DEN OF INIQUITY

Five prelates who personify Cardinal Edwin McCoy

Almost ten years after Dominican Father Thomas Doyle and I were removed from ministry for exposing clerical sexual abuse and homosexual misconduct in the Catholic Church “without recourse to any form of due process,” I decided to write a screenplay entitled, “Den of Iniquity.” The screenplay, which is now being made into a co-authored novel, deals with: 1) The non-consensual sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults which is carried out mainly by homosexually oriented clergy as documented by researchers like Father Dariusz Oko, Father Paul Sullins, Swiss Bishop Marian Eleganti, and the late psychotherapist Richard Sipe; and 2) The problem of consensual clerical homosexual misconduct and cover-ups involving popes, bishops, priests, and seminarians, most of whom were sexually active before and after their ordinations.

Unlike most of my writing, which is factual, Den of Iniquity is a work of “faction,” i.e., a creative text that blends real-life historical facts with invented fictional storytelling.

The plot deals with a Marine Corps veteran who, unjustly dismissed from a Catholic seminary after being sexually assaulted, teams up with an attractive Jewish lawyer to uncover a trail of sex trafficking and the murder of an illegal immigrant that threatens a cardinal’s hopes of being elected the next pope.

A notable work of faction is Windswept House by Jesuit Father Malachi Martin, who used real-life events reported to him about Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, just like I use events involving prelates whom I have learned are guilty of sexual abuse, cover-ups, and reprisals. A previous article, “The Truth about Bernardin and ‘Agnes’,” documented how Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin (when he was a young priest in Charleston, SC) and his Bishop, John Joyce Russell, not only satanically abused a young girl whom Martin called “Agnes,” but also how Bernardin abused several young men who are identified by Brother Michael Dimond in his article entitled, “Was the most powerful ‘Cardinal’ in America after Vatican II a secret Satanist?“

While Malachi Martin was inspired by Cardinal Bernardin to write Windswept House, I was inspired by the lives of prelates like Cardinal Roger Mahony, the late ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and Archbishop George Lucas to create the character of the antagonist, “Cardinal Edwin McCoy.”

Retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony is reported to have “21 certified sex abuse claims filed against him in Los Angeles Superior Court which name him as the actual perpetrator of rape, forced oral copulation, and abuse of mostly immigrant teenage boys — claims that were buried in an $880 million settlement to avoid trial.” It is ironic that “insider allegations claim Mahony is secretly HIV positive,” while he vehemently attacked The Kansas City Star in January 2000 when the newspaper published an article exposing the inordinate number of Catholic bishops and priests who had died of AIDS. After Mahoney denounced The Star’s report, Star reporters researched the problem in greater depth. In November 2000, The Star retracted its January findings and reported that it underestimated the extent of the problem. Follow-up research, based on death certificates and interviews with family members, found an additional 300 AIDS-related priest deaths nationwide.

My fellow researcher and abuse advocate friend, the late Richard Sipe, estimated the clerical AIDS death toll at eight times the rate for the general population. New Jersey psychiatrist and AIDS expert Joseph Barone, who reported that 1 in 12 seminarians at the North American College (NAC) in Rome were HIV positive, told the Star the figure likely is closer to 11 times the rate for the general population. These death findings from AIDS support other gay priest studies showing that by 2012, only 26.9% of the priests identified themselves as heterosexuals; 67.3% self-identified as gay/homosexual; and 5.8% reported that they were bisexual. That percentage of homosexual and bisexual Catholic priests in the U.S. is estimated to be even higher today, particularly among members of the episcopate.

A second prelate who inspired the character of Cardinal McCoy is the late ex-Cardinal Theodore “Uncle Ted” McCarrick, notorious for assaulting several powerless seminarians at his New Jersey beach house, including Polish seminarian Wiesław Walawender, who was later drugged and sodomized by Monsignor Edward Staub at St. John the Evangelist Church in Severna Park, MD. McCarrick was known to have sailor uniforms tailored for his weekend sexual conquests, whom he called his “Little Sailors.” Removed from ministry in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI after receiving abuse allegations from the late Richard Sipe, McCarrick was restored to ministry by Pope Francis in 2013 despite being informed of his predatory behavior that same year by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Francis did not remove McCarrick from ministry until 2018, even though Francis was informed of McCarrick’s abusive behavior by Viganò in 2013, by Father Boniface Ramsey in 2015, and by Richard Sipe via then-Bishop Robert McElroy in 2016.

Just as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was rewarded by being made pope after covering up abuse when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, so too was Archbishop Edwin O’Brien made a cardinal after covering up abuse in the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS). Ordained for the Archdiocese of New York, O’Brien was a former rector of both St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, NY, and the North American College (NAC) in Rome. While serving as the Archbishop for the Military Services, U.S.A. (1997-2007), he is alleged to have underreported and covered up hundreds of sex abuse cases. One of those cases involves Navy Chaplain Father John “Matt” Lee, whose predatory behavior was reported to O’Brien in May 2002, five years before Lee was arrested in 2007 and convicted of sexually assaulting Naval Academy Midshipmen and U.S. Marines while he was HIV-positive. After serving a short two-year sentence, Lee was later arrested in 2014 on child pornography charges and is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who succeeded O’Brien, continues to this day to conceal how O’Brien failed to investigate and discipline Lee, claiming that Lee was reported for “probable homosexual orientation,” a claim that is a bald-faced lie, based on the May 6, 2002 letter O’Brien received reporting Lee for cohabiting with a young sailor in Honolulu, HI.

A fourth prelate who provided inspiration for the character of Cardinal McCoy is Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The retired Archbishop of New York and former rector of the North American College (NAC) in Rome prevented former seminarian Anthony Gorgia from returning to the NAC, fearing he would out the vice rector, Father Adam Park, ordained by ex-Cardinal McCarrick, who was accused of preying on seminarians. In coercing Gorgia to leave formation, Dolan also sought to protect the NAC rector, Father Peter Harman, who was reported for engaging in homosexual acts with his former Springfield bishop, George Lucas, whom Dolan befriended when they lived and studied together for seven years in high school and college seminaries in St. Louis, MO. Dolan covered up the sexual abuse of several New York predator priests, contributed to the suicide of at least one abuse victim, and left many credibly accused priests in parishes, as documented in From Predators to Pastors.

The final prelate who inspired the character of Cardinal McCoy is retired Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. In previous Substack and Complicit Clergy articles, I reported Lucas for covering up the satanic ritual abuse of Lisa Roers by a priest currently on staff at Boys Town; for engaging in anal sex with Father Peter Harman (the former rector of the North American College); for abusing a high school seminarian at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary; and for covering up the sexual abuse of Cynthia Yesko by two of his Springfield diocesan priests. The character of Tomás Alvarez in Den of Iniquity is inspired by Thomas Muñoz, a Springfield Diocese Hispanic Youth Minister who reported being paid $300 by then-Bishop Lucas to participate in a clerical orgy in his episcopal residence. A superb investigation undertaken by Christine Niles documents how Lucas threatened both Muñoz’s life and the life of investigator Stephen Brady, who reported the matter to the Apostolic Nuncio before a whitewashed diocesan internal investigation covered up the orgy.

My co-author, David Tracy, and I hope to publish Den of Iniquity before Thanksgiving. The names of other people who inspired the various characters in this work of faction can be found at https://gomulka.org/books. If you find my Substack articles interesting and informative, and if you enjoyed movies like Spotlight, Primal Fear, and Sound of Freedom, I’m confident you will find Den of Iniquity to be a real page-turner.

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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.