WHERE HAVE ALL THE WORSHIPPERS GONE?

Why McElroy like Budde will not inspire the Trumps to join him in worship

A lot of criticism has been voiced against Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde for the sermon she directed at President Donald Trump in the Washington National Cathedral which was characterized by one Detroit pastor as a form of “theological malpractice.” While some Catholic journalists and podcasters accused Budde of misusing the pulpit, not one commentator admitted how the current Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Cardinal Gregory, or his soon-to-be-installed successor, San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy, might also have lectured the President about “gay, lesbian, and transgender children” and “illegal immigrants” had the National Prayer Service been held at St. Matthew Cathedral or the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Over fifty years ago most Protestant ministers were married men with wives and children, and most Catholic clergy were heterosexually oriented men. Today, many mainline Protestant clergy are gays and lesbians just like most closeted Catholic bishops, priests, and seminarians outside of Africa and Asia today are homosexuals. Gay and lesbian clergy are generally not found in faith groups such as Orthodox Judaism, Islam, Orthodoxy, Eastern Rite Catholic Churches (except in the U.S. where married Eastern Rite priests were prohibited from ministering between 1907 and 2014), and Evangelical Protestant denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention, the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, and the newly formed Global Methodist Church which left the United Methodist Church owing to its pro-LGBTQ stance.

Over the past decades, a number of notable former Episcopal priests like Taylor Marshall and Paul Sullins have converted to Catholicism just like Candace Owens and J.D. Vance who recently became Catholics. One of the major reasons behind the conversions of a number of Protestants over the years is the Catholic Church’s pro-heterosexual marriage teaching that homosexual behavior is incompatible with biblical doctrine and contrary to the natural and divine laws. While some clergy converts left Protestantism because they could not in conscience work for gay and lesbian bishops, they did not expect to find themselves now working for closeted Catholic homosexual bishops alongside homosexual priests who, given their homosexual orientation, support the blessing of homosexual unions and promote the LGBTQ ideology. Other converts who left Protestantism are equally scandalized when they discover that they are led by prelates like Cardinal Timothy Dolan who allowed St. Patrick’s Cathedral to be desecrated by blasphemous cross-dressing “worshippers” and who has permitted accused predator priests to remain in ministry where they pose a clear and present danger to minors and vulnerable adults.

The Catholic Church is struggling to present itself as a morally credible voice to new converts when it is led by an “Unholy Father” who was accused by more than one source of sexually abusing Jesuit novices and covering up countless sexual abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The Second Lady, Usha Vance, may have to explain to her husband, a recent convert, why some Washington Catholics may find it difficult to pray at Mass for “Francis our Pope, and Robert our Bishop,” especially when it has been shown that Cardinal Robert McElroy covered up the felonious satanic sexual abuse of Rachel Mastrogiacomo by Father Jacob Bertrand shortly after being installed as the Bishop of San Diego. If the Vice President were to meet Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, he may wish to inquire why he and Pope Francis never answered the Open Letter from Mastrogiacomo and Lisa Roers, another victim of satanic ritual abuse, after having received their letter via email at 10:35 p.m. on September 30, 2024.

Because most married couples with children are not inspired by Protestant and Catholic clergy who are often more concerned about saving the environment and preaching about LGBTQ rights, it is no wonder that faith groups that profess homosexual behavior to be as moral and natural as the sexual relationship between a married man and woman are dying. A study involving seven denominations in four countries shows that membership in theologically liberal churches “that have adapted their theology to the LGBTQ ideologies have all accelerated their loss of membership.” On the other hand, faith groups like the Orthodox Churches and Evangelical Protestant Churches that are pro-family and pro-life are growing in membership.

In a Pennsylvania community where all four of the Roman Catholic Churches are perceived to be pastored by homosexually oriented priests, a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor whose denomination neither approves of same-sex marriages nor ordains non-celibate gay clergy reports an increase in Church membership particularly involving people who were baptized in the Catholic Church. Interestingly, when he begins and ends his service “In the name of the Father, and of the Son…,” many worshippers in the congregation respond by signing themselves with the sign of the cross. Missouri Synod Lutherans believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Consequently, Catholics with a pro-LGBTQ bishop like McElroy who maintains that the death toll from climate change is greater than the number of deaths from abortions, and who opposes withholding communion from pro-abortion politicians, can sometimes feel they have more in common with pro-life, pro-family members of the Missouri Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church than the Catholic Church under the leadership of prelates like McElroy.

Insofar as gays and lesbians believe that “LGBTQ rights and abortion rights are inseparable,” one should not expect Pro-LGBTQ Bishop Budde and Cardinal McElroy to be found praying in front of Planned Parenthood’s Carol Whitehill Moses Center. While Budde spoke about gays, lesbians, transgenders, and illegal immigrants, she had nothing to say about the pro-lifers who were imprisoned by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for praying outside of abortion clinics. If President Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-life activists, it was not done at the pleading of pro-LGBTQ Catholic prelates like McElroy, Cupich, or even Pope Francis who did, however, ask President Biden to commute the sentences of five child murders and others.

If Pope Francis were to die and be followed by a heterosexually oriented pope like St. Pius V who rid the Church of sexually active homosexual clergy with his promulgation of Horrendum Illud scelus in 1568, the appointment of truly faithful, orthodox, inspiring Ordinaries like Bishop Joseph Strickland could conceivably turn the tide of some 30 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as “former Catholics.” However, as long as the Lavender Mafia is in control of the Catholic Church like gays and lesbians have taken control of many mainline Protestant denominations in the U.S., one can anticipate the exodus of worshippers to grow while the Churchs’ baptismal fonts continue to dry up.

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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 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.