Rabbi Michael Lerner is asking his followers to write to the Vatican objecting to the pending excommunication of Father Roy Bourgeois, a priest who recently presided over the staged “ordination” of women who consider themselves to be priests. Lerner would do well to mind his own business.

This is not the first time that Lerner has had the chutzpah to lecture the Catholic Church and brand it authoritarian. Known as the religious guru of the Democratic Party, Lerner rejects the institution of marriage and shows little respect for the autonomy of religious organizations. The National Review got it just right when it recently said that “Lerner is to Judaism what Barney Fife is to law enforcement.”

It does not help Lerner’s cause to say that “We are not anti-Catholic.” Only those who know that they are, deep down, anti-Catholic, would even bother to offer such a defensive disclaimer. Nor does it help his cause to cite the support of Sister Joan Chittister, a dissident Catholic who was forced to resign from the School Sisters of Notre Dame under Vatican pressure; this gadfly woman is deeply tied to the radical homosexual movement in the U.S. and rejects the Church’s teachings on sexuality.

In short, Rabbi Michael Lerner is an angry left-wing radical with a penchant for sticking his nose in where he doesn’t belong.

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On November 6, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said that Jewish groups who recently depicted Pope Pius XII as being “indifferent to the fate of the victims of Nazism” were “outrageous.” They are also profoundly ignorant of history and guilty of scapegoating.

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Here’s a challenge to all those pro-abortion Catholics masquerading as pro-life by citing their allegiance to economic policies that may reduce the incidence of abortion: Check out the latest Rand Corporation study on teens who watch a lot of sexual content on TV and join with real pro-life Catholics in calling for a more responsible Hollywood.

We already knew that young people who are exposed to a lot of sexual content start having sex at an earlier age. Now we know that teens who watch the most sex on TV are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy as those who watch the least amount of sex. Dramatically, the amount of sexual content on TV has doubled since 2001. And while the study does not address abortion, it is obvious that abortion rates are higher among those who watch the most sex on TV.

In other words, it is not a spike in the minimum wage that will translate into lower abortion rates; it is things like a decrease in irresponsible TV content that will do so. However, to do this requires a willingness to stand up to the same Hollywood crowd that backs pro-abortion candidates. That’s not something that real pro-life Catholics have a problem with, but it is sure to be problematic for Catholics who feign pro-life. Do they really have it in them to challenge their ideological kin?

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October 28, 2008

The videos depicting various desecrations of the Eucharist by the person calling himself 'fsmdude' have been removed from YouTube.  Over forty videos were voluntarily taken down by 'fsmdude'.  He did this after YouTube responded to the Catholic League's demand for action by age-gating his videos and placing a warning on the website for those trying to access his videos.

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Two deceitful letters were published in the Washington Post on October 25. The first one, by Jon O’Brien of Catholics for Choice, said that “In Catholic theology there is room for the acceptance of policies that favor access to the full range of reproductive health options, including contraception and abortion.” This is a lie. The Catholic Church has always been opposed to both contraception and abortion. But lying is nothing new to this pro-abortion, anti-Catholic group.

Alexia Kelley at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good takes exception with the Washington Post for listing it as a group that contends “Catholic teachings do not forbid voting for a pro-choice politician.” But that is exactly what Kelley’s mission is—to confuse the laity, and the public, about the Church’s teaching on abortion.

It would be so nice if these groups just told the truth.

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Please click here to read Bill Donohue's letter to the New York Daily News about its double standard in reporting on clergy sex abuse.

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The FBI found him hiding in his bedroom. Rabbi Israel Weingarten, 58, was arrested in upstate New York on charges he sexually abused his own daughter. The abuse began when his daughter was 9 years old; it continued until she was 18. The former yeshiva schoolteacher molested his daughter on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. He moved her around from Belgium, Israel and the U.S. to avoid prosecution.

If this had been a Catholic priest, it would have been front-page news. But because it was a rabbi, it merited stories on p. 18 in the Daily News and p. 21 in the New York Post; both were short pieces. The New York Times ignored the story altogether, even though it was picked up by AP.

The Jewish Forward and the Jewish Week have had several stories lately about the efforts of Assemblyman Dov Hikind to still this problem in his community. The New York politician says that an “avalanche of people” have come forward with reports of the sexual abuse of minors at the hands of Orthodox Jews. We commend him for his efforts. But we also take note that these stories are ignored by the same New York media outlets that were all over the same crimes when committed by priests.

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October 6, 2008

Never before have there been as many pro-abortion apologists as there are now. These apologists maintain that it is entirely possible to be pro-life while supporting pro-abortion candidates, just so long as these candidates sponsor legislation that reduces the need for abortion. Yet the apologists would never support a candidate who said he opposes laws that criminalize wife beating but is nonetheless adamantly opposed to it.  Nor would they be persuaded that such persons deserve our support if they sponsor legislation that reduces the incidence of wife beating.

Only when it comes to abortion do the apologists scrap a legal remedy. To be specific, it is dishonest for Catholics United to say that “legal protections for the unborn are an important part of a pro-life strategy,” and then support candidates who are opposed to every legal protection ever proposed. Is it too much to demand that lying has no legitimate role to play in these discussions?

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The Internet site, Beliefnet, offers a wide variety of views on religion, and has done some fine work. However, sometimes its commitment to pluralism becomes corrupting. To wit: It has accepted an advertisement for Bill Maher’s “comedy” mocking Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam and other religions. Looks like greed affects more than those on Wall Street.

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office yesterday released the annual Mayor’s Management Report. It shows that the Health Department gave away 39,070,000 male condoms to community groups in fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30. News story are reporting that this figure is more than double the rate from the previous fiscal year.

