THE ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF SEMINARIES?

Truly, a delusion!

When I went to the hospital yesterday for a colonoscopy and met the gastroenterologist, I was relieved to learn that he was no “rookie,” as he had performed some 70,000 of these procedures. Educated researchers with years of experience like Rev. Paul Sullins, Rev. Darius Oko, Dr. Jules Gomes, and others, cannot help but question articles and reports, written by “rookie” cub reporters in the Catholic media that clearly do not support their findings. When the National Catholic Register (NCR) recently published an article, “US Catholic Seminaries Said to Be in a ‘Golden Age’,” one researcher justifiably identified it as a “delusional piece.” The problem is not that the article was disseminated by the Catholic News Agency (CNA), a subsidiary of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), but that other Catholic media outlets like Catholics for Catholics also reposted the questionable article on their websites. While one can be forgiving in one’s criticism of young, inexperienced Catholic freelance journalists, the same pardon cannot be extended to editors and media executives who should have exercised due diligence before distributing this truly “delusional piece.”

This questionable NCR article reminds me of another article published by NCR in September 2005, entitled “U.S. Bishops to Begin Inspecting Seminaries.” Then-Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS), known for lying to the National Review Board in 2004 by grossly underreporting the number of abuse cases in the military services and Veterans Administration, was tapped by the Vatican to cover up sexual predation and homosexual misconduct that was being reported in U.S. seminaries. O’Brien, before beginning his 2005-2006 study, was quoted by the NCR journalist as saying, “I think anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary.” Had the NCR journalist undertaken due diligence, he might have discovered that O’Brien, just before undertaking the study, tried to recruit two homosexuals to study for the priesthood. According to one of the men, “O’Brien, in his role as head of the 2005 seminary visitation, told reporters that men with homosexual inclinations should not be admitted to the seminary, even if they had been celibate for more than a decade. Yet [the previous month] he had been recruiting at Courage, a conference for men and women struggling with homosexuality.”

When the 2005 NCR article was disseminated by CNA to almost every Catholic and diocesan newspaper and website in the U.S., Catholics were led to believe that Church leaders were finally determined to rid seminaries of the homosexual cultures that had been responsible for the loss of thousands of straight vocations. This problem was addressed in Father Donald Cozzens’ 2000 book, The Changing Face of the Priesthood, as well as in Michael Rose’s 2002 work, Goodbye, Good Men.

O’Brien issued a whitewashed report in 2006 and was rewarded for his cover-up by being named the Archbishop of Baltimore. Despite what O’Brien had to say about not accepting homosexuals to study for the priesthood, Mark Fischer, director of admissions for St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said that “nobody at the archdiocesan seminary would seek to screen out homosexuals.” In light of that admissions policy, it should not come as a surprise that, according to the Los Angeles Times, “St. John's in Camarillo fielded a disproportionate number of alleged molesters, records show, in some cases up to a third of the graduating class.”

Most mainstream and Catholic news outlets took O’Brien at his word and reported that U.S. seminaries were “mostly on track.” In commenting on the report, Father Darrin Connall of the Bishop White Seminary at Gonzaga University said, “Rectors are fortunate today because the quality of seminarians and prospective seminarians seems at an all-time high.”

If seminaries were “on track” and the quality of seminarians was “at an all-time high,” why is it that the number of seminarians and seminaries declined in subsequent years? Attendance at the North American College (NAC) in Rome declined from 251 in 2015 to around 100 seminarians in 2022. The American College in Louvain, Belgium, founded in 1857, closed in 2011 along with Christ the King Seminary (1857-2020) in the Buffalo Diocese and Saints Cyril and Methodius Seminary (1885-2022) in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Close to 100 Catholic seminaries in the U.S. have closed since St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore was founded in 1791.

