The Catholic League is pressuring public officials in Hightstown, New Jersey, to censure Councilman Eugene Sarafin. On two occasions, Sarafin has used obscene terms to describe his Catholic critics. He labels them “Catholic s---.” The councilman is known for his atheism and inflammatory remarks about religion. It is important that our New Jersey members write to [...]
by Michael Novak (Catalyst 3/2002) The government of the United States, George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport in 1790, "gives to bigotry no sanction." But now The New Republic does. "The anti-Semitism of the intellectuals," Peter Vierek once shrewdly remarked, "is anti-Catholicism." In its January 21 issue, The New Republichas sunk into the swamp of bigotry [...]
March 2003 - Present The following quotes represent some of the most unfair statements on Mel Gibson and his film, "The Passion of the Christ." The selections in each category are in reverse chronological order. Organizational Responses: Ad Hoc Committee of Catholic and Jewish Scholars * America, April 5, 2004; Philip Cunningham: "'The Passion of the Christ' [...]
A bill requiring members of the clergy to report cases of suspected child abuse to the authorities passed in the New York State Senate yesterday. A similar bill is expected to pass the New York State Assembly next week. Both bills are now almost totally identical, thus making the outcome predictable. Catholic League president William Donohue [...]
An assembly of some of the most prominent Catholic scholars in the nation will meet at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, on March 28 and 29. The conference is being sponsored by the Nassau County Center for Catholic Studies and the New York Chapter of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. All events [...]
by Joseph De Feo (Catalyst 3/2003) Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, “A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes contradictory ideas.” The foregoing lines represent an apt condensation of Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach’s thesis [...]
by Joseph De Feo (Catalyst 3/2003) Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, “A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes contradictory ideas.” The foregoing lines represent an apt condensation of Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach’s thesis [...]
by Ronald Rychlak (Catalyst 3/2005) John Cornwell's new book, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, turns out to be a deeply flawed attack on Pope John Paul II. That's right, the final chapter is actually an attack on the current plaintiff. Cornwell is disturbed by John Paul's "conservative" positions on celibate clergy, women priests, artificial [...]
Fox News Network talk show host Bill O’Reilly last night criticized Pope John Paul II for not having “a position on Saddam [Hussein].” After commenting on the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime, O’Reilly said, “And then the pope sits in Rome and says, gee, this is terrible, but does not throw his moral authority behind removing [...]
At yesterday’s sentencing of a Catholic priest convicted of sexual abuse, Nassau County Judge Donald DeRiggi said, “The Catholic Church is so vehement in its stand against fornication and homosexuality and adultery, how someone in the church can violate those things is hard to understand.” DeRiggi, a Catholic, added that priests who can’t keep their vow [...]
