CLERICAL HETEROPHOBIA 101

Canonical questions worth discussing

Almost every week, I am contacted by a straight priest or seminarian in the United States whose closeted homosexual bishop or seminary rector dismissed, laicized, or even excommunicated him - in almost every case without just cause and in violation of Canon Law. For example, just yesterday I spoke with a priest who was excommunicated by his bishop for a homily he preached lamenting sexual abuse and clerical homosexual misconduct in the Catholic Church. This morning, I received a text from a former seminarian who wrote about how he was recently coerced into leaving formation after reporting two seminarians who were engaged in homosexual relations in the room next to his.

One reason people often contact me is that Dominican Father Tom Doyle and I are well-known “canceled priests” who lost our ecclesiastical endorsements to serve as military chaplains as a result of speaking out and testifying on behalf of victims of clerical sexual abuse. Coerced as a whistleblower into leaving the priesthood, although never laicized or excommunicated, I continue to work in my retirement at exposing complicit bishops and priests who engage in abuse; cover up abuse; or reprise against clergy and seminarians who report abuse.

Chicago Father Paul Kalchik, Washington Father Michael Briese, Richmond Father Mark White, Baltimore Deacon Wiesław Walawender, and New York Seminarian Anthony Gorgia are only five of countless priests, deacons, and seminarians who were unjustly removed from ministry and who continue to suffer under the corrupt leadership of prelates like Cardinals Blase Cupich, Robert McElroy, Timothy Dolan; Archbishop William Lori; and Bishop Barry Knestout. Because there are priests still engaged in ministry with whom I have spoken who could experience even more unjust treatment than being sent off to a remote parish or prison, I cannot use their names or identify their corrupt bishop without exposing them to even more unjust treatment.

If I am empathetic to their situation, it’s not just because I myself was the victim of retaliation for exposing abuse and cover-ups, but it also stems from the fact that my diocesan priest mentor, Monsignor Philip Saylor, was also unjustly punished for telling the truth at a clerical sex abuse trial which cost the diocese $1.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. With 51 out of around 200 priests (25.5%) credibly accused of abuse, the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese paid $21.5 million for its mishandling of abuse cases which forced the diocese to sell its chancery building and the Bishop’s Episcopal Residence.

Following the abuse trial, closeted homosexual Bishop Joseph Adamec, who, like many bishops, kept several homosexual predator priests in ministry after arranging out-of-court settlements, transferred Monsignor Saylor from a prestigious parish in State College, PA, to a much smaller, remote parish under a “precept of silence.” Adamec wrote, “Violation of this personal, penal precept [of silence] will be punished with just penalties, which could include suspension and even excommunication.” When Adamec was called to testify before the Pennsylvania Grand Jury (2014-2016), he often took the Fifth Amendment lest he incriminate himself for having covered up abuse and unjustly punishing whistleblowers like Saylor

It is very disheartening to read comments from some Catholics about canceled, whistleblower priests like sixty-nine-year-old Washington Father Michael Briese, who could soon find himself homeless and without health benefits. After reporting how Briese confronted Cardinals Wilton Gregory and Robert McElroy for allegedly covering up sexual abuse and engaging in homosexual misconduct with other clerics, one Catholic woman wrote:

“Heterosexual priests who are discriminated against should leave. Life is hard. All the time, people have to change careers even under very difficult circumstances. Plenty of people in this world don’t have high-level qualifications to get high-paying jobs. A priest with a theology degree can manage a restaurant and make a decent living.”

I doubt this woman would want to know the reaction to her comments from a straight deacon from the Baltimore Archdiocese, in formation for 8.5 years, who was thrown into the street and who works to this day as a truck driver after being drugged and sodomized by his supervisory pastor, Msgr. Edward Staub.

Almost every case that comes across my desk involves a straight priest or seminarian whom a closeted homosexual bishop or seminary rector is treating unjustly. While straight clerics are being dismissed either on fabricated charges or for a minor infraction, allegations against homosexual bishops, priests, and seminarians accused of sexual predation or homosexual misconduct are almost always ruled “unsubstantiated.” Consider, for example, how former straight New York seminarian, Anthony Gorgia, was discontinued at the North American College (NAC) in Rome on the grounds of being “slow in human formation.” Georgia refused to keep quiet about the former alleged homosexual rector, Father Peter Harman, who had been covering up for his vice rector, Father Adam Park, accused in court documents of preying on vulnerable seminarians and engaging in homosexual relationships.

