For the past five-and-a-half years, I have had to reason by analogy with the media, educators, activists, artists and others, just to get my basic point across. Unfazed by anti-Catholicism, our adversaries generally respect the rights of gays, blacks and Jews. Even when they don’t, they generally know enough to keep their mouths shut. I only wish... [Read more...]
“OZZFEST” SHIRT DROPPED
In the October Catalyst, we remarked how the vile rock performer, Ozzy Osbourne, was marketing his “Ozzfest ’98″ T-shirt. On the front of the shirt there is a demonized image of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a collection of equally demonic characters, including a priest, a monk and angels. We wrote to Dell Furano, president and CEO of... [Read more...]
PROTESTANT GROUP ATTACKS MORE THAN VOUCHERS
In Chicago, the week of November 9-13, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC), considered a proposal that would put it on record as opposed to voucher programs or tuition-tax credits for private schools. The proposal explicitly said that “public moneys should be used only for public schools.” It further stated that... [Read more...]
SCAPEGOATING OVER SHEPARD AND SLEPIAN
Two thugs kill a homosexual in Laramie, Wyoming (Matthew Shepard) and a nut kills an abortion doctor in suburban Buffalo (Barnett Slepian). Immediately, gay-rights advocates and abortion-rights advocates (often one and the same) blame Christianity. Some get specific and either criticize, or blame, Pope John Paul II, Cardinal O’Connor and William Donohue... [Read more...]
SELF-DECEIVING ARTISTS
What is it about artists? Do they really believe their own lies? Consider two recent cases, one from North Carolina, the other from Michigan. In the October Catalyst, we cited an art exhibition at the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina that merited a Catholic League response. Artist Duane Michals’ contribution to art was a depiction... [Read more...]
THIS VAMPIRE LACKS TEETH
Just in time for Halloween came “John Carpenter’s Vampires,” a movie about as dumb as they get. The Office of Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Department of Communications found it to be “morally offensive” and noted its “cynical disdain for religion” (Roman Catholic, that is). Yet the Catholic... [Read more...]
THREE MORE DUMB PLAYS
The fall of 1998 has been a busy season for Catholic-bashing playwrights. In the lastCatalyst, we covered Terrence McNally’s “Corpus Christi” and Thomas Disch’s “The Cardinal Detoxes.” Bringing up the rear, so to speak, is Richard Vetere’s “Holy Water,” Christopher Durang’s “The Marriage of Bette and... [Read more...]
TRINITY FOUNDATION LOOKS AT CATHOLICISM
William A. Donohue We get so much anti-Catholic literature sent to us from Protestant, mostly Evangelical, sources that it’s enough to make me wonder whether the Reformation ever ended. Some of it is just plain stupid, but there is also some pretty sophisticated stuff being published. This is not the place for a rigorous analysis of what’s out there... [Read more...]
VOUCHER VICTORY
November 9 was a bad day for the enemies of choice in education: that was the day the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that found no legal problem with the Wisconsin voucher program. Because the high court did not actually rule on the merits of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that said okay to vouchers, it did not set national legal... [Read more...]