In the continuing saga of Donald Wuerl's well established hypocrisy, in letting himself be called "the bishop of zero tolerance," he was covering up for Richard Zula, despite Zula's well known violent reputation which earned for him the nickname, "Sade."
When it came to Zula, as well as Wolk, Pucci, Zirwas, Huff, Burchianti, and John Hoehl, Donald Wuerl was no bishop of zero tolerance. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette very falsely claimed he was. And of course, the subscribership of the Post-Gazette was so low that the Post-Gazette had to schedule the cessation of operations, for May 3rd, 2026, until an ill-advised non-profit group purchased it.
A Long Time a Lyin' about the same one tortured person
As far as go the examples of the falsehoods which demonized Anthony Cipolla, [1] he was never arrested in his life, especially in 1978; [2] Donald Wuerl's official "Just Cause" for defrocking Cipolla in the early 1990s, was NOT sexual abuse. In fact, the 1995 Vatican Rehearing had nothing to do with Tim Bendig's or Diane Thompson's accusations against Cipolla.
None the less, concerning Bendig, he tried to get Cipolla criminally indicted in two county jurisdictions. Both attempts failed. After all, Bendig alleged that he was molested by Cipolla, between the ages of 13 and 17, at the rectory of St. Canice Parish, when, in reality, during most of that time span, Cipolla was stationed 25 miles away, in New Brighton Pennsylvania.
Cipolla was stationed in New Brighton, for about 3.5 years of the time span Bendig claimed was a time span of molestation at St. Canice. During those 3+ years, Cipolla had no bedroom at St Canice Parish.
And remember, Bendig lied to me four times in a row, during the same one private conversation I had with him. This occurred some time around the Year 2014, give or take a year.
The Vatican Case
The 1995 Vatican Rehearing had nothing to do with Bendig's accusations or those which came through a Diane Thompson. The rehearing dealt with the question, if whether or not Wuerl had the right to entirely remove Cipolla from the "clerical state," based solely upon the diagnosis of a Maryland clinic which stated, "Clinical Depression and Suicidal Tendencies."
And remember, I was handed the box of documentation pertaining to that case and the Bendig lawsuit, etc. Proof that Wuerl had no new evidence for even the filing of Wuerl's 1993 appeal, consisted in the request letter sent out by the Pgh Diocese, shortly before the appeal deadline.
That request letter was addressed to priests who were at one time stationed with Cipolla. It was the diocese's way of hunting for any enlightening revelations about Cipolla, in any category of information or opinion. Wuerl and the diocese were scrambling, looking for incriminating evidence against Cipolla, in order to get a previous Vatican Signatura ruling immediately suspended.
And of course, Wuerl needed the original Vatican Signatura ruling suspended, because, if Wuerl were to have put Cipolla back into ministry in 1993, at least one Western Pennsylvania district attorney would have gotten out the proverbial white glove and scoured Wuerl's diocese with search warrant after search warrant after search warrant ... and even a grand jury.
https://www.donaldwuerl.com/2026/07/wuel-had-zero-evidence-against-cipolla.html
The 1995 Vatican Rehearing also sought to answer the question if Wuerl had the right to ignore the clean bill of mental health Cipolla received from a board-certified & licensed psychiatric facility in NYC, called St. Michael's.
Now, that which is pertinent here, in terms of the legality of Vatican procedure, is that Wuerl filed his appeal for a rehearing on March 21st, 1993. The letter sent to specific Pittsburgh priests in search of dirt of Cipolla is dated 16 days after Wuerl stated that there "might" have been incorrect evidence in the first Cipolla Signatura hearing.
An appeal dependent upon new evidence was filed without new evidence. You could call this one of two things. You could call this "a waiver" or you could call this "typical 20th Century Vatican Corruption" which got even worse after Ratzinger became pope, in the 21st Century. Being that Wuerl didn't officially ask for a waiver, you could correctly guess that it was a matter of corruption ... or the use of an extreme loophole.
[3] Once again, for those who are exceptionally stubborn, concerning Bendig's accusations, keep in mind that Bendig expressly claimed that Cipolla molested him for 5 years at the St Canice rectory, when Bendig was between 13 and 17 years old ... between 1982 and 1986. Bendig expressly said that Cipolla would take him up to his bedroom in the rectory and molest him there.
The big problem here is that Anthony Cipolla was stationed 25 miles away, at the McGuire Memorial Home, beginning in December of 1983. Cipolla did NOT have a bedroom at the St Canice Parish during three of those years. Observe:
[4] Moreover, there was never any DNA evidence against Cipolla, in the 1978 case, as Randy Engel very falsely claimed. In fact, the 1978 case lasted a grand total of 35 days, and in the 1970s, it took 49 to 59 to 69 days to get a DNA test result produced.
There wasn't enough time for a DNA test result to have arrived in the 1978 Cipolla Case. And there was no semen found on Tucker Thompson, in the first place. The July 25th, 1978 O/I Report did NOT mention any appearance of semen anywhere on Tucker, and the same O/I Report stated that Tucker's medical condition, as was assessed at Allegheny General Hospital, was 'GOOD.'
