POPE LEO HAS YET TO ADDRESS CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE

Abuse victims, advocates, and whistleblowers await action

Pope Leo XIV has been accused by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) of covering up abuse in Chicago and Peru where it argued the new Pope should have done more. While Bishop Accountability gave Leo good marks for the way he addressed abuse committed by members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) in Peru, it also criticized him for the fact that as head of the Augustinian order worldwide; as bishop of Chiclayo; and as Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops; "he released no names of abusers."

Pope Leo came under additional criticism as Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops for the appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy to the Archdiocese of Washington after McElroy covered up the satanic ritual rape of Rachel Mastrogiacomo by former San Diego Father Jacob Bertrand. Mastrogiacomo and Lisa Roars, another victim of ritual sexual abuse, are awaiting a response from Pope Leo after their open letter/video to Pope Francis, “The Prayer of the Prey,” was readdressed to Pope Leo and received by the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., at 6:52 p.m. on May 22, 2025.

It has been almost a month since I sent an Open Letter to Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese inquiring if I would continue to be censured for reporting sexual abuse in the Archdiocese for the Military Services. Navy Chaplain John “Matt” Lee, one of the priests whose homosexual misconduct I reported in May 2002 and whose predatory behavior was covered up, went on to abuse military personnel for five years while he was HIV positive. While Lee is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence, Archbishop Timothy Broglio continues to cover up my 2002 report like he covered up a 2016 report against predator Air Force Chaplain Brian Highfill. Unfortunately, military abuse victims like former Airman Tom Furino and others continue to suffer psychologically, financially, and spiritually as a result of the abuse and cover-ups.

I doubt that either Pope Leo or Bishop Bartchak wants a heterosexually oriented whistleblower priest to return to ministry when most of the U.S.-born bishops and priests are homosexuals who fear being outed or prosecuted for homosexual predation. I was informed recently that Franciscan Father Matthias Rendon, a former U.S. Army Chaplain, badmouthed me at a priests’ retreat for reporting on the predatory behavior of Father Robert Kelly, a former pastor of his current parish in Philipsburg, PA. When I was asked by a priest friend why Rendon would attack me even though we had never met, I told him that most Catholic military chaplains are homosexuals who know that, instead of covering up their abuse, I played a part in sending four predator Catholic Chaplains to prison while having others receive other-than-honorable discharges.

Even if a homosexually oriented priest is practicing celibacy, I’m concerned about how his psychology impacts his theology, ministry, and preaching. A previous homosexual pastor of a large nearby church gave a pro-LGBTQ sermon that moved hundreds of families to leave the Church. When a young man confessed to having had sexual relations with his girlfriend, the gay pastor asked if he used a condom. When the young man said he used “protection,” the priest said, “Well, then it wasn’t a sin.” Many Catholics do not realize how difficult it is for heterosexually oriented priests who have sacrificed having a wife and children to serve not only with homosexual priests, many of whom are sexually active with one another, but also to serve under homosexual bishops who promote fellow homosexuals while sending straight priests to smaller, remote parishes.

What is happening in my diocese is also happening in dioceses around the world. The late Irish Bishop Pat Buckey wrote:

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?

While the Catholic Church, Orthodox Judaism, Islam, Orthodoxy, and Evangelical Protestantism view homosexual behavior as against the natural law and moral order created by God, most Catholic clergy today outside of Africa and Asia are homosexually oriented. When I moved to Coronado, CA, in 1994, Monsignor John Portman, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church, invited me to dinner when he introduced me to his friend, “Nic” Reveles. Was I wrong to think Reveles and Portman were homosexuals when I saw a rainbow bumper sticker on Reveles’ car? It was years later that I learned Reveles had left the priesthood to lead an open gay lifestyle after being accused of drugging and sodomizing U.S. Marine Corps veteran and seminarian Mark Brooks. When Brooks went to the home of Reveles to confront him for what he had done to him, and when he reported having seen Reveles watching gay porn with San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn, was he wrong to assume that Reveles and Quinn were homosexuals? Washington Cardinal Robert McElroy was ordained by Quinn in 1980, was made Quinn’s secretary in 1982, and was made Quinn’s Vicar General in 1995. Following his early retirement in 1995 at the age of 66, Quinn was a co-consecrator at McElroy’s episcopal ordination in 2010 before he died in 2017.

It is in this context of a priesthood and episcopacy composed primarily of homosexuals that we must realistically consider how Pope Leo will deal with the ongoing sex abuse crisis. If Franciscan Father Matthias Rendon will defame me for revealing the names of predator priests like Father Kelly and having some of them imprisoned like Father Lee, can one realistically believe that the Pope will restore me to ministry while disciplining those who engage in abuse, cover up abuse, or retaliate against whistleblowers who report abuse? As of this date, only eight out of over 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults have been laicized. Until these bishops like Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta and priests like Father Marko Rupnik, who were protected by Pope Francis, are either laicized or excommunicated, I would have a very difficult time praying publicly at Mass for “Leo our Pope.”

Anyone who believes Pope Leo should enforce a “zero tolerance” sexual abuse policy is encouraged to join me, abuse and reprisal victims, in writing to Pope Leo at nuntiususa@nuntiususa.org. Please encourage him not only to discipline clerics who prey on minors and vulnerable adults who suffer lifelong pain, loss, and trauma, but also to remove bishops who cover up abuse or retaliate against those who report it.

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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.