. most Sundays.
No, Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada, who have engaged for two decades now in intermittent warfare against their former "Public Enemy Number One," Father William Jenkins of the Society of Saint Pius V, have to paint anyone and everyone who oppose them as being mentally ill or filled with hatred or having had "plans" to "destroy" them and their "work." (Perhaps one of the benefits of all of this for Father Jenkins is that it appears as though he is entirely off of the radar screen of his onetime close friends and then longtime nemeses)
Father Ramolla had no long term plans after he was dismissed by Bishop Dolan.. He was interested in staying in the United States of America, if at all possible to do so, although he had no specific destination in mind. It was solely the entreaties of the faithful, upset at the way he had been treated and knowing that he had brought to light the exact same problems that they had told Bishop Dolan to his face over the years without any receptivity, that convinced Father Ramolla to stay in the Cincinnati area. Father Ramolla stayed. As one woman noted to me with tears welling up in her eyes before morning Mass in a private house in the middle of November of 2009, "I feel as though I have been rescued." Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada are living in a fantasy world of their own creation if they think for one moment that large numbers of the people who left nineteen months ago now would ever return to Saint Gertrude the Great Church even if their vendetta against Father Ramolla had been successful in getting him deported.
Did it ever occur to Father Cekada that God Himself might send Father Ramolla all of the graces he needed through Our Lady's loving hands as the Mediatrix of All Graces to prevail. Then again, a man who never participates in the Fatima Rosary procession that Bishop Dolan leads every thirteenth of the month between May and October of each year can hardly be expected to think that Our Lady might intervene in behalf of his "enemy." What? Father Ramolla's work is being favored by God? It is not possible for him to think in such terms as both he and Bishop Dolan have given every evidence that that they believe "outside of Saint Gertrude the Great Church, there is no salvation," at least not within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Lost on Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada, steeped in their anger over the "rebellion" against their nonexistent "authority" and their work, are the numerous miracles of grace that have accompanied the establishment of Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church, starting with the large number of people who, on their own initiative and without any prompting, left Saint Gertrude the Great Church because they were fed up with the lies as Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada engaged in efforts to raise funds on an international basis. The large numbers of people who left spontaneously nineteen months ago had direct, first-hand knowledge of parishioners who had complained about various abuses being treated with disdain as more severe critics were threatened with police arrest if they ever stepped foot on their private property. They did not hear about any of this as a result of "gossip.
The people who left Saint Gertrude the Great Church nineteen months ago did so on their own volition. They had been eyewitnesses to this abuse. Many of them lived in fear of being expelled arbitrarily. And not wanting to go over to the Society of Saint Pius X and knowing that they could not receive Holy Communion at Immaculate Conception Church without forever abandoning all assistance at Thuc-line Masses, over one hundred people left then and there. Most have stayed at Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church, and they are not going anywhere else no matter how hard Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada try to force these "rebels" and "haters" and "emotionally disturbed" people to return to what Bishop Dolan has said from the pulpit to be "inside the Barque of Peter." It is not pleasant to live in fear of being expelled from a particular chapel because of some arbitrary whim. We know. We've seen a whole lot of that in the past five years on an up close and personal basis (see Rocky Roads in Rocky Times.)
The mission begun on Sunday, November 15, 2009, at the Wingate Hotel in West Chester, Ohio, found a home in Fairfield, Ohio, eight and one-half months later. It was within a reasonably short period of time that Father Ramolla was able to obtain a beautiful altar and communion rails and Stations of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. He was even able to obtain the pews from the church where he was pastor at the time of his dismissal, Saint Clare's in Columbus, which was later closed and then sold by Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada, who owned that church jointly as they own Saint Gertrude the Great Church in West Chester and Saint Hugh Church in Milwaukee. Although it is too large too fit in the sanctuary at Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church at this time, Father Ramolla even has the very pulpit from which Bishop Dolan denounced the parishioners at Saint Clare's for their ingratitude to him for all he had done for them over the years (as if gratitude for doing his duty as a priest permitted him to engage in public acts of sanctimonious self-pity and the twisting and distorting of truth to suit his own purposes). God has indeed favored the needs of Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church.
