THE MEDIA IS ENABLING THE ELECTION OF A POPE FRANCIS II

The Church needs a holy pope who will enforce a zero-tolerance sex abuse policy

Just one hour before he was scheduled to be installed as the Primate of Poland in Warsaw’s St. John’s Cathedral, Polish Archbishop Stanisław Wielgus announced his resignation owing to media reports that he cooperated with Polish Security Services known to have arrested and tortured several priests. Unlike the Polish media, the mainstream and Catholic media have not been doing a very good job of reporting on the some 130 cardinal electors who have been accused of engaging in or covering up clerical sex abuse anymore than the Argentine media reported all the abuse covered up by Jorge Bergoglio before his 2013 papal election. It is for this reason that many Catholics fear that if cardinals like Robert McElroy, Timothy Dolan, Wilton Gregory, or others with a history of abuse cover-ups were to be elected pope, one might expect him to choose the name, “Francis II.”

One reason so many Catholics and non-Catholics were reported to have had a very favorable view of Pope Francis is that the media covered up allegations that he engaged in sexual abuse with Jesuit novices and that he covered up for and failed to discipline several abusive bishops and priests before and after his papal election. Counted among those clerics whose abuse and homosexual misconduct he covered up before his election are Julio César Grassi, Napoleon Sasso, Rubén Pardo, Carlos Maria Gauna, Fernando Enrique Picciochi, and others. Shortly after his papal election, Pope Francis ordered Cardinal Gerhard Müller to cease his investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who, as a member of the St. Gallen Mafia, helped Francis get elected. While failing throughout his entire papacy to laicize or excommunicate some 150 bishops credibly accused of abuse, the most notable clerics whom Francis failed to investigate properly and discipline include Theodore McCarrick, Juan Barros, Gustavo Zanchetta, Marco Rupnik, and others.

It is not surprising that “75% of U.S. Catholics viewed Pope Francis favorably” when you watch broadcasts like EWTN’s (Eternal Word Television Network) “InDepth” report of April 25, 2025 featuring Cardinal Robert McElroy who spoke about the late Pope’s “heart” being “pastoral.” Remember, this is the same McElroy who covered up the satanic ritual abuse of Rachel Mastrogiacomo and the abuse of 12 seminarians and priests who were reported to him by the late psychotherapist and abuse advocate Richard Sipe. During that entire 55-minute broadcast about the Pope’s life, no mention was made of the clerical abuse crisis involving millions of victims (330,000 alone in France over the past 70 years) and which has caused millions of Catholics to leave the Church. After watching the program, one abuse victim, Brother Christopher Pio, wrote the following comment on his Facebook page: “Shame on EWTN’s InDepth broadcast for sugarcoating the papacy of Pope Francis when they said he cared about the abused and then allowed Cardinal McElroy to make comments about the Francis legacy. Let’s be honest, Francis did not give a damn about the victims abused by his priests. Countless bishops who covered up abuse were elevated to Cardinals by Francis. McElroy being one of them. Mother Angelica, pray for EWTN.”

Many people have been quoted in the media for offering their opinion about what cardinal might make a good pope. Recognize that their opinions about certain candidates are usually not based on personal knowledge of the candidates, but on what they read about them in the media. Would President Donald Trump have quipped about Cardinal Timothy Dolan being elected the pope had Fox News and other mainstream media sources reported all the abuse cases Dolan is documented to have covered up when he was a priest and auxiliary bishop in St. Louis; when he worked at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C.; when he was the rector of the North American College (NAC) in Rome; when he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee; and since he has been the Archbishop of New York?

Some people speculate that the whitewashed coverage of candidates like Dolan and McElroy by outlets such as CNA (a subsidiary of EWTN), LifeSite News, and CatholicVote may be to blame for Trump’s startling papal endorsement of a scandal-racked prelate. Still, others point to the fact that Trump recently appointed Dolan to a White House Religious Liberty Commission and that White House appointments usually involve thorough background checks. Abuse victims and advocates are raising concerns about Dolan’s prominence in the Trump White House despite nine incriminating reports about Dolan and other predator priests that were sent to every U.S. Bishop and the Apostolic Nuncio. A copy of a July 16, 2020 letter documenting Dolan’s cover up of sexual predation and homosexual behavior at the NAC was sent to the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See with the hope of alerting the Trump Administration of Dolan’s unjust reprisal against whistleblower former New York seminarian, Anthony Gorgia, whose lawsuit against Dolan and the NAC is under review by the New York State Appelate Court.

