WHY DID THE LAVENDER MAFIA SELECT ROBERT PREVOST?

Vos Estis Lux Mundi: A ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card

It was during the “Summer of Shame” in 2018 that: 1) The media and Church leaders finally took notice of Father Boniface Ramsey’s reports about Cardinal Theodore McCarrick; 2) The Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigation reported the sexual abuse of over 1,000 victims by over 300 priests from six PA dioceses; and 3) Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published his “Testimony” accusing Pope Francis and many bishops of covering up McCarrick’s predatory behavior for years. Angered by these revelations, lay Catholics in the U.S. pressured the bishops to create a lay investigatory board, similar to the National Review Board founded in 2002, to investigate bishops accused of engaging in or covering up sexual abuse.

Just when the bishops were about to vote on creating such a board at their November 2018 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting, Cardinal Blase Cupich announced that Pope Francis had requested that the matter be tabled as he was convening a Vatican Summit in February 2019 to study the problem from a global perspective. It was at that same USCCB meeting that: 1) Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland put himself in the crosshairs of the Lavender Mafia with his remarks about clerical homosexual predation and misconduct; and, 2) The report distributed to the bishops by Rev. Dr. Paul Sullins entitled, “Is Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy Related to Homosexuality?” was covered up like the 1985 sex abuse report by Rev. Thomas Doyle, O.P.

It came as no surprise to abuse victims and their advocates that the Vatican Summit proved to be a joke. Even though over 80 percent of abuse victims in the Church were boys and young men who were objects of homosexual predation, the one topic that was never addressed at the Summit was homosexuality. This was understandable, seeing that over 80% of the clergy who work in the Vatican, and the majority of the 190 participants invited to the Summit by Pope Francis and Cardinal Cupich, were believed to be closeted homosexuals. It is too bad that Swiss Bishop Marian Eleganti was not invited to the Summit, as he would have made it clear that the “Church can’t address the abuse crisis until it confronts homosexuality in the clergy.”

In the aftermath of the Summit, Pope Francis promulgated Vos estis lux mundi, an even bigger joke, which is nothing more than a “self-policing process disguised as accountability” that involves bishops investigating other bishops who are accused of abuse or cover-ups. Unless the abuse receives a lot of media attention and there are multiple victims, credible allegations against most bishops are ordinarily ruled “unsubstantiated.”

BishopAccountability.org has identified 60 U.S. bishops, out of 162 bishops worldwide, who have been publicly accused of sexually abusing minors or vulnerable adults. That number represents only the tip of the iceberg of bishops guilty of abuse. Nowhere in this list will one encounter the names of prelates like Cardinals Joseph Bernardin or Roger Mahony, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, and others whose sexual predation and misconduct are either not reported in the media or often covered up with “hush-money” provided in out-of-court settlements. Because clerical sex abuse on the part of bishops often involves vulnerable adults, bishops in states like Maryland have fought to limit the lifting of abuse statutes of limitations to those who were abused as minors. U.S. prelates like Gordon Bennett, Joseph Bernardin, Robert Brom, Wilton Gregory, George Lucas, Robert Lynch, Roger Mahony, Eugene Marino, Theodore McCarrick, James McCarthy, Robert Sanchez, Francis Spellman, Rembert Weakland, Lawrence Welsh, and others were all accused of abusing vulnerable adults, including countless seminarians.

To date, only 8 out of 162 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and/or vulnerable adults have been laicized. For example, according to evidence compiled by lay Catholics of “Clean the Church,” Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony was never disciplined by Pope Francis, nor has he been disciplined by Pope Leo, even though “21 certified abuse claims in Los Angeles Superior Court (JCCP5101) name Mahony as the actual perpetrator of rape, forced oral copulation, and abuse of mostly immigrant teenage boys — claims that were buried in a $880 million settlement to avoid trial.” Fr. James Melley, a Navy chaplain and priest at Mahony’s own parish, reported years of private conversations detailing Mahony’s alleged double life, including “homosexual predation, manipulation, and satanic affiliations.” In addition to being accused of abusing seminarians and young priests, Mahony is also alleged to maintain secret files to blackmail clergy, even though he himself has been reported to be HIV positive.