Will Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada accept this as being, at the very least, within the permissive will of God and let the people of Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church live in peace as they seek to sanctify and thus save their immortal souls? Will there be a relentless campaign, whether overt or covert, against Father Ramolla for the next two decades as has characterized the dispute, now supplanted, with Father Jenkins (who has, true to the position against communicating those associated with Thuc-line clergy that was refuted by Mr. Mario Derksen's Open Letter to Bishop Clarence Kelly, continued to make it clear that those who assist at chapels administered by clergy who "derive their orders in whole or in part from the line of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngo-Dinh Thuc" cannot receive Holy Communion there even though they are welcome to assist at Holy Mass)? Will Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada simply accept the will of God as it has been made manifest in the final disposition of Father Ramolla's deportation case and accept that Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church is here to stay?
The warfare against the pastoral work of Father Ramolla at Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church has included Father Cekada played a behind-the-scenes role that gave the appearance of seeking to undermine the priestly ordination of the man whose "removal" to England he sought even though he, Father Cekada, had hired him to work at Saint Gertrude the Great School knowing that his visa to be in this country legally had expired (see Stalinists Always Claim to Want Peace), Father Bernard G. J. Hall, who is establishing missions for Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church now in England and France.
Even though, as I had noted in An Interview with Bishop Paul Petko, Father Cekada had contacted a then seminarian for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, the now "Father" Jonathan Romanowski, in the summer of 2008 to request information about the then "Father" Petko from sources within the Fraternity as the then seminarian had never met Father Petko. Bishop Dolan relayed the information to me, explaining after Mass one day that summer that he would have to be "cautious," that he would have to get to know Father Petko, that once he conditionally ordains a priest "he belongs to me, he is mine" as he folded his arms dramatically across his chest and placed his hands at the juncture of his arms and shoulder blades.
Despite having this "information," Bishop Dolan made it clear through an intermediary in 2010 that he would be willing to go to Lizton, Indiana, to conditionally ordain Father Petko in his own chapel without any interview, meaning, of course, that Bishop Dolan had either overcome his concerns about Father Petko or, perhaps more accurately, was willing to discount them in order to forestall any possibility of Father Petko's working with Father Ramolla.
This construction is not unreasonable given the fact that Father Cekada, already in possession of the "information" from 2008, wrote to a conciliar presbyter, "Father" Christian Kappes, of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in late-April to find out what he knew about Father Petko. "Father" Kappes related a series of things he had heard from "Monsignor" Joseph Schaedel, who has prided himself on "unifying" the "Latin Mass" and "ordinary rite" Catholics at Holy Rosary Church in Indianapolis (see As the Conciliar Fowler Lays More Snares, part four and Peeking into the Old Conciliar Fowler's Lair, part two) and under whom Bishop Petko's two "Latin Mass" successors became so accustomed to a "dual function" parish that they sought incardination in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, feeling confident enough to do so without having gotten Father Petko's side of the story. "Father" Kappes' letter was sent by Father Cekada to a layman, to whom we will always be grateful for his generous support in the past, after he, Father Cekada, had removed his name from the salutation used by the presbyter to greet him in the letter. The layman then distributed the presbyter's letter to a few others to express his own concerns about Bishop Petko and his plans to ordain Father Hall.
Although I suspected that the layman, who is a close friend of Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada, got the Kappes letter from Father Cekada, I received confirmation from "Father" Kappes himself when I asked him point blank in an inquiry I made of him if Father Cekada was the man to whom he had addressed his letter about Bishop Petko. "Father" Kappes admitted this very freely to me, saying that he answered the letter of this "fringe priest," Father Cekada, to prevent yet another "irregular" ordination from taking place. ("Father" Kappes would not, however, answer my specific questions about the allegations he conveyed, referring me to the two people who he said had "information," neither of whom has responded to the detailed and very specific questions that I composed for them to answer in late April and early May of this year. Repeated phone messages were left for one of the presbyters who was more readily reachable than the other. An attempt was also made to contact a member of a Motu community, who likewise never responded.)
[For an alternate view of Bishop Petko, please see this personal letter in behalf of Bishop Paul Petko by Father Carlos Casavantes, Jr. of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. And, just an aside to those sedevacantist priests who have an exclusivist mentality, although Bishop Petko was conditionally ordained only on January 15, 2011, he had been functioning, albeit without valid orders,. as a priest for sixteen years, having established "Latin Mass" communities in several places when he was with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. To say that he lacks "experience" is to make a mockery of truth and of the fact that the years of pastoral experience in what are believed to be the Catholic Church cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand. No layman becomes a Catholic when he accepts the truth of the sedevacantist thesis and that it applies in these times. No man who had been functioning for sixteen years as a priest, having had sixteen years of priestly training in conciliar seminaries and with the Society of Saint Pius X, without ever once staging the Novus Ordo service--and being willing to suffer for refusing to do so--can be said to lack "experience." This is, in plain English, a completely mistaken assertion that makes a virtual magisterium out of this or that sedevacantist venue.]