What is not being discussed by the media, however, is what the data show regarding the incidence of syphilis: while the distribution of condoms increased by 120 percent in one year, the number of syphilis cases increased by 20 percent.

If condoms are the answer to STDs, then syphilis cases should have declined markedly. The fact that syphilis cases spiked should prove sobering. But, alas, New York City has learned absolutely nothing: next year it plans to distribute 51.6 million condoms. Watch for the rate of STDs to increase as well.

Do condoms increase STDs? It would be difficult to prove that they do, though it is entirely possible that the promiscuous distribution of condoms by government agencies fosters a climate of complacency, one ill-suited to inducing the virtue of self-restraint. One thing is for sure: condom distribution does not curb STDs. Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg is perpetuating a dangerous hoax on young people by ratcheting up condom distribution—even when it is crystal clear that this policy is backfiring.

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Abortion survivor Gianna Jessen addresses Sen. Barack Obama in an ad produced by BornAlivetruth.org concerning his four votes against medical assistance for babies who survive abortion. 

Please click here to see the ad.

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Four young persons, three women and a man, were butchered to death by Satanists in Russia. But that’s not all—they were then roasted and eaten; their private parts were cut off. The victims were stabbed 666 times—the number that symbolizes the Antichrist.

There is an outbreak of mutilations and killings in Russia by Satanists. They leave a cross upside-down to mark their work.

It has been reported that “Devil worshippers believe in putting themselves first and their core values include pride, indulgence, ambition and meeting sexual desires.”

Why is this significant? Because those who kill innocent persons in the name of Christ reject Christ’s teachings and that of the Catholic Church. Those who kill in the name of Satanism are being faithful to their creed. Indeed, what devil worshippers believe in, the Catholic Church rejects as sinful.

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The Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that the full body of U.S. bishops will discuss the implications of political support of abortion during its annual assembly, which will be held November 10 - 13, 2008.  The decision to address this timely topic stems from recent controversial statements by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Joseph Biden regarding Catholic teaching on when life begins.

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Bill Donohue was asked by the celebrity page of the New York Post on September 10 to offer a comment on a new book, 101 Places To Have Sex Before You Die; one of the  recommended places is the confessional.

Here was Bill’s response to "Page Six": “The kind of people who would have sex in the confessional would also have sex in the graveyard. And I don’t mean with each other.”

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The lead letter in the September 9, 2008 New York Times states that there  are troubling similarities between Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and President George W. Bush.  What is the writer's first listed objection?  It is the fact that both leaders are "deeply religious."

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accepted the invitation from San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer to discuss her recent statements concerning the Catholic Church's position on abortion as it relates to the question of when life begins.  He invited her to meet with him privately so he can explain the Church's clear teachings to her.  It is not yet known when this meeting will take place.

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In the September 8 New York Times, there is a story about the continuing conflict between NBC and MSNBC over news reporting and analysis. While several NBC employees spoke to Times reporters, all did so anonymously. That’s because “the network does not permit it [sic] people to speak to the media without authorization.”

Now if a bishop were to tell his priests that they are not authorized to speak to the media without prior clearance, he’d be accused of censorship. Indeed, he’d probably be called a fascist. But when the media silence their own, it’s considered good journalism. Their hypocrisy reeks to high heaven.

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The student senate of the University of Central Florida (UCF) finally delivered justice to Webster Cook, who earlier this summer took home the Eucharist before returning it a week later in an attempt to make a political statement.  After impeaching Cook for his misconduct, the senate voted to remove him from office after a lengthy investigation into his actions.  In taking the Eucharist, he had misrepresented himself as being on student government business. 

We applaud the students who did more than the school in punishing this student's outrageous behavior.  Last month, a UCF-convened panel dismissed all charges against Cook.  Not even a warning was given to him.  It was this student's protest that led to the public desecration of the Eucharist by University of Minnesota Morris professor Paul Z. Myers.  He too was not sanctioned by his institution for his hateful acts.

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The Democratic National Convention is awash in sexuality. On Monday, there was a “Sex, Politics and Cocktails” party hosted by Planned Parenthood that, naturally, passed out tons of condoms. It got a lot of competition from a Rolling Stone-Trojan Condoms bash that featured a “Condomvention” on sexual health; it was held right near their inflatable penis-shaped tent.

The pro-abortion contingency was represented by the presidents of NARAL and Planned Parenthood, both of whom spoke at the Convention. Emily’s List sponsored a select gathering of pro-abortion women and there were diversity parties everywhere for the LGBT crowd.

Many notables attended these events, though no one reportedly saw either Eliot Spitzer or John Edwards.

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Some of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's fellow congressmen, who are pro-life and Catholic, have responded to her statements about the Catholic Church's teachings concerning when life begins.  Please click here to read their correspondence to her.

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The Catholic League will be sending out copies of the report, Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us, to Catholic educators and bishops.  Please click here to read an article by the author of the report, Gilbert T. Sewall of the American Textbook Council, that was published in the New York Post.

Please click here to access Mr. Sewall's full report on how Islam is treated versus how Christianity is portrayed in some textbooks. 

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August 13, 2008

Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, is rightfully upset about the movie “Tropic Thunder.” The film offers a stereotypical portrayal of the mentally retarded and callously refers to them as “retards.” So what does Shriver want to do? “Ban the movie,” he says.

“Ban the movie”? Just imagine if the Catholic League said that about some movie it was protesting (it never has). But don’t look for the charge of censorship to roll off the lips of Shriver’s critics: unlike films that bash Catholics, cruel depictions of the retarded are upsetting to them.

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The University of Central Florida convened a panel of students and administrators to address whether Webster Cook, the student who absconded with the Host and then returned It a week later, violated the code of student discipline.  The panel  voted unanimously to dismiss all the charges against him despite the range of options available to punish this despicable act.  At the very least, a disciplinary warning is warranted to send a message that the concerns of Catholics are taken seriously.  In contrast, the student government took swift action by impeaching Mr. Cook.  Its investigation, which could lead to his dismissal from his government position, should be completed by the end of the month. 

