Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò with President Barack Obama. Archbishop Viganò is currently on the run and hiding from the Vatican intelligence service. Image source.

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

In the years we have covered the topic of “medical kidnapping” and child abductions through child social services, we have exposed the corruption behind these “legal” kidnappings, and the reasons why they happen.

Most of these foundational articles are found on our About Us page.

One of the reasons, tragically, that children are kidnapped and taken from their families is for child sex trafficking, which some have reported brings in more money than the illegal drugs and illegal gun trade, combined.

Sadly, religious institutions, many of which have their own child social services, can be among the worst offenders when it comes to trafficking and kidnapping children.

Health Impact News investigative reporter John Thomas takes an in-depth look into the child sex scandals of the Roman Catholic Church in this article, the second one of a multi-part series on this topic.

Whistle Blowing Clergy in the Roman Catholic Church Risk Their Careers and Their Lives to Reveal the Truth About Child Sexual Abuse

by John P. Thomas
Health Impact News

The code of silence in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) that has protected pedophile priests for decades is being breeched by a few courageous whistleblowing Catholic clergy. These brave men have become willing to speak the truth at great risk to their careers and even to their very lives.

In the previous article about sexual molestation of children by Roman Catholic priests, we saw patterns of abuse that span more than 70 years. More than 4 billion dollars in damages was paid to victims in the United States, yet the problem remained. During those years, few priests were criminally charged and convicted for their crimes. 

Most offending priests were just counseled by members of the RCC hierarchy and told to pray more about their “inappropriate” behavior. Sometimes they were sent for mental health treatment before reassignment to another parish.

Priests were systematically shifted from parish to parish and state to state to cover-up their crimes. This practice did not stop the acts of pedophilia – it only led to the sexual assault of more children. 

Evidence is very strong that the highest levels in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church were fully aware of the molestation problem of children and even the rape of male seminary students, but did little if anything to stop it, thus condoning the crimes.

Read the previous article for details:

The Catholic Church and Pedophilia: Trafficking Children as Sex Slaves

Whistleblowing Clergy – Dead, in Hiding, or Blackballed

As we will see, some whistleblowing Catholic clergy have died under extremely suspicious circumstances after promising to reveal what they knew.

Some are in hiding after bringing forth evidence of massive criminal activity in the RCC. Even priests who simply raise allegations to their superiors regarding child molestation by other priests are blacklisted and no longer assigned to parish duties.

Here are a few of the stories of whistleblowers.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Remains in Hiding in Fear for His Life 

Archbishop Viganò, Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Ambassador to the United States) from 2011 to 2016 [1], reiterated in a letter to Pope Francis his demand that the Pope act to investigate and correct situations involving sexual misconduct among Catholic clergy. 

High on the list of complaints was Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse of Catholic seminarians who he was said to have “forced himself upon” (sexually assaulted). [1] Archbishop Viganò also raised charges that Cardinal McCarrick molested a 16-year-old boy. The charge of molestation of the boy has been substantiated by investigators. [2]

Under public pressure, Cardinal McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in August of 2018, at age 88, after alleged misconduct that has damaged lives for at least five decades. He now faces a canonical trial. [1, 2]

Even though Cardinal McCarrick has now resigned, the bigger problem remains.

Archbishop Viganò Challenges the Pope to Clean Up the Rest of the Problem

In a letter to Pope Francis, dated September 29, 2018, Archbishop Viganò stated in part:

…since at least June 23, 2013, the Pope knew from me how perverse and evil McCarrick was in his intentions and actions, and instead of taking the measures that every good pastor would have taken, the pope made McCarrick one of his principal agents in governing the Church, in regard to the United States, the Curia, and even China, as we are seeing these days with great concern and anxiety for that martyr Church. [3]

Archbishop Viganò also raised serious concern about the possibility of Pope Francis playing a role in covering up for or blocking investigations into other priests and prelates, including Fr. Julio Grassi, Fr. Mauro Inzoli, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor [3] and others. [4]

Archbishop Viganò further described his concern to Pope Francis:

It has been a month since I offered my testimony, solely for the good of the Church, regarding what occurred at the audience with Pope Francis on June 23, 2013 and regarding certain matters I was given to know in the assignments entrusted to me at the secretariat of State and in Washington, in relation to those who bear responsibility for covering up the crimes committed by the former archbishop of that capital.

