ANOTHER BAD APPOINTMENT BY POPE LEO

Recommendations for removing complicit bishops

The appointment of Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen as the Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans is consistent with the recent promotion of other bishops, like Cardinal Robert McElroy and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, who have a history of covering up abuse and clerical homosexual misconduct. Weisenburger was rewarded for mishandling sexual abuse cases in Oklahoma City, Salinas, and Tucson by being made the Archbishop of Detroit, just as McElroy was promoted and made the Archbishop of Washington after covering up abuse in San Diego.

Just as Checchio was sent to Metuchen to cover up for Bishop Paul Gregory Bootkoski, who covered up for his predecessor, ex-Cardinal McCarrick, so too is Pope Leo now sending Checchio to cover up the egregious record of Archbishop Gregory Aymond. When asked if he was going to investigate Aymond for allegations of abusing seminarians and mishandling abuse cases, paying out $230 million for abuse settlements with attorneys’ fees alone nearing $50 million, Checchio told reporters he had “no reason” to do so.”

While serving from 2004 to 2016 as the vice-rector and rector of the North American College (NAC) in Rome, Checchio dismissed a heterosexually oriented seminarian, “WM,” for refusing to attend the diaconate ordination of seminarians known to be sexually active homosexuals. This would support the belief that Checchio was no different than his predecessors, then-Msgr. Edwin O’Brien, then-Msgr. Timothy Dolan, and Msgr. Kevin McCoy, who were all known for covering up sexual predation and homosexual misconduct at the NAC.

O’Brien, Dolan, McCoy, and Checchio also covered up an underground AIDS testing program for NAC seminarians carried out by psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Barone, a member of the National Catholic AIDS Network. Barone found that one in twelve NAC seminarians tested HIV-positive, eighty of whom he personally treated. According to Barone, “Most of the seminarians had contracted AIDS through male-to-male sexual transmission.”

After former North American College (NAC) seminarian Anthony Gorgia was coerced by Cardinal Timothy Dolan into leaving formation in 2018 after witnessing the vice-rector, Father Adam Park, preying on seminarians, Gorgia filed a lawsuit against Dolan, the Archdiocese of New York, and the NAC. Michael Cassabon, a former NAC seminarian who studied two years behind Park in Rome when Checchio was the rector, contacted Gorgia after reading an article about the complaint he filed in New York Supreme Court. Cassabon had firsthand knowledge that Park was a sexually active homosexual.

Before submitting an affidavit to the court, Cassabon wrote to Father Peter Harman, the NAC rector, whom Gorgia accused of covering up Park’s predatory behavior. He also copied Checchio, his former rector, pointing out how, “On an evening in 2008, at a restaurant in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., Park ‘felt me up’ by rubbing my pectoral muscles while making cooing remarks in my ear. He complimented me on my physique and told me that I must have been going to the gym a lot…We were not friends, and it was shocking to me that he was so forward, especially in public...Park’s actions had a definite sexual connotation; were unwanted; and unwelcomed. At the time of this event, Park was the priest-secretary of Cardinal Wuerl, ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s successor as Archbishop of Washington.”

Although Cassabon did not receive a response from Checchio, he did hear back from Harmon who was aware that Checchio was copied on Cassabon’s letter to him. In his affidavit which corroborated Gorgia’s whistleblower allegations, Cassabon wrote, “Harman’s reply avoided any response to the accusations I detailed to him concerning Park. I found it very incriminating that, instead of addressing the improper sexual behavior I recounted about Park and the risk to seminarians’ well-being, Harman’s reaction was to direct ad hominem attacks toward the Plaintiff.”

Anyone who were to read Cassabon’s entire affidavit would conclude that Checchio, having been informed of Park’s homosexual predatory behavior, participated in covering up the credible, substantiated allegations against Park along with Dolan, Harman, and Father John McDonald, Gorgia’s faculty advisor. The failure of these churchmen to investigate the serious allegations against Park, substantiated by Cassabon, Curtis Weisenburger, and other seminarians, is very similar to how Pennsylvania State University officials, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, and Graham Spanier covered up the sex abuse allegations they received from Joe Paterno regarding Jerry Sandusky. While Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, and Curley, Schultz, and Spanier received sentences from 4 to 23 months, Park is believed to be enrolled in a doctoral program at the Gregorian University in Rome. Unlike the Penn State University officials who suffered the consequences of their inaction, Dolan, Checchio, Harman, and McDonald have all escaped investigation and prosecution, just like 150+ bishops worldwide credibly accused of sexual abuse and misconduct.

