SHOULD PRIESTS LIKE NOWAK BE SUPPORTED?

Countless predators have been created by the Roman Catholic Church

Independent watchdog journalist, Charlie Specht, left his position as the Investigative Reporter at 2 On Your Side (WGRZ-TV) in Buffalo to start a Substack account under the name “Catholic Muckracker.” After Father Jeffrey Nowak was recently arrested by FBI Agents on child pornography charges, Specht published an article entitled, “Who is Jeffrey Nowak, the arrested Diocese of Buffalo priest?” Toward the end of his article, Specht wrote: “Many unanswered questions in the Nowak case remain. The one so many Catholics are asking me is whether Nowak was being paid during the 7 years he was on administrative leave (from 2019 until today). I am working to get a clear answer on that from the diocese.”

Specht, like most lay Catholics, doesn’t understand that Nowak is “low-hanging fruit” and that the real problem involving clerical sexual abuse in the Roman (not Greek) Catholic Church has more to do with gay popes and bishops than it does with predator priests like Nowak. After Nowak was expelled from Christ the King Seminary by the straight rector, Monsignor Richard Siepka, he was later readmitted by gay Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz and the new gay rector, Monsignor Peter Drilling. Unlike homosexual prelates who recruit and ordain other homosexuals, and who are far more inclined to cover up clerical sexual abuse and homosexual misconduct, a straight bishop is far less inclined to ordain gay men or to cover up the homosexual predation of children and vulnerable adults. Hence, if the pro-family Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) were to ordain homosexual bishops nominated by Cardinal Blase Cupich, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, and other closeted members of the Dicastery for Bishops, instead of consecrating straight priests from their Society, their percentage of gay bishops, priests, as well as their sex abuse rates, would be as high as those in the Roman Catholic Church.

When Nowak was suspended in 2019 after being accused of preying on seminarians, as I reported in “More Sexual Scandals and Cover-Ups,” he was not laicized and continued to be housed, fed, and paid like the other priests of the diocese who were engaged in pastoral ministry. Gay bishops ordinarily continue to pay predators a salary as “hush money” to prevent them from talking about their sex lives, which often involve homosexual relations with other closeted bishops, priests, and seminarians. Suspended priests like Nowak should not be paid or supported in a manner that may allow them to engage in immoral behavior, including consensual homosexual relations. Unfortunately, as I show in From Predators to Pastors, many bishops have been shown to leave predators in parishes even after they have been credibly accused of abuse.

As a heterosexual cleric who is still a priest/monsignor, unlike the pope and most bishops outside of Africa, India, and a few other countries who are homosexuals, if I were Nowak’s bishop in 2019, I would have asked him, “Father, when did you have your first homosexual experience?” If he said he had his first homosexual encounter with his parish priest or a bishop, priest, or seminarian when he was in the seminary, then I would ask him to name who it was who “turned him” during his period of psychosexual development. If he identified a parish priest or seminary faculty member, I would seek to have him laicized, but I would also feel obligated to support him financially because his sexual problems were created by the Roman Catholic Church, which failed to protect him from being abused and used like “young meat.” I would also confront the cleric, or clerics, whom he accused of grooming/abusing him. These predators, even if they were bishops and cardinals by this time, would have to be dealt with in the very same manner as Nowak (i,e., laicized and supported if they could show that their homosexuality stemmed from clerical abuse).

If Nowak were to tell me that his homosexual behavior had its roots in being sexually abused by an uncle or other relative before he entered the seminary, and if he saw the priesthood as a hiding place in which he could lead a closeted life, then I would work to have him laicized, but I would not feel obligated to offer him financial support like accused priests who were initially groomed/abused by clerics.

Buffalo Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz and many priests of the diocese have been accused of the homosexual predation of children and vulnerable adults, such as seminarians. For decades, their promiscuous, immoral, and often criminal behavior was covered up by local civil authorities and a complicit Buffalo area media. When seminarian Wiesław Walawender, with the help of the late Father Joe Moreno, reported in a letter to Bishops Edward Head and Grosz dated May 9, 1992, that Father Dennis Riter sexually abused Anthony Ravarini, his letter was covered up and was not brought to light until 2019, when Riter was returned to ministry even after being accused of sexually abusing three boys between 1992 and 1996.

