GOODBYE, STRAIGHT MEN

The real state of U.S. seminaries today

Pope Leo XIV recently addressed a large group of seminarians in Rome for a special Jubilee week, thanking them for their willingness to devote their lives to the Church. If the number of major seminarians worldwide has fallen 12% over the past twelve years, one reason is due to the increase in the number of homosexual bishops, priests, and seminarians in the Americas and Europe which has had a negative impact on the retention and recruitment of heterosexual priests and seminarians.

After graduating as the valedictorian of his high school class, Anthony Gorgia from Staten Island, New York, was offered a full scholarship with a stipend to a prestigious university. Having felt called by Christ to be a priest since he was six-years old, Gorgia turned down the scholarship to pursue his vocation to the priesthood. After graduating summa cum laude from St. John’s University with a master’s degree in philosophy, Georgia was sent by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to study theology in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Even though he maintained a 4.0 grade point average and received outstanding evaluations, Cardinal Dolan informed Gorgia, half-way through his second year of theology, that he was being discontinued based on the advice of the North American College (NAC) rector, Father Peter Harman. Dolan refused five requests to meet with Gorgia and his parents because he knew Gorgia’s dismissal was unjust.

Dolan studied at a high school and college seminary in St. Louis for seven years with Omaha Archbishop George Lucas who is reported in court documents to have been carrying on a homosexual relationship with Father Peter Harman when Lucas was the Bishop of Springfield in Illinois. Both Dolan, who himself served as the NAC rector (1994-2001), and Harman, feared that Gorgia would expose the homosexual culture at the NAC and the vice rector, Father Adam Park, whom Gorgia witnessed grooming seminarians. After a two-year period, when appeals to Dolan, the NAC, and Vatican officials fell on deaf ears, Georgia felt compelled to bring suit in New York Supreme Court. The suit, supported by a plethora of evidence, was initially dismissed on jurisdictional grounds involving the separation of church and state. The case, now over five years old, is still in the hands of the appellate court.

When Gorgia decided to turn down the college scholarship which, with his abilities, could have led him to become a doctor or lawyer, he didn’t realize that he was joining a heterophobic organization composed mainly of homosexuals. Like most Catholics, he had no idea that the percentage of homosexual Catholic clergy in the U.S. had increased to over 80%, not counting foreign born priests from Africa and India who tend to be heterosexually oriented. For decades straight seminarians who reported being preyed upon were being separated from U.S. seminaries while homosexual and bisexual candidates were being ordained. Most parents with closeted homosexual sons are delighted that their sons want to be priests, thereby ensuring that relatives and friends will never know their little “secret.” Catholic parents who encourage their gay sons to become priests to avoid embarrassment are like parents who force their pregnant teenage daughters to get abortions.

Ironically, the day Gorgia would have been ordained a priest in St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the same day Dolan ordained a “close friend” of Father Thomas Devery, Gorgia’s Staten Island pastor, who had been removed from ministry after two men filed sex abuse lawsuits against him. It was only after Gorgia learned of these lawsuits that he realized why Devery did not object to Dolan coercing him into leaving formation. Homosexual seminary rectors and faculty members fear being outed by straight seminarians, just like Devery feared that Gorgia might blow the whistle on his closeted sex life.

Like many unjustly dismissed heterosexual seminarians, Gorgia believes that he might have faced a very lonely life had he been ordained. Not only would he be limited in mentoring youth owing to Church protocols that prevent a priest from interacting with young people without adult lay supervision, so too would he not enjoy the support of fellow priests, the majority of whom are closeted homosexuals who prefer the company of other homosexual priests. Working for a prelate like Dolan who continues to keep priests in ministry despite being accused of engaging in sexual predation and homosexual misconduct would also prove to be challenging for any priest with high moral values like Gorgia. No matter how hard a straight priest works, it’s usually the homosexual priests whom the bishop promotes and rewards with plum assignments. Even if a straight priest is assigned to a poor, small, remote parish, he still has to be careful not to address certain topics in his homilies or on social media, especially about abuse by priests and cover-ups by bishops.

When someone says that seminaries are no longer havens for homosexuals, I then ask why seminarians continue to bring suit claiming sexual abuse or discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Why are seminary officials who were accused of sexual predation and homosexual misconduct still in ministry? Why do recent seminary reports that lead readers to believe that gay seminary cultures no longer exist fail to acknowledge allegations of sexual predation and homosexual misconduct reported by former seminarians? If the seminaries are truly operated by heterosexual priests and populated by heterosexual seminarians, why has no effort been made to contact heterosexually oriented seminarians who were unjustly coerced into leaving formation? Might it be because the conditions that forced straight seminarians to leave persist to this day?

The family of former Baltimore seminarian, Karl Discher, complained to the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who covered up the sexual predation Discher reported at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., and St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore. Unlike Buffalo Father Joseph Gatto, the Christ the King Seminary rector, who was placed on leave amid misconduct violations, Washington Father Carter Griffin, who is alleged to have sexually harassed Discher, and Washington Father Adam Park, who is alleged to have preyed on seminarians at the NAC, were never removed from ministry pending the results of an investigation. It appears that Cardinal Robert McElroy is handling the allegations against Griffin and Park the same way he covered up the abuse allegations involving former San Diego Father Jacob Bertrand who pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

The homosexual problem in U.S. seminaries is similar to those in other countries where the loss of heterosexuals has led to the closure of many seminaries outside of Africa and Asia. While there is only one seminary today in all of Ireland and two in England, seminaries in countries like Nigeria and India that do not approve of homosexual behavior are flourishing.

What the late Irish Bishop Pat Buckley said about the state of the priesthood and episcopacy in Ireland could easily apply what is happening in the United States:

“Today, the Roman Catholic episcopate and priesthood are predominantly gay. Is it a case that they promote each other? Is it a case that they promote each other in return for sexual favors? The case of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a case in point. McCarrick saw to it that quite a number of his former bedfellows got miters. The old belief that the Holy Spirit appoints bishops is nonsense. A cleric gets promoted for being a company man, for having a brown tongue, and it seems for bending over for your superiors. Why are so many gay men attracted to the priesthood? Do they go in there to hide? Do they go in to escape? Do they go in for the position and the status? Do they go in for the easy, comfortable life?”

Over 350 U.S. seminary officials and vocation directors involved in priestly formation were invited to comment on the veracity of this article. While not one of them responded, I did receive this note on June 27, 2025, from a former seminarian, Luke: “I lasted 3 weeks in seminary before the gayness was just too much.”

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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.