Wanderer Readers will remember Paul Likoudis' series on Bishop Joseph Adamec's "reign of terror" in Altoona. Faithful Catholics in the diocese fought to restore orthodoxy to no avail. A 2007 article summarized The Wanderer's expose in these words:
In 1996, The Wanderer published a six-week series on Bishop Adamec’s “reign of terror” in the diocese, his persecution of priests and his malicious treatment of concerned laity who objected to his lavish personal lifestyle, his tolerance of liturgical abuses, the cultivation of his cult of personality and the dubious selection of seminarians.
In the course of the series of articles, allegations were made that Bishop Adamec had purchased his bishopric, with a multi-million dollar donation to the building of the U.S. bishops’ new headquarters in Washington, D.C. near the campus of the Catholic University of America. Allegedly, Adamec obtained the funds through the Slovak Federation. The allegations published by The Wanderer received no official response, but at that year’s meeting of the conference of bishops, the bishops spent most of their executive session discussing punitive actions against The Wanderer for publishing the expose on Adamec.Adamec did go after one poor priest with a thirty-six year old accusation of sexual molestation. Was he the scapegoat to provide coverage for all the other homosexual priest molesters left untouched? Was this window dressing to say, "See how diligent I am addressing the problem!"
Once the Boston Globe blew the lid off the sex abuse scandal the U.S. bishops circled the wagons at their 2002 Dallas meeting to try to contain the damage. Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln introduced a motion to evaluate the link between dissent and sex abuse and couldn't even get a second to his motion. Meeting with orthodox Catholics in the area during a break in the meeting he described his pathetic brethren as "this hapless bench of bishops."
Faithful Catholics need to defend poor Holy Mother Church beaten black and blue by so many bishops and cardinals hiding their wolfish demeanor under sheepskin. Pray and do penance, faithful Catholics and persevere. Unlike many of our unholy bishops, the Holy Spirit will never abandon the Church,
