The Rite of Sodomy
A Disturbing Book
on a Disturbing Subject
A Catholic Family News Interview
with Randy Engel
Note: Randy Engel’s new book, the Rite of Sodomy — Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church is a mammoth work of 1,318 pages containing 4,523 endnotes, a bibliography of over 350 books and a detailed Index. Mrs. Engel is a veteran pro-life worker and a noted journalist whose articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Catholic Family News. She is founder and director of the U.S. Coalition for Life, and author of the books Sex Education, the Final Plague, and The McHugh Chronicles. Catholic Family News Editor John Vennari interviewed Randy Engel on her latest book which promises to be a blockbuster. Like no work ever produced before, the book investigates the history, nature and details of today’s tragic clerical scandals.
J. Vennari: Randy, you have been researching and writing this book for more than 17 years. What caused you to take up this subject?
R. Engel The Rite of Sodomy — Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church was written first out of the love of God and His Word. Only this motivation could have sustained me throughout this long effort.
I was also driven by my love for the Church, in particular the love of the sacred priesthood and religious life. This work is a defense of the priesthood as instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself without which we could not have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Third, during the four decades that I have fought against sex instruction of children in Catholic and secular schools, I have been haunted by the question: What would motivate a bishop to institute a curriculum designed to sexualize children and youth, rob their soul of God’s grace and ultimately transform them into polymorphous perverts? My research for this book helped me to find the answer to this burning question and explains why parents have been uniformly unsuccessful is ridding Catholic schools of the plague of so-called “sex education.”
Another motivating factor was a genuine compassion for the homosexual, male and female, caught up in this habituated vice. The time has come for another Emancipation Proclamation — this time to free the individual homosexual from the slavery of the power-driven Homosexual Collective both within and outside the Church.
Finally, my book reflects my love of family and country. Catholics need to remind themselves and others, especially Church and elected public officials, that it is a basic duty of legitimate government to extinguish or at least restrain vice in all its forms and promote virtue.
JV: Your book opens with a rather lengthy section on the historical perspectives of homosexuality?
RE: Yes. Section I, some 350 pages, is devoted to providing the reader with important background on the role that homosexuality has played in the history of mankind. It begins with the ancient Greeks and Ro-mans, continues on to the early Church and the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Victorian era and ends with the Cambridge Spies in modern times.
I think it is helpful for Catholics and others to understand that the problem of homosexuality in the Church is not new as is quite evident in the writings of St. Peter Damian. His Book of Gomorrah was written in 1049 AD, but his observations are so astute and fresh that they appear to have been written just yesterday.
There is also biographical material on well-known homosexuals of yesteryear, Catholic and non-Catholic, including Oscar Wilde, John Addington Symonds, Magnus Hirschfeld, the Marquis de Sade, André Gide, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Their stories give the reader some real insight into the homosexual world of the past and the manifold tragic consequences of homosexual addiction on the lives of these men and their families.
The most important point that emerges from these historical perspectives is the fact that pederasty, that is sexual relations between adult men and young boys and youth, has been the most universal and pervasive form of homosexuality from ancient to modern times. This fact dispels the myth that there is no connection between the current sexual abuse scandals rocking the Church and homosexuality.
JV: What is the significance of your treatment of the Cambridge Spies?
RE: Well, John, the inclusion of an entire chapter on the Cambridge Spies may at first seem out of place in a book on homosexuality and the Catholic Church, but actually it is a very important component of the book.
First of all, this chapter demonstrates the actual inner workings and importance of the international Homintern or homosexual network in England, Europe and the United States that was fully exploited by the Soviet Union and other Communist powers during the Cold War. In a latter discussion of the Communist infiltration of the Church, and its possible connection to the rise of a homosexual clergy, this material takes on added importance.
