Archbishop John Wester appears to be complicit in the attempted cover-up of this public scandal, claiming “anyone who reads this stuff and believes it is full of crap.”
The Lepanto Institute has formally requested that Pope Leo laicize and suspend from ministry a New Mexico priest who entered into a homosexual “domestic partnership” for ten years during a 28-year leave of absence from the priesthood.
Lepanto sent a copy of its August 2025 report on Fr. Steve Rosera, of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, along with the notarized “divorce” documents of Rosera and his “partner,” issued by the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, to the Papal Nuncio to the United States, His Eminence, Christophe Cardinal Pierre. This followed a recent in-person conversation with the Nuncio in which Lepanto brought the scandal to his attention in Washington, D.C.
Lepanto requested of the Nuncio that the report and court documents be delivered in person, via the Apostolic pouch, to Pope Leo XIV, with the request that the Holy Father impose the canonical penalties incurred by a priest for grave violations of the vow of celibacy: suspension from ministry and laicization.
The request comes after more than six months of inaction on the part of Rosera’s immediate superior, Archbishop John Wester, following Lepanto’s exposure of the scandal through the publication of the court’s divorce documents. In fact, at the end of September of last year, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe held a convocation of priests, and in the presence of 80 priests a brave priest stood up and challenged Abp. John Wester about our story on Fr. Steve Rosera. A priest who was there sent us the following statement:
“Last night, Fr. X called out the bishop on the Steven Rosera scandal. The bishop snapped at Fr. X and said that ‘these negative reports are untrue and hurtful, and anyone who reads this stuff and believes it is full of crap.’”
As noted in its original report and in the letter to the Nuncio, not only has Archbishop Wester not imposed any canonical sanction upon Rosera, despite the public report documenting the priest’s homosexual “domestic partnership,” but he has promoted Rosera to several influential positions of authority within the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, including pastor of parish and grade school, and judge on the marriage tribunal.
Continue reading at the Lepanto Institute