Do Catholic media executives Michael Warsaw, Ken Oliver-Méndez, Brian Burch, John Yep, John Henry Weston, Steve Jalsevac, and even President Trump, realize that their actions and omissions revictimize abuse victims, some whom are even moved to commit suicide? Abuse survivors and their families are not only praying for the election of a “good, faithful, and holy pope” who will truly enforce a “zero tolerance policy” and discipline offending clerics, but they also are hoping that Trump will reevaluate his relationship with Dolan and support all victims whose abuse he has covered up.

Another example of how a complicit Pope and corrupt Cardinals receive favorable ratings because of fake news reports generated by Catholic media sources is a report by EWTN claiming that Pope Francis was very pro-life. If this were true, then why did Francis get President Joe Biden to release prisoners on death row, some of whom were “child murderers,” and yet did nothing to secure the release of elderly pro-life activists unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for protesting outside of abortion clinics? If Francis was truly pro-life, why did he not thank President Trump for pardoning the pro-life activists but allowed President Biden and other pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians like Nancy Pelosi to receive holy communion despite the role they played in the killing of millions of innocent unborn children with federal funds in the U.S. and abroad?

When one reads the countless articles or listens to the many podcasts about the cardinal electors and the upcoming conclave, it is both scary and sad that one cannot identify one cardinal candidate who, like Diarmuid Martin, the retired Archbishop of Dublin; Joseph Strickland, the former bishop of Tyler; or Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., who had the moral courage to speak out and take steps to expose clerical sexual abuse and homosexual misconduct on the part of bishops, priests, and seminarians. For example, when former New York seminarian Anthony Gorgia was unjustly removed from the NAC in Rome by Cardinal Dolan for reporting Father Adam Park of preying on seminarians, and Father Peter Harman of engaging in and covering up homosexual misconduct, it was only Archbishop Viganò who confronted Dolan requesting that he investigate Harman and Park, and reinstate Gorgia. Instead of investigating and removing the sexually active homosexual priests like Grindr Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill who previously served on the NAC faculty, Dolan hung up on Vigano!

When Pope Leo X died with an anal fistula from having too much gay sex, the cardinals later elected Pope Julius III who engaged in ephebophilia (the sexual abuse of post-pubescent young people) with 15-year-old Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte whom he made a cardinal at the age of 17. Based on the fact that 80% of the cardinal electors were appointed by Pope Francis who was accused of sexually preying on Jesuit novices, and because many if not most of them have histories of abuse cover-ups, the chances of electing a pope who will seriously correct the clerical sex abuse problem and discipline the 150+ bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults is very low.

Connecticut Attorney Joe Mulvey, a devout Catholic who has provided pro-bono legal assistance to countless victims of clerical sexual abuse, believes the Catholic Church needs a pontiff today like Pope St. Pius V who took concrete steps to eradicate clerical sexual abuse in his time by issuing the papal bull, Horrendum illud scelus (that horrible crime). Insofar as most of the cardinal electors like 80% of the bishops and priests who work in the Vatican are reported to be homosexuals, it is doubtful that they will elect a pope like Pius V who decreed: “We establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefice, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death.”

Morris West’s novel, The Shoes of the Fisherman, was inspired by the life of Ukrainian Cardinal Joysf Slypij who was imprisoned by the Soviets in Siberia for 18 years. If the cardinals in West’s novel that was made into a 1968 movie starring Anthony Quinn could elect someone persecuted by the Soviets, might members of the upcoming conclave be inspired by the Holy Spirit to elect a holy, courageous, faithful persecuted cardinal from Hong Kong who has been an unflinching voice for Chinese Catholics, often critical of the Holy See’s controversial agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops?

(to be continued)

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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 ​R​espect 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.