How long will baptized Catholics and converts remain in the Church?
An Internet search offers a long list of notable converts to Catholicism. Many of them have recounted how they found in the teachings of the Catholic Church a fuller representation of the truth than what they found in other Christian denominations or religions. Several converts, such as Father Richard John Neuhaus and Vice President JD Vance—who compared abortion to child sacrifice—attribute their conversion in part to the Church’s firm pro-life stance.
Several ministers who converted and were ordained as Catholic priests—often with wife and children—did not want to remain in a pro-LGBTQ denomination where they had to answer to a gay or lesbian bishop. Unfortunately, after converting, many ministers discovered that they now exercise their ministry in dioceses under the supervision of homosexual bishops who, like Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington’s Cardinal Robert McElroy, Albany’s bishop-elect Mark O’Connell, and other «closeted» bishops, have no qualms about giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians.
When Pope Leo XIV did not speak out against Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich’s intention to honor pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin; when he discreetly reconfirmed Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (dossier); when he did not repeal Fiducia supplicans, which allows blessing same-sex couples, nor Traditionis custodes, which limits the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM); and when he did not apologize for the desecration of St. Peter’s Basilica during the LGBTQ pilgrimage on September 6, 2025 (background), converts who had valued the Church’s adherence to biblical pro-life and pro-family teachings, and its refusal to adapt to the zeitgeist, have begun to question their conversion.
The problem is that, although the Church’s official teachings on the immorality and sinfulness of abortion and homosexual conduct have not changed—as has happened in most historic Protestant churches—the ministerial practice and preaching of the pope, as well as of many bishops and priests, do not seem to support those traditional teachings. This perception was also expressed in Chris Jackson’s “The God of Dialogue Has No Creed,” who wrote: “The words remain on the parchment, but practice preaches louder. The modern papacy has discovered that it doesn’t need to revoke doctrine; it can simply outlive it.”
Rome’s strategy to subvert doctrine through practice, unnoticed by most Novus Ordo (NO) and Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) Catholics, was discovered and exposed by Cambridge academic and Rome-based investigative journalist Dr. Jules Gomes. He showed how, although Pope Leo XIII declared Anglican orders null and invalid, Leo XIV and his recent predecessors have resorted to performative gestures to demonstrate that they disagree with Leo XIII. In a recent article titled “Pope Leo’s Doublespeak on Whether Anglicans Have ‘Real’ Priests,” Gomes aptly wrote:
“In 1966, Paul VI took the right hand of Archbishop Michael Ramsey and placed his diamond episcopal ring on the Anglican prelate’s finger (context). Since then, popes have been giving symbolically weighted gifts to the Archbishops of Canterbury. John Paul II gave a pectoral cross to Archbishop Rowan Williams on the occasion of his enthronement. John Paul II gave Archbishop George Carey a copy of the Codex Vaticanus of the New Testament. Francis presented a crozier to Archbishop Justin Welby, a replica of St. Gregory the Great’s (the same Gregory who sent St. Augustine of Canterbury as the first archbishop to England). These gifts go beyond diplomatic gestures; they are semiotically subversive and performative speech acts (J. L. Austin). First, their purpose is to publicly recognize the Archbishops of Canterbury as valid bishops. Second, they are cunningly calibrated to defenestrate Apostolicae curae. The recent popes’ ‘guerrilla theater’ (Amos Wilder) has been a resounding success. Leo XIII’s bull is now like a cannon without bullets. Traditionalist Catholics who want to turn back the clock can fire it with gunpowder, but they will only manage to make loud explosions without bullets to demolish the target.”
Most evangelical churches, like those that supported Charlie Kirk and his pro-life and pro-family ministry, recognize that most gays and lesbians believe that “LGBTQ rights and abortion rights are inseparable.” Consequently, these churches would never bless same-sex couples or allow pro-abortion politicians to receive Holy Communion. In support of biblical teachings, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, which believes in the Real Presence of Christ, would deny Communion to a member if he, like Eduardo Peñalver, the new president of Georgetown University, publicly repudiated his church’s teachings on homosexuality.
