Just the Facts
A Press Release from New Engel Publishing
NEP News Release
Subject: Former Priest and Loyola Professor Breaks Silence on new book The Rite
of Sodomy
Date: September 25, 2006
From: New Engel Publishing, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
To: Chicago Media Contacts
Archdiocese of Chicago Contacts
U.S. Religious and Diocesan Publications
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 25, 2006/New Engel Publishing/ - Former priest and Loyola Professor Emeritus Eugene C. Kennedy broke the silence surrounding the controversial book The Rite of Sodomy – Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church by Randy Engel with a scathing commentary on Religion News Service in Washington, D.C. on August 31, 2006.
Engel says that the Kennedy’s attack on her book, which documents 100 years of intergenerational homosexuality and pederasty in the American Catholic hierarchy, was specifically aimed at Engel’s disclosure of the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s role in securing a stronghold for the Homosexual Collective within the Catholic Church in America (AmChurch).
According to Engel, in the original version of his commentary “Abbott More Like Costello in Attacks on Bernardin,” (8/30/06), Kennedy mistakenly attacked columnist Matt C. Abbott (www.renewamerica.us) for his alleged comments on Bernardin’s connections to the clerical homosexual network in the United States. This error was later remedied in a revised commentary after RNS confirmed that Abbott’s column ‘“Remembering’ Joseph Cardinal Bernardin” (8/18/06) was based on quotes from Engel’s book, The Rite of Sodomy.
“It is unfortunate that Kennedy puts himself in the untenable position of condemning a book he has never read,” Engel says. “For example, he would be hard pressed to find any justification for the charge that I blame homosexuals ‘for all the ills of society,’” she notes.
“What I do claim,” says Engel, “is that the Homosexual Collective to date has successfully infiltrated, colonized and metastasized the Catholic priesthood and religious orders in the United States as well as the Catholic hierarchy.” “Indeed, the main focus of my 1312-page book is the identification of homosexual prelates in AmChurch starting at the turn of the 20th century with William Cardinal O'Connell and Francis Cardinal Spellman and ending with Cardinal Bernardin and other American prelates,” Engel explains.
According to Engel, “The ongoing sex abuse scandal in AmChurch, that includes the systematic cover-up by members of the American hierarchy of criminal acts of Catholic priests and religious who prey on young boys, takes on new meaning when viewed within the context of a long-existing network of homosexual bishops and cardinals in AmChurch.”
“Bernardin's role in accelerating the rise of the Homosexual Collective in AmChurch cannot be overstated,” Engel states. “He was instrumental in giving the Collective a strategic foothold in the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference (later renamed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) in Washington, D.C., beginning with the bureau’s founding in 1966/1967.”
Engel notes that Kennedy charged her with wrongly linking Bernardin "in some way to the 1984 murder of a church organist in Chicago." “Actually,” said Engel, “it was the cardinal who linked himself, indirectly, to the police investigation of the murder of Frank Pellegrini, a defecting member of the Chicago clergy homosexual/pederast ring known as the “Boys’ Club,” when he (Bernardin) showed up at the murdered man's house on the evening that Pellegrini's body was discovered. The cardinal said he did not know the victim,” reports Engel.
“News of the existence of the “Boys’ Club” is not new,” she asserts. “In the paperback version of Father Andrew Greeley's non-fiction book Furthermore! Memories of a Parish Priest published in 1999, the priest-writer made reference to the same ring and implied that it was capable of criminal actions to protect its own,” she says.
According to Engel, Bernardin’s involvement in the homosexual network that operated out of Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn. was less-well known.” “Had he taken the time to read The Rite of Sodomy Kennedy would have seen that the groundwork for these charges was carefully laid in Chapter 14 that precedes my chapter on Bernardin, in the section describing the misdeeds of Bishop Robert H. Brom of the Diocese of San Diego, formerly Bishop of Duluth, Minn.”
“Regarding the charges against Bernardin made by Steven Cook in 1993,” says Engel, “the observation of writer-therapist Richard Sipe comes to mind.” According to Sipe, "Cook never retracted his allegations of abuse (against Bernardin) by anyone's account other than Bernardin’s.” “As to my charge that Bernardin made a (well-laundered) pay-off to Cook in the seven-figure range,” said Engel, I will stand behind that charge.” “Cook did not recant. He settled,” she says.
Engel states that Kennedy’s defense of Cardinal Bernardin did not surprise her. “Kennedy, was Bernardin’s long-time friend and biographer,” said Engel, “and a well-known supporter of pseudo-Catholic pro-homosexual groups like Dignity and New Ways Ministry.” “He dismissed my charges against Cardinal Bernardin as ‘hilarious’ and ‘illogical,’ she concludes, “but, sadly, he appears to be the only one laughing.
