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ROME, Italy (LifeSiteNews) – The vice-rector of the North American College (NAC) in Rome is returning to the United States.
Father Adam Park has stepped down from the senior position at the elite seminary following allegations that he sexually harassed seminarians under his care.
According to the Complicit Clergy website, NAC’s rector, Father Peter Harman, stated that Park would “not be returning” to his position as the new academic year approaches. The announcement appeared in the wake of litigation alleging sexual misconduct and cover-ups at the seminary over many years and implicating some 30 clerics, including Harman and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.
In the lawsuit, ex-seminarian Anthony Gorgia alleges that, while a student at NAC, he witnessed inappropriate physical contact initiated by Park on a seminarian. The lawsuit also contains the accounts of other seminarians who allege he has a history of similar inappropriate behavior.
Gorgia filed his complaint against NAC, the Archdiocese of New York, Dolan, Harman, Park, Father John G. McDonald, a NAC lecturer, as well as a number of John Does, in February, and is suing for $125 million. The suit alleges defamation and discrimination against Gorgia for his heterosexuality and the spinal condition which caused him to take a six-week medical leave. The former seminarian stated also that he was harmed financially and emotionally by those named.
In the weeks since the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that the Catholic Church cannot bless homosexual relationships, calling such blessings "illicit," hundreds of German priests have defied the ban on "homosexual blessings."
Indeed, more than 500 German priests have vowed to violate the Vatican's directive which states that it is "not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex."
The fundamental reason for this, of course, is that God, "does not and cannot bless sin."
Very unfortunately, however, many illicit "blessings" have already occurred, as more than 100 locations in Germany (including 50 Catholic parishes) participated in a "Love wins, blessing service for lovers" organized by an openly homosexual German priest.
BUT, there is hope!
Many faithful German Catholics are prayerfully protesting at these renegade parishes, reciting the Holy Rosary and saying other prayers as loving acts of reparation for the illicit "blessings."
Please SIGN and PLEDGE TO PRAY in solidarity with these faithful German Catholics, to STOP these sacrileges. You may say any prayer of your choice!
Of course, these so-called illicit "blessings" are only symptomatic of the head-long plunge of the German Catholic Church into what has been called "massive apostasy," and undeclared "schism."
Observers have suggested that this pernicious deviation from the Church's teaching on marriage and on sexual morality by the German Catholic clergy was set in motion by the so-called German Synodal Path - a Church convention run by the German bishops which dissents from Catholic teaching on celibacy, clerical authority, the ban on female ordination, contraception, cohabitation, homosexuality, and gender theory.
And, many attempts have been made in the last year to appeal to Church authorities, both within and outside Germany, to stop the Synodal Path's manoeuvring against the constant teaching of the Magisterium in faith and morals.
Indeed, in the last ten days, a group of faithful Catholic clergy - including a Cardinal, bishops and priests - have approached the Pope asking him to intervene to stop the Catholic Church in Germany from crossing into declared schism.
Calling on the Pontiff to take action, the faithful group of clergy appeal thus:
"Concerned about this sad situation [the drift of the German Church into schism], we Pastors of the Catholic Church and faithful laity committed to the defense of the Truth of the Faith, ask the Holy Father to take the necessary measures to put an end to these drifts of the German Synodal Path and, if necessary, to apply the appropriate canonical sanctions against the promoters of this tremendous deviation from both doctrine and communion with the Keys of Peter."
Please PLEDGE TO PRAY for the Catholic Church in Germany, that the illicit "homosexual blessings" would cease, and that the Church, there, would swiftly reunite itself to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and Her perennial and immutable teachings on faith and morals.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Vatican rejects blessings for homosexual couples' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-vatican-rejects-blessings-for-homosexual-couples
'Priest: Blessing homosexual couples in Germany is a 'sacrilegious … diabolical act'' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/priest-blessing-homosexual-couples-in-germany-is-a-sacrilegiousdiabolical-act
'Over 500 German priests vow to defy Church’s ban on same-sex couples’ blessings' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/over-500-german-priests-vow-to-defy-churchs-ban-on-same-sex-couples
'German bishop involved in Amazon Synod will not suspend priests who bless homosexual couples' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/german-bishop-involved-in-amazon-synod-will-not-suspend-priests-who-bless-homosexual-couples
'Cardinal, bishops, priests ask Pope to stop schism of Catholic Church in Germany' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-bishops-priests-ask-pope-to-stop-schism-of-catholic-church-in-germany
'Bishop Schneider: How Catholics in Germany can remain faithful in face of schism' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-how-catholics-in-germany-can-remain-faithful-in-face-of-schism
**Photo Credit: Sachin Jose / Twitter
According to victims’ rights advocate Gene Gomulka, Gorgia’s legal team procured new testimony against Park and Harman in affidavits filed this June, including allegations that Omaha’s Archbishop George Lucas was guilty of sexual misconduct with Harman. One of the sworn testimonies was reportedly provided by a retired FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC).
