Special Report: Whistleblower Priest Silenced in Buffalo

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The homosexual network has kept a death grip on the diocese of Buffalo New York for years and is even implicated in the possible murder of a whistleblower priest.

Church Militant recently sat down with Susan Moreno, sister of the late Fr. Joseph Moreno, a priest from Buffalo who authorities say killed himself in 2012 but whose family is claiming was actually murdered to keep him from blowing the lid off the gay network in the diocese.

Susan Moreno: "Joey knew a lot of secrets. And we can start as far back as 1992, when you brought in Anthony the young man who was abused by Fr. Dennis Riter."

Susan's referring to Church Militant's interview in August with the victim Anthony Ravarini, who was abused in 1992 at the age of six.

Church Militant also spoke with the whistleblower seminarian, Wes, who was eyewitness to the aftermath of the abuse and who went to the diocese to report it in a letter, only to be persecuted by the diocese for blowing the whistle on a homosexual pederast.

Wes' spiritual director at the time was Fr. Joe Moreno, who helped him write the letter.

Susan Moreno: "The seminarian that was present, Joey, was his spiritual director. Joey actually helped Wes write the letter that was going to the diocese of Buffalo."

Father Dennis Riter, the priest who abused Anthony when he was six, is unbelievably still a pastor in active ministry in Buffalo today.

The homosexual network has been active in the diocese of Buffalo for decades. In August, Church Militant broke the story of a clandestine pipeline established in the 1990s that funneled homosexual seminarians from Colombia, South America into U.S. seminaries, including Christ the King Seminary in the diocese of Buffalo.

The vice rector at the time, Fr. Joseph Gatto, was personally involved in the recruitment process down in Columbia. Just last month, Gatto stepped aside as rector when allegations surfaced that Gatto homosexually groomed a young man during a counseling session.

The current bishop of Buffalo, Richard Malone, who restored Fr. Riter to active ministry in June, was recently in the hot seat for grossly underreporting the number of clergy facing credible allegations of sex abuse.

Malone's mishandling of homosexual predator priests has reached the desk of Cdl. Sean O'Malley, current head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

O'Malley's spokesman said the cardinal was "deeply concerned by the absence of recognition of the abuse" by Malone and will be forwarding these reports to the nuncio in Washington, D.C.

Back in September, Church Militant did a special report on the disturbing facts surrounding the death of Fr. Moreno — found dead in his rectory with two bullet wounds to the back of his head. But there are a number of irregularities about his death, for instance, a photo from the first autopsy showing two holes in the skull of Moreno's head. These two holes in the skull match the two holes evident in a photo also taken during the first autopsy. One hole is in the hair above Moreno's ear and the second is in the shaved spot behind his ear. It's this second hole that was reported in the second autopsy report to have been found strangely stitched shut.

Susan Moreno "The first autopsy that was done showed that there was a shaved area back here and that was the bullet hole. When we realized immediately that this was not a suicide we had Joey exhumed. And the doctor in Pittsburgh said that the gunshot wound was above the ear, which contradicts the first autopsy report that said that this area was shaved."

Michael Voris "So we have two different holes, two different autopsies pointing at different holes saying that they're the bullet hole?"

Susan Moreno "Correct."

While the first autopsy made no mention of a second wound of any kind on Moreno's head, the second autopsy did, and this agreed with a report from one of the police detectives assigned to the case.

Susan Moreno: "Detective Lima in his report said that there was a gunshot wound here and that there was another wound behind his ear. When we had the second autopsy done, Dr. Wecht had said that the gunshot wound was here and that there was another sutured area back here."

Other details of the supposed suicide do not add up, such as the revolver that police say Moreno used to kill himself, although it was never photographed at the scene.

Michael Voris: "A lot of strange things about the gun. You know, Joey had a gun and that winds up missing a couple of weeks earlier?"

Susan Moreno: "Yes, he had a semi-automatic gun that he kept in his underwear drawer. The former cleaning lady, Carol, said that Joey's gun went missing a couple of weeks prior to his death."

And this semi-automatic gun was not the revolver police say was found on Fr. Moreno's lap after his death.

Susan Moreno: "The gun that apparently was at the scene..."

Michael Voris: "That police say was at the scene?"

Susan Moreno: "That police say that the gun was at the scene was turned over in 1997 to Officer Robert Yeates to be destroyed. And it turns up at a crime scene 13 years later. There is no picture of this gun in relationship to the victim, which there should have been because that's protocol."

Other things don't match up with the suicide scenario, like the fact that Moreno was right-handed yet chose to shoot himself with his left hand, a hand that doctors say was seriously crippled from a previous knife attack in 2006 to the point that it would have been very difficult if not impossible to accomplish the shooting.

In fact, he had suffered such nerve damage in his left hand that it would've required his right hand pulling the trigger while his left hand held the gun — difficult enough to do that once, but twice in the back of the head?

Also Moreno was making plans for the future less than 24 hours before he was found dead, even buying lottery tickets around noon on the very Saturday that he died. Who does that?

