Bishop Joseph Strickland: The Lavender Mafia and the St. Gallen Mafia

In a recent post, I spoke of what many refer to as the “Lavender Mafia.” This term is commonly used to describe a hidden network of clergy within the Church who engage in or protect homosexual activity, form alliances based on mutual secrecy, and often work to silence or sideline faithful priests and bishops. This network thrives on secrecy, moral compromise, and disobedience to Church teaching — and its existence is tragically linked to the ongoing crisis of abuse, cover-ups, and doctrinal confusion.

But the Lavender Mafia is not operating alone. Alongside it, and often intersecting with it, we must also acknowledge the existence of what is known as the St. Gallen Mafia — a term coined not by critics, but reportedly by one of its own members.

This group of high-ranking prelates — including Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium (deceased); Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Italy (deceased); and Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany, among others — met regularly in St. Gallen, Switzerland beginning in the 1990s. The ….