Most importantly, it shows how the British Establishment, including the Royal Family and the Old Boys Club at 10 Downing Street, came to the rescue of the Cambridge Spies to avoid scandal even at the expense of national security. We have our own version of the Old Boys Club in the Church in the form of National Episcopal Conferences. It is the USCCB that has given the Homosexual Collective its foothold on the American Church and it has played a key role in the cover-up of criminal clerical pederasts including offending Catholic bishops.
JV: What do you mean when you use the term “Homosexual Collective”?
RE: I am simply referring to the organized “Gay Liberation Movement” as opposed to the individual homosexual. There is a symbiotic relationship between the Collective and the individual — each feeds off the other. The latter looks to the Collective to affirm his identity as a “gay” man and for support to sustain his habituated vice. The Collective, on the other hand, derives its power, prestige and income from the individual homosexual. Defections from its ranks are frowned upon and seen as a threat.
JV: According to a news report, a Catholic attorney in Florida recently said, “The good priests who keep in contact with me say that 70 percent of the U.S. bishops are homosexual.” That statement would have shocked many Catholics, but I am sure it did not shock you.
RE: No. The existence of a large and dominant homosexual contingent in the American hierarchy and within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (formerly the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference) in Washington, D.C. is one of the dominant themes of my book.
The rise of this phenomenon, that is, the emergence of a large number of homosexual cardinals and bishops in AmChurch (American Church), has been a gradual process covering more than 100 years and closely parallels the rise of the secular Homosexual Movement in the United States and abroad. It is the presence of the Homosexual Collective within Am-Church’s hierarchy that has made possible the wholesale homosexual colonization of many dioceses in the United States, and the subsequent cover-up of clerical sexual abuse cases by the American hierarchy with the co-operation of the Holy See. When shepherds turn into wolves, not only are seminarians, priests and religious under their care at risk, but their flock as well.
JV: Is there a difference between the Homosexual Collective within the Church and the secular Homosexual Collective?
RE: Generally speaking, no. Catholic homosexual clergy and religious toe the secular party line. They use the same language, promote the same rhetoric and advance the same political agenda. This becomes startling clear in the chapter devoted to the so-called Catholic pro-homosexual organization New Ways Ministry.
I think there are many Catholics who think that a self declared “gay” bishop, priest or religious doesn’t behave like other homosexuals, that is, he’s not into sodomy, porn, drugs, or sexual seduction, etc., but this is just wishful thinking. The odds are that he is.
JV: More than half of your book is devoted to the Homosexual Collective within the American Church, with special attention to the homosexual hierarchy and its development prior to Vatican II, correct?
RE: Yes, John, this is what makes The Rite of Sodomy so unique. As I mentioned earlier, the rise of homosexuality in the Church closely paralleled the rise of the “Gay Liberation Movement” in the West. This takes us back to the turn of the 20th Century.
Did homosexuality exist in clerical ranks before this time? Yes it did. We know this because the early Church Fathers at major Councils of the Church repeatedly condemned the vice of sodomy and the sexual seduction of the young by predatory clerics including bishops and religious superiors. Again, from a historical perspective, the rise of sexual problems like homosexuality in the Church was always closely connected to periods of grave social, political and economic upheaval caused by war, plague and famine, and practitioners of these vices, when caught, were condemned and punished by both the State and Church.
Today, however, the existence of the powerful international Homosexual Collective has changed the rules of the game both in Society and in the Church. Today, vices and the practitioners thereof, have been accorded special “rights” and a protective status. A practicing homosexual, with or without a collar, is not a pervert, he’s a man with a “special” and highly commendable “nature.” Sodomite clergy are said to be “superior” to their normal heterosexual counterparts by virtue of this special “nature” and their greater “sensitivity.”
JV: So you started tracking the rise of homosexual clerics in AmChurch from around the late 1800s?
RE: Yes. In my book, I name and track three generations of homosexual cardinals and bishops in key archdioceses across the United States over a 100 year period with full biographical details of these prelates and the homosexual priests they moved up the career ladder in Am-Church and at the USCCB (NCCB/USCC). And while the Second Vatican Council did not create the current problem of homosexuality and pederasty in the Church, it most certainly did accelerate and exacerbate it.