Susan Moreno: "He also bought lottery tickets for the next day. Someone that is suicidal does not buy lottery tickets for the next day as well as make future plans for that evening, the following day. On Friday, I spoke to Joey and he said that he wanted on Sunday, stuffed pork chops, corn on the cob, applesauce, and he wanted me to ask Christina, his niece, if she could make him an apple pie. He had a baptism as well Sunday and he would not have let that family down."

Michael Voris: "And he was found dead on Saturday?"

Susan Moreno: "And he was found dead on Saturday."

Other facts that point away from a suicide are Moreno's broken desk drawer, his files missing from his file cabinet and his missing fax machine that inside sources say was used to send a fax the night before his death to a local news station containing information about the homosexual network that Moreno was trying to expose.

Susan Moreno: "The fax machine is gone. In his liturgical calendar, there is a fax number to The Buffalo News, it's a secured fax number. The fax machine was his so they can't say that it belonged to the church. The file cabinet that was next to the desk is missing. There's no current files. There's nothing past 2010. So whoever was in that room they were looking for whatever Joey had that he was going to expose."

Susan said her brother had been keeping files on the corruption in the diocese for a long time and was getting ready to bring it all out into the open.

Susan Moreno: "In 2002, one of his previous pastors came out of the bathroom and he was exposed and he told my brother to make his pastor happy. My brother filed a complaint with the diocese in 2002. Joey was aware of other homosexual activity with previous bishops. Realizing that there were many parishioners that would go to Joey with concerns of homosexual priests, concerns that there was abuse going on."

Michael Voris: "How do you know Joey knew this?

Susan Moreno: "Joey told me."

Michael Voris: "All right."

Susan said what caused her brother to finally decide to expose everything once and for all was when a sex abuse victim Fr. Moreno was counseling took his life just a few months before Moreno's own death.

Susan Moreno: "Joey, in 2012, was counseling Stephen. He was 61 years old, he was sexually abused and Joey knew who the priest was that abused him."

Michael Voris: "He was sexually abused while he was a young lad?"

Susan Moreno: "A young lad. And he couldn't live with himself anymore. And he took his life. And that I have to say was the breaking point for Joey. That he wasn't going to stand for this anymore. He was going to let everybody know. That included the media. They liked Joey very much and they reported on him often. As well as sending information to Viganò."

Michael Voris: "So, he had the goods?"

Susan Moreno: "He had the goods."

Michael Voris: "Now did anybody know besides you that he had the goods?"

Susan Moreno: "He told, to his fault he told many people and I think that's what led to..."

Susan Moreno: "Tuesday, my brother had a meeting with Bp. Malone for his new assignment. Joey called me immediately after and he told me that he was going to the media. He had files. I asked him for copies of the files. I said, you know, let's do it. And he was waiting on something. I've been told that he was planning a trip to Washington."

Michael Voris: "To meet with the papal nuncio?"

Susan Moreno: "Correct. And he talked to two people and said that what he had to say was too horrible and ugly, he didn't trust the phone and that he wanted to see them in person. One person he was supposed to see Sunday and he was going to give this individual the information that he had gathered over the years."

Michael Voris: "So another reason why he wouldn't have killed himself on Saturday was that he had scheduled a meeting with someone for Sunday to hand over his set of the files for safekeeping or help other people know or whatever? And that person we've spoken to and that person has confirmed that yes they were in fact scheduled to meet that Sunday afternoon."​

Susan Moreno: "My brother told me Tuesday, after the meeting with Bp. Malone, that he was going to blow the whistle on the abuse, the homosexuality activity that was happening in the diocese of Buffalo, as well as other corruption that he saw at St. Lawrence and at St. Jude."​

Susan Moreno: "There was a gentleman in the back parking lot of the rectory and he told Matte that Fr. Joe's dead and that he heard two pops. And Matte said the police are probably going to want to talk to you. And Matte said that the police never talked to them. They never looked at the surveillance camera. Even though the surveillance camera wasn't on all the entrances, there were three individuals with hoodies on who were running away from the rectory."

Michael Voris: "Do you think this was a robbery? Do you think this was made to look like a robbery? Do you think it was kind of a hit job?"

Susan Moreno: "I believe it was a hit job. I believe someone was paid to do it. I do not believe that they acted solely. I think that this was planned and they just did the actual physical act. But there's people behind it and those are the very people that Joey was going to expose."​

Michael Voris: "What are you hoping to get accomplished?"

Susan Moreno: "I want justice for Joey. My dad wants justice for Joey and my daughter. While we may never know who actually pulled the trigger, we want the death certificate amended to homicide. The individuals have to face God. I wouldn't want to be them. But my brother worked very hard to help many people throughout his ministry and he was there to help those in need and they took that away from his family, his friends, his community and his Church."

Since first investigating the death of Fr. Joe Moreno, Church Militant has come across several other cases in various dioceses involving the suspicious deaths of whistleblower priests about to expose major corruption involving homosexual clergy — including bishops.

Stay tuned to Church Militant as we continue to examine the case of Father Moreno and other whistleblower priests who were silenced under mysterious circumstances just when they were about to blow the lid off homosexual corruption in their diocese.

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