Incoming Archbishop Facing Outgoing Allegations

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (ChurchMilitant.com) - An East Coast prelate is facing allegations of sex abuse cover-up.

Springfield bishop Mitchell Rozanski — archbishop-elect of St. Louis — is accused of engaging in covering up predator-priest crimes, along with the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service.

Longtime advocate for clergy-sexual abuse victims Olan Horne filed the allegation.

"We see behaviors by people working with the bishop again and again," said Horne, who described a typical pattern of "deny, delay and cover up."

Last June, Rozanski appointed retired judge Peter A. Velis "to conduct an 'independent and outside' investigation reporting allegations made by a certain individual of sexual abuse committed upon him by the late bishop Christopher J. Weldon."

But though the Velis report found allegations against Weldon "unequivocally credible," Horne said the report "is only one slice of the pie."

"It should not have taken this Herculean effort to get justice for the Weldon survivor," added Horne. "Look at the names and the games — they are the same, and finally we have had a few investigations to get to the bottom of the claims we all have been making here for years without any results."

Scheduled to be installed as the new archbishop of St. Louis on Aug. 25, Rozanski attracted a firestorm of criticism for his handling of the Wuhan virus pandemic.

Commenting on a Church Militant article regarding Rozanski's appointment to St. Louis, Maryanne Santelli, a Catholic in the Springfield diocese, warned, "Rozanski not only locked our churches up tight, from the beginning of COVID-19 he denied us even eucharistic adoration, confessions and last rites."

"Since the reopening, he has forced all to receive on the hand while standing! No one is allowed to receive on the tongue while kneeling. We are told we must conform or do without!" she continued.

In addition, Santelli said Rozanski "has suppressed TLM [Traditional Latin Mass] and any traditional worship" and committed other abuses.

Champion of Ecumenism

From 2014–2017, Rozanski was chair for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB's) Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (EIA).

As chair of the EIA in 2016, the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, an EIA outreach program, Rozanski participated in a panel discussion with a front group of the Muslim Brotherhood called the Islamic Society of North America.

Later that same year, Rozanski sponsored an interfaith dialogue in the diocese called, "Looking at the Face of Mercy Through the Eyes of God." That dialogue included speakers like Imam Rasul Seifullah of the Al-Baqi Islamic Center for Human Excellence and Rabbi Devorah Jacobson, director of spiritual life for Jewish Geriatric Services Lifecare.

In 2017, Rozanski endorsed the book Finding Jesus Among Muslims: How Loving Islam Makes Me a Better Catholic by Jordan Denari Duffner.

"In our world fraught with division and despair, Jordan Denari Duffner's experiences bring a fresh insight into Muslim-Catholic relations," he began the endorsement. "In addition to recounting her many positive encounters with people of the Muslim faith, Jordan shares her insights in the ways that her own Catholic faith has deepened as a result."

"This book is an oasis of hope and a must-read by all who take seriously the need for dialogue and understanding, particularly between Muslims and Catholics," concluded Rozanski.

Ambiguity on Homosexuality

When Pope Francis appointed Rozanski archbishop of St. Louis in June, a Midwestern priest told Church Militant the "new episcopal appointment of Rozanski to St. Louis should come as no surprise to anyone."

"Rozanski is a prelate who toes the line by the real 'powers' behind the scene and not God, the Holy Spirit," he added, explaining:

As the new American kingmaker, Cupich follows the examples of his immediate predecessors, [Theodore] McCarrick and [Joseph] Bernardin. In this instance, it's hard to tell whether Rozanski is gay himself, but he is certainly gay friendly and all too willing to keep pushing Bernardins' far-left, commie, gay-friendly agenda to destroy the Church.

In 2016, Rozanski had asked "each parish, as part of their evangelization efforts, to study and examine the needs of their people and local community to determine how they can provide for them."

One of the responses Rozanski addressed said the "gay community feels that they aren't welcome. They don't want to espouse another religion; therefore, they don't attend church at all. Hopefully, a special outreach could be done to them."

But then in December 2019, the prelate forbade the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus from singing at a parish Christmas concert.

"I pray that the good Catholics of St. Louis can remain strong and fight the modernism heading your way," said Santelli at the end of her comment.

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