FRANCIS II or JOHN PAUL III ?

How the media can influence the upcoming papal conclave

I congratulate President Trump for excluding the Associated Press (AP) from the Oval Office. The reason is that AP and many legacy and Catholic news outlets, instead of reporting the news, have been managing it with serious consequences. One reason the White House has invited non-traditional media organizations and podcasters to apply for press pool membership is that many people today have discovered how CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other media sources are not always balanced in their news coverage.

While some journalists take pride in being awarded a Pulitzer Prize, most people forget how Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst engaged in yellow journalism, a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts. In an effort to sell more newspapers, these publishers misled the U.S. public, including members of Congress, to believe that Spanish military forces were responsible for blowing up the USS MAINE in Havana Harbor on 15 February 1898 that resulted in the deaths of 266 of the 354 crew members. In response to headlines like, “Remember the Maine,” Congress declared war on April 25, 1898. The war claimed the lives of 3,289 Americans, as well as some 60,000 Spaniards.

In 1976 Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” conducted an investigation of the battleship Maine utilizing modern investigative techniques unavailable in the late nineteenth century. The investigation came to the conclusion that the explosion was not caused by a Spanish mine, but was the result of spontaneous combustion in the ship’s coal compartment located under the forward magazine room. The spark that ignited the Spanish-American War was not a deliberate attack by a foreign power, but an accident owing to a flaw in the ship’s design and a change in the type of coal used to fuel naval ships.

Unfortunately, many media sources are no better today at reporting the facts than they were over 100 years ago. The failure of the media to tell “the whole truth” about Pope Francis may not result in World War III, but it might result in the election of a “Francis II” who espouses many of the doctrinal and social positions of the current dying pontiff. The fact that CNN and other liberal media outlets failed to get Kamala Harris elected, offers a glimmer of hope that mainstream and liberal Catholic media sources like The National Catholic Reporter and America magazine may fail to get the College of Cardinals to elect another homosexually oriented pontiff whose pontificate has been as divisive and destructive as that of Leo X and Julius III who were responsible in part for the Protestant Reformation. Leo X, who excommunicated Martin Luther, suffered from an anal fistula as a result of too much anal sex. Julius III, like Francis whose alleged abuse of young Jesuit novices has been covered up by most media sources, was reported to have “shared [his] bedroom and bed” with 15-year-old Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte whom he made a cardinal at the age of 17. In light of Francis’ close personal relationship with prelates known to have engaged in homosexual predation and misconduct like Bishop Emeritus Gustavo Zanchetta, Cardinal Víctor Manuel "Tucho" Fernández, and Monsignor Battista Ricca, it’s hard to believe that anyone might think that Pope Francis is a heterosexual like St. John Paul II.

The cover-up of Pope Francis’ transgressions dates back to 2013 when Argentine and world media failed to report around the time of his election how many thousands of sex abuse cases he covered up in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. Despite Francis’ claim, “It [sex abuse] never happened in my diocese,” French investigative journalist, Martin Boudot, documented how this in fact was a lie when he produced Sex Abuse in The Church: Code of Silence which featured many Argentine sex abuse victims.

Media management of Francis’ persona occurred as early as 29 July 2013 when AP Vatican correspondent, Nicole Winfield, reported during an in-flight press conference, “A remarkably candid Pope Francis struck a conciliatory stance toward gays Monday, saying ‘Who am I to judge?’ when it comes to the sexual orientation of priests.” Examination of the transcript of the press conference, however, shows that the question posed to Francis had absolutely nothing to do with “the sexual orientation of priests,” but everything to do with the homosexual misconduct of one priest in particular. Brazilian journalist and correspondent for Globo TV in Italy, Ilze Scamparini, posed this question to Francis when she said, “I would like permission to ask a delicate question: another image that has been going around the world is that of Monsignor Ricca and the news about his private life. I would like to know, Your Holiness, what you intend to do about this?”

Just as Francis lied in his book, On Heaven and Earth, about there being no cases of sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, so too did he lie to the reporters on the plane about the multiple allegations against Ricca being investigated and found “not credible.” Did Ricca really not cohabitate with Patrick Haari, his Swiss lover in Uruguay? Was he not caught with a gay prostitute in an elevator? Was he not beaten up in a “cruising ground” frequented by homosexuals? Neither the mainstream media nor the Catholic media confronted Francis for withholding judgment on the morality of Ricca’s homosexual behavior, unlike Jesus who did not say “Who am I to judge” about the woman caught in adultery. Catholic Church leaders were silent about the Pope giving a pass to those who engage in homosexual behavior because most of them, like Francis and Ricca, are homosexuals themselves.

When one looks at photos today of nuns praying for Pope Francis, one can only wonder how they feel about the Pope’s failure to discipline his friend Father Marko Rupnik who has been accused of raping over 20 nuns and forcing some of them to drink his semen out of a chalice? Given the fact the Pope ignored the pleas of abuse victims, Lisa Roers and Rachel Mastrogiacomo, whose open letters and video were confirmed to have been received by the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and owing to Francis’ failure to discipline over 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults, corrupt Cardinals may be emboldened to think that if they were to get elected, the media will cover up for them as they have done for Francis. On the other hand, if the media were to expose Francis’ shortcomings and those of the papabile before they enter the Sistine Chapel, might these complicit candidates be less inclined to seek or accept the nomination? Abuse victims and sex abuse victims’ advocates are particularly interested in seeing if the legacy and Catholic media will avoid reporting on how Cardinal electors are alleged to have engaged in or covered up clerical sexual abuse and misconduct. It remains to be seen if the papabile will elect a “Francis II” or a “John Paul III.”

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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.