Checchio knew that he would be committing ecclesiastical suicide to side with a former seminarian against the Cardinal Archbishop of New York and the NAC, where Dolan also served as rector from 1994 to 2001. Checchio knew of Park’s political connections with both Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who sent him to study in Rome and ordained him in 2005, and with Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who made Park his priest-secretary before securing his appointment as the NAC vice-rector in 2017. Even without Checchio calling for an investigation, Park was sent home early in 2021, amidst allegations of homosexual predation. Park continues to be protected by McElroy, who is attempting to laicize Father Michael Briese, who accused both McElroy and Gregory of covering up Park’s homosexual predation of seminarians and clerical homosexual misconduct.

Checchio might be the perfect replacement for Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who is alleged to have abused multiple seminarians while also covering up the abuse of others at Notre Dame Seminary. Much like in the case of McCarrick, who infamously filled the bed of his Newark beach house with seminarians, reports surfaced in 2021 that Aymond molested male victims in his apartment and that a housekeeper had to “clean his sheets of semen” following visits of young men to his bedroom. One victim, Kevin Bourgeois, testified, “Carl Davidson (his abuser priest) would take me to his apartment at Notre Dame to abuse me. But Father Greg (referring to Aymond) would stop us in the hall, and he would then ‘pleasure himself’ before Davidson was allowed to enter the apartment at Notre Dame to molest me.” Aymond is only one of many prelates and priests accused of preying on seminarians and covering up abuse, as documented in Who Will Save Our Seminarians? Abused Seminarians Betrayed by a Church They Trusted.

Catholics who are led to believe that seminaries today are staffed and filled with heterosexuals have a hard time explaining why so many lawsuits filed by former seminarians alleging homosexual predation are still ongoing in the courts. My own study, “Addressing the Present-Day Culture of Sexual Predation and Cover-ups in U.S. Seminaries,” has yet to be disproven.

Episcopal appointments and promotions while Pope Leo XIV was the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, or while he has been in office since May 8, 2025, demonstrate that he is protecting and rewarding bishops like Checchio, McElroy, Weisenburger, and others who are accused of covering up abuse not only of minors, but also of vulnerable adults like seminarians. Under such a pontificate, one would have to question why a healthy heterosexual young man would want to dedicate his life to work in an institution populated by closeted homosexual prelates and priests found by a former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to engage in and cover up sexual predation and homosexual misconduct.

With the realization that “the squeaky wheel gets the oil,” lay Catholics in New Orleans and other (arch)dioceses plagued with complicit episcopal leadership like Washington, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and elsewhere, need to get parishioners in every parish to write or call both the complicit bishop and Pope Leo XIV via the Apostolic Nuncio (nuntiususa@nuntiususa.org / 202 331-7121). Here is a linked example of one letter written to the Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, as well as to McElroy, requesting that laicization proceedings against Father Briese be halted and that McElroy resign.

Until corrective and/or disciplinary action is taken, lay Catholics also need to inform their pastor, bishop, and the nuncio that they will be diverting all financial contributions previously donated to the parish and shared with the diocese to organizations like the Save Our Seminarians Fund or the Coalition for Canceled Priests. In keeping with the Latin proverb, Qui tacet consentire videtur (“silence renders consent”), Catholics who do not write or call “render consent” to poor episcopal leadership. As a result of their “silence,” they should not complain later if their church is someday sold or if one of their children or grandchildren is sexually abused. Until the laity demonstrates some moral courage and demands that Pope Leo and complicit bishops either resign or correct these problems, one should not be surprised to read reputable studies that “for every one Catholic convert, about nine or ten Catholics leave.”

Gene Thomas Gomulka is a sexual abuse victims’ advocate, investigative reporter, 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.