JV: Can you explain what role Vatican II played in opening up the floodgates to the rise of a homosexual clergy and hierarchy?
RE: Before answering that question John, I should point out that the problem of a homosexual hierarchy and clergy in the Church today is part of the larger problem of the decline in Faith and morals in the universal Church. Therefore, in so far as the Second Vatican Council contributed to the decline of Faith and morals among the clergy and laity, it can be said to be a contributing factor in the rise of homosexuality in the Church. NewChurch has created a NewMass that demands a New Priesthood, which is decidedly populated by the Church Effeminate, not the traditional Church Militant.
Having said this, I would have to put the loss of effective vetting of candidates for the priesthood and religious life and the decline of Catholic training and discipline in Catholic seminaries at the top of the list. These factors are closely connected to the domination of the American Church by a liberal (in the worst sense) and largely homosexualized hierarchy. The latter, is ably assisted by their national bureaucracy, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Were it not for the USCCB and its earlier clone, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference, the Homosexual Collective would have never been able to colonize AmChurch as quickly or as thoroughly as it has done.
JV: What about the role played by Archbishop Jean Jadot, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States from 1973 to 1980, who was responsible for the appointment of an extremely liberal cadre of bishops?
RE: It is true John that Jadot was a major player in the appointment of many liberal bishops including prominent homosexual bishops and Cardinals in AmChurch, but let us not forget that he took his marching orders from Rome, more to the point, from Pope Paul VI. In any case, as I document in my book, Jadot oversaw the selection of more than twenty pro-homosexual bishops during his seven-year tenure. Jadot also enjoyed a close working relationship with Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and his band of merry men at the NCCB/USCC.
JV: Speaking of Cardinal Bernardin, I see that you have devoted an entire chapter to his life and legacy?
RE: Yes, the role Cardinal Bernardin played in the rise of homosexuality in Am-Church was so important I decided to give the Cardinal a chapter all his own.
JV: Archbishop Rembert Weakland was a Jadot appointment was he not?
RE: Yes. As a matter of fact, Archbishop Jadot installed Weakland as Milwaukee’s ninth Archbishop at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on November 8, 1977.
JV: I remember back in May 2002, when the story broke about Weakland’s “love affair” with a Catholic layman (Paul Marcoux), I checked with the National Cath-olic Reporter to find out what the Archbishop was doing in 1980 when his correspondence with Mr. Marcoux was going on. Around this time, Weakland was at a meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops calling for a gender-free language to be incorporated into the Liturgy so as to be sensitive to women (that is, to feminists). Do you see a connection between the disastrous new Liturgy and the rise of homosexuality within the Church since the Second Vatican Council?
RE: Yes. Historically speaking liberal theology and liberal politics are closely related to liberal sexuality. The worldwide Homosexual Collective has its roots in Marxist/Leninist politics and the majority of American bishops, including their bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., the USCCB, are tied to Liberalism in thought, word and deed. Not all of the American bishops are in the ultra-liberal camp, and obviously not all of the American bishops are homosexual or pro-homosexual. They are for the most part a silent minority. However, as long as they continue to be officially linked to the USCCB Old Boys Club, they remain part of the problem. A sad fact, but true.
JV: If I can change the subject for a moment, I noticed that you give a great deal of attention to the development of a homosexual “sub-culture” in Catholic seminaries in the United States and in Rome. I recall that former seminarian Joseph Kellenyi, who was repeatedly persecuted by “gay” faculty members and fellow students while at the seminary, has stated, “I have heard time and again that the sexual orientation of priests and seminarians does not matter, as long as they are celibate. Yet when gays come into positions of authority they knowingly and consistently appoint gay men to important key positions.” How does this square with your own research?