It is amazing how quick some have been to accept the word of those in the conciliar church against a priest who refused to participate in the Novus Ordo and has suffered ever since as a result.
The willingness of those in the Novus Ordo to raise questions about the character and fitness of priests who refuse to stage the Novus Ordo is legendary. Even some "conservative" priests and presbyters have been threatened with severe discipline and/or psychiatric treatment for their "problems" so that they could be stigmatized as "malcontents" who must be "re-educated" and monitored for the rest of their lives as putative pastors. One priest of the Society of Saint Pius X told us six years ago now that someone, perhaps from the religious community in which he had taken vows, saw to it that a "marriage" appeared on his baptismal certificate at the time he was seeking conditional ordination. There had been no such "marriage." He had a lawyer write a letter. The "marriage" was removed from his baptismal certificate. We are talking about gangster activity here, my few and next-to-invisible readers.
It is not unknown for a priest, for whom we will always be, no matter the differences of the past nineteen months, indebted for his having brought Sharon's father back to the Holy Faith a month before he died after an absence of seventy years, with actual, substantiated scandals attached to his name to have preached at Saint Gertrude the Great Church that are of a far graver nature than the as-of-yet unsupported "suspicions" about Bishop Petko that were related by "Father" Kappes. Why the feigned concern over Bishop Petko?
The layman persisted in his efforts to seek a delay in Father Hall's ordination as late as the evening of Tuesday, May 3, 2011, at which point I wrote to him to say that Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada should be men enough to telephone Bishop Petko directly to address their concerns to him. He wrote to Bishop Petko the next morning, the day of the ordination, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, to explain that while, yes, Father Cekada had sent him the letter from the conciliar presbyter that he, the layman, was acting on his own to make his concerns known prior to Father Hall's ordination, that Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada did not know or authorize his efforts to express his concerns, which raises a question as to why Father Cekada had written to Kappes in the first place and then send out the presbyter's letter by removing his name from it if it was not meant for a wider distribution without his fingerprints on it. The layman also said that Bishop Dolan wanted Bishop Petko to call him, another interesting fact as the proper thing to have done would have been for Bishop Dolan to call him to apologize for Father Cekada's "imprudence."
For his own part, the layman did not do Bishop Petko the courtesy of telephoning him, insisting to other that "something is not right" about him on the word of men steeped in the falsehoods of conciliarism, one of whom, Monsignor Schaedel, has been a party to seeking to keep quiet the extent of clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and two others who saw fit to stage the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service. The layman is now claiming that it is Father Ramolla who is continuing this matter. Wrong. Father Anthony Cekada is the one who has needlessly done so by giving every appearance of seeking to find something that would interfere with the priestly ordination of his other "enemy," Father Bernard G. J. Hall, sending "Father" Kappes' letter to a layman without his having the simple Masonic decency to telephone Bishop Petko to find out his side of the story.
Our former friend and benefactor is quite wrong about who is continuing this matter. There has not been one word on this website written about this sad set of events for nearly a year, if not a little longer. Father Cekada, though, has been seeking recently to work behind the scenes to destroy those he hates. He is the one who has sought to destroy his enemies at every turn. He is relentless in this regard. If one believes as a matter of conscience that he must bring matters of a concern prior to a priestly ordination to light, he does so directly with the ordaining prelate. He does not give the impression of using intermediaries to do so.
One's head spins at the time and effort expended to seek to exact revenge upon those deemed to be "enemies" but who are good shepherds seeking to serve souls without any degree of self-interest. It is very sad, especially when one considers the sanctimony that Bishop Dolan used in November of 2009 to express outrage over the accusations that were being made against him. Why is it now appropriate for Father Cekada to seek out "information" prior to a priestly ordination and then ferret his "findings" over to a layman that could subject another bishop to the "injustice" that he believes he suffered in conjunction with Bishop Dolan at the hands of the "haters" and "malcontents" and "rebels" and "emotionally unstable" folks who left Saint Gertrude the Great Church? It never occurred to Father Cekada that the layman just might send out the letter to others? Never? Not even in the back of his mind? Preposterous. It never occurred to Father Cekada simply to pick up the telephone to call Bishop Petko and speak with him personally about the matter?