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It is being reported that President George W. Bush will attend church while in Beijing for the Olympic Games.  He is then expected to make a statement, urging the Chinese government to allow religious freedom.  It is a courageous thing to do and we hope that he also addresses the persecutions suffered by Catholics and other religious minorities.

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The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy has issued a press release about Professor Paul Myers and his act of desecration of the Eucharist.  Please click on this link to read their statement.  Myers responded in his usual cavalier manner. 

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In light of the desecration of the Eucharist by University of Minnesota Morris professor, Paul Myers, Bill has sent the following letter to the president of the University of Minnesota.  Please click here to read the letter.

To read the press release referenced in the letter, please click here.

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July 22, 2008

The Catholic League continues to follow the situation with the University of Central Florida student who held the Eucharist hostage for a week.  Webster Cook is a student senator and he has been impeached by his fellow senators for allegedly misrepresenting himself as being on official student government business at the Mass where he took the Host.  As a result of the impeachment, there will now be an investigation to see if he should be removed from his office.  This process can take up to four weeks. 

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New Line Cinema had planned to make all three of Philip Pullman's books that comprise His Dark Materials into major motion pictures.  Due to the successful boycott led by the Catholic League, the first film, "The Golden Compass," was less than a commercial success.  It now appears that the second book, The Subtle Knife, will not make it to the big screen after all.  Pullman recently admitted that the league's boycott hurt ticket sales for "The Golden Compass," thus killing plans to film the whole series. 

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Professor Paul Myers responded to the controversy surrounding the UCF student, who held a consecrated Host hostage for a week, with venomous attacks on the Eucharist, threatening to desecrate Hosts if others could obtain them for him.  The league sprung into action, contacting the president of the University of Minnesota, which allowed the link to his blog to be accessible from the professor's faculty page.  The president responded that Professor Myers' views do not represent the school and that his blog was no longer accessible from Myers' faculty page.

Click here to read the president of the University of Minnesota's letter.

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The California Supreme Court ruled that the voter initiative to affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman can be placed on the November ballot.  This is a victory for the people of California who can decide whether to allow same-sex marriage after the California Supreme Court recently legalized it by a 4 to 3 vote.  The following organizations had petitioned the Court to not permit the ballot initiative: ACLU, ADL, Americans for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way and numerous teachers unions and education organizations.

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Mary Honeyball, a member of the Labour Party in England, has attacked the Catholic Church and Catholic political leaders due to their opposition to a bill promoting embryonic stem cell research. Ms. Honeyball later went on to attack the Catholic League. In a letter to an English newspaper, Honeyball called the league "dangerous." She utilized information from Catholics for Choice to support her contention that the league "bullies and intimidates anyone who dares criticise the Catholic Church, shutting down any dialogue on the Church's political methods or doctrine." We are happy she took note of us!

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July 8, 2008

The resolution of the matter concerning the UCF student who absconded with the Eucharist and held It for a week remains pending. We will not know the outcome until the student judicial review process is completed. 

Below is the statement issued by the president of the University:

UCF takes this situation seriously and we are glad to know the student has returned the Eucharist and written a letter of apology. We encourage students to express their views respectfully, and we expect them to comply with university codes of conduct.

Any disciplinary action will be handled through the university’s student judicial system, per our published procedure.
 
John C. Hitt
President, University of Central Florida

We will continue to monitor this matter to see that justice is done.

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Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to be the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Vatican.  He will hear appeals of decisions issued by lower Church courts.  A canon lawyer, Archbishop Burke has been a champion of orthodoxy in St. Louis since he became the archbishop in January 2004.  He was previously the bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin. 

Archbishop Burke garnered national attention in 2004 when he declared that pro-choice politicians should not present themselves for Holy Communion.  He further stated that he would deny the Eucharist to the Democratic nominee, John Kerry, due to his support of abortion.

We wish Archbishop Burke well and know that he will be a great success in this new position!

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June 24, 2008

Those who have tried to sell the notion that economic issues can draw religious conservatives to move left cannot be too happy with the findings of the latest Pew survey. As reported in today’s New York Times, “The survey confirms findings from previous studies that the most religiously and politically conservative Americans are those who attend worship services most frequently, and that for them, the battles against abortion and gay rights remain touchstone issues.”

The story quotes John C. Green, an author of the Pew report, as saying,  “It suggests that the efforts of Democrats to peel away Republican and conservative voters based on economic issues face a real limit because of the role these cultural issues play.”

In other words, attempts to equate issues like the minimum wage and Third World debt with abortion and gay marriage have failed.

The only ones who will be surprised by this are the ones who tried to make the equation. They just don’t get it.

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The Department of Education released its report evaluating the voucher program which has been operative for two years in Washington, D.C.  It shows a positive impact on students' reading achievement and increased parental satisfaction.

Please see below for links to articles on the voucher program:

Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Education, Press Release, 6/16/08: "Report Reaffirms Academic Gains for DC Opportunity Scholarship Participants"

William McGurn, Wall Street Journal, 6/17/08: "School Choice Is Change You Can Believe In"

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It looks as though Sen. Barack Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Council is still missing in action. No word from his campaign has come forth providing evidence of its existence, and there is still no mention of the group on its website. Beliefnet spoke to one of the group’s members, an unemployed liberal, and she says she chats on the phone with other members. But that’s it.

This issue has a foul odor to it: If indeed the Advisory Council is extant, why doesn’t the Obama campaign flag it the way it used to do?

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Here we go again. More bad news about sexually transmitted diseases is followed by more calls for more condoms. They just don’t get it.

