Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on New York mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

“Freddy (as he affectionately calls himself) Ferrer is all over the New York news for advertising himself on his website as a product of public schools when, in fact, he went to Catholic schools from K-12.  When asked about this yesterday, all he could say was that it was ‘nonsense’ to say he lied about his schooling.  What he still could not do was to say that he went to Catholic schools, and his revised website makes no reference to his parochial education either. 

“This is not the first time that Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer has turned his back on Catholics.  In 1996-97, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani floated the idea that one way to stem overcrowding in the public schools was to send students to Catholic schools, the Faker went mad.  No doubt he would be just as mad to learn that his challenger, incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a contributor to the Catholic Schools Foundation.

“Freddy-the-Faker will not only do nothing for Catholics, he has the gall to say he’s been exploited by the Catholic Church.  In 2001, he said that the most ‘personally wrenching’ issue he ever faced was supporting gay rights, adding that ‘the pummeling I was getting from my own church on that issue was just incredible.’  Really?  A Lexis-Nexis search on this subject turns up nothing.  Indeed, the only time he has been criticized for anything dealing with gay rights was when he refused to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Fifth Avenue, and I was the one who nailed him.  By contrast, Bloomberg marches in the parade and he’s Jewish!

“When an anti-Catholic bigot threw elephant dung on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother and had it displayed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Mayor Giuliani and the Catholic League protested.  But Freddy-the-Faker said nothing, except to sue Giuliani for withdrawing funding for the museum.  And in 2001, when Bloomberg endorsed the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in the public schools, the Faker went ballistic.  Makes you wonder: Who’s Catholic?  Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer or Mike Bloomberg?”

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