There is yet another dimension to the continued use of sophomoric tactics to disturb the peace of others who simply want to get home to Heaven and put the disputes of the past behind them, this one involving a posthumous disparagement of the late Abbot Leonard Giardina, O.S.B., by claiming that he played up what Father Cekada called "I'm only a humble unworldly monk" routine. This disparagement was posted recently on Father Cekada's Quidlibet blog:
Father’s caginess on the pope question and his repeated “We’re-too-spiritual-for-controversies” protests, though, struck me as nothing more than a clever two-pronged fundraising ploy:
(1) Say absolutely nothing about the pope, so you can hit up all categories of traditionalists for donations: sedevacantists, SSPX-ers, independents, and Motu types.
(2) Play up the “I’m-only-a-humble-unworldly-monk” routine.
On the latter point, having spent some time as a monk myself, I am well aware how some of the sons of St. Benedict ham up the “humble monk” shtick whenever they sniff the scent of a potential big benefactor.
The double formula was a gold mine for Christ the King Abbey. Fr. Giardina played it to the hilt, and the bucks rolled in.
But in the long run, it sowed the seeds for abbey’s surrender to the modernists. (Tragedy and Treason at Christ the King Abbey.)
This is a case of Father Cekada projecting the facade that is conveyed on the internet and in fund-raising letters about Saint Gertrude the Great Church onto the late Abbot Leonard Giardina, O.S.B. It is, once again, purely gratuitous speculation based upon his being 'struck" by the "protests" about Abbot Leonard's desire to refrain from controversies.
While admitting as I did Future Home of the "Reform of the Reform" on May 29, 2011, that Abbot Leonard's failure to form his monks about the state of the Church is indeed at the root cause of the tragedy that has unfolded at Christ the King Abbey, it is quite a presumptuous stretch to conclude definitively in a public forum that Abbot Leonard refrained from taking a position publicly about the papal vacancy because he wanted to "play up the 'I'm-only-a-humble-unworldly-monk' routine." This is is more than presumptuous. It is beneath contempt, which is where Father Cekada likes to live when he is trying to demonstrate how things would only be better if others had listened to him.
Abbot Leonard was a humble, unworldly monk. He preached on Sunday, February 11, 2007, about beseeching Our Lord in prayer for help. He explained that he was praying to Our Lord for help to deal with vandals who had been trespassing on the property of Christ the King Abbey. It was while he was praying late at night that the vandals arrived. "You must pray even though Our Lord allows the enemies to attack. You must continue to pray." Abbot Leonard chose not to call the police as vandals from Cullman, Alabama, trespassed on the monastery's property late that night to do mischief as they yelled and screamed. Abbot Leonard refused to do as his monks requested to expel the criminals. He was willing to suffer as he beseeched Our Lord in prayer for conversion of the barbarians on the monastery's property. His point was simple: we must rely upon God no matter how bad things get. To try to make it appear that Abbot Leonard's personal piety was a show for fund-raising is reprehensible. This is defamation of character after a priest's death. Many people have read the Imitation of Christ. Few have actually lived the Imitation of Christ. Abbot Leonard Giardina did so.
Abbot Leonard's piety was genuine. His concern for those who visited his abbey was without a trace of artifice or posturing. He was blunt and direct when he had to be. He was, though, unfailingly kind and hospitable to all who called upon him. This was not an act. And although he did not take a public position on the state of the Church at this time, he did make a statement by having a bishop consecrated without a papal mandate ordain his monks, a bishop who held that the conciliar "popes" did not hold their offices formally, only materially. That was a statement, although not a direct one. Why would Abbot Leonard have chosen Bishop Robert McKenna, O.P., to ordain his monks if he was worried about a backlash from those who supported the Society of Saint Pius X and anti-sedevacantist independent priests/presbyters and from those in the indult/Motu world? No, attack away at a dead man who can't defend himself with personal speculations based on conjectures in a public forum.
Truth be told, you see, it was the scandalously uncharitable behavior of Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada towards other sedevacantist priests and towards their own flock that helped, at least in part, to turn Father Abbot against making any public declaration in support of sedevacantism, something that I have been told by those who spoke to him directly on the matter. He told us in very blunt terms that he was very upset with how money was spent at Saint Gertrude the Great Church, saying, "What are they thinking, spending $20,000 on a processional cross? Why do we need all that glitz and glitter?"