One in four—26 percent—of adult New Yorkers have genital herpes (compared to 19 percent nationwide). And who is being hit the hardest?  Homosexuals, blacks and women. Look for some politically correct dope to blame straight white guys.

The New York City Health Department’s answer, of course, is not to counsel restraint. That would be judgmental. So their considered judgment is to hawk another round of condoms. Yeah, that will work—just like it has all along.

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We thought our supporters would like to read the following correspondence by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. It is directed to Catholic Democrats.

Dear Mr. Roth,

In a May 14 posting on your website, Patrick Whelan claims that:

“[Kansas City’s Archbishop Naumann] was a keynote speaker at a Denver conference in the fall of 2007 at which all the Republican presidential candidates appeared.”

I read this news with considerable interest since I was at that conference – in fact the Archdiocese of Denver sponsored it -- and no Republican presidential candidates were anywhere in the audience.  The conference is annual and non-partisan; in fact it focuses on John Paul II’s encyclical, The Gospel of Life – something every Catholic, of whatever political party, should have a grounding in.

I’m sure you’ll want to publicly correct this mistaken information as soon as possible.

By the way, the Democratic presidential candidates would have been most welcome at the Denver conference.  I didn’t see them in the audience either.

Be assured of my good will and prayers.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

+cjc

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May 20, 2008

The homepage of a group called Roman Catholics for Obama '08 misrepresents Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput's words on whether Catholics can vote in good conscience for a pro-choice politician.

The group quotes the archbishop as saying:

"So can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice candidate? The answer is: I can't, and I won't. But I do know some serious Catholics -- people whom I admire -- who may. I think their reasoning is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They don't keep quiet about it; they don't give up; they keep lobbying their party and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite -- not because of -- their pro-choice views."

In his web column of May 19, Archbishop Chaput comments on the group's use of this quote:

"What's interesting about this quotation - which is accurate but incomplete - is the wording that was left out. The very next sentences in the article of mine they selected, which Roman Catholics for Obama neglected to quote, run as follows:

"But [Catholics who support 'pro-choice' candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a 'proportionate' reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It's the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life - which we most certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed."

The archbishop ends with some advice for the group:

"Changing the views of 'pro-choice' candidates takes a lot more than verbal gymnastics, good alibis and pious talk about 'personal opposition' to killing unborn children. I'm sure Roman Catholics for Obama know that, and I wish them good luck. They'll need it."

To read the full column, click here.

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David R. Carlin, former Democratic majority leader of the Rhode Island Senate and author of Can a Catholic Be a Democrat, discusses Sen. Obama's National Catholic Advisory Council in this piece from InsideCatholic.com.

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Fairness & Accuracy in Media (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog group,  is now challenging our statement of May 2 calling into question the fairness of its story, “Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History.”

In that report, FAIR accused then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) of sending “a letter to church bishops invoking a 1962 doctrine threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic official who discussed abuse cases outside the church’s legal system.” We said the charge was bogus and explained why (click here).

Now FAIR is standing by its story, initially lifted from a British tabloid, claiming that although the Vatican 1962 document in question applied to solicitations made in the confessional, it can be read to include acts outside the confessional. It then quotes a priest who, in fact, provides no evidence from the document that would substantiate FAIR’s initial accusation.

Indeed, the title of the 1962 document, “ON THE MATTER OF PROCEEDING IN CASES OF SOLICITATIONS,” was deliberately chosen to reflect the Vatican’s concerns regarding improper solicitations that might take place within the confessional. It did not reach the question that FAIR alleges it did.

Moreover, if the initial FAIR story were accurate, it should be able to produce the indicting letter by Cardinal Ratzinger that it claims supports its accusation. So where is it? Trying to spin its way out of its own jam is bad enough, but when the pope is unfairly maligned, it is despicable. FAIR is never to be trusted again on matters Catholic.

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Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has stated that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius should not present herself for Holy Communion. The governor, a Catholic who sits on Sen. Barack Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Council, is a long-time supporter of abortion rights.

As Archbishop Naumann recently wrote, Gov. Sebelius’ support for abortion can be seen in her recent veto of the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, which indicates that “the governor does not approve of legislators devoting energy to protecting children and women by making it possible to enforce existing Kansas law regarding late-term abortions.” Archbishop Naumann also pointed out that Sebelius has accepted campaign contributions from Dr. George Tiller, the notorious late-term abortionist.

It is telling that Sen. Obama should have chosen Gov. Sebelius to advise him on matters Catholic. After all, when in the Illinois state senate, the presidential contender led the fight to deny care to babies born alive as a result of botched abortions. That he should choose a Catholic politician who so disregards the Church’s respect for life speaks volumes about his intentions for this council.

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Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic who helped save thousands from the Nazis, died this morning at the age of 98. Between 1940 and 1943, Sendler and other members of an underground organization smuggled Jewish children—from infants through teens—out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Sendler worked to give these kids a chance at survival by passing them off as Catholics. She kept detailed records so they could one day be reunited with their families. Despite enduring arrest and torture at the hands of the Nazis, Sendler never revealed the location of these records.

In 1965, she was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial for her life-saving efforts. Her story was recently made into a play by Kansas high school students impressed by her selfless service to others, and she received official honors from her native Poland just last year. Despite these accolades, Sendler never considered herself a heroine, and said, “We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. Indeed, that term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true—I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little.”

It is unfortunate that Sendler’s faith is not mentioned in the otherwise fitting tributes to her life that were released today from the Associated Press and Agence France Press. It is all too common for news stories to make note of a subject’s Catholic faith if the subject of the article is cast in a bad light. Furthermore, the Catholic Church is often unfairly and inaccurately maligned for not doing more to help Jews during the Holocaust. It would have been appropriate for these two major news outlets to recognize the Catholic faith that one brave Polish woman held so dear. 