In Gorgia’s February lawsuit, the former seminarian claimed that Park, who was ordained by the disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – who now faces charges of sexual assault against a teenager – and Harman were both known by seminarians to have engaged in homosexual activities.
The more recent affidavits reportedly support Gorgia’s claims, with one of Park’s alleged victims saying that, as a seminarian, the former vice-rector “would often approach men from behind and … caress and rub their shoulders and upper back and put his hand on the small of their backs.”
According to Gomulka, the affidavits say this behaviour “was not invited by the other men,” and the alleged victim added that Park would single out “seminarians who were younger than he was.”
Describing his own experience with Park, who had been his classmate at NAC, the alleged witness stated that the priest had rubbed his pectoral muscles and done other things which “had a definite sexual connotation; were unwanted; and unwelcomed.”
Regarding allegations that NAC administrators conspired against Gorgia after he witnessed Park’s sexual misconduct, the subject of this affidavit said that he, too, had been side-lined by Harman, the seminary’s rector.
“[T]here was no indication that Harman had taken any dutiful action which, as rector, he would have been obliged to do,” the claimant alleged, adding that “it became obvious that no investigation had ever occurred and that the NAC had neither been transparent nor wished to hear from me.”
Furthermore, allegations against Harman and “the former Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois”—now identified by Gomulka as Archbishop Lucas—first raised by Gorgia in his February lawsuit, were reportedly corroborated by an FBI SAC in a separate affidavit.
According to Gomulka, SAC described the testimony of an eyewitness to the alleged orgy as “entirely credible.” The former agent added that he found “convincing precedent supporting the Complaint in the evidence, including video footage,” which he reviewed “regarding allegations that Harman was engaged in graphic sexual acts with his former Ordinary, Bishop George Lucas.”
Park’s home diocese is Washington, D.C., where he once served as the secretary to Cardinal Donald Wuerl. The archdiocese is currently under the leadership of LGBT-apologist Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory.
As the Archbishop of Atlanta, in 2013 Gregory reinstated a priest he had suspended after the latter’s ex-lover made their homosexual relationship public. In 2018, Gregory invited LGBT activist Father James Martin to speak in his archdiocese multiple times. Gregory also appointed pro-homosexuality Monsignor Henry Gracz his diocesan spiritual director for victims of sexual abuse by clergy in 2018.
Park’s resignation comes just five months after he was named in Gorgia’s lawsuit, and a matter of weeks after former general secretary of the USCCB Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill resigned his post following revelations made in an investigative report by The Pillar that he was active on the homosexual hook-up app Grindr.
Harman told LifeSiteNews last February, before the June affidavits were submitted, that the college denied Gorgia’s allegations.
“We contest every and all allegations completely and categorically,” he wrote.
“Regarding your request for comment, the Pontifical North American College was saddened to hear that former seminarian Anthony Gorgia is attempting to use civil courts to sue his former seminary, Church, and bishop,” he continued.
“We have full confidence in the Rector, staff, and seminarians of the North American College. Seminarians are encouraged to report any allegations of misconduct and assured that such allegations are taken seriously. Unfortunately, Mr. Gorgia never made any allegation of misconduct to NAC leadership during his time as a seminarian. We do anticipate defending ourselves vigorously against Mr. Gorgia with the facts of the matter.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to Harman regarding the more recent affidavits but has not yet received a response. LifeSiteNews has also contacted Gene Gomulka and Bishop Lucas.