In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, two things seem obvious: the federal, state and local government response has been a disaster, and the response of churches has been nothing short of heroic. If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be dumped and that federal aid [...]
Katrina definitely brought out the devil in some people. The hurricane no sooner hit when the crazies made public their reaction. For example, while innocent persons were dying down South, all Lambda Legal Defense attorney Ken Upton was worried about was whether Louisiana's ban on civil unions meant that homosexual couples would be denied hospital visitation [...]
When the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles sent a copy of a greeting card mocking Catholic priests to the Catholic League (see left), we thought the style looked familiar. Indeed, we soon realized that the company responsible for the card, Noble Works, Inc., had raised the league's ire in both 1994 [...]
In the following news release, we replied to a September 12 statement by SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests): "Gerald Payne, Kentucky's SNAP coordinator, wants state authorities to warn residents when Catholic priests who have been accused, but not convicted, of sexual abuse live in their neighborhood. Those who think this is an anomaly are [...]
Comedian Dennis Leary is up to his old tricks again. The lapsed Catholic whose stand-up act includes jokes about the crucifixion and who has stated, "I'm trying to get excommunicated, banned from the church," is currently starring in (as well as writing for and co-producing) the FX series "Rescue Me," now in its second season. Leary [...]
On March 11, 2005, MTV2, sister channel to MTV and a Viacom subsidiary, aired the first episode of a new program called "Wonder Showzen." Seven additional episodes were shown throughout the season. MTV2 is planning to air six new episodes, at a date not yet set. The show is styled like the PBS show "Sesame Street," [...]
A woman shopping at an Elder-Beerman department store (a division of Bon-Ton Stores) in Ohio notified the Catholic League of a T-shirt that she found inappropriate. She snapped a picture of the shirt and sent it along to us. We thought it crossed the line as well. The shirt reads "Who can resist a catholic girl," [...]
At a recent scientific conference in New York, a student asked a panel of scientists, "Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?" To which a Nobel prize winner in chemistry, Herbert A. Hauptman, thundered, "No!" Unfortunately, Hauptman's ignorance is not uncommon. "For the last fifty years," writes Church chronicler Thomas E. Woods, Jr., [...]