My decision to reveal those grave facts was for me the most painful and serious decision that I have ever made in my life. I made it after long reflection and prayer, during months of profound suffering and anguish, during a crescendo of continual news of terrible events, with thousands of innocent victims destroyed and the vocations and lives of young priests and religious disturbed. The silence of the pastors who could have provided a remedy and prevented new victims became increasingly indefensible, a devastating crime for the Church. Well aware of the enormous consequences that my testimony could have, because what I was about to reveal involved the successor of Peter himself, I nonetheless chose to speak in order to protect the Church, and I declare with a clear conscience before God that my testimony is true. Christ died for the Church, and Peter, Servus servorum Dei, is the first one called to serve the spouse of Christ.

Certainly, some of the facts that I was to reveal were covered by the pontifical secret that I had promised to observe and that I had faithfully observed from the beginning of my service to the Holy See. But the purpose of any secret, including the pontifical secret, is to protect the Church from her enemies, not to cover up and become complicit in crimes committed by some of her members. I was a witness, not by my choice, of shocking facts and, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (par. 2491), the seal of secrecy is not binding when very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth. Only the seal of confession could have justified my silence. [3]

Pope Francis Reverses Sanctions Levied by Pope Benedict

Archbishop Viganò explained that Pope Benedict issued sanctions against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick based on his criminal sexual conduct and Pope Francis removed those sanctions and reinstated him to a significant position of power within the RCC.

Read the full letter from Archbishop Viganò to Pope Francis:

Viganò releases new ‘testimony’ responding to Pope’s silence on McCarrick cover-up

or

Listen to the letter read by a Catholic apologist. He prefaced the reading of the letter with a commentary about papal infallibility and impeccability, and the obligation of Catholics to confront error in their Church when they see it: 

Whistleblowing Priests can be Killed for Their Truth Telling

Archbishop Viganò has good reason to fear for his life. 

Image source.

Fr. Joseph Moreno was silenced with a gunshot, in 2012, after collecting evidence for 20 years about sexual assaults committed by clergy in the Buffalo, New York Diocese. [5]

His saga began when he assisted a seminary student in raising a complaint to the RCC hierarchy regarding a pedophile sex crime that the student witnessed.

The young seminary student saw the immediate results of a priest having sexually assaulted a 6-year-old boy when the boy came out of the priest’s office.

The boy had been forced to perform oral sex on the priest. The child came out of the priest’s office with semen on his face, in his hair, and on his clothing. [5]

The seminary student was eventually driven out of the seminary for reporting the crime to the RCC hierarchy. [5]

This event triggered Fr. Moreno to begin gathering evidence about Catholic clergy sex crimes when he realized that the 1992 child molestation complaint was being ignored by the RCC hierarchy. [5]

In addition to the molestation that Fr. Moreno recorded, he compiled information about the local seminary’s program to recruit homosexual priests from Columbia, South America. The evidence he gathered would have brought the Catholic Church under severe scrutiny for covering up homosexual and pedophile activity in the priesthood. [5]

Apparently, he also had evidence on how local police, judges, and politicians cooperated with the culture of sexual abuse in the Buffalo diocese. [10] 

Fr. Moreno prepared a dossier and had scheduled a meeting in Washington, D.C., where he was going to deliver his evidence to Archbishop Viganò, mentioned above. [5]

Fr. Moreno was Found Dead

Fr. Moreno never made it to Washington D.C. He was found dead in his easy chair with gunshot wounds to his head a few days before his scheduled trip.

The autopsy performed immediately after his death found one gunshot wound.

A private autopsy performed three years later found two shots to the head, one of which had been carefully sutured shut, probably in an attempt to make it look like a single shot suicide. [5]

He was shot on the back-left side of his head. His left hand had neurological damage, and it is was unlikely that he could have used his left hand to hold the gun or pull the trigger.

No blood splatters were visible in the room, and no gun powder residue was found on his hands.

Also, his desk drawer had been broken open, and his file cabinet was missing. He was sitting in his chair with both arms resting on the arms of the chair as if he just sat down for a rest.