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Click here to read the Pew Forum's findings on the image Americans have of Pope Benedict XVI in the wake of his recent visit.

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Michael Preisler, a member of the Catholic League, is a Polish Catholic who survived Auschwitz. Click here to read about his work educating others on the reality of life in Poland during the Holocaust.

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“What if the greatest story ever told was a lie?” This is the tag line to “Bloodline,” a new film opening in New York this Friday. Bruce Burgess, the producer, has previously made documentaries exploring the Bermuda Triangle and searching for Bigfoot. So it comes as no surprise that he is floating claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, sired children, and that His body is still entombed in France today.

Such charges are nothing new. The folks behind the Jesus Seminar have been floating such theories for years. The ridiculous lies behind the fictional Da Vinci Code and the more recent Discovery Channel airing of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” have been debunked time and again. Yet the hucksters are still at it.

“Bloodline” is playing in limited locations. We’re betting the reactions of the audience will be limited too. The producers sent the Catholic League a free copy of the film. We can safely say that anyone who buys a ticket will be thinking, “I can’t believe I paid ten bucks for that.”

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April 23, 2008

Yesterday, the Rev. John Hagee appeared as a guest on Dennis Prager’s radio show. On the program, Hagee denied that he is anti-Catholic, claiming, “The charges made against me by specifically the Catholic League are simply false.”

For his part, Prager mentioned his long-standing friendship with the Catholic League and his intention to bring Bill Donohue on his program soon. However, he also praised Hagee as one of the most “courageous” and “important” leaders of the day. The radio host declared, “There are times in life where there are conflicts and there are times where there are gratuitous conflicts. This is gratuitous. There should be no conflict between any Catholic institution and John Hagee.”

John Hagee is a man with a history of bandying about false accusations against the Catholic Church—one of his favorite lies is that Hitler was acting in accordance with the Vatican and the “Roman Church.” He also isn’t fooling anyone by saying he wasn’t speaking of the Catholic Church when he threw out insults like “false cult system” and the “great whore.” He used them while slamming the Catholic Church. Furthermore, anti-Catholic Protestants have used such demonizing language against the Church for years.

Donohue would welcome the chance to go on Prager’s show and discuss Hagee. The preacher can spin all he likes, but he won’t convince the country he isn’t anti-Catholic. His record is too long and too vitriolic.

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What His Holiness said at the White House on Wednesday was the truth, and nothing but the truth: “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted.”

We hope all those who would like to privatize, if not censor, religion are listening. What the pope said will surely embolden millions of Catholics to take a more aggressive public role exercising their religious liberty rights. We also hope that the ACLU, the ADL and Americans United for Separation of Church and State get the message.

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Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, who represents North American Orthodox synagogues as executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, dismissed the controversy surrounding the Latin version of the Good Friday prayer for the Jews. “Their prayers are their business, our prayers are our business,” the rabbi told the press. We hope everyone takes note of his sensible and considerate take on the issue.

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Pope Benedict XVI has done everything he can to remain faithful to Catholic teaching on the subject of salvation and at the same time reassure Jews that the Latin prayer is not being used as cover to ignite a conversion war. While most Jews have accepted the pope’s recent statement on this subject, the ADL has not. Instead, in its news release of April 4, it says, “the statement does not go far enough to allay concerns about how the message of this prayer will be understood by the people in the pews.”

There is something downright disturbing about this language. Is it the ADL’s contention that those rank-and-file type Catholics are just waiting to beat the conversion drums and go out and find Jews to proselytize? It’s time the ADL gave this a rest before it triggers a backlash.

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March 20, 2008

WTOP, a news radio station in Washington, D.C., is currently playing a commercial that ridicules the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The spot, paid for by a Presbyterian Church in the nation’s capital, mimics a man confessing his sins to a priest. The priest repeats the man’s sins back to him, and with each sin (e.g., having lustful thoughts while viewing lingerie ads and coveting a neighbor’s lawn equipment) a cash register clicks, as if to tally up the sum of each sin. At the end, a voice tells listeners that with the Presbyterian Church, their spiritual journey doesn’t have to be “a guilt trip.” According to station managers, this ad has been aired for two runs a year since 2004.

It is interesting that those who made this spot felt that in order to spur interest in their church, they had to mock a Catholic sacrament. Rather than boasting of a strong faith formation or meaningful religious services, these folks must rely on trivializing attack ads to gin up their declining membership.

It is also troublesome that such an ad is running during Holy Week. This most sacred season is often the time when those with an animus toward the Church level their assaults. We’re used to it. What we are not accustomed to, however, are these assaults coming from our fellow Christians. We hope that in the future, those responsible for this advertisement will choose to highlight Presbyterianism, rather than to belittle Catholicism. 

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March 17, 2008

On March 13 & 14, The Cavalier Daily, a student-run newspaper at the University of Virginia, ran two cartoons, both of which were offensive to Christians.  We blasted the newspaper for their bigotry and pointed out its hypocrisy.

On March 15 the newspaper removed the cartoons from its website and issued a statement of regret.  The editor has pledged to review their cartoon policy.

We are happy that the staff at The Cavalier Daily came to their senses and recognized that anti-Catholic bigotry has no place on the pages of its newspaper.

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Last night, ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” ran a story about the health benefits of being an optimist. At the end of the segment, viewers on the East Coast were presented with a scene from “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” in which crucified men (one is the character Brian, mistaken in the plot for the Messiah) sing and whistle the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

It didn’t take ABC long to realize that airing a scene mocking the crucifixion was completely unnecessary and inappropriate. Not wishing to further offend Christians, the network changed the scene for subsequent broadcasts in other time zones and apologized to those viewers who voiced their objections.