Although we can never use the bad examples of others as an excuse for not embracing the truth openly, it is nevertheless understandable that Abbot Leonard would want nothing to do with men who caused so much pain for so many people as they lived so lavishly and with such an ostentatious display of pretension. As I have said so many times recently, I would run away yelling and screaming away from the madness that I have seen in many sedevacantist venues if I did not realize that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI was a heretic, an enemy of Christ the King and thus of the souls for whom He shed every single of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross? Abbot Leonard's aversion to some traditionalist clergy, therefore, is very understandable.
It would be better for Father Cekada to practice some kind of mortification that might restrain his seemingly uncontrollable impulse to start new quarrels when the wounds of old ones are still very fresh in his soul. His comments about Father Ramolla's deportation case and about the rationale behind the late Abbot Leonard Giardina's refusal to come openly into the sedevacantist camp demonstrate that he is simply incapable of this kind of self-restraint, and I, for one, will engage in no kind of rhetorical volley with him after this is posted. He will stoop to the occasion once again by refusing to admit any error and by castigating the "rebels" and the "haters" and the "mentally ill" and those, such as yours truly, who are said by some to be "filled with pride." It can't possibly be that the men behind the tragedy at Saint Gertrude the Great Church are none other than Bishop Daniel Dolan and Father Anthony Cekada. That just can't be, at least not in their minds. "Others" have to be the problem, of course, including this formerly "fat lump" whose family was disparaged as "trailer trash" by an employee at Saint Gertrude the Great Church. The critics are the problem, not them. Not in the past. Not now. Not ever.
Nothing that I wrote in late-2009 and early-2010 about this tragic matter gave me pleasure. Indeed, it cost us friends and more than a handful of our own financial supporters. Writing this current article has not given me any pleasure. Truth matters. One cannot play the role of bully as Father Cekada does and then use others to claim that the ones being bullied are responsible for prolonging a fight.
I had attempted to make my concerns known to Bishop Dolan in person, telephoning him on Monday, June 29, 2009, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, to request a meeting with him after he returned from Detroit, Michigan, where the ordination of Father Julian Larrabee was to take place two days later, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Wednesday, July 1, 2009, and before he left on his vacation to New Mexico with Father Cekada. I never heard back from him. We were very disappointed. Our souls were in great turmoil, something that I made clear to Bishop Dolan., who did find time while on vacation to contact friends of ours who were planning to move to Ohio to see when they were scheduled to arrive. He did not contact us.
Thus it is that I had made my concerns known quite fully to Bishop Dolan in a letter that I sent to him on July 29, 2009, after we had left Ohio, and in an e-mail and an attached letter that I sent to him on Friday, November 6, 2009. I expressed to him our undying gratitude for all that he had taught us and all of the kindnesses that he extended to us. I did, however, explain that our first loyalty must be to Christ the King, Who hates lies and misrepresentations, and to no mere creature, no, not even a bishop. No good can be done to restore all things in Christ the King through Mary our Immaculate Queen as long as it is deemed necessary to use misrepresentations of the truth and actual intimidation to preserve an institutional status quo that has scandalized many and driven more than a few souls into the waiting arms of a figure of Antichrist himself, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, or into states of complete unbelief.
The clergy at Saint Gertrude the Great Church will continue to administer the Sacraments to those who assist at Holy Mass there. People are free in this time of apostasy and betrayal to seek out the Sacraments from true priests throughout the catacombs where no concessions of any kind are made to conciliarism. My own family continues to pray for the clergy in a place we once called our sacramental and liturgical home, praying also for those among the laity from whom we are now estranged.
In like manner, Father Markus Ramolla will continue to administer the Sacraments to those who assist at Holy Mass at Saint Albert the Great Church. It is the prayer intention of Father Ramolla's Novena to the Infant of Prague every Friday evening that Father Bernard G. J. Hall will return there as soon as he can obtain a visa to do so. Even if this takes some time, Father Hall is already at work serving souls in England and in France as of yesterday, Pentecost Sunday. The mission of Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church has now been extended to Europe, and Bishop Dolan and others have been quite busy poisoning the well there to stymie Father Hall's priestly work.
