The Firing of Another Teacher

by Thomas A. Droleskey

 

To behold the spectacle of what is happening at Saint Gertrude the Great Church and School becomes something that numbs the senses after a while. The pattern of self-destructive behavior on the part of Bishop Daniel L. Dolan and Father Anthony Cekada and their apologists on a certain website is based on an effort to degrade and discredit anyone and everyone who seeks to criticize them. Bishop Dolan sees this current dispute as a personal crusade to save his name and his work, oblivious to the fact that his work must be that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was silent in the face of all of the accusations made against Him during His Passion and Death. The more that Bishop Dolan and his apologists lash out at those who use reason to expose his misuse of clerical authority is the more that he seems to rigidify and to seek to demonize his "enemies."

As I have been stating in almost every article that I have written on this sad subject, one's critics are not one's "enemies." My former colleagues in the "resist and recognize" movement who have criticized me, either directly or indirectly, are not my enemies. Not even the sad souls who live in the world of paranoia and fear and deliberate distortion and smear jobs that is the egregious website that serves as an unofficial mouthpiece of Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada are my enemies and I do not view them as such. "My" work on this site over the course of the years, which has only rarely dealt with "hard" news stories of this sort, means nothing if I do not seek to please God and to make reparation for my own sins on a daily basis.

The situation at Saint Gertrude the Great Church and School has reached such a nadir at this time that it is apparent that Bishop Dolan is determined to crush anyone who does not agree with him that Father Markus Ramolla is doing "the work of the devil" in seeking to minister to those who have left Saint Gertrude the Great Church following his, Bishop Dolan's, effort, which, according to "inside" information, is continuing with a vengeance, to railroad Father Ramolla out of the country. This makes it appear as though the greater Cincinnati area "belongs" to Bishop Dolan, that he is only bishop who is able to minister legitimately to the Catholics of that area in this time of apostasy and betrayal. This, of course, is a repetition, at least on a metropolitan area scale, of Bishop Louis Vezelis's claim to be the only true bishop in the whole of the United States of America who has legitimate canonical jurisdiction to administer the sacraments.

The truth is, of course, that the Cincinnati, Ohio, area does not "belong" to Bishop Dolan. Those who leave Saint Gertrude the Great Church have not left the "authority" of the Catholic Church. They are not apostates. Bishop Dolan's sacramental work, although certainly important in the economy of salvation at this time, is no more important than that being done by Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas or Bishop Robert Neville or Bishop Robert F. McKenna, O.P., or other true bishops. Bishop Dolan, it appears, is more concerned about "his" reputation than the protection of the souls who have been terrorized and brutalized repeatedly over the course of the past decade by the family, the Lotarskis, that are at the epicenter of this storm.

Walking the Plank One by One

It has been in the past seven weeks that various members of Saint Gertrude the Great Church and School have been forced to the walk the plank for attempting to point out the problems that have been documented on the Confraternity of Saint Albert the Great website. The first to be forced to walk the plank was Mr. Bernard G. J. Hall. Father Markus Ramolla was, of course, next as he refused to retract the criticism of Father Cekada that he expressed in a sermon at the opening of the Forty Hours' Devotion on Friday, October 23, 2009. The latest to be fired in this purge of those who refuse to accept the conditions of Saint Gertrude the Great School as conducive to the spiritual welfare of its students was Mrs. Stephanie Johns, a twenty-seven year-old teacher who was in her third year of teaching at the school when she was fired by Bishop Daniel L. Dolan personally on Wednesday afternoon, December 2, 2009.

Mrs. Johns and her husband, Andrew, moved to West Chester, Ohio, in August of 2007 from Toms River, New Jersey, so that Mrs. Johns could teach at Saint Gertrude the Great School. She became a beloved teacher at the school, fighting fiercely to protect the holy purity of her students from the regular onslaught of profane language and other ugliness that the older Lotarski boys were permitted to exhibit within earshot of her lower grade students. The parents marveled at her professionalism and her skill in the classroom. So few people knew that Mrs. Johns was having to fight with the principal to protect the souls of her students. I did not know this was going on, and it was upon my recommendation that Mr. and Mrs. Johns moved from New Jersey to Ohio after they became convinced of the truth of sedevacantism. (Bishop Dolan wrote me a note at the time to thank me for what he termed my "abundantly fruitful apostolate." Who knew that I was sending him so many future apostates and schismatics?)