We are pleased that officials at ABC acted quickly to correct their actions, and appreciate their willingness to convey their apologies. Their handling of the problem speaks well of the network. We can’t help but wish, however, that instead of a trivial and offensive closer to the segment, something with real substance had been chosen.

The audience would have been well served to be reminded that faith in God also is beneficial to your health. A study from the University of Pennsylvania found that people who regularly practice their faith have lower rates of drug and alcohol abuse, depression and other health ailments. Other studies from Duke University Medical Center have found that religious people spend less time in hospitals and recover from illness more quickly than their secular counterparts. Additionally, using date collected over thirty years, scientists at the California Department of Heath Services, the Public Health Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, found that those who attend church services weekly tend to live longer than others.

This is the sort of information that would have made a fitting end to ABC’s story.

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Tonight, Comedy Central will premier a new show, “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil.” The show will feature the cantankerous Lewis as a “judge” who must grapple with two other comics, each trying to argue a side of a supposedly humorous question. The first episode, “Oprah vs. the Catholic Church” will ask whether the talk show host or the Bride of Christ is more “evil.”

According to preview videos and printed reviews, Black charges that the Church hinders “social progress” and that the pope gives lectures bashing other religions. The program features abundant jokes about molester priests. One would hope that a network devoted entirely to comedy would be able to come up with a few new gags rather than rely on the old bigoted chestnut about the priest and the altar boy. But Comedy Central has a long history of attacking the Church, and this is just more of the same.

We’ve read several reviews of the premier show. Some indicate that there will be minor jabs at the Catholic Church, and others that the attack is quite vicious. We’ll report back tomorrow to weigh in.

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Everyone is pointing out the obvious: Eliot Spitzer is an arrogant man who thought that the same rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to him. Yes, his hubris is insufferable, but there is something else going on as well.

One would be hard pressed to find a public official anywhere in the nation who entertains a more libertine understanding of sexuality than Eliot Spitzer. For example, his unbelievable passion for abortion rights led him to declare Crisis Pregnancy Centers the enemy when he was New York Attorney General. He intimidated them, harassed them and used bogus arguments to try to shut them down. But he met resistance, from the Catholic League and others, and had to pull back.

The majority of the residents of New York State—including the majority of those who live in New York City—are opposed to same-sex marriage. Spitzer favors it. He’s not satisfied with civil unions—he wants gay marriage.

Spitzer has been working hard to declare abortion a “fundamental right,” one so inviolate that it could never be overturned by the courts. He has also warned that no institution could “discriminate” in forbidding abortion services. Though officials in his administration have told us this would not mandate Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, the fact that the issue has been raised is worrisome.

Now he has been involved in a prostitution ring for years (allegedly practicing unsafe sexual acts) and declares his behavior to be “private” in nature (evidently, he believes the laws against prostitution—laws which he previously prosecuted and is now sworn to enforce—do not address public matters). His comment that politics is not about individuals, but ideas, is similarly bizarre. It’s not my persona that matters, he seems to be saying, it’s my ideas. Ideas, he adds, that are “progressive.”

It is also revealing to note that the group he was scheduled to meet with—before being told that he had an emergency meeting with the Feds—was Family Planning Advocates. This is the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood.
 
In other words, in addition to his arrogance, the man is a walking embodiment of the Playboy Philosophy: He is a true libertine. And like all libertines, he not only destroys himself, he ineluctably destroys those around him.

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We previously wrote about attempts by Colorado lawmaker Rep. Gwyn Green to pass House Bill 1011. The bill would lift the statute of limitations on all future cases involving the sexual abuse of children and grant a two-year period that offers those who are currently barred from doing so the chance to file a lawsuit.

Our concern with this piece of legislation was that it would only affect private institutions, such as Catholic schools, while public institutions would largely be immune. (A separate and wholly unequal bill was aimed at public schools.) We are pleased to note that the Colorado’s House Judiciary Committee killed Green's objectionable bill yesterday.

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On February 19, we commented on a proposed Maryland bill that would suspend the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases for almost two years. We took issue with this piece of legislation because while it would effect private institutions like Catholic churches and parochial schools, government institutions such as public schools would largely be exempt.

We are happy to report that after facing harsh opposition, the delegate who sponsored the bill, Eric Bromwell, has withdrawn it. According to The Examiner, Del. Bromwell states he will give “serious consideration” to resubmitting the bill during the next legislative session. As we said previously, any legislation on such matters should apply equally to all institutions—public and private. If that were the case, the Catholic League would not object. 

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We received several phone calls and e-mails about a situation in Albany, Oregon. A public school principal suspended two teenage boys for refusing to remove crucifixes and rosary beads from around their necks. Because the educator had reason to suspect the students’ wearing of these religious symbols was related to gang activity, the Catholic League has no problems with his action.

Though a flat-out ban of religious symbols worn by students would certainly be objectionable, this is not the case here. The principal has stated that religious items are permitted. However, he reserves the right to order their removal on a case-by-case basis, should he have reason to believe they are meant to indicate gang affiliation.

It is unfortunate that gangs are a problem in our country’s schools, and unfortunate that many gangs pervert Catholic symbols and devotionals in order to identify themselves and intimidate others. The Oregon principal seems to be doing what he must to protect all of his students, and keep the kids focused on education.

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In response to the Catholic League’s news release of February 7, “Politics of Sex Abuse in Colorado,” state Representative Morgan Carroll sent us this e-mail:

Attacking a fellow member or her religion is not a particularly professional way to argue a bill on the merits.  If you have policy problems with removing the SOL protecting sex offenders, please share your reasons, but so long as you are simply attacking a colleague or her motives, I, for one, find it offensive.  It hurts your credibility on the issues and instead makes it look like you guys are about politics over policy.  In an effort to be more effective, you may wish to reconsider your approach and simply debate the pros / cons of the issues.