Even in this, you see, the efforts of Bishops Dolan and Father Cekada to exact "revenge" on their "enemies," men who sought to protect the innocence and purity of the young and to help the sheep who were being abused and whose concerns were dismissive so arrogantly and contemptuously, have resulted in many graces as Father Hall's voluntary departure from this country following the deportation proceeding they brought against him was the prod he needed to be ordained to the priesthood after having, as a man of integrity, stood with The Nine, who did not have a bishop at that time and who were favorably disposed to the Thuc-line at that time, rather than take the safer road to priestly ordination by remaining in the Society of Saint Pius X. People in England and France who would not otherwise have the Sacraments on such a regular basis have them now. Deo gratias!
It is probably too much, humanly speaking, to expect Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada to congratulate Father Ramolla on the fact that his removal proceeding was closed by an immigration judge within the Octave of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Thursday, May 12, 2011. I pray that they will.
It remains a mystery why other sedevacantist clergy continue to afford Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada any further credibility on this matter. How can the cause of the "traditional movement" be advanced by remaining as silent about this vindictive behavior in their own ranks just as so many clergy in the conciliar church knew about the abuses that have come into full public view within the past decade as they took refuge in the desire to maintain "peace" and to avoid "scandal" and controversy? Who cares if the sheep are abused and deluded in the process? Too bad for them. We are above things that "don't pertain to the Faith" and we will overlook the fact that many Catholics have been driven away from the true Faith by such abusive and arrogant tactics. That's only a "local" matter. This doesn't concerned "us." No, this is just "politics," right?
Wrong.
Please consider the fact that Father Cekada's mistreatment of the sheep is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, a friend I have known for a quarter-century related to me in a phone conversation last year that he had been expelled from Saint Pius V Church in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, in 1983 and threatened with police arrest if he ever again stepped foot on the property. His crime? He had remained friendly with priests from the Society of Saint Pius X following the split that had taken place earlier that year. The priest who so expelled him? Father Anthony Cekada, who was just as good at being the ecclesiastical Stalinist that he prides himself as exemplifying then as he is now. My friend, by the way, who had stuck with The Nine after the split, now assists at Motu services. He is far from alone in having been driven away from the truth of the state of the Church by the actions of Father Anthony Cekada. Far from alone, and it has nothing to do with Catholicism whatsoever.
It is never a "local" matter when one member, no less many members, of the Mystical Body of Christ on earth suffer unjustly at the hands of shepherds who have treated their legitimate concerns with such disdain, contempt and arrogance. Our Lord did not open His mouth in defense of Himself. He gave up His very life to save each of us. No one can take refuge in the "local matter" canard to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of others, especially when it has gone on for decades now. The suffering of others matters, unless, that is, one does not take to heart the Parable of the Good Samaritan:
[26] But he said to him: What is written in the law? how readest thou? [27] He answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself. [28] And he said to him: Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. [29] But he willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbour? [30] And Jesus answering, said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead.
[31] And it chanced, that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. [32] In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. [33] But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. [34] And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. [35] And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee.
[36] Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbour to him that fell among the robbers? [37] But he said: He that shewed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner. (Luke 10: 26-37.)
Father Ramolla takes these words seriously. It is a shame that so many others have condemned him for seeing the suffering Christ in those being abused, neglected and dismissed by those whose immortal souls had been conformed to the King's Priesthood and Victimhood only to use their priestly dignity as a cloak for lording it over others and turn a blind eye and a deaf eye their sufferings and complaints.
While some will continue to protest that it is "scandalous" even to discuss any of this publicly, the real perpetrators of scandals that have driven people out of the traditionalist camp entirely have been given by the likes of Bishop Daniel Dolan and Father Anthony Cekada and Bishop Donald Sanborn, who has expelled and denied Holy Communion arbitrarily to his own share of believing Catholics who had entrusted their souls to his priestly care. Will Bishop Sanborn now recognize that his own efforts to remove Father Ramolla have backfired, that God has not blessed this effort that cost so much money and time and effort of so many people? Only time will tell.
The Gospel reading for today, Whit Monday, speaks about those who seek to hide their evil works from the light:
[20] For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved.
[21] But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God. (John 3: 20-21.)
God will never bless the efforts of those who seek to hide their evil works away from the light. They may have temporary victories in this mortal vale of tears now and again in the economy of God's Holy Providence. In this particular matter, God has seen to it that the evil works have been brought to light for the reproof and correction of the evil doers.
