WHY I AM PRAYING DIFFERENTLY FOR THE POPE THAN MOST PEOPLE

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

In September of 1991, after three operations, two months of radiation therapy, six months of chemotherapy, and having developed pneumonia, all of my bodily functions were shutting down and my family members and friends had very little hope that I would win my battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As a result of that experience, you would think that I, more than most people, would be sensitive to what has been reported in the media about Pope Francis’ medical condition.

Christians who believe in life after death also believe that we will be judged by God for the way we lived our lives on this Earth. Even though a person can have a conversion experience and repent later in life for wrongs he or she may have committed earlier, many people believe we die the way we live. If one really believes in “the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting,” then one would not want someone to die without being in “the state of grace.” Judging by the comments I read online from people who write that they are praying for the Pope to recover, I’m surprised that they only seem concerned for his physical health. If people really believe in life after death and divine judgment, would they not be worried that the Pope does not seem to have repented of the sexual abuse he is alleged to have committed and covered up in his life? Hence, unlike many others, I am praying that the Pope dies repentant more than he merely lives a little longer.

One reason I believe many people seem more concerned for the Pope’s physical health than his spiritual health is that the mainstream and Catholic media have done a good job at hiding wrongdoing he and several bishops are guilty of having done in their lives. As a sex abuse victims’ advocate and investigator, I received a report around five years ago from an Hispanic young man alleging that he was sexually abused as a 16-year-old high school seminarian by current Omaha Archbishop George Lucas at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in St. Louis. It was not until July 2024 that the alleged victim brought suit against Lucas alleging that he and another student were coerced into performing sex acts on Lucas in return for better grades. It often takes years before abuse victims get up enough courage to confront their abuser.

Around the same time I spoke with the Hispanic former seminarian, I also learned of an Argentine priest who, in 2015, described to two priests at dinner in a Midwestern diocese how Pope Francis, before he was made a bishop, sodomized a Jesuit novice positioned on a chair in Córdoba. It was years later in May 2024 that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò also reported a sex abuse allegation that he said was “personally confided” to him by a “former novice” of Jorge Bergoglio. Because there was no collusion on the part of the Argentine priest with the “former novice” who spoke with Viganò, the allegations cannot be lightly dismissed, especially when neither of the accusers had anything to gain by sharing this information in private. Instead of denying the abuse accusation, Francis excommunicated Viganò in July 2024. Eight months earlier, Francis had removed Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland from his diocese after he broke the Church’s Code of Silence and prophetically spoke out against clerical sexual abuse and homosexual misconduct.

I often hear from abuse victims that the cover-up of their abuse by Church officials is more painful than the actual physical violation. It was not until 2018, five years after Francis’ election, that I learned about all the sex abuse he was reported to have covered up in Argentina despite his claim, “It [sex abuse] never happened in my diocese.” The credibility of the abuse victims interviewed by French investigative journalist, Martin Boudot, in the Buenos Aires cafe, as shown in Sex Abuse in The Church: Code of Silence, appears indisputable.

In response to the above allegations of committing and covering up sex abuse, one might say, “That happened in the past. I’m sure the Pope has since repented and is now in the state of grace like many repentant sinners.” I could believe that were it not for the fact that it was only recently that the Pope refused to respond to an open letter from two abuse victims whose open letter video, “The Prayer of the Prey,” was confirmed to have been received at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., at 10:35 p.m. on 30 September 2024. Isn’t it ironic that Mehmet Ali Ağca asked St. John Paul II to forgive him for his assassination attempt but Pope Francis has yet to ask forgiveness from sex abuse victims for engaging in and covering up their abuse?

Francis’ failure to respond to Lisa Roers, Rachel Mastrogiacomo, and countless other abuse victims is due in part to the mainstream and Catholic media that hid most of the allegations leveled against Francis. These allegations involving sexual involvement with young seminarians are similar to those leveled against Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte who took the name, Pope Julius III. A sexually active homosexual like Pope Leo X who years earlier excommunicated Martin Luther, Julius III was reported to have “shared [his] bedroom and bed” with 15-year-old Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte whom he made a cardinal at the age of 17.

Italian journalist, Eugenio Scalfari, reported in 2018 that Francis questioned the existence of hell at the same The Times of London reported on Holy Thursday that “Pope Francis abolishes hell.” According to Francis “Those who repent are not punished but obtain the forgiveness of God and go among the ranks of the souls who contemplate him. But those who do not repent, and therefore cannot be forgiven, disappear.” Recognizing the heretical nature of the Pope’s statement, the Vatican would later walk back what the Pope said and have him say in a later talk that hell actually exists.

Even if Francis himself does not believe in hell, there are many people who believe his immortal soul may be in danger if, before he dies, he does not ask forgiveness from countless abuse victims of predator priests like rapist Father Marko Rupnik and over 150 credibly accused bishops whom the Pope failed to discipline during his 15-year pontificate. Unfortunately, many of the cardinals who will gather in the Sistine Chapel have also been accused of engaging in or covering up abuse in San Diego, Chicago, Washington, New York, and countless dioceses throughout the world. It remains to be seen if the media will give them a pass too. No matter how elaborate his funeral may be, it’s not the media or the people on this Earth who will determine Pope Francis’ eternal salvation.

This Substack column is free. If you find it informative, please recommend it to others and consider supporting it by contributing to the “Save Our Seminarians” Fund.

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.