Thanks,

Morgan

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded to Carroll as follows:

One of your colleagues makes a libelous remark about the Catholic Church, wears her Catholicism on her sleeve, boasts of her support from the abortion industry and introduces a bill that discriminates in its application against private institutions vis-à-vis public institutions, and you have the gall to lecture me about politics?

No wonder the American people hold politicians in such a low regard. You, sir, are Exhibit A.

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Last week Bill Donohue was asked on the Fox News Network to comment on his charge that Bill Maher is “Americans #1 bigot.” In his concluding remarks, Donohue opined that he would love to get in the ring with Maher in Madison Square Garden so he could “floor him.”

When Maher was asked last night by Larry King to respond to Donohue’s quip, he said—in a serious tone—that Donohue “threatened to beat [him] up” and that he would “defend” himself if necessary.

To which Donohue said today, “At 6 feet 2 inches tall and 235 pounds, Maher is lucky to know that I don’t pick on people who are not my size, and this is doubly true when they’re half my size.”

It is obvious that this humorless “comedian” needs to get a life. He also needs to see a shrink about his pathological obsession with all things religious, especially Roman Catholicism.

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This week, Pope Benedict XVI had to cancel a talk at Rome’s Sapienza University because 67 professors said they would stop him from speaking. The high priests of tolerance explained their exercise in censorship by saying they disagreed with the pope’s writings on science. The few instances they cited were all erroneous.

Ironically, the pope was to talk on one of his favorite subjects—the need to embrace both faith and reason—and was stopped by those who obviously believe in neither.

Oh, yes, the fascist professors owe their livelihood to Pope Boniface VIII: he founded the university in 1303 (it became independent in 1870). That’s what the Catholic clergy do—they promote faith and reason.

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On the January 9 edition of “The View,” panelist Joy Behar made it plain that she needs a shrink. She said the reason why there are so few saints anymore is because of “psychotropic medication.” She continued, “I think the old days, the saints were hearing voices and they didn’t have any Thorazine to calm them down.”

Besides being flatly wrong—a record number of saints have been named over the past few decades—it is Behar who needs to consult a shrink. Her musings about all things Catholic suggests a pathological condition so severe as to make those who hear voices positively sane by comparison.

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On December 21, 2007 we posted a statement on Mike Huckabee’s scheduled appearance at Rev. John Hagee’s church on December 23. We have subsequently learned that presidential hopeful John McCain reached out to Hagee last fall.  Hagee introduced McCain on September 20, 2007 during his “No Surrender Tour” at an event in South Carolina.

The Catholic League has long considered Rev. Hagee to be a bigot, and the reason we are citing the McCain appearance now is because we want to treat the Arizona senator the same way we treated the former governor of Arkansas.

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As we begin the New Year, we'd like to share with you this moving account of one inmate's conversion story. (Posted with permission of the author.)

My name is Pornchai Moontri, and I am prisoner #38284 in the New Hampshire State Prison. I come to the Catholic faith after a painful journey in darkness that my friend, Father Gordon MacRae, has asked me to write candidly. This is not something I do easily, but I trust my friend.

I was born in Bua Nong Lamphu, a small village in the north of Thailand near Khon Kaen on September 10, 1973. At the age of two, I was abandoned by my mother to be sold. A distant teenaged relative rescued me. He walked many miles to carry me away to his family farm where I worked throughout my childhood raising water buffalo, rice, and sugar cane. I never attended school, however, and never learned to read and write in Thai. Though my childhood involved hard work, I was safe and happy.

When I was 11 years old, my mother re-emerged in Thailand with a new husband – an American air traffic controller from Bangor, Maine. I was taken from Thailand by them against my will, and brought to the United States. This transition was a trauma to be endured. A month after my arrival in Bangor, my new stepfather’s motive for importing a ready-made Thai family became clear. I was forcibly raped by him at age 11, an event that was to be repeated with regularity over the next three years. I was a prisoner in his house, and resistance was only met with violence against me and against my mother. I was all of 100 pounds. I cannot describe this further. Welcome to America!

Being one of only three Asians in 1985 Bangor, and speaking little English, I did not readily comprehend my new names. “Gook,” “V.C.” and “Charlie” meant nothing to me, but I could sense the scorn with which such names were delivered. Because my English was poor, I was treated as though I was stupid. Part of my humiliation was that I had to get a paper route at age 12, and my earnings were taken from me to pay for the “privilege” of living in my captor’s house. Stephen King’s home was on my paper route. Mr. King once gave me a Christmas bonus of 25¢ for delivering his newspaper all year. The horror stories he wrote about Maine are all true. Remember the one with the evil clown? It’s true.

When I was 14, my English was better. I was a little bigger, and a lot stronger – and nothing but angry. Anger was all I had. So with it I fled that house and became a homeless teenager in and around Bangor. One day the Bangor police actually picked me up and forced me to go “home.” I would rather have gone to one of the ones Stephen King wrote about. I just fled again and again, and ended up at the Good Will Hinckley School for people like me. I was there for a year and got kicked out for fighting. I was always fighting. I fought everyone.

Back on the streets of Bangor, I began to carry a knife. At 17 and 18, a lot of people were after me. I lived under a bridge for a while and sometimes my mother would bring me things. I tried to climb out of the deep hole I was in by signing up for night classes at age 18 to finish my high school diploma. I was kicked out of Bangor High School for punching the principal.

