THE “60 MINUTES” AGENDA

On May 9, the CBS show, “60 Minutes,” aired a story about a Jesuit seminarian who claimed he was the victim of 12 instances of sexual harassment while in the seminary. When he tried to sue the order, the case was thrown out on the grounds that it would abridge the separation of church and state that marks the First Amendment. The Catholic... [Read more...]

ANTI-CATHOLIC RADIO FROM “JOHN AND KEN”

“The John and Ken Show” is a syndicated radio show whose hosts apparently think that cheap shots at the Catholic Church are an adequate substitute for a lack of creative humor. Last January, listeners at KFI in Los Angeles, where the show originates, let us know that the duo had used the Pope’s visit to the United States to launch into... [Read more...]

CARTOON EXPLOITS SUFFERING TO BASH CHURCH

For most people, the recent events in Kosovo and the suffering they have caused are a human tragedy. For the folks at the tiny Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune, however, that tragedy represented an apparently irresistible opportunity to bash the Catholic Church. The above cartoon, which ran in the paper’s April 27 edition, lashed out at the Church’s... [Read more...]

CATHOLIC KIDS COUNT

The state of Washington has a very sensible rule that prohibits the granting of a liquor license to any business that is within 500 feet of a school. But there is one problem—the rule applies only to public schools. Just ask Dr. Robert B. Scripko, Principal of St. Alphonsus, a Catholic school in Seattle: it is his school that is being targeted. Within... [Read more...]

CNN LOOKS AT CATHOLICISM

Voices of the Millennium is a series of short clips that CNN has been running during commercial breaks on featured programs. On April 21, during the “Larry King Live” show, a two-minute segment was run on “Women in the Pulpit.” In it, a female minister, a male author and a Harvard feminist offered their thoughts on women clergy.... [Read more...]

CODA ON TURNER

I just want to thank all those members who flooded Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s office with complaints about Ted Turner. Though I was persuaded by Mr. Selig that the Turner case is not strictly analogous to the Schott case (Turner, for example, never goes to any of the owner’s meetings—he does not own the Atlanta Braves—Time Warner does),... [Read more...]

“CONFUSED” CATHOLICS?

Dana Lee Dembrow is a member of the House of Delegates in the Maryland state legislature. She is also an anti-Catholic bigot, if her satire in the April 16 Montgomery Journal is any indication. Dembrow crafted a piece entitled, “The Annapolis ’99 hit parade,” in which she presented mock awards to pieces of legislation that she was obviously... [Read more...]

CRADLE OF FILTH APTLY NAMED

A rock band from England, Cradle of Filth, has released a T-shirt in this country that depicts a topless nun masturbating; it also features a vile insult to Jesus, calling him a vulgar name for female genitalia. The group typically sports satanic imagery. We have written to Mr. Fay Woolven, Manager of Cradle of Filth, 115 Management, England, asking... [Read more...]

E-MAIL INSULTS

Given the ubiquity of computers in the workplace, the use of electronic mail (e-mail) is widespread. Regrettably, some of what is being disseminated these days is offensive to Catholics. Here are two recent examples. A “chain letter” that insults Catholics has found its way into the internal computer network of the financial company, Bear... [Read more...]

FALSE ALARM

It is one thing when a newspaper editorializes against hospital mergers between and Catholic and secular facilities, quite another when a purportedly objective news report shows its bias. This is what happened recently when the North Jersey Herald & News did a piece on the subject. It went so far as to say that such mergers “threaten reproductive... [Read more...]

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