Please continue to pray for Father Markus Ramolla as he continues his superb, selfless, tireless work of serving souls at Saint Albert the Great Roman Catholic Church in Fairfield, Ohio, and in the Saint Anthony of Padua Mission in Columbus, Ohio, and at Saint Margaret Mary Chapel in Urbana, Ohio. Please continue to pray for Father Hall has he serves souls in England and France and, quite possibly, elsewhere in Europe, where his travels as a British citizen are not at all restricted.
Everything gets revealed on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the Living and the Dead, and it will be at that time that each of the souls of the just who have been separated in life by this or that event will be reconciled to each other and all of the circuмstances and events that have estranged us in life will be seen with exactitude in the light of Truth Himself, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
May it be the case that, absent a miraculous reconciliation of those who have been estranged from as a result of events such as those described in this article, there will be such a reconciliation then, although I, as a Catholic, will continue to pray for a reconciliation in this life before then. Such a reconciliation would certainly be miraculous. Then again, Catholics are not naturalists. We really do believe that all things are possible with God, including outcomes in legal cases that we do not think as probable.
We must, for own part, conscious of our own many sins and failings, seek to live more penitentially by making reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permit, and by never ceasing to pray for and to forgive those who have been the instruments of injustice against ourselves, who deserve to be chastised for our sins and should be grateful to those chosen by God to so chastise us, and, more importantly, against others, whom Our Lord expects us to defend as He would do Himself. And, very importantly, we must forgive others as we are forgiven in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance.
Indeed, none of us who have sought to defend Father Markus Ramolla and Father Bernard G. J. Hall have done so not because we have anything earthly to gain. I mean, what did we have to gain? Fame? Fortune? Prestige? Respect? I assure you, it is not nice having to be estranged from former friends or to have one's life's work caricatured without any degree of qualification or reservation. Truth must be defended. Our Lord wants each of us to take seriously these words of His as we seek to see Him in the suffering of others:
[31] And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. [32] And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: [33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. [34] Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. [35] For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
[36] Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. [37] Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? [38] And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? [39] Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? [40] And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.
[41] Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. [42] For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. [43] I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. [44] Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? [45] Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.
[46] And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting. (Matthew 25: 31-46.)
Let us pray a Rosary right now for Fathers Markus Ramolla and Bernard G. J. Hall.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon.
Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, pray for us.
Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
Appendix
The Origin of "It Ain't Over Till It's Over"
The great sage who was born in "The Hill" section of Saint Louis, Missouri, on May 12, 1945, Lawrence Peter Berra, was asked by a reporter in July of 1973 when the team he was managing, the New York Mets, was last in the standings in the Eastern Division of the National League and nine and one-half games behind the division leading Chicago Cubs, had any chance the Cubbies. Berra, whose own job was in jeopardy that summer, replied, "It ain't over till it's over The Mets, by the way, won the National League Eastern Division title on the day after the season was supposed to have ended, playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday, October 1, 1973. In the final semester of studies for my master's degree in American Government at the University of Notre Dame, was there, seated in a singular seat adjacent to the Mets' dugout on the first base side of the field, as the amazin' comeback from oblivion concluded. I was even shown on the ABC Evening News, then co-anchored by Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner, cheering for the Mets from that field level seat at beautiful Wrigley Field.
That's the origin of "It ain't over till it's over."
We must remember that it is not "over" for us until the moment of our death. That moment, however, can occur at any time. It might be "over" for us this very day, which is why we must live more penitentially as the consecrated slaves of Christ the King through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary our Immaculate Queen, offer unto the Most Sacred Heart of Our King through that same Immaculate Heart all of the sufferings of the moment.
Remember these words contained in Father Edward Leen's In the Likeness of Christ as we pray for each other in this time of apostasy and betrayal:
In other words, it is the law of things as they actually are that we must continually suffer from others; it is the condition of our being that we shall be the victims of others' abuse of their free wills; it belongs to our position that our desires and inclinations should be continually thwarted and that we should be at the mercy of circuмstances. And it is our duty to bear that without resentment and without rebellion. To rebel is to assert practically that such things are not our due, that they do not belong to our position. It is to refuse to recognize that we are fallen members of a fallen race. The moment we feel resentment at anything painful that happens to us through the activity of men or things, at that moment we are resentful against God's Providence.
We are in this really protesting against His eternal determination to create free beings; for these sufferings which we endure are a consequence of the carrying into effect of that free determination. If we expect or look for
Topic: "Removing All Doubt" (Read 13320 times)