One night, at age 18, something that lived in me got out. I got very drunk with friends, and we walked into a Bangor Shop & Save supermarket to buy cigarettes. I barely remember this. In my drunken state, I opened a bottle of beer from a case and started to drink it. The manager confronted me and ordered me to leave. I tried to flee the store, but the manager and other employees tried to keep me there. I tried to fight them off to flee. When I got outside, a manager from another Shop & Save had witnessed the incident and pounced on me. I was 130 pounds and was pinned to the ground by this 190-pound man. I think something snapped in my mind. IT was happening again. I fought, but his dead weight was suffocating me. The newspapers would later tell a different story, but this was the truth, and it is all I remember.

In jail that night, I was questioned for three hours. I was told that I had stabbed a man and was charged with attempted murder. I have no memory, to this day, of stabbing the man. The next morning, I awoke in a jail cell and was told that I was charged with Class A murder. The man had died during the night. I was told that I blew a .25 on the Breathalyzer, but the result was so high it was discarded as an error.

My stepfather could have hired expert counsel, but it was clearly not in his best interest that my life be evaluated so I was left in the care of a public defender who wanted this high profile murder off his desk. There was talk about the Breathalyzer, and “level of culpability,” and things like “defensive vs. offensive wounds,” but in the end there were no theories, no experts and no defense. I was terrified of being abandoned. My mother came to me in jail and pleaded with me to protect her and “the family” by not revealing what happened in my life. So I remained silent. I offered no defense at all. My co-defendant told the truth of my being pinned down, but he was not believed. I was convicted of “Class A murder with deliberate indifference” and sentenced, at age 18, to 45 years in a Maine Prison. Maine has no parole.

I was also sentenced with the soul of the innocent man whose life I took – despite my being unable to remember taking it. The mix of remorse and anger was toxic in prison, and I gave up. Prison became just an extension of where I had already been. My anger raged on and on, and I spent 13 of my 15 years in prison in Maine’s “supermax” facility for those who can’t be trusted in the light of day.

Five years into my imprisonment, I learned one night in my supermax cell that my mother and stepfather had relocated to Guam where my mother was murdered. She was pushed from a cliff. The only suspect was her husband but there was no evidence. I was now alone in my rage.

After 14 years of this, the Maine prison decided to send me to an out of state prison. I had no idea where I was to be sent. I arrived in the New Hampshire State Prison on October 18, 2005 dragging behind me the Titanic in which I stored all my anger and hurt and loss and loss and loss – and guilt.

I started my time in a new prison by getting into a fight and ended up in the same old place – the hole. When some moths went by, I was given another chance. I was sent to H-Building where I met my friend JJ, an Indonesian who was waiting to be deported. JJ introduced me one day to Gordon, who he said was helping him and some others with appealing their INS removal orders or with preparing themselves to be deported. He seemed to be the only person who even cared. JJ trusted Gordon, so I had several conversations with him. A few months later, I was moved to the same unit in which he lives in this prison. We became friends.

By patience and especially by example, Gordon helped me change the course of my life. He is my best friend, and the person I trust most in this world. It is the strangest irony that he has been in prison for 13 years accused fictionally of the same behaviors visited upon me in the real world by the man who took me from Thailand. I read the articles about Gordon in The Wall Street Journal last year. I know him better, I think, than just about anyone. I know only too well the person who does what Gordon is wrongly accused of. Gordon is not that person. Far from it. It is hard for me to accept that laws and public sentiment allow men to demand and receive huge financial settlements from the Catholic Church years or decades after claimed abuse while all that happened to me has gone without even casual notice by anyone – except, ironically, Gordon MacRae.

On September 10, I will be 34 years old. I have been in prison now for nearly half of my life, but in the last year I have begun to know what freedom is. My anger is still with me and it always lurks just below the surface, but my friend is also with me. We both recently signed up for an intense 15-week course in personal violence. He is doing this for me. I spend my days in school instead of in lock-up now, and I will soon complete my High School diploma. Gordon helped me obtain a scholarship for a series of non-credit courses in Catholic studies at Catholic Distance University. In the last year, with help and understanding, I have completed programs offered in the New Hampshire prison. One day I felt strangely light so I looked behind me, and the Titanic was not there. I parked it somewhere along the way. I have put my childhood aside. Now I am a man.

In March of this year, after 15 years in prison, I was ordered by an I.N.S. court to be removed from the United States and deported to Thailand at the end of my sentence in 17 to 20 years or so. Gordon hopes that I can seek a sentence reduction so that I can return to Thailand at an age at which I may still build a life. There are many obstacles. The largest is that I do not speak Thai any longer and I never had an opportunity to learn and to read and write in Thai. We are working hard to prepare me for this. Though years away, it is a very frightening thing to go to a country only vaguely familiar. I have not heard Thai spoken since age 11, 23 years ago. There is no one I know there and no place for me to go. I have no home anywhere.

Along this steep path, I have made a decision to become Catholic. The priest in my fiend has not been extinguished by 13 years in prison. It is still the part of him that shines the brightest. Gordon never asked me to become Catholic. He never even brought it up. It is the path he is on and I was pulled to it by the force of grace, and the hope that one day I could do good for others. Gordon showed me a book, Jesus of Nazareth, in which Pope Benedict wrote: “The true ‘exodus’…consists in this: Among all the paths of history, the path to God is the true direction that we must seek and find.”

I am taking a correspondence course in Catholic studies through the Knights of Columbus and I look forward to the studies through Catholic Distance University. I go to Mass with Gordon when it is offered in the prison, and our faith is always a part of every day. When I return to the place I haven’t seen since age 11, I want to go there as a committed Catholic open to God’s call to live a life in service to others. It is what someone very special to me has done for me, and I must do the same.

My friend asked me to sit down today and type the story of my life and where I am now. He asked me to let him send this to a few friends who he says may play some role– directly or indirectly – in my life some day. The account is my own. What Gordon add