‘TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE’

It’s time for the Pope and Bishops to come out of the closet

For centuries, and not simply decades, Church leaders have covered up the clerical sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. Documentary evidence shows that this problem was recognized as early as 98 A.D. An even larger ecclesiastical problem involved the cover-up of large numbers of homosexual clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. When Peter Damien (1007-1072), a Benedictine monk and cardinal, wrote The Book of Gomorrah in 1051, most clerical homosexual behavior was occurring in monastic communities involving priests and brothers, as most diocesan priests were married. It was only after celibacy was mandated in the twelfth century that homosexuality began to infect diocesan clergy, especially in countries where celibacy was actually enforced.

Fast forwarding to the present, studies undertaken by the late psychotherapist and researcher, Richard Sipe, concluded that at any given moment in time, no more than half of all priests are leading celibate lives. When asked to comment about the validity of those findings, then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Jose Sanchez, replied, “I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures. After having been ordained for over 50 years and with years of supervisory experience, I, too, support Sipe’s conclusions, including that only around 2 percent of priests achieve total celibate chastity throughout their lives following ordination.

.The findings of many studies about vocations and seminarians today are often questionable because most never address sexual orientation. Unlike foreign-born priests who enjoy the company of other priests from their native countries, American-born straight priests will often discover that they have not joined what one bishop referred to as “the greatest fraternity in the world.” If a homosexual priest is not living a truly celibate life, like many gay priests who use the Grindr app, he will often avoid socializing with heterosexual clergy. Because homosexual clergy clearly outnumber straight American-born priests, heterosexual clergy may have to make up in quality for what they may be lacking in quantity when it comes to priest friendships.

Seminary studies rarely address homosexual behavior in seminaries, even though multiple sex abuse lawsuits brought forward by former seminarians are ongoing in courts at this very moment. Washington Father Adam Park, protected by Cardinals Robert McElroy and Wilton Gregory, and reported in court documents for having preyed on seminarians at the North American College (NAC) in Rome, was also reported by a former NAC seminarian to have bragged to him and two other seminarians about having had sex with a male flight attendant. Such behavior should not be surprising in light of a 2012 study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Institutes of Health. The study found that homosexuals report a far greater number of lifetime sex partners than heterosexuals. While straight men between the ages of 35 and 39 reported a lifetime median of 10 sex partners, gay men reported a median of 67.

Gay priests often have close priest friends within their own diocese whose friendships often date back to seminary days. Most Catholics don’t want to admit how their Sunday contributions help fund vacations by their gay priests to places like Mykonos, Barcelona, and Fort Lauderdale.

Straight priests, unlike homosexual priests, have fewer priest friends, if only because there are fewer of them today. Two Catholic women reported how they each took care of a dying straight priest recently who was never visited or supported by other diocesan priests, let alone the bishop. It was that same bishop who encouraged the priests to preach to their congregations about what led them to become priests, in the hope of attracting new vocations.

While straight priests like Richmond Father Mark White experienced an initial outpouring of support from many parishioners when he was unjustly removed from ministry by Bishop Barry Knestout for addressing clerical sexual predation and cover-ups in the Catholic Church, that support only lasted so long before the parishioners had to focus on their own family needs. Had White been a homosexual like Knestout who was reported by a former seminarian for having been at ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s New Jersey beach house the night he was sexually assaulted by McCarrick, White most likely would still be an active priest today.

When Pope Leo XIV and the U.S. Bishops fail to defend Catholic teachings by allowing sexually active homosexuals to be confirmed and receive holy communion, they not only cause many Catholics to join the “nine out of ten cradle Catholics” who have left the Church, but they also discourage straight men from studying for a priesthood that is populated today mainly by homosexuals. While bishops like Joseph Strickland and priests who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) are reported to have attracted many straight vocations, pro-LGBTQ bishops and priests who fail to support dogmatic and moral Church teachings are harming vocational recruitment and causing Catholics either to affiliate with another faith group, or to become “religious Nones” - the largest single group in the U.S. - an even larger cohort than Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

When I testified before Congress in favor of maintaining the Department of Defense (DOD) homosexual exclusion policy, Mr. Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, advocated for repealing the policy. Korb was questioned by Arizona Senator John McCain who maintained that many of the laws found in our Constitution were grounded in a Judeo-Christian ethic, including our attitude toward homosexuality and adultery. When asked how the government could allow gays and lesbians to engage in homosexual acts while prosecuting heterosexuals for adultery, punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Korb infamously responded that the prohibition against adultery would also have to be lifted.

Unlike Jesus, who did not condone the sinful behavior of the adulterous woman whom the crowd wanted to stone, the gay couple that met with Pope Leo XIV and the trans/escort who is scheduled to dine with him, along with the confirmed openly gay ABC News anchor, are all not willing to repent and admit that their behavior is sinful. Of course, neither the Pope in Rome nor the Jesuit priest in New York admonished them like Jesus to “Go and sin no more (John 8:11). If Pope Leo and the confirming Jesuit priest were viewed to have draped “a veil of blessing over the dung of their sin,” might it be because they, too, are homosexuals?

As many readers may already know, “To thine own self be true” is a famous quote from William Shakespeare‘s play Hamlet. The phrase means to be honest with yourself and to live according to your own core values and principles, rather than changing to please others or conform to the modern zeitgeist. The full quote continues, “and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man,” suggesting that if you are true to yourself, you will naturally be true to others as well.

After six months in office, Pope Leo has yet to discipline over 160 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults, most of whom are victims of homosexual predation. If the Pope and Bishops cannot defend and enforce the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, like Jesus upheld the Judaic teaching on adultery (Mark 10:11-12), instead of trying to change that teaching, should they not join the Episcopal Church or another denomination that does not view homosexual behavior as sinful and against the natural law? Is it not time for homosexual Church leaders and priests to be true to themselves and come out of the closet instead of living a lie?

Washington Father Michael Briese asked Cardinals Gregory and McElroy if they are homosexuals and if they have ever had homosexual relations with other men. Why did they refuse to answer his question, just like Pope Francis refused to answer if Viganò warned him about McCarrick as early as 2013? If I am not afraid to admit that “I am a heterosexual,” should not Pope Leo and other pro-LBGTQ bishops and priests be willing to admit to their own sexual orientation, especially if it affects their ministry and, in the case of Pope Leo, the lives of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world?

If you appreciate my research and writings, please make a contribution to the “Save Our Seminarians” Fund that will help safeguard young men from becoming victims of homosexual predation in U.S. Catholic seminaries.

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.