Since the whitewashed study was completed almost twenty years ago, several sexual scandals were reported to have taken place in numerous seminaries in dioceses such as Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford, Jefferson City, Los Angeles, Newark, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, and even in Rome. The recent “blood oath” scandal at Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary pales in comparison to the orgy involving three seminarians at the episcopal residence in Springfield, Illinois. The orgy was hosted by Archbishop George Lucas who is currently being sued by a former high school seminarian for sexual abuse dating back to when Lucas was on the faculty of St. Louis Preparatory Seminary.

If NCR based the validity of the 2006 report on the word of Cardinal O’Brien, it appears that it is doing the same today by providing multiple quotes from Father Carter Griffin, the Rector of St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., who said the Church today is in “a ‘golden age’ of seminary formation.” There are multiple reasons why I believe Griffin is following in O’Brien’s footsteps.

In 2021, I received allegations of sexual harassment on the part of Griffin from two former seminarians; one heterosexually oriented, and one homosexually oriented. The homosexual seminarian who was studying for the Archdiocese of Washington claimed that he was dismissed from formation not because he was caught engaging in homosexual behavior, but because he refused Griffin’s sexual advances. The heterosexual seminarian, who also claimed being sexually harassed by Griffin, went on to study at St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore where he reported being sexually harassed by a transitional deacon, Christopher Pinto. After speaking with both seminarians, I received a copy of a November 1, 2019 letter implicating both Griffin and Pinto that was sent to Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

Whenever I receive such allegations, before writing to the bishop of the accused priest, I ordinarily reach out to the alleged predator to “get his side of the story.” When I wrote to Father Griffin about the abuse allegations contained in the letter to the Nuncio, he wrote back stating, “I have not seen the letter.” In response, I wrote, “After consulting with Cardinal Gregory and obtaining a copy of the November 1, 2019 letter that he may have covered up along with the Nuncio, I would be open to discussing the allegations with you before I could deem them to be not credible.”

When I never heard back from Griffin or Cardinal Wilton Gregory, I documented this case along with other cases involving former sexually abused, harassed, and whistleblower seminarians in a video entitled, Who Will Save Our Seminarians? When Washington priest, Father Michael Briese watched the video and confronted Cardinal Wilton Gregory with the allegations against both Griffin and Father Adam Park, the former vice rector of the NAC in Rome, Gregory suspended Briese just like Bishop Richard Malone suspended Father Ryszard Biernat for exposing abuse cover-ups in the Buffalo Diocese. After Gregory refused to investigate Griffin and Park, Briese sent a letter dated February 2, 2025 to the Vice Chancellor, Father George Stuart, which identified how the Archdiocese failed to investigate credible sex abuse allegations which in some cases led victims to take their lives. Since Cardinal Robert McElroy was installed as Gregory’s replacement, Briese has yet to meet with him. It appears to some sex abuse advocates that McElroy may be covering up for Park and Griffin like he was accused of doing for Father Jacob Bertrand in San Diego.

Is life in U.S. seminaries as good today as the NCR article portrayed it to be, or is it no better than it was in 2006 when Cardinal O’Brien issued his whitewashed report that was followed by a series of scandals in over a dozen seminaries? Why do Church leaders like Cardinals Christophe Pierre, Robert McElroy, and Wilton Gregory refuse to investigate and discipline current and former seminary officials like Fathers Griffin, Park, and Peter Harman, who are accused in court documents and letters to Church officials of engaging in sexual predation and homosexual misconduct? Do homosexual rectors and seminary faculty members write books and produce videos extolling the “gift of celibacy” because they fear optional celibacy would prevent men with same-sex-attraction from using the priesthood to hide their homosexual orientation and often behavior? If the homosexual cultures that were reported in several seminaries over the past decade are now all truly eradicated, then why have Church leaders like Cardinal Timothy Dolan not settled out of court with Anthony Gorgia, Timothy Passow, Joshua Metcalf, and other former abused or whistleblower seminarians?

If you choose to read the linked NCR article, “US Catholic Seminaries Said to Be in a ‘Golden Age’,” and watch the linked video, Who Will Save Our Seminarians? you can decide if the NCR article reposted by various Catholic news services is truly a “delusional piece.”

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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.