Missing Priests: Fr. John Nesbella

The Letter below appeared in the New Oxford Review in April 2005. The priest who wrote it, Fr. John Nesbella, was a sex abuse survivor who sued his attacker and the Diocese of Altoona which precipitated his suspension. But I sympathize because it's pretty clear that whistleblower priests are unlikely to receive justice through the Church courts. Bishop Adamec is notorious for coddling homosexuals as well as for his personally lavish lifestyle. The Wanderer ran a four-part exposé on the Diocese back in the '90 but bishops have a way of outlasting their critics. They will, of course, answer in the end, but justice may be a long time coming.

The Influential Homosexual Element in the Priesthood Continues to Carry On

Every time I hear the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church blamed on pedophile priests, I cringe, because the facts tell us it has little to do with pedophilia. When the media exposed this problem in 2002, it was very painful, but it was the opportunity for the Church to be cleansed of this filth, and for her leaders to be redeemed. But the cover-up of the actual problem continues.

How do I know?

First, the John Jay Report commissioned by the U.S. Bishops to gather data about the abuse irrefutably confirmed that over 80 percent of the sexual abuse cases were due to homosexual priests. To quote Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist: "The John Jay report has clearly revealed that the crisis in the Church is not one of pedophilia but of homosexuality. The primary victims have not been children but adolescent males."

Second, I have seen it with my own eyes. When I went to seminary in 1996 to study for the priesthood, I was shocked to find so many blatant homosexual seminarians, teachers, and clergy. I was 34 years old and had been away from the Church for nearly a decade. In all my prodigal decadence I had never seen anything like it. It was like getting hit between the eyes with a two-by-four. What had happened to the Church? Homosexuals and heretics had seized control of certain seminaries and were corrupting the priesthood from the ground up. As I became more involved with the clergy, I came to realize that dissident homosexuals had infiltrated nearly every diocese, and that our leaders were doing nothing about it. Anyone who reported or fought this problem was persecuted and marginalized. Needless to say, my life has been a living hell because I am nothing more than an orthodox Catholic who loves Christ's Church and wants to see this cancer removed from the Body of Christ.

So far, over $700 million has been awarded to victims of clerical abuse. Given the John Jay Report, simple math shows nearly half a billion in damages paid out because of homosexual priests. Yet the media and those who know better continue to spin the myth that the scandal has nothing to do with homosexuality. That's a lie and a cover-up. The Protecting God's Children program implemented by certain bishops carries the brand name VIRTUS, and was developed by a group known as The National Catholic Risk Retention Group Inc. Everyone from the grandmother volunteering to help out with the lunch line to the parish gardener is forced to pay for background checks every three years as well as sit through long politically correct seminars that misrepresent the problem. Presenters of VIRTUS emphasize that the problem is pedophilia and repeatedly stress throughout the "training" that the Church scandal is not a homosexual problem.

The influential homosexual element continues to carry on in the Church. God help someone to find the courage to expose this continuing cover-up so that the Church can be purified of this abomination — before it's too late.


Fr. John K. Nesbella
Prince of Peace Parish
No. Cambria, Pennsylvania


More here.

And this article from The Washington Times (November 2004) links the Fr. Haley scandal in Arlington with Altoona Bishop Joseph Adamec's handling of homosexual priests.

From The Wanderer see this also.

From the Tribune Democrat April 2006 see Citing anti-gay stance, outspoken priest quits