From The Heart: Father Ramolla
[Publisher's note: As noted on the home page of this site, Father Markus Ramolla has asked me to publish the following two letters. I do so with sadness. However, I do so as well with full support for the courageous stand that Father Ramolla is taking. He expresses concerns that played a significant, although not exclusive, role in our decision to leave Ohio four months ago now. Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.]
[This Preface was written by Mr. Bernard Hall, who was dismissed from his position at Saint Gertrude the Great Academy because he was working with another person, Mr. Eamon Shea, to effect needed changes at the academy.]
On Wednesday, November 4th, Fr. Markus Ramolla was called in to a meeting with Bishop Daniel Dolan and Fr. Anthony Cekada of St. Gertrude the Great Church.
The meeting opened abruptly with a hostile question from Bishop Dolan: "What do you have against Fr. Cekada and me?" Fr. Ramolla explained that his main concern was that Fr. Cekada had continued to dismiss every single criticism he had brought to him regarding the school and the Lotarskis.
Disregarding this reply for the moment, Bishop Dolan made a series of accusations against Fr. Ramolla, basically blaming him for many of the problems that have befallen the parish. Fr. Ramolla reminded him that the basic issue was none of these accusations but the fact that every single complaint he had ever brought to Fr. Cekada regarding the school and the inexcusable behavior of Mark Lotarski had been completely ignored or brushed away. Fr. Cekada agreed that he had done this, excusing himself on the grounds of temperament and attempted impartiality. Fr. Cekada then apologized for mishandling the situation.
In spite of this, Bishop Dolan persisted in making accusations, reproaching Fr. Ramolla for stirring up trouble in the parish by his complaints against the Lotarskis. Although it was Bishop Dolan himself who had instructed Fr. Ramolla to advise him of every incident involving Mark and Joan Lotarski and their mishandling of the school and its students, the Bishop then went on to remonstrate against Fr. Ramolla, telling him he cannot work with a priest he doesn't trust -- and he no longer trusts Fr. Ramolla! Fr. Ramolla replied in turn that he no longer had any faith in Fr. Cekada, his abilities and judgments.
Bishop Dolan advised Fr. Ramolla he would give him a little time to think about it, and that he would consider giving him a "second chance" providing he apologized, preferably with tears of sorrow and repentance.
After the meeting ended Fr. Ramolla composed the following letter, which was delivered to Bishop Dolan today. Fr. Ramolla has now been dismissed from his posts as Principal of St. Gertrude the Great School and Assistant Pastor of the church.
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The Most Reverend Daniel L. Dolan, Pastor
St. Gertrude the Great Church
At the Tuesday meeting, Your Excellency began by asking what grievances I had against Fr. Cekada. You already knew the answer, for I had on many occasions confided to Your Excellency in Christian candor my misgivings about Father’s judgment, his indifference, and his tone-deafness to misdeeds, most recently during our trip in France. True to the hidden agenda of the “meeting,” Your Excellency made a feint by asking why I was no longer a friend of Most Holy Trinity Seminary. Your Excellency knew my reasons before I shared them. In fact, I surmise that even Your Excellency has secretly acknowledged to himself that the seminary is a sham and its rector in need of spiritual and intellectual guidance. Our brother priests in Europe confirmed they shared this view.
Patently vexed by these hard truths, Your Excellency laid against me the charge of harming the parish and the school through imprudent, resentful, and angry discussions with laity. Your Excellency knows that any attendant harm resulted from the incompetent and pusillanimous supervision of an errant lay employee who was and remains the proximate cause of all the unhappiness that has afflicted St. Gertrude’s. Let me here speak truth to power: It is never “imprudent” to protest injustice and the abuse of discretion – it is a Catholic’s solemn duty. Your Excellency added that you no longer trust me. I reply that an honest man who speaks up against injustice, scandalous conduct, and organizational anomy is the man most deserving of Your Excellency’s trust – even if that honest man’s remonstrance is a public condemnation of Your Excellency’s and Father’s failure to govern justly in accordance with Catholic principles and our Lord’s example.
Next, in a move certainly calculated to terrorize me, you had the temerity to accuse me of being too close to a laywoman. I will not dignify with a reply that scurrilous slur laden with a not-too-latent malice. I am nauseated at Your Excellency’s utter disregard for common decency, especially in light of the fact that Your Excellency and Fr. Cekada have labored for many, many years under a widely held suspicion of inappropriate behavior. Finally, you demanded of me tears so that Your Excellency might justify his giving me a second chance to serve under an unworthy leader. Rest assured that I have already shed those tears in profound sorrow on behalf of the children and the good people of St. Gertrude’s who must try to find salvation in the desert wrought by Your Excellency’s objectively wrongheaded stewardship.
I cannot apologize or plead for pardon from Your Excellency, for to do so would be a repudiation of my acting justly in accordance with the obligations of my priestly vows. It is far better for Your Excellency to invite me to leave than for me to betray an informed conscience and my sacred orders.
With the assurance of my fervent prayers for Your Excellency’s change of mind,
The Reverend Markus Ramolla
November 6, 2009
Within the Octave of All Saints
Dear and beloved Faithful,
I am deeply saddened at having to leave you so suddenly. Had it been possible, I would have preferred to say farewell from the pulpit, where I could gaze one last time upon the kind faces of the people who took me, a stranger with a foreign accent, into their hearts and treated me as one of their own. The thought of not seeing you again — of never being allowed to see you again, to worship with you at the altar of Sacrifice and be your spiritual father in the confessional — makes my heart ache with a sense of loss that I have never felt before in my young life.
The pain is deeper than what I felt when I left my home in Germany to journey to the United States to study for the priesthood. I can always return to the waiting and welcoming embraces of my dear mother and loving father. But I know that if I dared to visit or minister to many of you again, you would risk your membership at the church you love so well. I love your church, too. It was more than an assignment. It was my apostolate, and you were the flock that our good and gentle Lord generously gave to my care. I almost cannot bear to imagine that our separation will be permanent — that even a short telephone call, a brief word uttered in passing on the street or shared in a home, may result in your loss of the Sacraments. Yet, so it must be. Our lives are empty without the Holy Eucharist, the healing balm of penance and divine forgiveness, and the caring guidance of the clergy.
I know not what the future holds for me. I must have every confidence, however, that our Scourged Lord and our Lady, the Mother of Mercy and Comfort of the afflicted, will grant me peace in the sad, uncertain days ahead. In your charity, if I may be so bold to ask, I beg you to offer a silent prayer for the troubled soul of a frail man who once was your priest.
In Jesus Christ our Lord and Mary our Queen,
Father Markus Ramolla
MarkusRamolla@web.de
