On 11 February 2026, Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe published a list of new assignments made throughout the archdiocese. Some of these assignments were made as distantly as August of 2025, while the most recent assignment went into effect two days after the publication of the memo. But among the new assignments identified is one regarding Fr. Steve Rosera. Effective 18 December 2025, Fr. Rosera was appointed as a member of the archdiocesan College of Consultors.
This new appointment by Abp. Wester is a thumb in the eye to faithful Catholics who expressed concern over Fr. Rosera’s decade-long homosexual relationship during a 23-year-long “leave of absence” and his open advocacy for same-sex “marriage.” On 4 August, 2025, the Lepanto Institute published its initial, highly detailed report on Fr. Rosera’s history of homosexual advocacy, including official documents related to his registered “domestic partnership” with another man in San Francisco. Fr. Rosera’s social media activity reveals that he has openly advocated for same-sex “marriage” since at least 2013, and in 2015 he even signed the Human Rights Campaign’s Amicus Brief with the Supreme Court in support of the legalization of same-sex “marriage.” Official documents filed with the County of San Francisco show that Fr. Rosera was in a registered homosexual “domestic partnership” from 2005-2015. And his advocacy for homosexuality continued into his reinstatement as a priest by Abp. Wester in 2021.
Interestingly, Fr. Rosera was formally reinstated as a priest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on 20 January 2021. However, the Archdiocesan website listed Fr. Rosera as a member of the Archdiocesan marriage tribunal on 19 January 2021, indicating that Abp. Wester intended to place him on the tribunal even before formally reinstating him as a priest.
On 1 August 2024, Fr. Rosera was appointed as the dean of “Albuquerque C Deanery” for the Archdiocese.
Following the publication of the report in August 2025, the Lepanto Institute received word from priests in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe that at the end of the very next month – during an Archdiocesan 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. Priests told the Lepanto Institute:
“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.’”
Of course, the evidence collected on Fr. Rosera comes from his own social media account and from official documents legally obtained from the County of San Francisco, proving beyond all measure of doubt that everything reported on Fr. Rosera is completely true.
Now, according to the timeline of events, Abp. Wester absolutely knew about the information collected on Fr. Rosera in August of 2025, and was confronted on this information in September of 2025. And despite this, Abp. Wester decided to elevate Fr. Rosera even further by appointing him as a member of the College of Consultors in December 2025 – just two and a half months after being confronted with indisputable facts about Fr. Rosera’s homosexual acts and advocacy.
The diocesan College of Consultors is a governing body appointed by the local ordinary. The USCCB indicates that the College falls under Canon 502 of the Code of Canon Law, describing the College in this manner:
The college of consultors assists the diocesan bishop in the governance of the diocese in accord with the provisions of Church law. For particular exercises of ecclesiastical governance, canon law requires that the diocesan bishop consult the college, and even obtain its consent. When the see is vacant, the college assumes the functions of the presbyteral council.
The college is comprised of no less than six priests, and no more than twelve, who are members of the presbyteral council.
The college of consultors is a required body in the diocese. It is to be established for a five-year term, but it continues its functions even after that time until a new college is constituted. It continues in existence during a vacant or impeded see.
In February of this year, the Lepanto Institute submitted a formal request with the Holy See, asking for the laicization of Fr. Rosera. We encourage our readers to also write to the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, asking the Vatican to laicize Fr. Rosera and to hold Abp. Wester accountable for elevating a known homosexual to higher positions of authority.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
- Apostolic Nunciature in the United States of America
Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia
3339 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington DC, 20008 - [email protected]
- +1 (202) 333-7121
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