c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In his Aug. 30 commentary for Religion News Service, “Abbott More Like Costello in Attacks on Bernardin,” Eugene Kennedy attacked columnist Matt Abbott for his comments on the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s role in the rise of what I call the “Homosexual Collective” in the Roman Catholic Church.

Abbott’s column was actually based on quotes from my recent book “The Rite of Sodomy.” It is unfortunate that Kennedy puts himself in the untenable position of condemning a book he has never read.

For example, he would be hard pressed to find any justification for his charge that I blame homosexuals “for all the ills of society.”

What I do claim is that the Homosexual Collective over the last 100 years 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 book is the identification of homosexual prelates in the U.S. church, starting at the turn of the 20th century with Boston’s Cardinal William O’Connell and New York’s Cardinal Francis Spellman and ending with Bernardin and other prelates who have been or are connected to the homosexual network that interlaces the U.S. church.

The ongoing sex abuse scandal in the U.S. church, which includes the systematic cover-up of priests 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 the U.S. church.

Bernardin’s role in accelerating the rise of the Homosexual Collective in this country cannot be overstated. He was instrumental in giving the Collective a strategic foothold in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, beginning with its founding in 1966.

Kennedy charges that I have wrongly linked Bernardin “in some way to the 1984 murder of a church organist in Chicago.” Actually, it was Bernardin 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.” Bernardin showed up at Pellegrini’s house on the evening his body was discovered. Bernardin said he did not know the victim; I talked with an eyewitness to that scene.

The existence of the “Boys Club” is not new. Less well known is Bernardin’s involvement in the homosexual network that operated out of Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn. Had he taken the time to read my book, Kennedy would have seen that the groundwork for these charges was carefully laid out in a chapter that describes the misdeeds of Robert H. Brom, who was a bishop in Minnesota and who is now bishop of San Diego.

Regarding the matter of Steven Cook, who accused Bernardin of abuse, in the words of writer-therapist Richard Sipe, “Cook never retracted his allegations of abuse (against Bernardin) by anyone’s account other than Bernardin’s.” As to the charge that Bernardin made a payoff to Cook in the seven-figure range, I stand behind that charge. Cook did not recant. He settled.

One more thing: Kennedy says the source for the Cook story was the Rev. Charles Fiore, whom he goes on to discredit by saying Fiore “feigned” heart disease when pressed on the charges. Fiore did have a chronic heart condition, and yes, the homosexual cabal railroaded him and other traditionalists out of the Dominicans.

Kennedy dismisses the charges made against Bernardin as “hilarious” and “illogical.” Sadly, he appears to be the only one laughing.

(Randy Engel is a Catholic writer and author of “The Rite of Sodomy.” She lives in Pennsylvania).

KRE/PH END ENGEL