MORE STRAIGHT PRIESTS WILL LEAVE UNLESS

The laity need to return celibate love

The most popular of the 110 Substack articles I published is “Why Priests Leave,” which has received some 21,000 views. Since the publication of that honest and revealing article, I have received numerous calls and emails from priests throughout the United States. Those communications have corroborated my findings that: 1) Straight men, asked to sacrifice marriage and family life, are less inclined to study for the priesthood than gay men; and 2) Straight priests, often struggling with celibacy, are more apt to leave ministry than gay priests who often are sexually involved with other gay men.

When a gay Charleston priest informed his gay bishop, Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone, that he had married a man, he reported that the bishop congratulated him, but counseled him to keep his relationship secret. It was only after the priest later returned to the bishop and requested that he discipline Father Hayden Veverek, the priest he alleged sexually abused him in high school, that the bishop, instead of removing the predator priest, removed the married gay priest from ministry. Hence, the gay priest was not dismissed because he married a man, but because he reported clerical sexual abuse. After dismissing the priest, Guglielmone himself was later accused of sexually abusing a young parishioner in New York in the 1970s when he was a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

A newly ordained straight priest, who was assigned to a parish where the gay pastor was having sex with different men he brought to the rectory, requested to be transferred to another parish, only to have his new pastor make sexual advances toward him. While the straight priest left the priesthood, neither of his two gay pastors was ever disciplined by their gay bishop.

Whistleblower priests like Washington Father Michael Briese know that it is often a waste of time and money to appeal reprisals from perceived homosexual prelates like Cardinals Wilton Gregory and Robert McElroy for reporting sexual predation and clerical homosexual misconduct on the part of priests like Fathers Adam Park and Carter Griffin. An appeal for justice by Father Briese to Pope Leo XIV or Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández would be like a Jew appealing to Adolf Hitler or Heinrich Himmler that his family was taken off to a concentration camp.

Catholics don’t have to worry about the ordination and retention of closeted gay priests who live pampered lives in well-appointed rectories while enjoying the company of gay friends both at home and away on vacations at places that cater to the LGBTQ community. Catholics, however, should worry about retaining straight priests who sacrifice far more than gay priests by forgoing the love and affection of a wife and children to follow Christ and serve His people.

Just as straight priests today cannot mentor and interface healthily with young people because of protocols put in place to prevent clerical sex abuse, so too has the ordination of many homosexual predators harmed the image of the priesthood, which might make some families hesitant to have “Father” over for dinner.

Because straight priests do not enjoy the support of their gay bishops and the gay priests of their dioceses, unless they feel supported and loved by their parishioners, the chances of them becoming romantically involved and leaving the priesthood are high, particularly if they are not bad-looking. The chances of a young straight priest being assigned to a parish in which the pastor is straight, holy, and a great mentor are very low today. Unfortunately, countless priests today are like Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, Father Peter Harman, Father Adam Park, and others who are kept in ministry by their bishops despite being reported for engaging in sexual predation or consensual homosexual behavior.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), approximately 428 men are scheduled to be ordained in the U.S. in 2026, with a median age of 33. What CARA never reported is how many of these men, while working full-time in their 20s before entering the seminary, led gay lives. Even if many of them today claim to be theologically conservative, that does not mean that they are morally straight. The fact that the Archdiocese of New York, which faces potential bankruptcy, continues its court battle against former seminarian Anthony Gorgia, who was unjustly discontinued for reporting sexual predation at the North American College (NAC), would lead one to believe that straight seminarians continue to be seen as threats to outing gay priests, bishops, and even popes.

Shortly after Easter, I received a call involving a young straight priest who felt very unsupported by his parishioners after celebrating Easter Triduum services at three churches under his pastoral care. If a priest finds himself “home alone” on an Easter Sunday evening, might he begin to question his vocation? Unlike gay priests who prefer the company of other gay priests to spending time with families, a straight priest might question why he was not invited to a home of one of his many parishioners

I asked if the priest knew if his predecessor was straight or gay. If he were gay, I opined that his predecessor might have turned down dinner invitations to secretly be with his male friends, which could have led parishioners, unaware of the differences between straight and gay priests, to believe that the new priest, too, might not be interested in coming to dinner at their homes.

Twenty-five years ago, in an America magazine article, “Home Alone in the Priesthood,” I encouraged Catholics to support priests like the one who found himself alone on Easter Sunday evening. I’ll close by reiterating that advice when I wrote:

It has been said, ‘The greatest gift a father can give his children is to love their mother.’ I suggest that the greatest way to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life is by returning the celibate love of priests and nuns. People are more likely to consider marriage when they see husbands and wives in loving relationships. Young people will likewise be encouraged to consider a religious vocation if they see their parents generously returning the love offered by dedicated and caring priests and religious.

If the Lord chose to send out the apostles ‘two by two’ (Mk. 6:7) and a further 72 other disciples ‘two by two’ (Lk. 10:1), could it have been that he did not want his priests and ministers to be alone? If Jesus himself did not lead a solitary existence, but exercised his ministry in the company of his Apostles, would he himself support the direction in which the priesthood is moving, where more and more priests are living by themselves? Apart from priests who are members of religious orders and who enjoy the support of fellow priests in community, diocesan bishops need to consider both the theological basis and psychological wisdom of large one-priest parishes. Both the recruitment of future candidates and the retention of current priests could be affected by the outcome of such a study.

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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.