Why I Can Only Pity Fr. Thomas J. Rosica, CSB

Irenaeus writes on why he feels pity for the heretic, liar and plagiarist, Tommy Rosica. I've also included two comments disagreeing with him.

From Toronto Catholic Witness

By nature, I am not someone who endorses the emotion of pity.

However, I suspend the rule when it comes to Fr. Thomas J. Rosica, at least since his serial plagiarism came into widespread public knowledge on February 22nd. 

Why?

It's due to the facts of the case. Although investigation is still ongoing, Tom's plagiarizing ways have been traced back to at least 30 years.He has been found to have lied about obtaining an "advanced degree," attempting to study for it, but leaving after only a year or two of study. He is not the man most have thought him to be - an erudite, original, thought-provoking, Biblical scholar with three distinguished degrees under his belt.

Note that I said most. Vox Cantoris was the first to pick up on Tom's plagiarism back in 2014, and endured much injustice from Tom in the ensuring years, including an attempted lawsuit by Tom in Lent of 2015, as a result. Only recently have others confirmed Vox's assertions about Tom's falsehoods. Vox was the instigator of the investigation. It only took five years for everyone else to catch up.

It is extremely saddening to consider how a man such as Tom could have gotten away with so much for 30 years. The length of time alone speaks to some serious issues with Tom's psyche. While I am by no means sure, I imagine pride, shame, narcissism, and guilt have had such an effect on Tom's mind that he is no longer able to properly feel remorse, compunction and true willingness to change. The conflicting emotions may have caused him to bury the remedies to cure them quite deeply, so as to protect his mind from further mental anguish. His sinful habits seem to be so deeply ingrained in him that he is, to use the expression, at home with them. He must be so at ease with them that he sees no need to cast them away from himself. 

One imagines what Tom is going through in his day-to-day life as his serial plagiarism and pathological lying continues to be exposed on a nearly daily basis. Is he fuming with anger at himself for being so idiotic that he was caught? Is he upset that he lost some of the positions he prided himself on having? Is he taking out his anger on his staff and interns, so as to make himself feel better about the humiliations?

Is he on his hands and knees, begging God for forgiveness? Is he taking steps to make due reparations to all of those he offended, with special attention to Vox Cantoris and his wife?

Or, to indulge the dark corners of my imagination, is Tom pleased with himself? Is he sitting at home right now, throwing back a glass of cognac and congratulating himself that he managed to hold on to the most precious position of all: Chief Executive Officer of Salt and Light? Is he enjoying a good old laugh with his buddies in Rome, knowing that he is secure in his pension and friendships?

One has to wonder. I do not deny that Fr. Thomas J. Rosica is a disturbed man, with anger management issues, a sociopath, and a predisposition to taking extreme revenge for the slightest perceived insult. I still stand by my assertion that Tom is a joke of a man and a joke of a priest. He is not someone I would want to spend any time around.

At the same time, I pity him. I pity the circumstances he is in. I pity his mental state, and suspected mental conditions. Above all, I pity the fact that this is what his life has become. I can only imagine that if Tom did not have these mental conditions, or sought help for them, how much better his life, those around him, and those of Catholics in Toronto - most of all Vox Cantoris - would be.

If Tom wasn't the mean, bullying, sociopathic, and downright toxic individual he is today, and was instead what he parades himself as being, he would do his priesthood due diligence and justice.

Poor Tom. I can only pity him.

Comment from Vox Cantoris

I guess if anything good came out of my little clash with him was that a blog that had 600,000 page views after ten years is well over 6,300,000.

The man cost me and my wife peace. He cost us money. No doubt, had he sued me, there would have been tens of thousands, if not more, to fight him. This is why we threw down the gauntlet to him, to "fish or cut bait." He intended to bankrupt us with a letter a week and the need to respond. His second letter actually raised the demands. We could not fund raise unless he sued, but there was a cost to me regardless. Money that came out of my savings.

I can have no pity on him. I am repulsed by him. I am loathed by him. It will take grace beyond belief for me to find it to forgive him.

But I think I could.

Let him apologise publicly for what he did. Let him pay me compensation for my financial loss. Then, I would.

He is indeed a sociopath.

Comment from Barona, of Toronto Catholic Witness

Thomas Rosica is a tragedy. What could be more tragic than a priest of Jesus Christ gone bad? Do I pity him? I have to say, no, I do not. Why? I do not know the history of Thomas and why he decided all those years ago to begin stealing other people's works, whilst at the very same time in the seminary. This itself, strikes me as very odd. Why would a young man enter the Catholic priesthood, engaging in habitual theft? Either he did not believe it to be a sin, or, he was already at that time suffering from a mental illness. Incidentally, whilst in the seminary, Rosica publicly supported the heresy of women "priests". Just who ordained Rosica? Was it the notorious dissenter, Matthew Clark of Rochester?

What do we know? We have a very prominent priest, the associate (he would claim personal friend, of the present Pope, and many of the highest ranking Prelates in the Church), who has been exposed as a fraud, a thief and a liar. The universities responded correctly, and Rosica knowing academic zero tolerance for cheating resigned. We further learnt that Rosica had played a rather repugnant role in hounding and persecuting form University of St. Michael's College President, Dr. David Mulroney.

What we are learning from this is two things: 1) Fr. Rosica is still in total denial of his decades long plagiarism (indeed on a daily basis more and more examples of extensive plagiarism are coming out); and 2) the church authorities and establishment elite are standing with Thomas Rosica, as the deluded priest continues self inflicting wounds upon himself.

This tells us a lot about this powerful, wealthy elite. They stand with a man who, if the reports are correct, cost a group of Chinese Catholics legal bills in the range of $500,000.

They stand with a man who threatened to sue a Catholic family man and his wife, after the same Catholic family man published on his blog heterodox positions held by Rosica. They stand with a man who sent this same Catholic family man, nasty, vicious insulting emails. However, God writes straight with crooked lines: the result of Rosica's attack on Vox and Fox Cantoris has resulted in the blog, Vox Cantoris, becoming the No.1 Catholic blog in Canada.

In the meantime, Rosica's own Salt and Light continues to collapse, having atrocious ratings. It survives with donations from a billionaire, multi-millionaires, and monies taken from the widow's mite and the long-suffering Canadian taxpayer.

The churchmen and the wealthy powerful elite stand with a man who lied publicly about the ex-priest Gregory Baum. They stand with a man who lied publicly at the Synod of the Family regarding homosexuality. They stand with a man who initially blamed "interns" for his most recent acts of plagiarism. They stand with a man whose plagiarism now dates back at least 30 years. They stand with a man who lied about having in his possession the late St. Pope John Paul II's Chalice. They stand with a man who lied about his academic credentials.

Fr. Rosica needs to apologize to all his victims and intended victims publicly. He needs to make restitution. He needs to, for example, apologize to Vox and Fox Cantoris, and make financial restitution to them. In this regard, he should not only write to them a personal letter, but given his abuse was public, he should publicly write a letter of apology on Salt and Light, he should then make financial restitution to them, and finally, he should give a large donation to a Catholic charity of their choice. He needs to ensure that all monies for acts of restitution come from his very rich backers.

He needs to, following his personal apologies and restitution to his victims and intended victims, apologize to the Church and to Catholics for his promotion of dissident positions, and for bringing shame and disgrace upon the Sacred Priesthood.