What many do not realize is that the practice of blessing same-sex relationships did not originate in the LGBTQ community. Gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals and couples were not knocking down the doors of Catholic rectories and chanceries demanding that their unions be blessed. Fiducia supplicans was conceived, rather, by Pope Francis, Cardinal “Tucho” Fernández, and other “closeted” Catholic clerics who wanted the Catholic community to accept homosexuality, as most historic Protestant churches have already done. For those of us who have been studying this issue for decades, as I have, it is evident that this document is driven by the desire of Catholic clerics—hidden and unhidden—to obtain acceptance from the laity for their clerical homosexual “relationships.” It has long been thought, for example, that the hierarchy refuses to speak clearly calling homosexuals to conversion in chastity for fear of the fierce reaction from the notoriously aggressive LGBTQ lobby and being labeled “homophobic.” In reality, the reason for the hierarchy’s conspicuous silence is their own homosexual conduct, which they now wish to solemnize with a spurious ecclesiastical ceremony that amounts to seeking “a blessing for the wheels but not for the bicycle.”
It seems that Francis and Fernández did not anticipate the strong negative reaction from the African episcopate, similar to that of African Anglican leaders—including the Church of Nigeria—who rejected the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, citing theological differences, particularly on issues like women’s ordination and blessings of same-sex couples.
Unlike Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, neither Pope Leo X (1513–1521), who suffered an anal fistula as a result of too much anal sex, nor Julius III (1540–1555), who shared his bed with 15-year-old Innocenzo Ciocchi del Monte, whom he made a cardinal at 17, tried to get Catholics to accept homosexual conduct. Leo may claim that he is not changing the Church’s doctrine on homosexuality, but his refusal to laicize more than 160 bishops accused of sexual abuse and his lack of discipline toward countless bishops guilty of covering up abuses—primarily against young males—leads to the conclusion that he is protecting homosexual prelates (including many compatriots who elected him), just as countless homosexual bishops have been covering up their predatory homosexual priests for decades. On the magnitude of the problem, see the global list of accused bishops.
One reason why Francis and Leo have been more vocal in their support for members of the LGBTQ community is that, in this century—unlike the 16th—the vast majority of Catholic clergy would be homosexual; some speak of “up to 80%” (book review by Martel). Just as “closeted” cardinals, bishops, and priests working in the Roman Curia were documented frequenting prostitutes in the Rome Termini area (example), Catholic homosexual clergy worldwide continue to follow in the footsteps of Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill (case) and thousands of sexually active clerics on Grindr (GrindrGate).
Based on Leo’s episcopal appointments; his refusal to discipline bishops guilty of abuses or covering them up; his retaliations and the challenged dismissal of Ricardo Coronado—the canonist who exposed his cover-up of abuses in his diocese—; and several other actions that do not support the Church’s teachings that led JD Vance and others to convert to the Catholic faith, one cannot help but wonder if these events were foretold by Archbishop Fulton Sheen when he wrote:
“As his religion will be the brotherhood of Man without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will raise up a counterchurch that will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but upside down and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that in all external aspects will resemble the Mystical Body of Christ…”
The former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali—converted to Catholicism—recently predicted that there will be a wave of Anglican conversions to the Catholic Church due to Sarah Mullally’s elevation to the See of Canterbury. In his interview with OSV, Nazir-Ali offers vague generalities without citing a single name of an Anglican cleric who, according to him, might convert. Contrary to Nazir-Ali’s speculations, some Anglican convert clerics I have personally spoken with have told me that they have returned to the Global Anglican Communion precisely because Leo XIV has not repealed Fiducia supplicans, and the Church of Rome is now in the same situation as the Church of England regarding blessings of homosexual couples.
If Pope Leo, prelates like Cardinal Cupich, priests like Father James Martin, and laity like Eduardo Peñalver continue to impune defend and proclaim positions that do not support the Catholic doctrine founded on both Scripture and natural law, fewer conversions and more departures can be anticipated; perhaps even from converts like JD Vance, Candace Owens, Mark Wahlberg, and others.
Gene Thomas Gomulka —biography— is an advocate for victims of sexual abuse, investigative journalist, author, and screenwriter. Former U.S. Navy Captain (O6) chaplain, seminary professor, and diocesan director of Respect Life, Gomulka was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and later appointed a Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by St. John Paul II. Write to him at msgr.investigations@gmail.com.