​FIVE OF THE TEN U.S. CARDINAL ELECTORS

What you won’t learn from most media sources

Before and after the election of Pope Francis in 2013, both the legacy and Catholic media reported very little about the newly elected pontiff’s record when it came to either engaging in or covering up the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. Even when the French investigative journalist, Martin Boudot, produced his 2017 documentary, Sex Abuse in the Church: Code of Silence, most American secular and religious media sources avoided reporting how Francis not only covered up clerical sex abuse, but also went out of his way to defend predators whom some felt he himself groomed and abused when he was their ecclesiastical superior. Many people question exactly how “close” Francis is to clerics like Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta and Monsignor Battista Ricca​ who were accused of either abusing seminarians or engaging in homosexual conduct with numerous individuals.

In the unlikely event that the College of Cardinals were to choose a North American as the next pope, lest someone say, “We never knew the pope covered up so much abuse when he was a cardinal,” let this article serve as evidence that “I warned you, but you didn’t listen.”

Among the 137 cardinals currently eligible to vote in the next conclave, including ten from the United States, are cardinals like Robert McElroy, Joseph Tobin, Wilton Gregory, Timothy Dolan, and Blase Cupich. All of these cardinals have been accused of being closeted homosexuals and of covering up sexual abuse just like Pope Francis who is documented to have lied when he said, “It [sex abuse] never happened in my diocese.”

Cardinal Robert McElroy, who was recently installed as the Archbishop of Washington, returned Father Jacob Betrand to ministry in 2015 knowing that he ​had admitted in 2014 to having satanically sexually abused Rachel Mastrogiacomo. McElroy also covered up the sexual abuse of twelve seminarians and priests whom the late psychotherapist Richard Sipe reported to have been abused by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The fact that Sipe’s legally served report to McElroy was never mentioned in The McCarrick Report shows how the report was whitewashed to protect Francis who was accused by Archbishop Carlo Vigano of abusing Jesuit novices in Argentina like McCarrick abused seminarians in New Jersey.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, who tweeted “nighty-night-baby, I love you,” was also reported to have housed a young Italian actor in his residence. Tobin continues to cover up for Father Miroslaw Krol, a Newark priest and former chancellor of Orchard Lake Schools, who was accused of sexually abusing three employees. The victims have been trying for five years without success to get Tobin to discipline Krol who released their names and accused them in Poland of having brought false charges against him. According to the victims who brought suit, Krol was accused of bringing predator priests from Poland to serve at Orchard Lake where together they were said to have preyed on vulnerable seminarians. One victim reported that Krol and his gay priest friends engaged in “orgies, drugs, and trips with seminarians to Krol’s timeshare in Puerto Vallarta where they frequented gay bars and invited male prostitutes to Krol’s apartment for orgies and drug-fueled parties.”

Cardinal Wilton Gregory who has been replaced by McElroy, is a protege of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. According to Richard Sipe, years before Bernardin was charged with sexual abuse by Steven Cook in 1993, "several priests who were associates of Bernardin prior to his move to Chicago revealed that they had 'partied' together…with seminarians.” Sipe also reported, “Bernardin's accuser (Cook) did not ever retract his allegations of abuse by anyone's account other than Bernardin's" and “the Chicago Archdiocese's ​p​ayoff to Cook before he died of AIDS was in the $3 million range.” After being asked by Washington priest Father Michael Briese if the rumors were true that Gregory was nicknamed “the African Queen” and had engaged in sex with men in Atlanta, Gregory suspended Briese​ who is well known and respected for his work with the poor and homeless in southern Maryland. Briese also confronted Gregory for covering up for Father Adam Park​ who was accused of preying on seminarians at the North American College (NAC) in Rome, and Father Carter Griffin​ who was accused of making sexual advances toward seminarians at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been accused of covering up sex abuse dating back to his first parish assignment in St. Louis. According to Chris O’Leary, Dolan did nothing to stop a fellow associate pastor, Father LeRoy Valentine, from abusing him in the rectory of the church of the Immaculata. Dolan would later be accused of abuse cover-ups while serving at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C.; as rector of the NAC; as Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis; as Archbishop of Milwaukee, and as Archbishop of New York. Dolan is currently involved in a multi-million dollar lawsuit in New York Supreme Court where he is accused of unjustly getting rid of former New York seminarian, Anthony Gorgia, who refused to remain silent after witnessing grooming and receiving reports of sexual predation at the NAC. In addition to covering up for Gorgia’s Staten Island pastor, Father Thomas Devery, who was accused of abusing two minors, Dolan continues to cover up for New York priests like Monsignor John Paddack, Monsignor Thomas Derivan, Father Donald Timone, Father George Sears, and others who remain in ministry despite having been accused of abuse or being named in sex abuse lawsuits.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, like the above-mentioned papabile, is also known to be a strong LGBTQ supporter. Given the fact that gays and lesbians believe that “LGBTQ rights and abortion rights are inseparable,” it came as no surprise that Cupich saw no reason why pro-abortion politicians like former President Joe Biden should be prohibited from receiving holy communion. In 2018, Cupich identified 150 substantiated child sex abusers in the Archdiocese of Chicago. However, in 2019, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office found an additional 125, almost twice the number reported by Cupich.

Media outlets have not only failed to report on how Pope Francis has been alleged to have engaged in and covered up abuse,​ but they ​also have ignored the fact that he has not laicized or excommunicated over 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors or vulnerable adults. While the media show nuns gathered in St. Peter’s Square praying for the hospitalized pontiff, they avoid mentioning how Francis has not laicized his friend, Father Marko Rupnik, who is accused of sexually abusing over twenty nuns while forcing some of them to drink his semen out of a chalice.

At this moment in time, one can’t say how long Pope Francis has yet to live. In the meantime, abuse victims in the U.S. like Lisa Roers, Rachel Mastrogiacomo, Wieslaw Walawender, Ryszard Biernat, Chris O’Leary, James Grein, and others invite people to pray that God may inspire the cardinals to elect a Holy Father who will restore the Church’s moral credibility by “cleansing the Temple” of those who engage in sexual abuse and all forms of clerical sexual misconduct.

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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.