Mrs. Johns was one of two teachers to have been warned by Father Charles McGuire that it would be "imprudent" to assist at Father Markus Ramolla's offerings of Holy Mass once he had been dismissed by Bishop Dolan and was determined to stay in the United States of America to provide the sacraments to those who wanted a refuge away from the clerical tyranny he exercised. Undaunted, however, Mr. and Mrs. Johns and their eighteen month old daughter, Raissa Anne, were present at the Wingate Hotel on Sunday, November 15, 2009, for Father Ramolla's offering of Holy Mass. Mrs. Johns was at the Mass center in Liberty Township, Ohio, the next day, November 16, 2009, the Feast of Saint Gertrude the Great, and her family was in attendance again at Father Ramolla's Mass on Sunday, November 22, 2009.

Mind you, contrary to the apologists of the egregious website in question, Father Ramolla is not establishing his own "religion." Those who assist at his Masses have not left the Catholic Church. Saint Gertrude the Great Church is not the sole bastion of Catholicism in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio, area. It is not a "schismatic" act not to be in "communion" with Bishop Daniel L. Dolan, unless, of course, Bishop Robert Neville and Bishop Robert F. McKenna, O.P., are outside of the authority of the Catholic Church. Sadly, however, Bishop Dolan views Father Ramolla as a "schismatic" and that those who assist at his Masses are somehow his "enemies" who are filled with "hate," a projection upon his critics of what he truly feels about them.

Mrs. Johns knew that the day would come when she would be called into meet with Bishop Dolan to face her professional "execution" as a beloved teacher at Saint Gertrude the Great School. Mrs. Johns recounted her meeting with Bishop Dolan two days ago as she spoke to me in a telephone conversation yesterday, Thursday, December 3, 2009.

Mrs. Johns explained that she was called to meet with the bishop after the daily school Mass sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. on December 3, 2009. The meeting, which is also chronicled in a much more detailed manner in the News section of the Confraternity of Saint Albert the Great website, took place in a classroom, not in the bishop's office. The bishop was cold and impassive, opening the meeting with as loaded a question as could be asked:

"Do you ever feel ashamed of yourself. Are you shamed of anything?"

 

As is the case with any other sinner, Mrs. Johns is, of course, ashamed of her sins. However, she is not ashamed of anything that she had done as a member of the faculty of Saint Gertrude the Great School. She told the bishop that she was not ashamed of her actions and asked why she should be ashamed.

Without permitting her to speak, which is evocative of the manner he addressed Mrs. Kathleen Camp on Monday in Holy Week of 1988 (see Cover-Ups Always Unravel, Well, Almost Always) and of how Father Ramolla was dealt with on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, Bishop Dolan then told her that she should be ashamed of herself for trying to "destroy" the parish and school. This is one of the reasons, good readers, the list of abuses that was compiled by the editors of the Confraternity of Saint Albert the Great website (and I am not one of its editors not do I have any say at all as to its editorial contents) is very relevant. Everyone except the Lotarskis and Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada have been out to "destroy" the school. No one who reads the list of abuses, however, can come to that conclusion.

Bishop Dolan explained to Mrs. Johns that she was seeking to "ruin" his own good name and his work and that of the school by doing the work of the "devil" in assisting Father Ramolla. Mrs. Johns told the bishop that she worked with Father Ramolla in the school to protect the holy purity of the children from the assaults of the Lotarski boys, wanting only to maintain the innocence of the students' students. According to Mrs. Johns, Bishop Dolan had nothing to say when she told him this.

Here is the fuller account provided on the website of the Confraternity of Saint Albert the Great:

"Are you accusing me?"

Bishop Dolan asked Mrs. Johns why she was still working at St. Gertrude's if she thought it was so sinful.  She replied that she had been duped into thinking that things would change once Father Ramolla became Principal.  However, it had since become obvious to her that it had never been part of the plan to have Father take over the school.  She pointed out that Father Ramolla had never wanted to overthrow Bishop Dolan or Father Cekada.  His only concern was with the continued presence of Mark Lotarski, and for a good reason: that the souls of children may no longer be endangered by this man, and that they may no longer be hindered from the sacraments.  Bishop Dolan asked Mrs. Johns if she was accusing him, the bishop, of barring children from the sacraments.  Her reply was "Well, you knew it, and yet you did nothing about it.  This is your church, and what happens here is your responsibility."

[Bishop Dolan]: "Father Ramolla has been removed, so there is no more problem."

