WHY PRIESTS LEAVE

The truth is often kept from the laity

Over fifty years ago, when the majority of bishops and priests were heterosexual, the main reason priests left was to marry. The teaching that the Holy Spirit would come down upon the ordinand who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, would then be able to live happily without human affection and love, did not prove true for many straight priests. Unfortunately, they were never informed in the seminary about studies showing that not more than half of all priests are practicing celibacy at any given moment in time, and no more than 2% of priests admit to having observed celibacy throughout their entire lives. If seminarians were informed of these studies, might some decide to pursue another career in life, just like a woman might decide not to marry someone if she knew he suffered from an injury that caused him to be sterile?

After I was ordained, when I attended my first priests’ retreat, I went for a walk after lunch with the chancellor of our diocese, who said, “Now that you are no longer a seminarian but a priest, I have just one piece of advice for you. When you fool around, don’t do it with anyone in your own parish.” Before that encounter, I was under the impression that most priests were heterosexually oriented and lived celibate lives. I never knew that the two young priests with whom I served during my first parish assignment were both preying on our altar boys like they were groomed when they were in high school seminaries. It was only decades later, when victims from various parishes came forward, that they were removed from ministry.

Unlike many lay Catholics, and a small number of seminarians and young priests, most ordained Catholic clergy know that the vast majority of American-born bishops, priests, and seminarians today are homosexuals. Now that even seminaries in Africa are being populated with homosexuals – most of whom are sexually active – fewer straight priests are being ordained. One priest who followed me and the two predator priests at my first parish assignment was a homosexual who entered the seminary in his early thirties after leading a closeted gay lifestyle. This homosexual priest never posed a threat to young men and boys because all of his prior sexual encounters were consensual with other adult gay men. Just like San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn, who ordained Robert McElroy and then made him his live-in secretary before making him the vicar general, so too was this gay priest made the live-in secretary of the bishop and later appointed the chancellor of the diocese. A few years after being named the pastor of one of the largest parishes in the diocese - passing over many older and more qualified heterosexual priests - the gay priest left to marry a Protestant minister friend. With “gay marriages” being performed today, one can no longer assume that a priest is voluntarily leaving to marry a woman.

Even though priests leave and later marry, the inability to lead a celibate life may not always be the principal reason for their departure. “Allen” was assigned as an associate to a parish where the pastor was a homosexual who “entertained” other gay men in the rectory. When Allen asked the bishop to be transferred, he was sent to another parish where the pastor was also a homosexual. A teenage parishioner told Allen that the pastor told him in confession that it was not a sin for him to have sex as long as he used a condom. Scandalized and suffering from “destabilization”– a sense of being alienated, disconnected, or estranged from other members of the group –Allen left the priesthood, married a few years later, and is blessed today with a loving wife and two daughters.

While the Catholic media reported how one small diocese ordained five priests in 2024, leading readers to believe more men are being ordained in the U.S. today, it failed to report how three recently ordained priests from that diocese have asked to be incardinated into another diocese perceived to be more traditional and “straight-priest-friendly.” Hence, instead of leaving the priesthood, some straight priests have requested to serve elsewhere. The only problem is that even if a bishop will release a priest to be incardinated elsewhere, that “elsewhere” may not always prove as “straight-friendly” as some priests might hope.

The real reasons some priests, deacons, and seminarians leave, voluntarily or involuntarily, are often kept from many members of the laity. When the late Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler forced transitional heterosexual Deacon Wieslaw Walawender to leave St. John the Evangelist Church in Severna Park, Maryland, the alcoholic homosexual pastor, Monsignor Edward Staub, told parishioners that Walawender left because he questioned his ability to lead a celibate life. The truth, however, was that Keeler got rid of Walawender because he feared he would be criminally prosecuted for failing to report that Staub had drugged and sodomized Walawender. By clicking on and reading “Wes,” you will learn how Walawender, like numerous other foreign seminarians, was sex trafficked as “young meat” for sexually insatiable gay U.S. bishops and priests.

The Coalition for Canceled Priests, dedicated to assisting priests unjustly removed from active ministry, may soon have a new member. Father Michael Briese is a sixty-nine-year-old priest of the Archdiocese of Washington (AOW) who is revered for his work with the poor and homeless of southern Maryland. Briese was deeply affected by the suicides of two young people who took their lives after being abused by two priests of the AOW. When he learned that Cardinal Gregory failed to investigate and discipline priests accused of abusing seminarians, he wrote about the allegations in his Substack account (Fr. Michael's Newsletter) only after Gregory refused to meet with him to discuss the allegations. Briese’s response to McElroy’s unwarranted actions can be read online at www.gomulka.net/Briese.pdf.

Gregory and his successor, Cardinal Robert McElroy, are requesting the Dicastery for the Clergy to laicize Father Briese for his refusal to delete his online writings that address clerical sexual predation and misconduct in the Catholic Church. If McElroy has his way, Briese, who is in poor health, will be thrown into the street without an income, health insurance, or any of the benefits that the alleged sexual predators are receiving.

Sex abuse victims' advocates question that justice will be served in Briese’s case because Pope Leo XIV has yet to discipline Father Marko Rupnik, who is accused of raping over 20 nuns, or to laicize over 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults. Briese is appealing the laicization that can be read in this linked letter to Cardinal McElroy.

As long as the Lavender Mafia remains in power, which is openly promoting the LGBTQ agenda, one should not be surprised when straight priests, deacons, and seminarians leave or are dismissed. In the meantime, homosexual priests and bishops, many of whom are not leading celibate lives, continue to enjoy the good life on the nickel of “paying, praying, and obeying” Catholics.

Having looked at reasons why men enter and leave the priesthood, the final article in this series will examine why priests stay.

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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