The appointment of Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen as the Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans is consistent with the recent promotion of other bishops, like Cardinal Robert McElroy and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, who have a history of covering up abuse and clerical homosexual misconduct. Weisenburger was rewarded for mishandling sexual abuse cases in Oklahoma City, Salinas, and Tucson by being made the Archbishop of Detroit, just as McElroy was promoted and made the Archbishop of Washington after covering up abuse in San Diego.
Just as Checchio was sent to Metuchen to cover up for Bishop Paul Gregory Bootkoski, who covered up for his predecessor, ex-Cardinal McCarrick, so too is Pope Leo now sending Checchio to cover up the egregious record of Archbishop Gregory Aymond. When asked if he was going to investigate Aymond for allegations of abusing seminarians and mishandling abuse cases, paying out $230 million for abuse settlements with attorneys’ fees alone nearing $50 million, Checchio told reporters he had “no reason” to do so.”
While serving from 2004 to 2016 as the vice-rector and rector of the North American College (NAC) in Rome, Checchio dismissed a heterosexually oriented seminarian, “WM,” for refusing to attend the diaconate ordination of seminarians known to be sexually active homosexuals. This would support the belief that Checchio was no different than his predecessors, then-Msgr. Edwin O’Brien, then-Msgr. Timothy Dolan, and Msgr. Kevin McCoy, who were all known for covering up sexual predation and homosexual misconduct at the NAC.
O’Brien, Dolan, McCoy, and Checchio also covered up an underground AIDS testing program for NAC seminaries carried out by psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Barone, a member of the National Catholic AIDS Network. Barone found that one in twelve NAC seminarians tested HIV-positive, eighty of whom he personally treated. According to Barone, “Most of the seminarians had contracted AIDS through male-to-male sexual transmission.”
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