Victim Advocate’s Open Letter To U.S. Bishops

The questionable validity of the Sacred Orders of closeted homosexuals

In my last article, “McElroy, Sipe, and McCarrick’s Clones,” I accused Cardinal Robert McElroy and five other prelates of engaging in and/or covering up clerical sexual predation and homosexual misconduct. I was not worried about being sued for libel (i.e., defaming someone by spreading false information about them) because I had abundant hyperlinked evidence - both written and oral testimony - to support my claims.

Having studied in Rome with several cardinals, archbishops, and bishops in the U.S. hierarchy, I was not surprised by their silence in response to the incriminating accusations brought against Cardinals McElroy, Dolan, Pierre, and Gregory, as well as against Archbishops Lori and Lucas. Many bishops, particularly in the Americas and Europe, unlike in Africa and Asia, were groomed and abused in the seminary by gay faculty members or older seminarians which resulted in them becoming homosexuals. Not wanting to admit to their parents and family members what happened to them, and not wanting to return to their hometowns as homosexuals, they stayed in the seminary; were ordained; and often got promoted by the very clerics who introduced them to gay sex. These groomed men - cardinals, bishops, and priests today - have spent their lives living in the closet while misleading Catholic laity to believe they have given up having a wife and children to follow Christ.

Unlike many of my classmates whose seminary grooming experiences led them to develop a homosexual orientation, I was able to reject homosexual advances at the North American College (NAC) in Rome as a result of having dated and experienced emotional connections with women in high school and college. When I learn of bishops and priests who are accused of abuse, I am not surprised because in almost every case they themselves were groomed and abused, usually perceiving their sexual relationship with their groomer as a form of love and friendship. I believe this is the case involving many, if not most U.S. bishops, archbishops, and cardinals today. I also firmly believe that the two young priests with whom I served in a Pennsylvania parish (1975-80) would never have preyed on teenage boys as they were later reported to have done had they themselves not been groomed during their period of psychosexual development when they were in high school seminaries.

While being groomed and abused as a seminarian does not justify preying on others as a priest, it does raise an important canonical question. If a woman gets pregnant and marries in order to hide her pregnancy, and not because she and her boyfriend were planning on getting married, such a marriage, involving defective consent, could be deemed invalid and easily annulled. Likewise, if a man is groomed in the seminary and gets ordained in order to hide from his family and friends that he has become a homosexual, is his ordination valid? How many closeted cardinals, bishops, and priests were ordained under false pretenses, with defective consent, or involving fraud? How many homosexuals were ordained not because they felt they had a vocation from Christ to “Come, follow me,” but because they could enjoy comfortable closeted lives?

Anyone who watched the recent film Conclave might have some questions to ask about the future gathering of cardinals to elect the successor to Pope Francis. If a current cardinal elector was groomed when he was studying for the priesthood, and if he became a sexually active homosexual both before and after his ordination, was his reception of Holy Orders invalid, and should he recuse himself from participating in the next conclave?

The legacy and Catholic media covered up how Pope Francis was accused by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and an Argentine priest working in the U.S. of preying on Jesuit novices like the late ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick preyed on seminarians. Was Francis’ ordination valid if he became ordained in order to hide being a homosexual? And if Francis is a closeted homosexual whose ordination to the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy were no more valid than the marriage of a woman who married primarily to hide being pregnant, was Jorge Bergoglio validly elected the pope?

I recently confronted members of the U.S. hierarchy for their gross mishandling of clerical sexual predation and homosexual misconduct. The reason none of the bishops called for a Vos Estis investigation of the six bishops I identified in my previous article for engaging in and covering up abuse is because they know that the Pope and Vatican officials cannot discipline bishops for abusive and immoral acts they themselves have committed. As I wrote in my “Open Letter” to the bishops, “I don’t expect to receive a response. However, I simply want to say, ​'Shame on you​' for failing to report and discipline those who abuse minors and vulnerable adults, as well as those who cover it up.”

I invite you to click on and read: “Victim Advocate’s Open Letter to U.S. Bishops.”

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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.