1986: Homosexual Infiltration Of The Catholic Clergy.

Father John F. O'Connor O.P. was born and raised in Chicago. He entered the Dominican Order in 1949. After completing a one-year novitiate in Winona, Minn., he went to the River Forest House of Studies for three years and later to St. Rose Priory in Dubuque. He was ordained in Oakland, Calif., in 1955.

Immediately afterwards, Father O'Connor began his long career as a Dominican preacher, first as a parish priest, then as a college professor of theology and philosophy. From 1969 to 1989, he was part of the Dominican Mission Band and preached throughout the United States, England and Canada. The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary were prominent themes in his Mission work. In the late 1980s, he found himself once again at home at the magnificent St. Dominic and St. Thomas Priory in River Forest in the Central Province of Chicago. His Provincial Superior was none other than Father Donald Goergen.

As a faithful son of St. Dominic, O'Connor never had any difficulties with his superiors until Goergen arrived on the scene. Goergen wanted O'Connor out.

In a conversation with O'Connor in April 1986, Father Lex Goedert, the Prior at River Forest, let it slip that Goergen was going to suspend O'Connor on some pretext or another. By this time, O'Connor, due in part to his long association with Dominican Father Charles Corcoran, had become a nationally recognized opponent of the Homosexual Collective in AmChurch and in his own Dominican Order.

The fireworks began in March 1987 when Father Charles Fanelli, the pastor of St. John Baptist Vianney Church in Northlake, Ill., asked O'Connor to give a weeklong Mission at his church.

A woman who attended all of O'Connor's talks said that his powerful preaching at the mission had parishioners lining up the isles for confession and that the crowds grew larger every night. Fanelli considered the event to be a great success.

Not everyone, however, was favorably impressed with O'Connor's preaching.

At the next parish council meeting in April at St. John Vianney, the members were informed that complaints against O'Connor's preaching had been lodged with Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago. When O'Connor attempted to get copies of the complaints, Bernardin refused to send them to him.

On May 4, 1987, Goergen, in the company of another Dominican, Father Jim Marchionda, visited O'Connor at River Forest to discuss the complaints. During a heated confrontation, O'Connor told Goergen that Cochran had witnessed Goergen sodomizing a fellow Dominican. O'Connor reported that Goergen told him, "Homosexuality is becoming more acceptable now," and let the subject drop.

O'Connor decided to go on the offensive. On May 13, 1987, he sent Goergen a letter questioning the financial irregularities of the Province, especially in connection with the St. Jude Thaddeus Shrine operated by the Dominicans on the South side of Chicago. O'Connor made specific reference to Father "Chuck" Dahm, a member of Goergen's coterie, who had allegedly been draining the treasury of thousands of dollars to finance various left-wing political causes. O'Connor asked for an independent audit of the Province's and St. Jude's financial records.

On July 22, 1987, Goergen sent O'Connor a return salvo. Goergen told O'Connor, in response to the latter's request for a transfer, that he had no intention of reassigning him to another Province. Goergen repeated his demand that O'Connor moderate his preaching, stop mentioning people by name in his talks (especially Bernardin) and stop frightening people with verbal excesses.

Goergen stated that he wanted O'Connor to sign a letter of apology to the disgruntled parishioners at St. John Vianney who had complained to Bernardin. O'Connor, who had been physically attacked by the husband of one of the complainants, responded they were lucky he was not suing them for assault and battery. On November 3, 1987, Goergen ordered all communications between O'Connor and parties involved in the parish incident to cease.

Goergen needed a new line of attack.

On December 2, 1987, one month after O'Connor had returned from a successful speaking engagement in South Dakota, Goergen informed O'Connor that he wanted him to visit a psychological counselor. O'Connor said no dice. Goergen backed off. It was back to the drawing board.

In early 1988, Goergen made another visitation to O'Connor at River Forest. This time the Provincial stated he wanted O'Connor to stop "isolating" himself from his community of brothers. He also stated that the head of the Province of St. Joseph in New York had requested O'Connor not to enter his domain. O'Connor agreed with the latter, but said that his special dietary and health problems mitigated against his taking meals in common with his fellow Dominicans.

In April 1988, O'Connor, who had maintained contact with the Holy See on his problems with Goergen, was advised by the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome to obey his superior …