In an ideal world, Muslims who interpret the Koran to justify violence would convert to Catholicism, and artists who think they have an absolute right to insult people of faith would follow suit. If both did, we would have peace and civility. Catholicism teaches that it is immoral to intentionally kill innocent persons, beginning with life [...]
On January 7, the Washington Post ran an article by Ishaan Tharoor criticizing Bill Donohue for drawing attention to the irresponsibility of the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. He took Donohue to task for not taking a more expansive view of free speech. In his online post, two cartoons from the French weekly were reprinted: one was [...]
Bill Donohue asks artists not to intentionally insult people of faith and in the mind of some this means he favors blasphemy laws. For example, he was invited by Kelsey Rupp of the editorial board of USA Today to write an "opposing view" on blasphemy laws in the Middle East: the paper would oppose the laws [...]
When the Danish cartoons were published a decade ago, the media refused to show them. With the exception of the Boston Phoenix, which cited safety concerns, the others either gave no reason or feigned interest in not offending people of faith. But if they really believed in freedom of speech, the cartoons would have been shown. [...]
In a recent Religion News Service story, David Gibson said the following in regards to the Paris murders: "In finding no justification for the deaths of the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff, [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan seemed to part ways with another prominent New York Catholic, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, who essentially said the newspaper editors [...]
On October 13, 1998, Bill Donohue held a demonstration in the street outside the theater that hosted "Corpus Christi," the Terrence McNally play that depicted Christ having sex with the apostles. Donohue did not seek to have the government censor the play, but there was a protest of his right to protest the play. The New [...]
Bill Donohue: "People have a legal right to insult my religion or somebody else's, but they don't have a moral right to do so" ("The Kelly File," Fox News, 1/8/15). Pope Francis: "You can't provoke, you can't insult the faith of others, you can't make fun of faith..." ("After Paris attacks, Pope Francis speaks out against [...]
Pope Francis condemned the killings of the Paris cartoonists while on board the papal plane to the Philippines, but he also drew a line in the sand. "You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith." While he denounced violence against those who offend us, he also said [...]
When the pope was on a plane coming back from Brazil in 2013, he said, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Over 900 news stories quickly appeared, the majority of which were dishonest: "Who am I to judge?" was all they quoted. Pundits [...]
A couple of weeks ago, the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Getulio Pascua Napenas, testified before the Philippine Senate about terrorist activities. He discussed how Zulkifli bin Hir, a.k.a. Marwan, planned to assassinate Pope Francis during his recent trip to the Philippines. "Just recently," Napenas said, "during Pope Francis' visit to the Philippines, we have [...]