The fact that over eighty percent of American-born bishops and priests in the U.S. today are homosexuals, as was also reported about in the Vatican, I cannot help but question how many bishops and priests today are validly ordained. Consider this argument:

If a young woman marries a man in the Catholic Church who hid from her the fact that he was sterile owing to a combat wound, she could get an annulment based on “fraud.” If a teenage girl who has an unplanned pregnancy is married in the Catholic Church and her marriage fails, the fact that she never would have married when she did had she not been pregnant can often justify receiving an annulment on the grounds of “immaturity” and “force.” My question to Canon Lawyers is: “Can the validity of Sacred Orders be questioned on the grounds of ‘immaturity, fraud, and force,’ as in the case of marriage?”

While members of the LGBTQ community would like people to believe that they were born that way, many gays and lesbians admit that they were groomed or abused during their period of psychosexual development. When he was thirteen years old, “Lee” left home to study at a high school seminary where he was groomed by a priest faculty member who introduced him to gay sex. During his 12 years in the seminary, he had sex with a number of priests and seminarians. Because he never had an emotional or sexual experience with a woman, he understandably was led to self-identify as homosexual. Not wanting his parents, relatives, and friends to know that he is gay, he thought he could keep his homosexuality a secret if he completed his seminary studies, got ordained, and inconspicuously lived “in the closet of the sacristy.” While his initial intention of studying for the priesthood at a very young age may have been because he felt he had a vocation which would be a valid reason for being ordained, did his decision to be ordained to hide his homosexuality invalidate his ordination based on immaturity, fraud, and force?

Consider how many thousands of bishops and priests there are today who were sexually groomed by priests and older seminarians without ever having had an emotional, physical, or sexual relationship with a woman. If “celibacy” is defined as “not being married,” and if marriage is defined by the Catholic Church as a lifelong partnership between one man and one woman, how can a homosexual promise not to marry when he is psychologically incapable of entering into a lifelong partnership with a woman for whom he cannot develop any feelings of love?

The largest empirical research to date by Richard Sipe studied 1,500 Catholic priests over the period of 25 years and concluded that fewer than 50 percent of Roman Catholic priests in the United States even attempt celibacy, while only 2 percent achieve total celibate chastity.

If I were to sell you a car without telling you that it was in a flood, only for you later to have serious problems with it, am I not guilty of having committed fraud? Consider the case of a seminarian who is not informed of studies showing: 1) At any moment in time, no more than half of all priests are living celibate lives (as acknowledged by Cardinal José Tomás Sánchez, a former Head of the Dicastery for the Clergy); and 2) Only around two percent of priests admit to never having broken their promises/vows throughout their entire lives. If that seminarian was ordained and was later reported for breaking his vows, might he be laicized on the grounds of fraud perpetrated by the Church that kept the high priestly infidelity rates from him lest he change his mind about being ordained?

Roman Catholics who want all their priests to promise celibacy and who oppose priests being given the option to marry before ordination, as in the Eastern Rite Churches, fail to acknowledge the high infidelity rates among so-called “celibate” priests. What they fail to understand is that if seminarians truly had the option of marrying, and if they were not forced to forego getting married in order to be ordained, their chances of truly leading celibate lives would be significantly enhanced.

Church leaders and many lay Catholics do not want to admit that “force” is involved by telling seminarians that they can only be ordained if they choose celibacy, regardless of how it is often not practiced in the lives of most priests. If a heterosexual seminarian is forbidden to date; has minimal social contact with women while in the seminary; is forced to promise celibacy if he wishes to be ordained; is not told how truly difficult it is to lead a celibate life; and only develops feelings for women whom he interacts with after he is ordained, can the validity of his Holy Orders be called into question on the grounds of “immaturity, fraud, and force?”

These questions will never be discussed in seminaries today, where most seminarians are homosexuals who will never be tempted to get married, insofar as they are psychologically incapable of falling in love with women. If the Pope and his fellow homosexual bishops are not interested in attracting more heterosexual vocations by offering diocesan priests the option to marry before ordination, as is the case in the Eastern Rite Churches, is it because they are heterophobic and don’t want straight seminarians to be able to marry women when they can’t “marry” other gay men?

If you appreciate my research and writings, please contribute to the “Save Our Seminarians” Fund that will help safeguard young men from becoming victims of homosexual predation in U.S. Catholic seminaries.

Gene Thomas Gomulka is a sexual abuse victims’ advocate, investigative reporter, author, and screenwriter. A former Navy (O6) Captain/Chaplain, seminary instructor, and diocesan Respect Life Director, Gomulka was ordained a priest for the Altoona-Johnstown diocese and later made a Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by St. John Paul II. Email him at msgr.investigations@gmail.com.