Recently retired Omaha Archbishop George Lucas likewise has yet to be disciplined despite having been accused of: 1) Abusing a teen-aged seminarian in St. Louis; 2) Participating in a clerical gay orgy in the presence of Springfield seminarians; 3) Failing to investigate and discipline two pedophile Springfield priests accused of sexually abusing Cynthia Yesko when she was 4-7 years old; and 4) Covering up the satanic ritual abuse of Lisa Roers by Omaha Father Dennis Hanneman that was reported to him in September 2021.

Vos estis lux mundi complaints were filed against both Mahony and Lucas, just as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) filed a similar complaint against then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, alleging abuse cover-ups in Chicago and the Diocese of Chiclayo. In almost every case involving U.S. bishops, allegations have been ruled “unsubstantiated,” which has led the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to “archive” the complaints.

Appeals on the part of lay Catholics made to the Apostolic Nuncio, a Vatican Dicastery, or the Pope himself to have a corrupt, complicit bishop removed and disciplined are a waste of time and money, even if Catholics retain canon lawyers who prepare briefs citing violations of certain Church Canons. Because “Don Leo,” the anointed head of the Lavender Mafia; “Tucho” Fernandez, the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Cardinal Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, have all been accused of covering up clerical sexual abuse, one cannot expect them to discipline a U.S. bishop for committing a similar offense.

Between 2013 when Archbishop Viganò reported Cardinal McCarrick to Pope Francis, and 2018 when Viganò published his “Testimony,” Francis had been covering up for McCarrick who not only knew that Francis covered up countless abuse cases when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, but that Francis was also alleged to have preyed on Jesuit novices in Argentina, just like McCarrick groomed and abused seminarians and young priests in New Jersey. Most people are unaware of a report that McCarrick had made a timely visit to Buenos Aires to gather blackmail material on Francis who, as it happened, lifted the disciplinary restrictions on McCarrick imposed by his predecessor and entrusted him with several important diplomatic missions, including to China and Cuba.

Whereas countless high school seminarians were groomed by closeted faculty members and priests during their period of psychosexual development which appears to have caused many of them to become homosexuals; whereas Pope Leo studied at an Augustinian high school seminary at which a priest is known to have abused students; whereas over 80 percent of members of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy are believed to be homosexuals; whereas studies show that 73 percent of homosexuals admit to having preyed on teenage boys; what is the statistical probability that Pope Leo may have been groomed, or may have engaged in homosexual predation or consensual homosexual misconduct while in Michigan, Illinois, or Peru?

If one way of knowing a cleric’s “sexual orientation is by his associations,” Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV are thought to have revealed their closeted homosexual orientation by their “association” with Don Lorenzo Milani. After Francis made a pilgrimage to Milani’s tomb in 2017, Leo later proclaimed Milani a “prophet” in an address in St. Peter’s Square. This is the same Milani who, in a 1959 letter, wrote:

“If there is a danger for my soul, it is certainly not that I have loved too little, but that I have loved too much—meaning even to the point of taking them to bed. And then, who will ever be able to love boys to the bone without, in the end, putting it up their backside…”

Leo has yet to meet with abuse victims or to discipline over 160 bishops credibly accused of abuse, including prelates like Roger Mahony, George Lucas, Gregory Aymond, Wilton Gregory, Robert McElroy, Edward Grosz, and many others accused of engaging in sex abuse; covering up sex abuse; or reprising against clergy or laity who report sex abuse.

Leo’s failure to abrogate Vos estis lux mundi and his promotion of prelates like Robert McElroy, Edward Weisenburger, James Checchio, and others who were reported for covering up sex abuse, have led abuse victims and advocates to conclude that Leo was elected to help keep bishops out of prison and to make sure that all sexual abuse accusations against bishops are covered up and ruled “unsubstantiated.”

Until Vos estis lux mundi is replaced with truly punitive measures against abusers, one should not expect bishops to be sentenced like Argentine Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, or to be disciplined by Pope Leo, even if one is an archbishop like Gregory Aymond whose housekeeper reported having to “clean his sheets of semen” following visits from young men to his bedroom.

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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.