The Buffalo diocese announced it was a suicide, even though no note was found. [5]

Events like this stand as solemn warnings to anyone who will blow the whistle on pedophilia or other sex crimes in the Catholic Church.

The following video describes the crime scene and contains the testimony of the man who was sexually molested in 1992 when he was 6 years old. 

The Powerful Vatican Intelligence Service is Hunting Archbishop Viganò

Archbishop Viganò has been on the run since August 22, 2018. [6]

Agents from the Vatican intelligence service have been dispatched to locate the Archbishop and serve him with canonical sanctions for his actions. [6, 7] 

“The true name of the Vatican’s clandestine intelligence service is Santa Alleanza (“Holy Alliance”) or L’Entità (“The Entity”) according to Allen Dulles, the first director of the CIA.” [7]

These are a few excerpts from the report prepared by ChurchMilitant.com about the Vatican security service and its paramilitary forces, which would make any Catholic whistleblower fear for his life.

The Church Militant report stated:

While the intelligence resources of the Vatican City State cannot be said to be comparable in funding or cutting-edge technology of the CIA, GRU or MSS, one would make a fatal mistake in underestimating the far reach, experience and capabilities of what many experts and historians consider to be the world’s most discreet but greatest intelligence service.

The fabled Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal is quoted as having said in an interview that “the best and most effective espionage service in the world belongs to the Vatican.”

It is for no small reason that Abp. Viganò, the Vatican’s most wanted man, is on the run and has gone into hiding.

Towering above the Piazza della Minerva in Rome, in what may appear to be just another ancient Roman palace, lies the Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica, or Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the Vatican’s diplomatic and much softer equivalent to the CIA’s Camp Peary — “The Farm.”

There, the cream of the crop of the Roman Catholic Church’s priests are sent by their bishops to be trained to be members of what is still considered to be one of the world’s elite corps of diplomats, the apostolic nuncios of the Holy See. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was graduate no. 1447 of the Accademia’s class of 1971…

Most Catholics don’t realize that the principal gatherers of intelligence on the part of the Holy See are the apostolic nuncios and their diplomatic staff, just like the ambassadors and staff of embassies that are deployed around the world by every nation-state. …

If Viganò is afraid for his life to the point where he has to destroy his cell phone and go into hiding overseas, it is not only out of fear of being tracked down by a staffer of the apostolic enunciators and missions of the Holy See spread throughout the world — the “long arm” of the Secretariat of State that has ordered discovery of Viganò’s whereabouts — but also if not principally out of dread for the intelligence capabilities of the Vatican City State’s paramilitary Corps of Gendarmes of the Vatican City State currently led by Domenico Giani.

An ex-officer of Italy’s much-feared financial police force called the Guardia di Finanza, the current Commandant of the Corps and Inspector General of the combined police and security forces of the Vatican City State is also the lead bodyguard of Pope Francis, just as he was for Pope Benedict.

Every member of the Police and Security Forces of the Corps of Gendarmes, just like every member of the fabled Swiss Guards, is a former member respectively of Italy or Switzerland’s military or police forces.

When Abp. Viganò served as secretary general of the Vatican City State, General Giani reported to him.

Now, in a dramatic turn of events, it is Giani who has been ordered by his superiors … [to] the hunt for Viganò.

In 2008, the Vatican City State joined INTERPOL, the world’s largest international association of police forces with offices based in 192 countries. As a result, the Vatican now has access to tremendous resources and databases through its official police contacts and INTERPOL office locations throughout the globe. [7]

Read the full description of the report that explains the threat to Archbishop Viganò’s life:

Santa Alleanza: The Vatican Intelligence Service

Archbishop Viganò — A likely Target to be Suicided or Assassinated 

The possibility of this worldwide man hunt ending in his assassination or faked suicide is a real concern, given the depth of Archbishop Viganò’s knowledge concerning sexual immorality and criminal activity among priests and the church hierarchy. [6, 7]

It has been reported that Archbishop Viganò has activated a dead-man switch, so that should he die, a series of documents would be released that would incriminate Pope Francis and the Vatican hierarchy in the cover-up of a wide variety of sex crimes and the agenda to liberalize the RCC’s position on homosexual activity by priests. [6]

Some Minor Whistleblowers Just Get Blackballed

Denver priest Fr. David Nix. Image Source.