[5] Let us not forget Randy Engel's ever-so-damning claim that Diane Thompson had a husband who underwent a serious explosion and near-death injury, during military maneuvers, at the Spartanburg military base, in 1965.
Randy stated that her husband was doing special forces training, for a tour of duty in Vietnam, when the 1965 Spartanburg "explosion" and wreck occurred.
According to Randy, this Tom Thompson was never the same after his 1965 Spartanburg military base injury, eventually resulting in him committing suicide some time around 1977 or so.
And then, according to Engel, the evil & treacherous Anthony Cipolla immediately moved-in and started to groom Frank Labiaux and young Tucker Thompson for molestation, resulting in the claim that Cipolla commenced his molestation routine in 1977.
Engel stated that Cipolla took advantage of two children of a patriotic & heroic American who just couldn't be there to defend them. Well, ladies & gentlemen, there is one super huge multi-million dollar defamatory problem with Engel's 1965 Spartanburg Story:
The Spartanburg military based closed down completely in 1947, eighteen years before the arrival of 1965.
There was no Tom Thompson selflessly and heroically serving his country in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1965. There was no active duty military person assigned there at all, in 1965. The story was a complete lie that demonized Cipolla significantly, yet again.
The complete contradiction at the outset of 1978 accusations
In the July 25, 1978 O/I Report, Frank Labiaux was never mentioned as having claimed to have been molested, and the report stated that Tucker only claimed to have been molested twice.
The first time Tucker claimed to have ever been molested was some time around the July 4th festivities of 1978 ... give or take a day or two.
Now, Tucker claimed that he was molested while being tutored by Cipolla in a one-student first holy communion class ... in July. The contradiction is this:
Since when does a person hold a tutor session on the holidays? And and and and and, in the Catholic Church, during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, first holy communion was traditionally in April, May, and June.
Concerning the claim that young Frank Labiaux was so frustrated over having been allegedly molested that he vandalized the nearby African Methodist Church in 1977, it was one big lie. This is because the two acts of vandalism upon that church made the news, and the two vandals who were caught and arrested DID NOT include Frank Labiaux.
Plus, the date of the actual occurrence of the double vandalism differs drastically from the date Randy Engel reported. The actual two vandalisms both occurred in November of 1978. Diane Thompson and/or Frank Labiaux told Randy Engel that the vandalism of the African Methodist Church occurred in mid-1977. This is already covered in another post.
Diane Thompson and/or Frank Labiaux stole that news story and put Frank's face on it, to deceive people into thinking that something known in the area applied to Frank. Well, it didn't. Two older boys did the vandalizing a year and a half later than Frank and Diane claimed it to have occurred.
Plus, Diane Thompson claimed that she had to exit Pittsburgh fro Cleveland in September of 1978. Well, had did she know of the November 1978 acts of vandalism, during a time when there was no internet ... unless if she were still in Pittsburgh, in November of 1978?
In review, there was two and only two
There were only two series of accusations leveled against Cipolla, and they were leveled nine years apart. Each one was leveled by and/or through an individual who was desperate for money. Each of these two persons asked entities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh for money and were then denied their requests. They then leveled accusations against Cipolla.
In fact, Bendig leveled accusations against nine other priests, in 1987. Then, during his lawsuit deposition in the early 1990s, he was asked how he knew that the priests he mentioned were practicing sodomites. Bendig answered, "I heard it through the rumor mill. Rumors." Well, when Bendig mentioned this to the press, he made it sound as if he personally experienced each priest being a predator at the Pgh seminary.
There was the accuser mother of 1978 who asked for Cipolla's parish to get the St Vincent de Paul Society to pay her monthly apartment rent, and there was Tim Bendig who asked to be given severance money, as he left the Pittsburgh seminary from where he was expelled.
In Bendig's case, Cipolla then told his Padre Pio Prayer Group attendees ... at the after-mass reception ... to stop sending money to Bendig at the Pittsburgh seminary, being that he was expelled from there.
In the Bendig case, Bendig told the Beaver County DA's office that he was molested by Anthony Cipolla for 5 consecutive years ... from the age of 13 to 17 ... at St Canice Parish, in Knoxville, PA.
Well, when Bendig was the age of 14 to 17, Anthony Cipolla was stationed at the McGuire Home in New Brighton, in Beaver County jurisdiction. St. Canice Parish was/is in Allegheny County jurisdiction, within the 15210 zip code, and Cipolla was transferred when Bendig was 14 years old or so.
This is the first instance in the Bendig case, where it's "most probable" ... "almost certain" ... that Tim Bendig was fabricating a very false story. Bendig lost track of his lies.
After all, if a person is not enduring "repressed memory," where the person forgets the entire scenario of having been molested, that person is going to easily tell anyone where he was molested, if he were truly molested for five consecutive years.
And of course, I cut off all communications with Bendig, because he would have lied about any meeting or conversation I would have had with him.
This is why I also refused to ever talk to Diane Thompson and to ever write to Diane Thompson. Plus, she is an annoying insult to any reasonable person's intelligence, anyway.