RE: Kellenyi is standing on solid ground. Any candidate for Holy Orders who is sexually attracted to other men, that is sustains homosexual desires, whether or not he acts upon them, should be dismissed from the seminary immediately, for his own good and the good of the Church. No one has a “right” to the priesthood and religious life especially an individual who suffers from inordinate and perverse sexual desires. Common sense would dictate that it is a disservice to place such men in an all-male environment for an extended period of time. The moral danger inherent in seminary life, per se, is magnified when a “gay” clique exists at the facility among the staff and other seminarians.
This brings us up to the second point. The Homosexual Collective both inside and outside the Church recruits like the Army. It is like a cancer, it invades and metastasizes everyone and everything it touches. In my book I document the process of large-scale colonization of numerous dioceses in the United States and of religious orders such as the Salvatorians and Domincans. It makes for very distressing reading.
JV: Randy, I am glad you mentioned the Salvatorians. The Rite of Sodomy contains the most definitive study of New Ways Ministry founder Fr. Robert Nugent, a Salvatorian, and Sister Jeannine Gramick of the School Sisters of Notre Dame (now with the Sisters of Loretto), that I have ever seen. Frankly, I found the chapter overwhelming and frightening.
RE: Well, I spent over three years alone on researching and writing the chapter titled “New Ways Ministry – A Study in Subversion” and it obviously has had the desired impact on you, as I am sure it will have on every reader. It is important to emphasize from the start that New Ways is essentially a political entity not a religious one. That is, Nugent and Gramick use religion to advance an essentially political agenda of the secular Homosexual Collective. New Ways has heavily recruited priests and religious to “the cause” and the organization has been welcomed in many dioceses across the country.
JV: Didn’t the Vatican investigate New Ways Ministry?
RE: Yes, on several levels. The problem was that these “investigations” were too little and too late. Also, they systematically ignored the role played by the Salvatorians and School Sisters of Notre Dame in financing, promoting and sustaining the pro-homosexual engine of New Ways for many decades.
Not surprisingly, it was concerned Catholic laity, not the American bishops, who finally forced the Holy See into creating a Commission to investigate the role of Nugent and Gramick in connection with New Ways. Created in 1988, the three-member Maida Commission, named after its Chair, Archbishop Adam Joseph Maida of Detroit, waited five years before conducting its rather perfunctory investigation. In the meantime, the footloose and fancy-free duo continued their pro-homosexual proselytization in the United States and abroad. They recruited and organized a significant number of homosexual priests and religious and lesbian nuns, and enjoyed the protection and patronage of the NCCB/USCC and many Catholic bishops. By the time the Vatican got around to disciplining and silencing Nugent and Gramick, the damage they had done was beyond repair.
I think that, perhaps more than any other chapter, the history of New Ways dramatically demonstrates the utter incompetence of the Holy See in dealing with the Homosexual Collective within the Church.
JV: I found the section of your book dealing with “Saint Sebastian’s Angels” equally disturbing.
RE: Yes, the chapter featuring Saint Sebastian’s Angels is part of a section that deals with the various homosexual networks that exist among the Catholic clergy in the United States and abroad. I am indebted to Steve Brady, President of Roman Catholic Faithful, who initially brought the Saint Sebastian’s Angels website to my attention. I would not read the text on a full stomach.
These “gay” networks within the hierarchy, the diocesan priesthood and religious orders perform various functions for their members including the provision of sexual partners in an atmosphere of relative safety. Networks also assist in the recruitment of new members including seminarians and newly ordained priests and can provide damage control when a member of the network has been publicly exposed or picked up by the police. If the predatory cleric is a bishop, he is virtually home free. The Vatican will protect him to the end. So far, not a single bishop involved in criminal pederasty has spent a day in jail.
JV: This brings us to the issue of the abuse of minors by Catholic clerics in the United States that is well covered in your book. Would you like to briefly comment on the high price tag attached to sexual abuse law suits in many dioceses across the country.
