THE SILENCE OF THE SHEPHERDS

Catholic bishops betray "the innocent blood of the unborn"

American politician and activist, Randall Allen Terry, who founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue, recently produced a highly critical ad accusing U.S. Catholic bishops are failing to speak out against abortion and the Democratic Party that seeks to enshrine abortion up until birth. According to LifeSiteNews, Terry compared the 30 pieces of silver given to Judas to betray Jesus with the way the bishops’ silence betrays “the innocent blood of the unborn.” 

Terry is joined by Black Texas pastor and political activist, Stephen Broden, who accused the Democratic Party of doing the work of the Klu Klux Klan by “lynching Black babies by abortion in their mother’s womb.” Interestingly, Black activist Candace Owens who converted to Catholicism in April 2024 and who has accused Planned Parenthood of working to control the Black population in the U.S., appears to be a far more outspoken pro-life advocate than most white and even Black bishops including Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory who has opposed denying communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden.

According to Terry, the biggest voting block of Democrats are “Catholics who don’t follow Christ.” What Terry had to say about the bishops could also be said for most U.S.-born priests who, unlike most foreign-born priests from places like Africa and India, are homosexuals. It’s interesting how both the secular and Catholic media did not want to call attention to how episcopal support for and opposition to Fiducia Supplicans that allowed for the blessing of same-sex unions was essentially based on the sexual orientation of the bishops.  

Insofar as gays and lesbians adhere to the belief that "LGBT rights and abortion rights are inseparable," it follows that homosexual clergy would tend to support the Democratic Party’s strong pro-abortion platform. When this was pointed out to one Catholic who forwarded the article about Terry’s ad to people on his email list, he wrote back, “You are right! I haven’t heard a pro-life homily in our parish in over 30 years. The word ‘abortion’ is never mentioned.” The four priests who staff the four parishes in his Pennsylvania town are all believed to be homosexuals. It is for this reason that one family with seven children will drive two and a half hours round trip each Sunday to worship at a Church pastored by a heterosexually oriented priest whose preaching they find to be more pro-family and pro-life.

Owing to the scarcity of heterosexually oriented U.S. born priests who sacrifice having a spouse and children to follow Christ, it is no wonder that most Catholics, pastored by homosexual clergy, cannot explain the reasons why the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual behavior is as immoral as adultery, or why abortion harms both women and their unborn children.

How many teenage children of Catholic families today can refute a politician, teacher, or classmate who says, "Women must have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies"? If a pastor, affected by his homosexual orientation, doesn’t see anything terribly wrong with abortion or homosexual behavior, often his parishioners will in time adopt the same non-Catholic attitude. The problem is that instead of people leaving the Catholic Church to worship in denominations like the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, or the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) that do not view homosexual behavior and abortion as immoral or sinful, these people have no need to leave when there is now an abundance of homosexual Catholic bishops and priests whose silence renders consent to such practices. 

Ironically, a Catholic can go to a church that was converted into a mosque and hear an imam instruct the congregation why Islam condemns homosexual behavior and abortion, but that same Catholic can go to a church and witness the priest blessing same-sex couples and preaching about climate change instead of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. How does a married former Episcopal clergyman who converted to Catholicism to avoid having to work for a lesbian bishop feel today working in a Church where the pope and most bishops and priests appear to be closeted homosexuals? Should a devout Catholic go to a Catholic church and listen to preaching that does not support the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, or go to a non-Catholic church whose moral teachings are in line with authentic Catholic Church teachings grounded in scripture and tradition? Some find it inexplicable that such contradictions exist today.

When pro-abortion politicians run ads taunting how women can’t be told what to do “with their bodies,” where are bishops or priests who can expose how the rights of both unborn children and fathers are being violated when women can choose to have an abortion without the consent of the father? If a man is proven to have gotten a woman pregnant and she wants to keep the child, the courts can order the man to provide child support to the woman for 18 years. However, if a man gets a woman pregnant and wants to raise their child without requiring the woman to provide child support, the courts today will allow the mother to kill their unborn child without the father’s consent. Why are there no Catholic bishops or priests in the U.S. exposing this double standard? Might it have something to do with the fact that most of them never had a desire to father children? If Jesus could show the injustice of women being stoned for adultery while adulterous men suffered no consequences, why can’t clergy who are called to act in persona Christi expose the double standard currently in place which denies fathers a right to decide what will happen to the children they conceive?

Fifty years ago when the majority of Catholic bishops and priests were heterosexuals, abortion was often identified as a “Catholic issue.” Even though many Protestants joined their voices in speaking out in support of human life at all stages of development, it was mainly Catholics who defended unborn life just like Republicans in the 1860 election denounced the evil of slavery that was supported by the Democrats. With a change in the sexual orientation of the Catholic priesthood in the Americas and Europe, where can devout pro-family, pro-life Catholic families worship now that both Catholic clergy and laity appear to be conforming themselves to the zeitgeist of the 21^st-century Western world? 

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.