The complicity of Erie District Attorney John Flynn, local law enforcement agencies, and local media outlets in defending Riter and protecting the Diocese of Buffalo from prosecution and scandal is evident in their attempts to refute the allegation in Walawender’s May 9, 1992, letter. Some boys are big for their age, while others are small for their age. Walawender wrote that Ravarini was “less than 10 years of age.” The Buffalo Diocese, without being questioned by Flynn, the police, or the media, argued that the semen reported by the father and Walawender on young Ravarini was the result of masturbation. They made this argument based on the belief that Ravarini was a little older than 10, and that he was probably at least 12 years old when boys can begin to produce semen. The problem with that argument, however, was that Ravarini, in May of 1992, was only 6 ½ years old. The DA, the police, and the media never addressed this contradiction, and Riter, despite three allegations and a failed polygraph, was returned to active ministry where he remained until his death on February 8, 2020.

The complicity of DA Flynn and the local Buffalo media in protecting the Diocese of Buffalo is also exemplified in the malicious prosecution of former seminarians, Matthew Bojanowski and Stephen Parisi. In retaliation for sexual predation and clerical misconduct they exposed at Christ the King Seminary and in the Buffalo Diocese, both Bojanowski and Parisi were falsely accused of harassment, disorderly conduct, and trespassing by Buffalo diocesan officials loyal to former Bishop Malone. The criminal charges filed by Catholic Erie County District Attorney (DA), John Flynn, were all dismissed in court as unfounded. The former seminarians later brought suit against diocesan officials for defamation, malicious prosecution, and a denial of their First Amendment rights. One of the diocesan officials who contributed to the DA’s malicious prosecution of the defendants was John Flynn’s friend, the Vicar General, Father Peter Karalus. Karalus himself was accused of “misconduct involving a penitent,” which a whitewashed “internal” Church investigation unsurprisingly found “unsubstantiated.”

In October 2019, Pope Francis appointed Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio to conduct an “Apostolic Visitation” of Bishop Malone over his alleged mishandling of clergy sexual abuse cases and secret audio recordings. It was later reported that DiMarzio himself was accused of molesting an altar boy in Jersey City. DiMarzio’s investigation of Malone; Archbishop William Lori’s investigation of Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield; Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s investigation of DiMarzio, all proved to be “jokes” as all the bishops who conducted the so-called “investigations” were themselves accused of covering up abuse like Pope Francis who appointed them. When asked to comment about the reported homosexual behavior of his very close friend, Msgr. Battista Ricca, Francis famously responded, “Who am I to judge?” When asked about clerical sexual abuse when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he famously lied by responding that “it never occurred in my diocese.”

What is being reported by Charlie Specht in Buffalo is also happening in Omaha and other dioceses in which homosexual bishops are replaced by other homosexual bishops whose job is to cover up for their predecessor. Lisa Roer’s reported satanic abuse in Omaha continues to be covered up by Pope Leo and Archbishop Michael McGovern, who succeeded Archbishop George Lucas. Unsurprisingly, Lucas has been accused of sexual predation and homosexual misconduct in St. Louis, Springfield, IL, as well as in multiple court documents. McGovern, who was ordained a priest by accused sexual predator Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, was consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Blase Cupich, who was reported for having underreported and covered up sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

If I lived in Buffalo and was tired of Catholic churches being closed and sold to pay for abuse settlements and to support the homosexual lifestyles of active and inactive closeted priests, I would stop contributing on Sundays and redirect my financial support to a courageous and untouchable investigative reporter like Charlie Specht by subscribing to his Substack account HERE.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen could have had Charlie Specht in mind when he said,

“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.”

I encourage my Substack followers, particularly those from New York, to follow Charlie at

and to withhold support from closeted bishops and priests, many of whom engage in the same behavior that may result in Father Jeffrey Nowak spending many years behind bars, especially if he refuses to identify any bishops or fellow priests who may have played a part in leading him down the “road to perdition.”

While my Substack articles are free, if you find them informative and would like to support my research and writing, please make a donation by clicking HERE.

Gene Thomas Gomulka is a sexual abuse victims’ advocate, investigative reporter, author, 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 and visit his website at www.gomulka.net, where you can also access both his biography and autobiography.