Mrs. Johns then had a question for the bishop.  "How was it possible for you to say, publicly even, that Father Ramolla never brought the school issues to your attention.  You and I, and many others, know that this is not the truth."  Without answering this question, the bishop merely brought the issue back to Mark Lotarski, claiming that he was not the problem at the school—Father Ramolla was the problem.  "And now he has been removed, so there is no more problem."  [It should be noted that again Bishop Dolan has let slip that nasty little truth that Father Ramolla was in fact "removed", and not that he simply left of his own free will as he missed his beloved Germany so much. - Ed. of Saint Albert the Great Confraternity website.]

During the course of the conversation Bishop Dolan repeatedly accused Mrs. Johns of being a "follower" of Father Ramolla.  At one point she told him that she was the follower of no priest, but of the Catholic Faith alone.

Mrs. Johns said that she had expressed the hope that there would be change with Father Ramolla taking over as the principal of the school, and was, of course, disappointed when he was fired and things continued as they had been.

His Excellency spoke to Mrs. Johns in a condescending manner throughout the meeting, frequently calling her "little girl" (Mrs. Johns is over six feet tall, by the way.) Remember, Bishop Dolan referred to Mr. Michael Cain, the editor of the Daily Catholic website, as an "ignorant layman" in a letter that he wrote to him in August. Those who are deemed as outside of the pale of the "authority" of Saint Gertrude the Great Church must have their human dignity debased and insulted by Bishop Dolan.

Mrs. Johns asked the bishop if it was wrong to defend the innocence and the purity of the souls of the school's children. She also asked why he had lied in her classroom to one of her students when he had said that Father Ramolla wanted to return to Germany. He would not answer, telling her:

"Little girl, I am not here to answer your questions."

 

Mrs. Johns insisted that she had done nothing wrong, that her conscience was perfectly clear as to how she had conducted herself as a member of the faculty of Saint Gertrude the Great School. She explained that she worked with Father Ramolla when he was on the staff at the parish and the school because he gave the parents and teachers a sympathetic ear to serve as their advocate with him, the bishop, and Father Cekada.

Bishop Dolan then launched into a tirade against Mrs. Johns about how she had "abused" her time after school in seeking spiritual direction from Father Ramolla. She said that there were times when her husband would come to watch their daughter after school so that she could seek spiritual direction from Father Ramolla, including going to confession. Her husband, Mr. Andrew Johns, would then have his own session with Father Ramolla.

Mrs. Johns once went to confession with Father Ramolla during a school Mass in the middle to the latter part of October of this year, noticing that Bishop Dolan was hovering nearby, clocking the time that it took for Father Ramolla to hear her confession and to offer her spiritual direction, evidently quite irate at the time Father was taking with her. Bishop Dolan complained that the amount of time taken in the confession was "inappropriate." Mrs. Johns reiterated that she was using the time to seek spiritual direction from her spiritual director, who also heard her confession.

The bishop became very firm and condescending with Mrs. Johns when he said that she did not know how many millstones that she had around her neck and that she would not be allowed to go to Father Ramolla's Masses because the latter had, according to the bishop, accused him of being a homosexual.

Mrs. Johns corrected the bishop by reminding him that Father Ramolla had made no such accusation. Father Ramolla had said that wrong for Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada to imply that Father Ramolla had an "inappropriate" relationship with a female parishioner as they, who had long labored under the a cloud of suspicion about alleged inappropriate behavior, were the last ones to be making that kind of accusation.

Bishop Dolan told Mrs. Johns that she worked for him, not Father Ramolla, to which Mrs. Johns said:

"You pay me pennies. I work for Our Lord."

According to Mrs. Johns, Bishop Dolan "blew off everything" that she told him concerning the problems in the school. He was prepared to fire her on the spot, and fire her he did:

"Young lady, go get your purse and leave. You are fired."

 

Bishop Dolan continued as Mrs. Johns was getting up to return to her classroom.

"You need to learn how to speak the clergy."

 

Mrs. Johns responded:

"Then you need to learn how to act like another Christ."

Mrs. Johns composed herself after the meeting, proceeding to her classroom, where she was prepared to teach her third through fifth grade students that afternoon, to gather her things. The students could see that something was wrong. Another beloved teacher, they sensed, was being fired, being blamed for "ruining" a school that Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada and the Lotarskis have ruined all on their very own as they have resisted entreaties from parents and teachers and other parishioners and as the teachers themselves have been humiliated publicly in front of the students by the Lotarskis repeatedly.

Mr. Mark Lotarski, the principal of Saint Gertrude the Great School, came into the classroom as Mrs. Johns was about to gather her things, telling them students to go to his office. The students were asking her what was happening, why she was preparing to leave. (Mrs. Johns was going to tell them that she was leaving for the afternoon.) With the ominous presence of Mark Lotarski in the doorway, however, Mrs. Johns steeled her nerve and told the students:

"The bishop just fired me."