Denver priest David Nix became aware of two cases of potential sexual misconduct involving priests in March of 2018.

One case involved “a high-power priest” who, in the 1980s, “used to share a bed with a boy.” He reported this crime along with information that he had about the abuse of the eucharist (consecrated communion wafer) to Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila. [8]

Fr. Nix needed to take a leave of absence for a time to take care of his sick mother. After she recovered, he sought reassignment from Archbishop Aquila to continue his work as a Parish priest.

He now has been seeking assignment for four months. Also, his request for proper paperwork that he would need to transfer to another diocese or religious order has been blocked. [8]

As a result, he has been rendered homeless without a parish assignment or a residence.

“He has spent the past four months living in motels, friends’ homes — and at times, even his car. Currently, he is in New England, staying temporarily in the home of a priest friend.” [8]

Nix tweeted,

“If a bishop doesn’t like you, he’ll simply blackball you and ignore you and not hand over paperwork even though there are no demerits against you. And that’s what’s been happening for four months.” [8]

Read the full story about David Nix:

Whistleblower Priest Penalized by Denver Archbishop

Does RCC Pedophilia Problem Extend all the way to the Vatican and Pope?

This is just the beginning of the unraveling of a very complex political fight in the RCC.

Archbishop Viganò apparently has evidence that could blow the papacy apart and could cause a major realignment in the RCC.

Pope Francis remains silent, while the man-hunt for Archbishop Viganò continues.

Federal and State Criminal Investigations into Pedophile Priests in the U.S. Underway

State level criminal investigations are now underway in 15 or more US states could lead to massive prosecution of pedophile priests. 

The federal government announced last week that it has launched an investigation into criminal wrongdoing in 6 Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania plus an investigation in Buffalo, New York.

Two Eastern Orthodox dioceses in Pennsylvania are also under investigation. [10]

A federal grand jury will be formed, and it will have the power to bring indictments against these church organizations under federal racketeering laws for interstate conspiracy to cover up and to commit crimes.

A guilty verdict under RICO laws could lead to the forfeiture of all assets of the RCC in the United States including church properties. [9]

The saddest part of all this is the impact on the lives of the children and young adults who have been traumatized by the sexual assaults and the cover-up.

A verse of scripture from the King James Bible is appropriate as a closing thought:

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Ultimately, predator priests and those in the RCC hierarchy who covered up crimes of sexual assault will stand before God and He will judge them, even if they manage to escape criminal conviction by the government.

God will not be mocked by those who would misuse the church sacrament of confession as a tool to support the intentionally sinful lifestyle of child molesters and the seeking of guilt-free pleasure acquired at the expense of children and young men.

Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favor. (KJV)

Let us be thankful for the righteous and pray for their safety.

See Also:

The Catholic Church and Pedophilia: Trafficking Children as Sex Slaves

About the Author

John P. Thomas is a health writer for Health Impact News. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

References

[1] “Vatican Bombshell: McCarrick Conspiracy Uncovered!” By Rod Dreher, PM The American Conservative, 8/25/2018.

[2] “Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Resigns Amid Sexual Abuse Allegations,” NPR, 7/28/2018.

[3] “Viganò releases new ‘testimony’ responding to Pope’s silence on McCarrick cover-up,” Lifesitenews.com, Rome, 9/27/2018.

[4] “Former Vatican ambassador says Popes Francis, Benedict knew of sexual misconduct allegations against McCarrick for years,” Chico Harlan , Stefano Pitrelli and Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post, 8/26/2018.

[5] “Special Report—Murder in the Diocese of Buffalo?” ChurchMilitant.com, YouTube, 9/19/2018.

[6] “Vigano Is Right To Fear For His Life,” YouTube, 9/21/2018.

[7] “Santa Alleanza: The Vatican Intelligence Service,” ChurchMilitant.com, 9/14/2018.

[8] “Whistleblower Priest Penalized by Denver Abp. Samuel Aquila,” Stephen Wynne, ChurchMilitant.com, 9/2/2018.

[9] “Criminal Law Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Law,” Justia, Retrieved 10/3/2018.

[10] “Federal Probe into Catholic Church,” The Download, ChurchMilitant.com, YouTube, 10/19/2018.