RE: As far as I am concerned, the only price tag that really matters is the tremendous loss of countless souls of the many victims of clerical abuse, and their families, who have left the Church. Some of these victims have committed suicide, a loss of life that no amount of money can paper over. In terms of hard cold cash, Catholic men and women in the pews have been called upon to cough up billions of dollars to pay off victims of clerical abuse and keep their diocese out of bankruptcy. As for the individual bishops, most bishops have access to slush funds and other private sources to keep them personally financially solvent well into retirement.
JV: Randy, many of the themes and incidents recorded in your book such as, the Bernardin legacy, New Ways Ministry and St. Sebastian’s Angels occurred under Pope John Paul II’s 26-year watch. How can this possibly square with the current call for John Paul II’s beatification?
RE: It can’t.
JV: What is your opinion of the latest Vatican document on the admittance of homosexuals to the seminary that was issued by the Sacred Congregation for Cath-olic Education on November 29, 2005 after being approved by Pope Benedict XVI?
RE: It is the latest in a long line of ambiguous and toothless documents emanating from the Vatican on the subject of the ordination of homosexual men and of the problem of homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood and religious life, in general. Clearly, the new document does not affirm the absolute ban against ordaining homosexuals, pederasts and habituated onanists found in the 1961 Instruction “Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders.” In fact, the 1961 Instruction did not even merit a footnote in the new directive.
I thought it significant that Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect for the Congregation, went out of his way to state that the norms expressed in the document do not apply to already ordained homosexual priests, which is a backhanded way of saying that Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, has no immediate plans to clean house and mount a serious attack on the Homosexual Collective within the Roman Catholic priesthood and religious life.
JV: In the spring of 2005 in the Diocese of Buffalo, Bishop Edward Kmiec permitted the “Gay Men’s Choir” to perform a concert at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. A few weeks later, on June 9-12, 2005, the same Bishop Kmiec permitted Canisius College, a Jesuit institution in Buffalo, to host “The Second Annual Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender Conference for Jesuit Colleges and Universities.” I take it your book can help explain how something so outrageous could occur without drawing down the immediate wrath of the Vatican and of Bishop Kmiec’s brother bishops.
RE: Yes, and a great deal more. Of course, this type of open scandal has been going on for years. Don’t forget that the Windy City Gay Chorus sang at Cardinal Bernardin’s wake at Holy Name Cathedral in 1996. Kmiec has no worries. He is well protected by the Old Boys Club and the powerful apparatus of the USCCB. As for the Vatican, it has become part of the problem, indeed it is the problem, as the Catholic Church, by God’s design, is a hierarchical Church. The Homosexual Collective, as a tool of the New World Order, has declared war on the Catholic Church, but the Church starting at the top down cannot bring itself to acknowledge this simple fact of life, or should I say, of death.
JV: It goes without saying then that every concerned Catholic needs to read this book.
RE: Well I think that every Catholic can profit from reading this book, most especially Catholic parents, faithful priests and religious, victims of clerical sexual abuse and their parents, and even homosexual clergy and laymen. The Homosexual Collective will no doubt attack the book as “homophobic,” but I hope that it will serve as a catalyst to move the individual homosexual, including bishops, priests, nuns and other religious, to conversion, wholeness and holiness.
JV: Can you tell our readers how they can obtain a copy of your book?
RE: Thanks, John. I would be very happy to. Readers can go to our website at www.newengelpublishing.com and order online. If you prefer, you can send a check for $64.00 plus $8.00 postage and handling to N.E.P., Box 356, Export, PA 15632. Readers can order by phone from 724-327-7379 if they have any questions or wish to use their credit card to order the book. CFN readers may also request that their public libraries purchase a copy of The Rite of Sodomy and direct the acquisition personnel to our website.
JV: Parting words ...
RE: Thank you. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Reprinted from the June 2006 issue of
Catholic Family News
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