 

This prompted Lotarski to yell out in his loud, bellowing voice:

"You be quiet!"

 

Mr. Lotarski continued the refrain two more times, "Be quiet!" Mrs. Johns noticed that Lotarski was trying to rush her out of the room, telling him:

"Don't you dare touch me or I will go out of here with a police escort like your daughter."

 

Father Cekada then "happened" by to try to calm the situation. Mrs. Johns told him very directly, "Don't talk to me."

Anxious to get Mrs. Johns out of the building and off the school grounds, Father Cekada would not let her take her time to make two trips to her car. He quickly gathered the things that she was unable to gather herself, taking them out to the car in the pouring rain. And thus ended the two year, three month tenure of Mrs. Stephanie Johns as a member of the faculty of Saint Gertrude the Great Church as yet another set of students were left to cry as a beloved teacher was fired, standing falsely accused of "ruining" a school that is governed by the abusive tyranny of one family and their clerical enablers.

Mrs. Johns's husband, Mr. Andrew Johns, a sober and very well-educated Catholic gentleman who could never be caricatured on that egregious website, who was deemed good enough by Bishop Dolan to conduct adult education classes after the 9:00 a.m. High Mass on Sundays at Saint Gertrude the Great Church for the past two years now, sent me the following e-mail later that day, Wednesday, December 2, 2009:

"Stephanie was fired today. Of course, the situation was ugly, and the way she was treated was disgraceful."

 

Although there still might be those who are not convinced of the monstrous nature of the offenses against human beings at Saint Gertrude the Great Church, this story, which involves an exemplary young Catholic couple who had uprooted themselves to be situated in what they (and many others of us believed) to be an oasis of the Faith, demonstrates the cruel determination of Bishop Dolan to save "his" name and "his" work that he had helped to tarnish by his own unchecked abuse of clerical authority, especially by his heartless, bitter desire to drive a stake deep into the heart of those who dare to tell him that he has been wrong to trust the Lotarskis and to remain so completely indifferent to the souls they have abused with his full permission and support. The man cannot take criticism, and he cannot face the truth about himself: that he is a bully who seeks to crush those whom he deems to be sullying "his" reputation' and "his" work.

I asked Mrs. Johns in a follow-up e-mail last evening if she could verify as a mater of the public record any or all of the abuses catalogued on the Confraternity of Saint Albert the Great website. This is what she wrote in a response to me sent via e-mail:

Dr, Droleskey,

I would indeed say that the listing of abuses on the sgginfo website is accurate. I had no knowledge of the last listing about the swimming pool incident. But other than that, all are true, and most happened on a weekly basis. It is the un-charity and un-Catholic attitude that exudes from Mark and Joan, unpunished by Bishop and Father, that has, sadly, made that list possible. What a tragedy.

 

As my former colleague John Vennari, who I would never consider my "enemy" and whose great work dissecting the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI speaks for itself despite his believing the apostate to be a true pope, is wont to say, "There you have it." An eyewitness has now put her name to that list, verifying the abuses alleged thereon. It will be interesting to see whether Captain Queeg-like character assassins on that egregious website will stoop so low as to go after a young Catholic woman who wanted to protect the innocence and the purity of the children of Saint Gertrude the Great School.

Mrs. Johns also noted in her conversation with me on the phone yesterday that another teacher, who must remain nameless for the time being, was told that she could not talk to her, Mrs. Johns, on the school grounds, including during recess, and that she, the other teacher could not have her cellular phone on her person during the school hours. This kind of Soviet-style paranoia sounds incredible. However, it is all true.

Mr. Andrew Johns, who was considered good enough by Bishop Dolan to teach those adult catechism classes each Sunday, sent me the following comments that he wanted to include in this report:

Dear Dr. Droleskey,

The unraveling of recent events surrounding the demise of St. Gertrude the Great school and Church has certainly, I think many would agree, constructed an impoverished atmosphere for the souls of the faithful residing in the vicinity of West Chester, Ohio, and one would think, in the traditional movement generally. Although our situation here in Ohio is manifestly grim, it undoubtedly has been superseded by the depravity of some so-called Catholics who have deigned us with their defamatory comments against you, Fr. Ramolla and others.  Confronted with such statements deprived of any conformity to Catholic decorum, certain questions immediately arise: Has the Charity in the soul of some of our fellow Catholics dried up? Is an effect of this turmoil that inflicts us here in Cincinnati caused such outlandish language penned by Catholics against their brothers and sisters in the Faith? One is hard pressed to find our pagan neighbors descending to such abominable depths of behavior. Such examples are multiplied continually on websites and forums given birth by disenfranchised minds. The site coined “laypopes” is a case in point. Is Father Ramolla creating a new religion? Are you, Dr. Droleskey, usurping the power of a Sovereign Pontiff? Are those of us who fled the walls of St. Gertrude the Great Church outside the Catholic Church? Such ridiculous accusations could only be uttered by those not familiar with the most basic doctrine set forth by Our Holy Mother the Church. Obviously, one spewing such nonsense could have never consulted the dogmatic theology manuals of Garrigou-LaGrange, Billot, Van Noort  or other manualists for instance, to investigate if their terms, statements, or arguments, if one could call them that, had any cogency theologically speaking. The language we are presented with is befitting of most websites and forums; it is theological fantasy.

As regards the termination of my wife, whose piety and devotion were assaulted by the tongue of Bishop Dolan, I was indignant, but not surprised. The Bishop’s actions are a mere symptom of that disease of clericalism that has infected the clergy of St. Gertrude the Great Church.  The manifest evils that occupy nearly the whole realm of the educational structure existing at the traditional chapel in West Chester, Ohio could never be overlooked by any reasonable person, nevertheless a Catholic whose reason is enlightened and guided by the Faith.  Bishop Dolan fired Stephanie for the bare fact that she, whose intelligence is illuminated by the infused virtue of Faith, would not, and more properly speaking, could not, turn a blind eye to the travesties occurring in the school. The facts that have been reported by you and others would make a litany of disturbing occurrences at St. Gertrude the Great School written here superfluous. Suffice it to say, that I am very proud of the valor of my wife. And I believe that our Holy Father St. Dominic, whose family we are both about to join in a short time, is proud of her too. 

As for me, and my family as a whole, we have witnessed a scandal of far reaching effect that simply cannot go on tolerated. My sister, who is a fallen away Catholic, recently went to a clergyman at St. Gertrude the Great Church for confession, which was made after a lapse of twenty-five years away from the Catholic Church. My mother, also a fallen away Catholic, two months ago prayed a Novena to Our Blessed Mother after forty years of not attending Holy Mass or issuing a prayer from her lips. These extraordinary events, guiding my family members into the Ark of Salvation, were derailed by scandals surrounding St. Gertrude the Great Church. After all, to those uninstructed in the Holy Faith, how could Her chosen representatives behave in such a fashion? Any rational discussions attempting to achieve the truth of this situation are defeated before it begins by the sense of the deception and hypocrisy on the part of the clergy. In the final analysis, it resolves itself into my mother and sister returning to their prior position of indifference toward religion. It will be a miracle for them to consider the Catholic Faith again.   I’m positive that many have the same sadness pierce their souls over the demise of our beloved chapel. As for those of us that have moved away from our homes, families, and friends and have given everything to embrace the True Catholic Faith in a foreign domain, I think it is fair to say, and the least that can be said, we are disappointed with our shepherd. The high esteem and respect my wife and I once held for Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada have been eclipsed with shame and bewilderment. We certainly will keep the clergy in our prayers and pray for their change of heart with regards to the issues discussed by so many of the disenfranchised parishioners of St. Gertrude the Great Church. As for us, we have come to the numbing conclusion that the mission of Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada is not of God.   

Once again, my few readers, I must apologize for the support that I gave to Bishop Dolan and Father Cekada and Bishop Sanborn, whose silence over this scandal is itself a scandal, in the past three and one-half years. I have apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Johns. I am mortified by the fact that I permitted myself to be so deceived for so long and, worse yet, to have said nothing earlier this year when I had heard that souls were in trouble in the school. I thought that private entreaties made to the bishop would work. I was very wrong. Shame on me. When all is said and done, however, I have had to remember what I was taught in fourth grade at Saint Aloysius School in Great Neck, New York, by Sister Inez Marie, R.S.M., prior to my confirmation on March 21, 1961: "Truth is not a respecter of persons."

We must forgive others as we pursue justice and expose deeds of darkness without any malice at all. We will not be forgiven our sins unless we forgive those who trespass against us, recognizing that nothing anyone does to us or says about us is the equal of what one of our least venial sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death.

Let us keep this whole matter uppermost in our prayers, especially in the Rosaries that we are to pray today. Could you say a Rosary for Andrew, Stephanie, and Raissa Anne Johns?

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 Gertrude the Great, pray for us.

Saint Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.

Saint Barbara, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints