Reactions to the sexual abuse scandal in 2002 ranged from legitimate criticism to wildly unfair generalizations; we have no interest in addressing the former.

Most Catholics were understandably angry, hurt and dismayed by the news, which provoked some activists to speak and act irresponsibly. Regarding the media, newspaper and television reporting on this subject was mostly professional. But the same cannot be said of commentators, cartoonists and TV dramas; there were many examples of sensationalism. Attorneys for alleged victims were sometimes fair, other times not. In other words, it would be difficult to render a blanket judgment.

It is important to remember that the best studies of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church show that 98 to 99 percent of priests over the past half-century have not been charged with abusing a minor. Whether the source is the New York Times, the Associated Press or authors in the academy, the result is still the same. While no one can say for sure how priests compare to their counterparts in other religions (or to school teachers, social workers and psychologists), no one has ever been able to demonstrate that the Catholic Church is an anomaly: the Church has no monopoly on this problem.

This needs to be said because some states’ attorneys general and some victims’ attorneys acted in 2002 as if the Church were the only institution that had this problem. This may explain why they zeroed in on the Church to the exclusion of others, but it does nothing to justify their behavior. It must be said that either this shows a profound ignorance of the problem or it shows an anti-Catholic bias.

Thomas Reilly is the Massachusetts attorney general. He also is a man known to engage in hyperbole when addressing the scandal; so much so that he had to back off when confronted with a torrent of criticism. To be exact, Reilly said he wanted his office to involve itself in the recruitment, selection, training and monitoring of priests. Why he didn’t say he wanted to pick the next pope is a mystery.

The establishment clause of the First Amendment was written primarily to keep the government from encroaching on religion. It is not easy to see how someone like Reilly, who obviously knows something about constitutional law, could float the idea that his office ought to vet prospective seminarians. To the extent this was a public relations stunt, the implications are even scarier: it suggests there is a market for such anti-Catholic fare.

Jeffrey Anderson is perhaps the most well-known victims attorney in the nation. He is also one of the most reckless. His attempt to use the RICO statute against the Vatican was more than mischievous—it was legal thuggery. Others have exploited this law before but few have been more brazen about it than Anderson.

District Attorneys in New York, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire also showed how biased they were. They explicitly said they had no interest in obtaining the personnel records of any clergymen save Catholics. Ditto for teachers and other professionals who work with youngsters.

Now if the goal is to protect children, then mandatory reporting laws should ideally cover all adults in every walk of life. If, however, the goal is to “get the priests,” then only the Catholic clergy will be targeted. This, unfortunately, is exactly what happened in many parts of the country.

Take New York State. Jeanine Pirro is the Westchester D.A. She has admitted that not one Catholic priest has ever contacted her office regarding the sexual abuse of a minor. She has also said that not one minister, rabbi or clergyman of any other religion has ever contacted her office regarding this crime. Yet her focus is on priests and only priests.

Not only did Pirro decide to go after priests, while giving others a pass, she unfairly blamed the Catholic Church for blocking a mandatory reporting bill in New York State. It cannot be said too strongly that the Church had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was Family Planning Advocates, the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood, and the New York Civil Liberties Union, that sought to have the mandatory reporting law apply only to the clergy; they did not want the law to extend to abortion providers. Why? Because if it did, the truth would come out: it has been known for years that when Planned Parenthood learns of cases of statutory rape, which it does on a regular basis, it rarely reports such crimes to the authorities. It wouldn’t be good for business if they did.

The report card of the media was better. It was a rare event in 2002 to read a newspaper account of the scandal that was patently unfair, much less anti-Catholic. TheBoston Globe, the Boston Herald and the New York Times covered the story carefully and with professionalism. The evening news anchors on television similarly did what they are supposed to do—report, not editorialize. Peter Jennings did a one-hour special on the scandal and handled himself with distinction. The problems we had with the media were mostly limited to pundits, cartoonists and script writers for TV shows. Now it might be argued that commentators should be given free reign to opine and not be held to the same standards as reporters. There is much truth to this point. But no one is exempt from responsibility and that is the gravamen of our charge: a line has been crossed when wild accusations and attempts to impugn the character of innocents are made. It matters not a whit who is doing it.

Bill Maher is a comedian. Comedians are given, quite rightfully so, plenty of latitude to score points. Again, though, it is unacceptable to maintain that their line of work exempts them from all criticism. Maher is a textbook example: in 2002 he repeatedly made the most sweeping and damning statements about Catholic priests. This was vintage Maher: his hatred of the Catholic Church is deep. What is even more disturbing is that many applaud his bigotry.

Many comedians took pot shots at the Church but no night-time host showed the kind of fixation that David Letterman did. There was a time during the year when we wondered whether Letterman was capable of ever moving on to some other group; that his comments were often unfair made things worse. “South Park” chimed in as well, as did “MADtv.” But it was the drama shows that were particularly bad. Shows like “The District,” “CSI: Miami,” “Law and Order,” “Boston Public” and “The Practice” were the biggest offenders. And no one in Hollywood showed his resolve to slam Catholics more than David E. Kelley. In fact, when one examines his record, it is no exaggeration to say that Kelley is positively obsessed with Catholicism.

The Catholic League’s complaints about these shows often triggers the refrain that this is just an example of art imitating life. After all, we are told, the scandal in the Church is real, so what’s wrong with script writers picking up on it? The problem is they never seem to do so when other segments of the population are in the news. Take Muslims. On September 11, 2001, we were bombed by 19 Muslim men and the first thing out of everyone’s mouth was let’s not generalize about all Muslims. Fine. But why wasn’t this same standard applied to priests in 2002?

Cartoonists that mocked a specific Church leader tied to the scandal generally did not incur our wrath. But those who painted all priests as perverts did. That’s the difference: when there is a jump from the individual to the collective, it’s the difference between criticism and bigotry. Sadly, there was no shortage of anti-Catholic bigots in this line of work in 2002; only a small sample of such cartoons is shown here.

Then we have the pundits. Here’s an example of what we consider anti-Catholic. In late October, Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy offered some cute ideas about Halloween costumes. Her list of characters included Martha Stewart, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, et al. Curiously, there was one entry that was not a character: it was a group. “A Catholic priest’s costume would also be a crowd pleaser this year,” McCarthy said, “replete with clerical collar and a lascivious grin.”

It is striking that McCarthy did not ridicule Muslims as a group, choosing instead to name specific men. But it is apparent that in her mind, Catholics merit a different response: it is quite okay to slam all priests for the behavior of a few. That’s why she’s included in our annual report.

The scandal was also exploited by a Columbia University student who made an obscene anti-Catholic remark about priests on the loudspeaker during the half-time activities of a football game with Fordham University. This incident drew considerable attention in the New York area and was made worse when the offending student refused to apologize. A meeting I had with Columbia president Lee Bollinger proved to be productive.

Perhaps the most vulgar and inexcusable event of the year was the fracas involving shock-jock hosts Opie and Anthony. A man and woman from Virginia entered St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York around 4:00 p.m. on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, and proceeded to have sex in front of men, women and children. A detailed description of the encounter was relayed by cell phone to the “Opie and Anthony” show so that all listeners could be entertained. The event was planned, coordinated and approved by those associated with the show.

When we learned of the incident, we immediately contacted the FCC asking that it revoke the license of the offending station, WNEW. But after the station dropped the show like a pancake, we told the FCC it was not necessary to revoke its license. We had succeeded in getting Opie and Anthony fired (from all the stations that were carrying them) and thus had already accomplished what we really wanted to do.

The amount and variety of hate mail we received as a result of getting this show kicked off the air was astonishing. We’ve never seen anything like it. There are so many sick minds out there it is unbelievable, young men being the worst offenders. In fact, we could fill scores of volumes this size with nothing but the vicious, obscene, blasphemous and threatening hate mail we received from those crushed by our victory over their favorite show.

Not every issue we confronted featured some aspect of sexuality, though at times it seemed that way. The perennial Christmas wars heated up again at year’s end, though with a difference: this time we made good on our pledge of a year earlier to see to it that New York City was sued for religious discrimination.

During the Christmas season of 2001, we learned that New York City public schools were explicitly allowing Jewish and Islamic religious symbols in the schools while barring Christian ones. To be specific, the menorah and crescent and star were permitted but the nativity scene was not. That’s because the Schools Chancellor’s office declared the Jewish and Islamic religious symbols to be secular. Catholics were told they should be satisfied with a Christmas tree.

To get the kind of legal standing we wanted, we needed to find a Catholic parent who lives in New York City, sends her kids to public schools and was willing to be part of the lawsuit. We found such a person in Andrea Skoros. We then contacted our friend at the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Richard Thompson, to see if his firm would take the case. He agreed and the suit was filed. The final outcome may not be known for some time.

These kinds of battles occur with greater frequency every December as challenges are made to the display of Christian symbols on public property. At the core of this issue is the desire to dumb-down Christmas, making it a holiday centered on snowflakes and colored lights. Indeed, anti-Christian bigots around the country have even objected to both of these items!

Politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have played some dirty games with Catholics over the years, and 2002 was no exception. This time it was the Democratic National Committee (DNC). In a move that was as astonishing as it was bigoted, the DNC provided a link on its website to a professed anti-Catholic organization, Catholics for a Free Choice.

During the latter half of 2002 we launched a massive public relations campaign against the DNC, but it stuck to its guns. So have we. If this issue hasn’t been resolved by the next presidential election, look for it to explode wide open. Our objection to Frances Kissling, who runs Catholics for a Free Choice, is not her position on abortion (wrong though it is); it is her commitment to undermining Catholicism. That is why the Catholic League wants the DNC to sever its links with her.

In the eyes of many Americans, the American Red Cross is about as American as apple pie. But something rotten happened to that image in March 2002. A chapter of the Red Cross in southern California had banned high school students from singing patriotic songs at one of its functions. The songs “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” were censored because of “sensitivity to religious diversity.” Just so no one gets the idea that this was a freak decision made by a fringe chapter, it is important to know that this was supported by the top officials at the headquarters of the American Red Cross.

Four hours after we asked over 100 activist organizations to drop their support for the American Red Cross, we got what we wanted: an apology and a new policy allowing the dreaded patriotic songs to be sung.

This only goes to show how political correctness of the worst kind has penetrated the establishment. Had the kids wanted to sing a song with obscene lyrics, it is a sure bet that at least some of those who wanted to censor the religious lyrics would have risen to their defense. And the ACLU would have been there to defend these people.

Anti-Catholic artists are not hard to find. Consider that a Napa Valley museum, Copia, depicted the pope and nuns defecating, and a Florida college, Gainesville, showed Jesus being sodomized. We drummed up some free but unwanted publicity for the museum (we also sent it a giant “pooper-scooper”) and succeeded in pressuring the college to move the masterpiece to a remote location on campus.

At a community college in Los Angeles, it wasn’t art that was the focus of our attention—it was Catholic-bashing lectures being taught by someone with zero credentials that got us exercised. “The Sex Lives of the Popes” and “Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church” were to be taught as part of an adult education series at Pierce Community College. I wrote a letter to the sponsors, both private and public, asking if their interest in academic freedom would also extend to sponsoring lectures on the “Sex Lives of Prominent Rabbis” and “Crime and Immorality in Islam—from Muhammad to 9-11”; we emphasized that they would be taught by someone with no credentials. The bottom line was they got the message and the lectures were cancelled.

These last few examples are typical of the way the Catholic League responds. We do not ask the government to censor art or lectures that offend; rather we use moral suasion and public pressure. This way we use our First Amendment right to freedom of speech to bring media attention to perversions of that right. While everyone may have a legal right to insult Catholicism (or any religion), no one has a moral right to do so. This is the turf we fight on, thus making the offender—not us—the center of controversy.

Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame Law School and Robert George of Princeton University filed an amicus brief in the landmark voucher case that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2002. The case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, involved a dispute over voucher money going to parochial schools. The public monies spent on the program went overwhelmingly to Catholic schools in Cleveland because that is where the parents of indigent schoolchildren elected to send them. The high court ruled 5-4 to sustain the constitutionality of the program, over the objections of the familiar enemies of religion. Thus did the Catholic League play a role in this significant victory for liberty.

Finally, there has been a spate of anti-Pius XII books written in recent years. Deeply flawed though they are, most of them cannot be said to be explicitly anti-Catholic. The same is not true of the work of Daniel Goldhagen.

In Goldhagen’s book, A Moral Reckoning, he separates himself from others by demanding that the Catholic Church implode: he wants the Church to refigure its teachings, liturgy and practices to such an extent that no one would recognize a trace of Catholicism in this new construction. That is why Goldhagen is not simply against Pope Pius XII: he is an inveterate anti-Catholic bigot.
It must also be said that Goldhagen is a profoundly ignorant man. The number of historical errors in his book, as enumerated by author Ronald Rychlak, are so voluminous as to be embarrassing. But there’s more than sloppy scholarship at work. Goldhagen hasn’t a clue about Catholicism. He justifies his indictment of Catholic liturgy on the grounds that the liturgy is a public policy issue much the way school vouchers are. And he cites me as one who would defend this point!

These are some of the highlights of the annual report. There is, of course, much more in it. Not every entry will strike the reader as a convincing example of anti-Catholicism. We respect that judgment. We make the calls, explain our rationale and leave the rest to you. But no matter how much reasonable persons may quibble over some items, it is highly unlikely they will be unimpressed by the current state of anti-Catholicism in the United States.

William A. Donohue, Ph.D. 
President

February 5
Chicago, IL – Americans United for the Separation of Church and State executive director Barry Lynn objected to the slogan on the side of the new “Patriot USA” coach launched by the suburban Chicago bus transit system called PACE. The full sized, red, white and blue bus was wrapped in a decal that featured the slogan “God Bless America.” Lynn told the Chicago Tribune, “The central problem with it is the assumption behind the phrase that to be a good American you must be religious.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation faxed a complaint to PACE, asking for the removal of the slogan.

February 9
Charlestown, WV – Americans United for the Separation of Church and State objected to a sign outside Stonewall Jackson Middle School that read, “God Bless You.” The sign originally read “God Bless the USA.” AU executive director Barry Lynn said the sign violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against state-sponsored religion. Lynn said, “At least if you put up ‘God Bless America,’ you can argue it’s a patriotic statement. But government is not suppose to take a position on whether God blesses you.”

March 20
New Orleans, LA – National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy was scheduled to speak at her alma mater, Loyola University Law School. The local bishop, Archbishop Alfred Hughes, opposed the speaking engagement, citing Gandy’s commitment to abortion rights as contrary to the Church’s teachings. Gandy, in return, accused the archbishop of “urging my law school to do away with traditional academic freedom of speech and replace the free exchange of ideas with religious doctrine.” She added, “I imagine that Archbishop Hughes finds this flame-throwing a welcome relief from the heat of Church cover-ups of pedophilia.”

March 26
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) started an advertising campaign that shows the Virgin Mary breast-feeding baby Jesus. The inscription at the top of a billboard read, “If It Was Good Enough for Jesus…”; just below it read, “Breast is Best—DumpDairy.com.”

March 31
San Francisco, CA – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of San Francisco homosexuals dressed as nuns, celebrated Easter with an “Indulgence in the Park.” They featured a “clown-drag-nun” fundraiser and a “Hunky Jesus” contest. On Good Friday they had a “traditional observance of Very Good Friday” with “scantily clad men.”

April
American Atheists issued a news release calling on the federal, state and local authorities to investigate the Catholic Church in connection with the sex scandal. They wanted the RICO law to be invoked as well. In a particularly vicious letter printed in the Chicago Sun-Times, Larry Darby, the Alabama state director of American Atheists, branded the Church a “totalitarian church-state government.”

April
Woodbine, IA – The Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Woodbine Community School District seeking to stop students there from singing “The Lord’s Prayer” at graduation ceremonies. The lawsuit said the song violated a 1992 Supreme Court decision banning prayer in public school. School officials said the song had education value and the students had a free speech right to sing the song if they so chose.

May 8
New York, NY – The anti-Catholic group Catholics for a Free Choice held a press conference demanding that the United Nations involve itself in the Church scandal. The group’s president, Frances Kissling, once said it was her goal to “overthrow” the Catholic Church. Her group has been pressing to downgrade the Holy See’s U.N. status as a permanent observer for the past several years.

May 9
New Orleans, LA – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit challenging the way the state of Louisiana used taxpayers’ money to promote sexual abstinence. The ACLU contends that Louisiana is allowing government funds to promote religion; it cites examples where a religious theme has been evident in some instances where the program has been used. Funding comes from the 1996 welfare reform law; states may receive block grants teaching abstinence in sex education programs.

May 10
Rainbow Sash, a national organization of mostly gay Catholics, called upon the U.S. Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to determine if any federal laws have been broken by the Catholic Church in connection with the sex abuse scandal.

June 7
Minneapolis, MN – Vernon Bellecourt, director of international affairs for the American Indian Movement said he understands the motivations for the arson and destruction of the 87-year-old San Diego Church in Tesuque Pueblo, NM while not condoning it. The blaze was set by a member of AIM who told investigators that Catholicism “ain’t my [expletive] religion. It’s a slave religion.” Commenting on the arson Bellecourt said, “Our young people have been the victims of the most horrendous abuse by satanic nuns and pedophile priests” at former mission schools. “When you look at the history of the church continuing today, it does not serve the best interests of our people.”

September
Canton, OH – At the Stark County Fair, a group called “Former Catholics for Christ” had a booth. It included torn-up rosaries, a smashed statue of the Blessed Mother and anti-Catholic literature, including the charge that the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus was founded to overthrow the United States.

November
San Bernardino, CA – Citizens Against Religious Zealots sent several postcards to the Catholic League. The group takes aim at many religions and religious figures, but none more than Catholicism and Catholic leaders. “Beware the Cult of Catholicism” appears on the back of one of its postcards. It also warns against “extremists” like the pope.
Another says on its front, “Don’t Let Them Go To Mass Alone.” On the back there is a drawing of two children with an image of a priest in the middle; on the bottom is the inscription, “Watch Your Kids.”

November 29
Pittsburgh, PA – City officials changed parking signs near the display of a replica of the Vatican’s crèche in U.S. Steel Plaza after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others objected to the signs on the grounds they violated the separation of church and state. The signs had read “Crèche Parking.”

December
Crystal City, MO – The organization Project Life published a pamphlet titled “The Silence of the Saints,” by its president, Ron Sutton. It asks, “Where was the Church when the Nazis were killing Jews?…Only a few spoke out…Many believe the Church could have stopped Hitler…Catholic bishops in Germany endorsed his regime…Things haven’t changed much. A host of religious leaders, Catholic and Protestant, passionately promote the right of ‘little Hitlers’ to murder unborn babies.”

December
Breaux Bridge, LA – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) threatened the city with a lawsuit for allowing a local Catholic parish to erect a crèche in a public park.

December 12
Niles, IL – The National Civil Rights Foundation, founded and headed by atheist Rob Sherman, filed suit in federal court to have a crèche removed from the lawn in front of the village hall. The display also included a menorah and secular symbols of Christmas. Sherman particularly objects to a figure of a man riding a camel (one of the Magi), which he said resembled Osama bin Laden. The village stated it would fight the suit.

December 15
Phillipsburg, NJ – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey objected to a 4′ by 8′ sign on town property that said “Keep Christ in Christmas.” The mayor said that he would not take it down.

January
Napa, CA – The exhibition “Active Ingredients” was held at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts. One part of the exhibition shows the work of Antonio Miralda, a Catalonian artist. In a display that features figurines of famous people, Miralda chose to depict the pope and nuns defecating.

January 10
New York, NY – The Get Real Art Gallery opened an exhibit featuring the work of artist Paul Richard. Pope John Paul II was portrayed with a gerbil.

February
Mount Sterling, KY – Beatitudes Betrayed, a traveling art exhibit, opened at the Gallery of the Arts, sponsored by the Montgomery County Council for the Arts, funded by the Kentucky Arts Council. The theme was “religious injustice.” Works by several artists depicted sexually repressed nuns, the “contradictory beliefs” of being pro-life and pro-capital punishment, women’s ordination, white Christian prejudice against blacks, a Jesus figure being pierced by huge thorns and The Last Luncheon (a parody of Da Vinci’s Last Supper with lunching women in the place of the apostles). In May the exhibit went to Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY.

February 8
St. Louis, MO – The Diane Shaffer play “Sacrilege” was shown at the Artloft Theatre in St. Louis. The play featured a nun who said she was “called” to be a priest. She spoke freely on the topics of abortion and sex education, never agreeing with the Church’s teachings on the topics. The character was thrown out of her order after giving the Last Rites to a dying man. All the priests in the play who were loyal to Church teachings were shown as selfish and sexist.

March 17
New York, NY – New York’s Jewish Museum opened an exhibit, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art.” It featured a number of controversial works that have upset many Jews. The Catholic League objected to the cover of the exhibit’s catalog, which featured a cross morphing into a swastika.

March 29
Arlington, TX – Theatre Arlington hosted the play “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” on Good Friday. It also ran on Easter, ending April 28. The play was advertised as a “Catholic School-Spoofing Musical” and “an irreverent romp.”

March 31
Washington, D.C. – On Easter Sunday, the Source Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., hosted the Terrence McNally play “Corpus Christi.” It depicts Christ having sex with the 12 apostles.

July 18
Williamstown, MA – Joe Orton’s play “Loot” opened at the Adams Memorial Theater. One of the characters, Fay, was described by Variety (7/29) as a “devoutly Roman Catholic serial murderer/nurse.”

July
New York, NY – Jean Genet’s 1950s play “Saintete” was presented for the first time in English as “Elle.” The play trashes the papacy in particular and Catholicism in general. Not surprisingly, Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote that it was “impeccably vulgar…[and a] richly theatrical entertainment.”

August
Lenox, MA – During the Berkshire Festival Tour, the troupe “News in Review” performed a skit that showed priests and nuns engaging in sexual activity and referred to the Eucharist as “Oreo cookies.”

September 20
Atlanta, GA – “No Agenda But Their Own,” a feminist art show at the Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College, opened and ran until December 19. It included the work “Sacred Ovaries” by Florida artist Kate Kretz. It depicts the Blessed Mother in a luridly lit contemporary kitchen, her uterus and ovaries glowing red and encircled by a crown of thorns in the manner of the Immaculate Heart.

October
Huntington, NY – Peter Greenaway’s film, “The Baby of Macon,” was shown at the Cinema Arts Centre. The movie is about a 17th century woman who claims she had a virgin birth. It is also about the way she and the Catholic Church exploited her child. The flick features full nudity, a gynecological examination, eating of afterbirth and a Church-sponsored gang rape. The Cinema Arts Centre called it “a volatile mixture of anti-clericalism and violence.”

October 25
Minneapolis, MN – Terrence McNally’s play “Corpus Christi,” which depicts Christ having sex with the apostles, was given its Twin Cities premiere at the Performance Company.

November 15
Buffalo, NY – Terrence McNally’s play “Corpus Christi,” depicting Christ having sex with the apostles, was given a staged reading as a benefit for the Buffalo United Artists.

December 1
Minneapolis, MN – “Fall on Your Knees” starring Russ King as a drag “Miss Richfield 1981” opened. He sings “Frosty the Snowman” to the tune of “Ave Maria” and includes a Nativity play done in the style of Tina Turner with lyrics such as “Joseph, stop that cursin’, proud Mary keep on nursin’.”

December 6
Somerville, MA – For the second year in a row, the Somerville Theater presented Faith Soloway’s “Jesus Has Two Mommies.” Called a “multi-media schlock opera,” the performance features Ms. Soloway, who plays herself, and Christine Cannavo, who plays her pregnant Irish-Catholic girlfriend; the two women join in a “commitment ceremony.” Ms. Soloway meets Jesus who assuages her fears about her non-traditional relationship: he admits to having two mommies, Mary and Josephine.

Hoboken, NJ – The greeting card company Noble Works publishes a series of cards under the title “Extra.” Some include a choir boy saying, “See Father; I’ve been practicing like you said I should, and I can get my mouth open really wide.” The punch line is, “Ready for your surprise?” Another is a picture of Jesus superimposed on a woman with Jesus’ hands in her lap. It says, “I Gave Myself To Jesus, But Now He Never Calls.” The punch line is, “Isn’t that funny…Jesus did the same thing to me last summer. Happy Birthday.” Another is titled “The Ten Best Priest Jokes.” Included are “What’s a priest’s favorite position?—On his knees.”; “Why are priests attracted to young boys? —Because they think of them as ‘lay people.'”

February 11
New York, NY – As part of New York City’s “Fall Frontal Fashion” Fall 2002 fashion show, the designer line “Imitation of Christ” was featured. One of the dresses worn by a model for the line was called “Piss Christ.” It was simply a blue and white dress that has absolutely no relationship to the artwork of the same name.

March 11
Orange County, CA – The Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross stopped students from Orange County High School of the Arts from singing “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” at a Red Cross event. The national headquarters of the American Red Cross supported the censorship. In a news release on this subject, national officials cited “our sensitivity to religious diversity” noting its “preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event.”

After the Catholic League contacted more than 100 allied organizations, the American Red Cross issued a statement saying “the judgements we made in this case in applying our principles clearly offended some in our community.” It mentioned that “it is important to use reasonable judgement in applying principles to the everyday circumstances we confront.” The news release continued, saying, “the judgement we made to exclude certain songs from the Sunday program was a mistake.” It then apologized for its decision.

March 12
New York, NY – The fashion company Dolce & Gabbana ran an ad in magazines nationwide that featured a model reclined on the ground, looking up and holding rosary beads. The Catholic League wrote to the company asking that it not include the casual appearance of religious items in its advertisements.

April
Dearborn, MI – The Harmon Auto Glass company ran an advertisement in Michigan Living magazine showing the dashboard of an automobile covered in Catholic religious statues. The caption read, “There’s no alternative to a properly installed windshield.” No other religion’s imagery was shown. After several complaints, the company pledged not to run the ad again.

May 16
San Francisco, CA – Mr. Terrence Silo, employee of a Catholic hospital, sued the hospital after he was fired for anti-Catholic preaching to staff and co-workers. Mr. Silo claimed his words were protected free speech. CHW Medical Foundation defended its decision, arguing that under both federal and California law, the hospital had a right as a religious institution to choose its members and employees consistent with its religious mission. A lower court ruled in favor of Mr. Silo. The California Supreme Court reversed the lower court and ruled in favor of the hospital.

August
The Internet site cafepress.com sells merchandise that anyone can put a logo on. A satirical group calling itself “Landover Baptist Church” offers knapsacks, t-shirts and hats through the site with the logo, “Support your local pedophile: Attend a Catholic church.”

December
New York, NY – The Helmsley Building on Park Avenue discontinued to feature a huge nightly display of lights in the shape of a cross during the month of December. The display had been there since World War II.

December
GAP stores on the East Coast banned Christmas decorations. Only winter decorations were allowed. A GAP spokesman said, “We do not want for [sic] anyone not to feel comfortable coming into our store.”

December
Dunwoody, GA – A musician was told not to play Christmas music at a large corporate Christmas party, but instead to stick to such secular songs as “Silver Bells” and “Winter Wonderland”; no religious songs were allowed.

December 13
Chicago, IL – The cast of Songs of Good Cheer censored the hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” from its holiday sing-along party at the Old Town School of Folk Music because some Jews thought the lyrics were anti-Semitic.

December 14
Walnut Creek, CA – A crèche that had been displayed for 30 years outside the Rossmoor retirement community was banned by the governing board.

January
Byron, CA – The Byron Union School District instituted a three-week intensive course on Islam, which drew criticism from many parts of the country. According to one report, students had to “learn the tenets of Islam…wear a robe, adopt a Muslim name and stage their own jihad.” They also had to “memorize many verses in the Koran” and were taught to pray “in the name of Allah.” The chant “Praise to Allah, Lord of Creation” was also taught, and students were asked to dress as Muslims. As one outraged parent said, “We could never teach Christianity like this.”

The textbook used in the school district, Across the Centuries, was first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1994 and is still widely used in many of the nation’s middle schools. In the book, Christianity is unfavorably contrasted with Islam, and the treatment of Roman Catholicism is strewn with inaccuracies and tendentious remarks. For example, in a chapter on the English monarchy, students learn falsely that Elizabeth I did not make Catholicism illegal. They are also asked to write a speech on what they would say if they were brought up on charges of heresy during the Inquisition.

January 24
New York, NY – The New York City Board of Education banned the written phrase “God bless you” on school property. The board ordered Beach Channel High School in Queens to remove a sign containing the slogan from a greeting board outside the school. Teachers’ union representatives questioned whether the slogan violated the U.S. Constitution. Beach Channel High School is in the Rockaways, a community devastated by the World Trade Center attack. The sign was put up by the parents association.

February 1
University Park, PA – Pennsylvania State University architecture major Christopher Rzomp constructed an art installation that cut a confession window in the wall dividing two stalls in a men’s bathroom. He filled the 7 by 7 inch hole with a metal screen, hung red velvet curtains and golden tassels and installed an overhead light. A spokesman said the art would be removed, the window fixed, and the College of Arts and Sciences—the college that assigned the art project—billed for the repairs.

February 1
Ann Arbor, MI – The student newspaper at the University of Michigan, the Michigan Daily, ran a parody edition dedicated to the paper’s seniors. One of the articles was about the rock band Creed, known for its Christian messages in its music. The article pretended to interview Jesus about the band. Under the headline, “Creed finds Jesus: ‘Go f— thyself’ says Jesus,” the article had Jesus saying, “I’d rather hang out with Judas than listen to Creed.”

February 15
Philadelphia, PA – Archbishop Wood High School had a program of rewarding students with extra credit for participating in pro-life demonstrations outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) registered their objections. Frances Kissling, president of CFFC, said that giving the students extra credit amounted to “coercion.” Both Planned Parenthood, and especially CFFC, have a long history of anti-Catholicism. Although this was a Catholic school’s internal matter, these two organizations could not resist interfering.

Reporter Matthew Blanchard of the Philadelphia Inquirer described the teacher who gave the extra-credit, June Littel, as a “morality-class teacher,” and called the student club involved in this issue an “antiabortion club.” The teacher was a theology teacher and the club was the “Pro-Life” club.

February 22
Santa Cruz, CA – The Paul Rudnick play, “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” was presented at the University of California Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Sentinel described the play as a version of the Bible “starting with the Garden of Eden to the Exodus from Egypt, all the way to the nativity, all from the perspective of homosexuality.” The University of California Santa Cruz is a public university, funded by taxpayers.

February 28
Gainesville, FL – Santa Fe Community College hosted an art exhibit by Pat Payne titled “A Look at Violence in Religious and Sexual Imagery.” It depicted Jesus being sodomized, with pierced genitalia and being masturbated by a woman. Leslie Lambert, chairperson of the Creative Arts and Humanities Department, said of the art, “If it causes people to stop and think, and to confirm their own value system or to reevaluate their value system, then I am pleased as an educator.” After complaints from the Catholic League and the community, the material was removed from the public viewing area and placed in a professor’s office.

March 12
Hampton, VA – A volunteer charitable drive at a local high school was forced to rename its activity because of a reference to Easter. A faculty advisor to Kecoughton High School’s “Warriors for Christ” club told the group it had to change the name of its “Easter Can Drive” to the “Spring Can Drive.” The students were told the school would not allow the original name because some students of other faiths would be offended by what the club was doing.

March 18
Ann Arbor, MI – For Pioneer High School’s Diversity Week, student Betsy Hansen submitted a speech and asked to participate in a panel discussion on homosexuality and religion. Sunnie Korzdorfer, the coordinator, censored the speech and refused to allow Hansen to participate in the panel. When Hansen asked if a Catholic priest could participate to give the Catholic viewpoint, that too was refused. On the day of the discussion, Korzdorfer issued a handout that said that “any staff member had the right to ask/demand that you rethink or redirect your comments.” The panel consisted of Protestant clergy and a rabbi who all had the viewpoint that homosexuality is compatible with religion. Hansen is suing the school for censoring her and for promoting a religious viewpoint.

April 10
Denver, CO – The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center’s Office of Diversity hosted “Seeing through the Eyes of Others: A film series honoring diversity.” Among the movie offerings was “Priest,” a film about dysfunctional gay priests. The written notice about the showing of the film read, “This is an accurate account of the dilemmas that modern-day priests face in the ultra-conservative Catholic Church. Banned in many cities, this provocative film treats with tenderness and compassion the men we often wonder about.”

April 18
Lansing, MI – The student newspaper of Michigan State University, The State News, ran a cartoon that showed two priests interacting. One priest asks, “Why are you so happy?” The other is shown walking away with a newspaper that reads, “Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Child Pornography Act.”

May 22
Chappaqua, NY – A group of boys at Horace Greeley High School who play on the freshman lacrosse team were scheduled to go on a retreat in preparation for their Confirmation. When they told the coach they would have to miss a weekend’s worth of practices and/or games, the coach allegedly told them, in front of the entire team, “Why, so you can be f—– by some priest?”

Following several complaints from people in the community, a Catholic League official called the high school and asked to talk to the principal. She confirmed the story. After the school investigated what happened and found that the allegations were true, the coach was immediately dismissed. The league complimented school officials for acting in a prompt, fair and responsible manner.

June
The spring edition of Law and Courts, a newsletter published by the American Political Science Association (APSA), contained an article about possible Supreme Court nominee Judge Emilio Garcia. It said Garcia “is single, is a devout Catholic and is said to regularly attend Mass during his lunch hour. Associates report that he maintains a ‘priestly’ bearing in the courtroom….” When the editor, Professor C. Neil Tate of the University of North Texas was challenged with this, he fell back on legalisms—the author only speaks for himself and neither he nor the APSA should be held accountable.

June
Los Angeles, CA – Pierce Community College offered two lectures as part of the Encore/Oasis continuing education program. They were titled “The Sex Lives of the Popes” and “Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church.” Scheduled for August 5 and 12, they were to be given by Charlotte Poe, a woman with no academic credentials and described as a “Freethinker.” The Catholic League wrote to the college pointing out that the lectures were based on two books, one by a sensationalist journalist, the other by an ex-priest. It was also pointed out that no lectures were offered attacking any other religion; in fact all the other religious lectures were positive. Although the league did not request it, the college canceled the lectures.

September
Queens, NY – A group called Queens College Messianic Group, which is related to Chosen People Ministries (a group similar to Jews for Jesus), passed out Chick Publications’ tracts, including “Love the Jewish People,” which blames the Vatican for the Holocaust and asserts that “Hitler worked closely with the Jesuits.” After complaints by the Catholic League and the school’s Catholic chaplain, Rev. Paul Wood, the head of the organization apologized and promised not to distribute the literature again. The president of the college, Dr. James Muyskens, wrote that he shared the league’s distaste for the tracts and promised to promote respect and sensitivity to all religions.

September
Tracy, CA – A history teacher at Tracy High School, attempting to show how strange our culture looked to others, asked the Catholic students of his class to raise their hands. He asked whether they went to Mass and received the “wafer/cracker…the thing you call the Body of Christ.” A week later he ridiculed the fact that Catholics do not believe in reincarnation.

September 21
New York, NY – At the half-time show of a football game between Fordham University and Columbia University hosted at Columbia, the announcer, Andy Hao, said, “Fordham’s tuition is going down like an altar boy.” The crowd approved. The script for the show was approved by Columbia staff person Catherine Webster. After demands for an apology from the Catholic League and Fordham students, a spokesman for Columbia extended one on September 23. Wishing to get an apology from Lee Bolinger, the president of Columbia, the league wrote to area and Ivy League colleges and to the university’s trustees pointing out Bollinger’s inaction. On October 8 Bollinger personally apologized to William Donohue.

October 4
Pullman, WA – The Daily Evergreen campus newspaper for Washington State University contained a front-page story that said the Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza, the galleon that brought the first Filipinos to California, translates to “The Big Ass Spanish Boat.” It actually translates to “Our Lady of Good Hope.” The newspaper later apologized.

November 16
San Francisco, CA – At a seminar of the University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry, a visiting lecturer was discussing sedation methods. While talking about the rectal route of administering sedation, he stated that, although excellent, “I do not use this method because I’m not a Catholic priest.” After protest, the dean of the school and the chancellor of the university apologized as did the lecturer who agreed to write a written apology to all participants.

December
Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Unified School District forbade all religious songs from being sung at holiday concerts. They were replaced by songs about snowballs.

December 9
Sacramento, CA – The principal of a local elementary school ordered teachers not to use the word “Christmas” in the classroom or in written materials.

December 10
Yonkers, NY – Yonkers Public Schools banned all Christmas and Hanukkah decorations. Holiday assemblies including religious songs were still permitted. Interim Superintendent Angelo Petrone directed officials to remove all holiday decorations and children’s artwork from bulletin boards.

December 13
South Orange, NJ – The administration of South Orange Middle School at the last minute cancelled a proposed trip of sixth graders to see Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It was replaced by a trip to “The Great Railroad Race.” Kirk Smith, the principal, said the trip was cancelled because the Dickens play didn’t mesh with the school’s curriculum. But he acknowledged “there is a great sensitivity to putting students in awkward situations.”

December 13
Reno, NV – Officials at Reno High School allowed a student Bible club to distribute candy canes with the message “Jesus Loves You” to other students. At first they had been denied, but the threat of legal action caused them to change their minds.

December 20
New York, NY – At Jesse I. Straus Elementary School, the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” was changed to “We Wish You Happy Holidays.” Hanukkah songs were still being sung two weeks after the holiday ended. Hanukkah symbols were prominently displayed and the story of that holiday was discussed. The story of Christmas was not told and books about Christmas (the secular aspect) were relegated to an unseen part of classroom bookshelves. Secular stories about Christmas were minimal. The school officials justified all this with the memo from the Department of Education.

January 9
Omaha, NE – On the opening day of the Nebraska legislative session, state senator Ernie Chambers distributed a packet of unusual Rosary beads to his colleagues. All of them had the crucifix chopped off. Chambers justified his decision to disfigure the Catholic devotional object by arguing that people of many religious beliefs find peace in what he termed the “counting beads.”

February 1
Albany, NY – New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer subpoenaed the records of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in New York State. Spitzer demanded the centers divulge the names of all staff members and their credentials, as well as the training materials, policies and procedures used to counsel pregnant women. Spitzer claimed the moves were the result of complaints about misleading advertising and inappropriate medical counseling at the centers.
The Catholic League joined many others, including state attorneys general, in protesting Spitzer’s decision because we saw it as a thinly veiled strike at Catholicism; it is no secret that Catholics run many of the crisis pregnancy centers in New York. William Donohue wrote to the New York State Legislature asking it to put pressure on Spitzer. There was a strong response from several legislators. On March 1, Spitzer withdrew the subpoenas.

February 5
San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown attended an arts fundraiser dressed as a Catholic priest. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts held the “Come as You Aren’t Party.” When asked about the priest costume Brown said, “Why not? I talk to God regularly. I get down on my knees and I pray and I pray—then God comes to me and says, ‘Yes, Mr. Willie?'”

February 5
Albany, NY – The New York State Senate approved a bill requiring all health insurers to cover contraceptives. It made an exception for religious institutions in which most of the employees, and most of the people they serve, share that religion. However, most Catholic institutions such as schools, hospitals and social service agencies serve people who are not Catholic. In addition, many employees are not Catholic. But these institutions are still Catholic agencies, and it is not the business of the state to decide whether these places are sufficiently Catholic.

February 7
Oklahoma City, OK – A training seminar conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services featured a presentation by speaker Michael McEwen. McEwen opened the seminar by telling an offensive joke about a Catholic priest who consumes alcohol and has sexual relations. An attendee at the seminar complained and, after getting no satisfaction, enlisted the help of the Catholic League. An official with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health eventually apologized and assured the complainant and the league that it would not happen again.

March 8
Boston, MA – Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly proposed a plan to deal with the problem of child molestation by priests in the Boston Archdiocese. He proposed to involve his office in the recruitment, selection, training and monitoring of priests. After concerns about the violation of the separation of church and state were heard from many quarters, including the Catholic League, Reilly backed off his plan.

April 24
Philadelphia, PA – Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham announced plans to convene a grand jury to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Philadelphia. She said the grand jury will investigate “all allegations involving priests whether they are dead, dismissed or retired.” The Catholic League registered its objection on the basis that no other religious group or social agency was included in the investigation. This smacked of a witch hunt of Catholic clergy.

May 8
Hartford, CT – The Connecticut state legislature considered a bill that would require clergy in the state to report any allegation of sexual abuse to the authorities. As part of the bill, Catholic priests would have been required to report such allegations, even if they learned of them in the confessional. The house of representatives passed the bill 144-2. State senator John McKinney noted anti-Catholic comments during the debate. The state senate inserted an exemption for the confessional. Some senators noted that without an exemption, the state was forcing priests to choose between the free exercise of their religion and the law. The house eventually went along and the bill passed with the exemption.

March 9
Pensacola, FL – A Federal Court ruled that the Florida Department of Corrections had the right to deny inmates Holy Communion in the form of wine. The court ruled the wine was not an essential part of the religious practice. A U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision saying the prison system should have to show how the dispensing of the wine would impede prison management.

June 26
San Francisco, CA – The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ three-member panel ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional due to the phrase “under God.” The Catholic League immediately issued a news release condemning the ruling and calling on teachers in the 9th Circuit jurisdiction to continue to recite the pledge in an act of civil disobedience. Following nationwide condemnation, the judge who wrote the opinion stayed his own ruling until the full court could consider the case.

July
Until late July, on the website of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) under the “links of interest” page, the category “Catholic” only listed Catholics For a Free Choice. After this was mentioned by columnist Mark Shields as his “Outrage of the Week” on the CNN show “Capital Gang,” another link was added, catholic-usa.com, which is a directory of Catholic sites (it does not include CFFC). On July 31 Catholic League president William Donohue wrote to DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe imploring him to “act quickly and decisively to remove” the link to CFFC. The Catholic League then mounted an ad and writing campaign to draw attention to the DNC’s association with this patently anti-Catholic group.

August 6
New York, NY – Judge Luther Dye of the New York Supreme Court refused to approve the release of money from a trust to the mother of a student in order to pay the student’s tuition at a Catholic high school. Off the record, the judge chided the student for wanting to attend a Catholic school because of the recent scandals, saying he wouldn’t want to give the Church any money. He said he would release the money if she wanted to use it for something different. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said it would investigate.

August 29
Omaha, NE – The Suburban Rotary Club of Omaha invited state senator Ernie Chambers of Nebraska to speak to the club. Chambers, well known for anti-Catholic utterances, attacked the Catholic Church in his speech saying, “The Catholic Church is more effective as a criminal enterprise than the mafia.” An Associated Press story on the address described the Rotarians as “unfazed” by Chambers’ remarks.

September 
The Catholic League continued its campaign against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its association with Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC). With no response from the DNC, the league published ads in the Catholic newspapers National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor and The Wanderer as well as in the Washington, DC publication Roll Call.

September
Fall River, MA – Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh, Jr. released the names of 20 Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct in complaints to the Diocese of Fall River. Most of the cases were too old to prosecute. Walsh admitted that his decision would be criticized, but said he did it because he was angry at the way diocesan officials had handled the matter.

The Catholic League objected because the names of other clergy from other religions were not included. If others were, then there would be no objection. As it stood, only Catholic clergy were included, as if they had a monopoly on the problem.

October
Manchester, NH – New Hampshire attorney Mark A. Abramson went to court seeking all Catholic clergy personnel and probation files, archives and complaints of sexual abuse made in the Diocese of Manchester. He did not release the names. This led diocesan lawyers to file a motion forcing release of the names. No other clergy from any other religious groups were sought.

October
The Catholic League continued its campaign against the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The DNC received a flood of letters, faxes and emails from Catholics, including Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the US Bishop’s Conference. The DNC added several other groups to the Catholic listing including Call to Action. During the weekend of October 26, the links section of the DNC website was rearranged. Catholic was removed and the former entries were placed under “Religious Affiliated.” CFFC was taken off. After a press release from the Catholic League noting this, the CFFC link was put back on the DNC site.

October 3
Irmo, SC – The Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission voted 3-1 to ban religious displays at a holiday lights event at Saluda Shoals Park. Three commissioners voted for the ban, and a fourth voted against it because he wanted no holiday displays at all. The commission said it followed the advice of legal counsel, which said the display of a nativity scene would prompt a lawsuit.

November
Mineola, NY – In April, Nassau County lawmakers passed a law requiring the clergy to report cases of abuse. It did not require teachers, abortion providers, school coaches, et al. to do the same. District Attorney Denis Dillon recommended a bill that would mandate all professionals to report cases of sexual abuse.

Judy Jacobs, Presiding Officer of the Nassau legislature, said Dillon’s interest in mandating that abortion providers be required to report cases of sexual abuse “crossed the line between his personal beliefs and upholding the law.” In response, Catholic League president William Donohue wrote to Nassau lawmakers saying that Jacobs’ remark “comes dangerously close to suggesting that Dillon’s Catholicism is getting in the way of his professional duties.” Afterwards, Jacobs criticized Dillon again, saying his antiabortion position accounts for his interest in this bill. She then said, “If he hasn’t crossed the line, he’s come dangerously close.”

November 29
Delmar, NY – The Bethlehem Public Library had a Hanukkah display by a local Jewish group of a menorah. It included a brochure on the holiday and a brochure on how and when to light the Sabbath candle. The other display was a Christmas tree with mice ornaments. There was no crèche. When a resident asked to include a crèche, she was told that nothing could be done about the situation that year.

November 30
Portland, ME – A menorah was erected in Ganley Plaza in front of City Hall. The city manager, Joseph Gray, originally banned all holiday displays in front of City Hall except a lighted tree, but allowed the menorah for this year. A crèche could only be displayed in other public parks.

December 4
Birmingham, MI – A menorah was erected for the first time in Shain Park. The Christmas display consisted of a Santa Claus house and Christmas tree. In 1986, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court ordered a crèche in the park taken down because it was not adorned by secular symbols. Mayor Seth Chafetz said of the menorah, “We’re a city that’s now known for its tolerance and diversity. This addition brings a good balance to the Santa house, the lights and the tree.”

December 5
Chicago, IL – John Kass, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, reported that Westmont police ticketed a woman because she had a rosary hanging behind her rear-view mirror. She was to pay a $75 fine. A judge dismissed the case.

December 9
New York, NY – The Thomas More Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education of the City of New York. It charged that the city discriminates against Christian students because it allows the display of a Jewish menorah and an Islamic crescent and star in schools but does not allow a Christian nativity scene. The Catholic League was instrumental in bringing the suit.

December 13
Newark Valley, NY – The village board of trustees rejected a proposal to display a crèche on the village green. The petition for the crèche was signed by 600 residents. It was voted down unanimously by the four-member board and Mayor Sandra Downs.

December 20
Murfreesboro, TN – A firefighter was ordered to take down a sign he placed on the lawn outside his firehouse. City officials objected to the word “God” in his “God Bless America” tribute to the firefighters of 9-11 who lost their lives.

December 30
Albany, NY – The Catholic Bishops of New York State filed a lawsuit against New York State challenging a law that requires religious institutions to provide prescription contraception coverage to employees. The New York State legislature had already passed the mandatory contraception law that would force the Church to violate its own teachings, ignoring the bishops’ calls for exemptions for religious institutions.

Movies | Newspapers | Periodicals | Radio | Television |Internet | Books

MOVIES

February
Miramax, the movie production house owned by Disney, scheduled the film “40 Days and 40 Nights” for release. Actor Josh Hartnett plays a Catholic who pledges to give up sex for Lent but has his will tested by his ex-girlfriend. Because the movie was scheduled to open during Lent (March 1), William Donohue asked Disney chairman Michael Eisner and Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein to reschedule the opening until after Easter.

Donohue made his request on February 5, and the next day Miramax rebuffed him. With the annual Disney shareholders’ meeting scheduled for February 19 at the Hartford Civic Center, the league placed an ad on the op-ed page of the Hartford Courant on the same day, asking shareholders to press Disney to dump Miramax once and for all.

September
Miramax purchased the rights to “The Magdalene Sisters,” an Irish movie written and directed by Peter Mullan. The film is based on the allegedly cruel behavior of Irish nuns who maintained homes for wayward girls in the 19th and 20th centuries. The film won the Golden Lion award at the Italian Venice Film Festival. Mullan has been quoted as saying: “There is not much difference between the Catholic Church and the Taliban”; “The film encapsulates everything that is bad about the Catholic Church”; “The worst thing about the Catholic Church is that it imprisons your soul, your mind and your d—.” On September 24, William Donohue sent a letter to the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company—owners of Miramax—asking them to sever their ties with Miramax.

September
The Italian movie “The Religion Hour” (“My Mother’s Smile”) was shown at film festivals in the United States. It revolves around an atheist who is informed that his mother is about to be canonized. The movie was dubbed by Entertainment Weekly an “absurdist diatribe against hypocrisy in religion.” Variety came right out and branded it “anti-Catholic.”

November 8
Samuel Goldwyn Films released the Mexican film, “The Crime of Father Amaro.” The Mexican Bishops’ Conference condemned the film. It is a fictional account of a priest who impregnates a 16-year-old, refuses to marry her and then gets her to have an abortion. It includes a) a bishop who abuses his powers to squelch a scandalous news story b) a hypocritical pastor who launders money and has an affair with his housekeeper c) a liberation-theology priest who is at once corrupt, supportive of guerillas and soft on abortion d) and Father Amaro. It also features an old woman who feeds the Holy Eucharist to her cat.

NEWSPAPERS

January 3
Chicago, IL – Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper wrote about how some Christian leaders objected to the witchcraft aspects of the Harry Potter stories. He concluded by writing, “The next thing you know, his [the objecting minister] followers will be believing crazy stories about a 600-year old dude who stocks his 450-foot ark with every animal known to man, or a man who performs parlor tricks like turning water into wine and feeding a multitude with a single basket of bread and fish before he’s crucified, only to rise from the dead. Can you imagine?”

January 16
Palm Beach, FL – A cartoon by Don Wright appeared in the Palm Beach Post, leading to a flurry of complaints by local Catholics. The cartoon showed a sitting woman pondering what is a cruel caricature of the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality. She is shown saying: “For women, sexual conduct is always closely monitored. The Catholic Church tells me what I can or cannot do with my body. Truly unforgiving. Absolutely no compromises. Unless, of course, you’re a pedophile.” The Catholic League called Randy Schultz, editorial page editor of the Florida daily, asking for an apology. “There will be no apology because there is nothing to apologize for,” said Schultz. He added that the cartoon was simply a “critique” of the Church’s “policies.” When asked whether he knew of any Don Wright cartoons that looked critically at Judaism or Islam, Schultz said, “I find your question repulsive.”

March 6
New York, NY – The New York Times featured on its website a cartoon by Glenn McCoy that mocked Catholic priests for being sinners. The Universal Press Syndicate cartoon shows a woman in the confessional saying to the priest, “You Go First”; this is an obvious reference to news reports on priest pedophilia. The Times previously posted a cartoon by DeOre of Universal Press Syndicate that also mocked sinful priests in the confessional. The Times also published in its newspaper a particularly vicious cartoon by Don Wright of Tribune Media Service that depicted the Catholic Church as being against abortion but accepting of pedophilia.

Ironically, the Times pulled a cartoon by Ted Rall that mocks widows of the 9-11 terror attack for being greedy. The cartoon was fed to the website of the New York Times by Universal Press Syndicate and was taken down when widows complained. Christine Mohan, the newspaper’s spokeswoman, said the “subject matter was inappropriate.”

March 10
Hartford, CT – The Hartford Courant ran a story about a New Haven man who accused a priest of sexually assaulting him. The Courant ran the story in its Sunday magazine section, called Northeast. What was objectionable were the illustrations accompanying the article. The cover featured a drawing of a statue of a saint holding a cross in his arms with his hands covering his face. Another picture inside the magazine showed a frightened-looking altar boy in the foreground with a priest standing behind him with a lewd look on his face.

March 10
Boston, MA – Boston Herald columnist Wayne Woodlief wrote about the attempts of Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly to involve his office in the selection and training of Catholic priests. Woodlief wrote, “Reilly is on the right track in using the might of his office to gain an unprecedented foothold for the state in the creation of a comprehensive plan to provide more shields from sexual abuse.”

March 20
New York, NY – Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote about the Catholic Church in light of the ongoing sex abuse scandal. She compared the Catholic Church to the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

March 22
Syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith wrote that Maureen Dowd deserved a Pulitzer Prize for remarks comparing the Catholic Church to Al Queda. Smith added that Dowd’s “stunning column may have done more for the cause of women than the entire feminist attitude in the world.”

March 25
In the Nation, Margaret Spillane accused the Boston Catholic hierarchy of “treating women as contaminants and children as invisible,” maintaining that the “real goal” of Boston Archbishop Bernard Cardinal Law is to “make a permanent move to Rome as the first American Pope.”

April 26
New York, NY – New York City’s newest daily newspaper, The Sun, made its debut featuring a picture of Our Lady of La Leche—the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the baby Jesus. The caption beside the Madonna and Child read, “The Land of Milk and Mommy. A visit to the Upper Breast Side, NYC’s breastfeeding boutique, page 16.” The story was about Manhattan’s first breastfeeding boutique. The Catholic League pointed out that while the image is a legitimate piece of Catholic art, it should not be used to hawk a newspaper.

April 30
Long Island, NY – Newsday columnist Paul Vitello questioned the propriety of allowing Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against priests. Dillon is a practicing Catholic. For Vitello, this was sufficient grounds to disqualify Dillon from any further investigation into these matters. Dillon had concluded that all allegations against priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre occurred beyond the state’s five-year statute of limitations, making moot any further inquiry.

May
Providence, RI – Writing in the Providence Journal, Episcopal priest Rev. Lauren R. Stanley wrote about the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. She wrote, “As a priest, I’ve heard tirades about abusive priests in general, and about Roman bishops who seem more abusive than the pedophiles themselves, because those in charge helped facilitate the abuse for decades.” She offered no evidence for these charges.

May 7
Cleveland, OH – An editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer titled “Toward healing” mentioned Cuyahoga County prosecutor Bill Mason’s investigation of the local diocese. Then the editorial said, “Mason is a practicing Catholic, which may trouble some people who fear a cover-up.”

May 8
Lansdale, PA – The Reporter newspaper printed a letter from a Stephanie Schwenk of Souderton, PA that read in part, “Maybe it’s time to dismantle the giant, money-making conglomerate, the Catholic Church….If I’m not mistaken, idol worship, money worship, child molesting and self-righteous pride are all major sins….There is no other church as filled worldwide with various sex offenders. And no other church that worships men, cardinals, bishops, the pope, sometimes more profoundly than they worship God.”

May 13
Cherry Hill, NJ – The Courier-Post, a South New Jersey newspaper, ran a student essay contest. Its May 13 edition described the contest as this: “The alleged abuse of minors by priests in the Catholic Church is the subject of May’s Student Voices essay and editorial cartoon contest.” Following a Catholic League news release, a newspaper official called the league, claiming the description was a mistake by an editor and that it would be corrected in future editions.

June 21
Chicago, IL – The alternative weekly the Chicago Reader ran a comic strip “La Petite Camera” by Garret Gaston. The June 21 edition was called “Papal Makeover.” It was in the form of the artist advising the pope to make changes so that the Church can have a better image. Included were advice to apologize “for giving the world a 2,000-year-old guilt trip”; “try a new recipe for communion”; have a “Buff Jesus”; give “free contraceptive devices for perfect attendance in church”; “return all ill-gotten gold to victims of church’s international genocide program”; and “include helpful sex tips in the confessional booth.”

July 11
Hartford, CT – Laurence D. Cohen wrote a column in the Hartford Courant, “With God (and The Supreme Court) On Their Side.” The column dealt with the Supreme Court decision regarding the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses to solicit door-to-door. He commented that the practice was the source of a high court decision in 1940 when Jehovah’s Witnesses “set up shop on a New Haven street corner to communicate naughty anti-Catholic preaching.” A letter to the editor from the Catholic League asked “Would Cohen have used such an adjective [“naughty”] to describe anti-Semitism?”

September 27
New York, NY – Jamie Bernard, movie critic for the New York Daily News, reviewed Peter Mullan’s film “The Magdalene Sisters.” The movie deals with the harsh conditions at a home for destitute women in Ireland. She wrote: “There’s more bad news for the Catholic Church with ‘The Magdalene Sisters,’ a fine and furious portrait of a real-life miscarriage of justice.” She proceeded to say that 30,000 Irish women were “enslaved, beaten and humiliated in the name of cleansing their soul.” Then she compared their conditions to that of a “concentration camp.”

October 24
Long Island, NY – Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy wrote a column with some ideas about Halloween costumes. Her list of characters included Martha Stewart, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Kenneth Lay, Lizzie Grubman, Michael Bloomberg and Johnnie Cochran. There was one entry that was not a character but a group. She wrote, “A Catholic priest’s costume would also be a crowd pleaser this year, replete with clerical collar and a lascivious grin.”

In every other instance, she included individuals such as Osama bin Laden, and not groups, such as Muslims. She concluded: “Some characters would be in bad taste for Halloween costumes. There should be no suicide bombers with dynamite strapped to their waists, and no Beltway snipers carrying rifles and cell phones.”

November 8
Stroudsburg, PA – The Pocono Record published an editorial blaming the Catholic Church for AIDS. The Church’s position on abstinence was called “the final solution” and labeled “ridiculous, impractical and unkind.” It concluded that sex is “so natural that even those sworn to forego it—some Catholic priests, for one example—have been known to violate their holiest vows to engage in it.”

November 10
San Antonio, TX – Jan Jarboe Russell wrote a column in the San Antonio Express-Newsasking readers to imagine Oprah Winfrey as pope. Readers were to compare the openness and compassion with which Oprah would address the abuse scandal as opposed to the “recalcitrant old men who run the Catholic Church.” Deploring continuously the “secrecy” with which the joint Vatican-U.S. committee revised the bishops’ Dallas charter, she incorrectly identified the changes and concluded that “Not a single revision will do anything to protect innocent children….Instead all of the changes have to do with protecting the institutional power of the church.”

November 12
New Haven, CT – The New Haven Register published a column by John D. Anderson about a petition by Connecticut Catholics in opposition to gay marriage. He wrote that he called a local Catholic parish, and after the pastor politely wished him well he responded, “Keep on burning those witches.” He labeled Bridgeport Bishop William Lori’s cover letter to the petition “scare tactics.” He calls the gays affected by the petition “the latest victims of Catholic clerical abuse.” He misrepresents the Church’s teachings on sexuality as “The best sex is no sex at all.” He wrote that he is appalled at “the ease with which people line up to do what ‘father’ tells them. No thinking required. In fact no thinking allowed.” He concluded, “I don’t care what the bishops do or say. I don’t care what their church believes.”

November 18
Milwaukee, WI – The alternative weekly Shepherd-Express published a cartoon by Owen Dunne called “You Damn Kid.” This segment consisted of children musing on what the Eucharist should taste like. They concluded, “If Ernie Keebler had died for our sins instead of Jesus, communions would taste really good.” The last panel depicts a crucified Keebler elf.

November 18
Tampa, FL – Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth wrote an article questioning the relationship between Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Catholicism and his suitability for public office. He wrote, “If Jeb Bush appears for his second inaugural wearing a miter, vestments and carrying a staff, one might conclude he has taken this whole ‘Christian conservative political agenda’ thing just a pinch too far.” Ruth implored readers to remember that Bush “was re-elected governor of Florida, not vicar general”; Bush, he says, should recall he “won an election, not a canonization.” Ruth also warned that Bush might “turn the state into a regulatory theocracy.” Finally, Ruth mocked Bush for converting to Catholicism saying, “he missed out on all the fun of having the living daylights beaten out of him as a child by the Sisters of Holy Inquisition.”

November 24
Newark, OH – On November 15 The Advocate ran a cartoon by Chris Britt depicting Pope John Paul II lowering a child into the hands of a pedophile priest with the caption, “Everyone deserves a second chance.” After numerous letters of protest, including one from the Catholic League, managing editor Michael Shearer wrote a column apologizing to readers for publishing the cartoon.

December 1
Plattsburgh, NY – The Press-Republican published a letter by Patrick Bradley that said “I’m convinced the Catholic Church is one of the most immoral, corrupt world organizations ever….Some nine million women and maybe 12 million men, conservative estimates, were tortured, vivisected and burned alive from 1250 to 1550 AD as gays or political, philosophical, or religious deviants…religious wars from the Crusades to Post-Renaissance were genocides…Don’t excuse such savagery on past cultural ignorance…Wake up Catholics! Rid yourselves of this Byzantine enslaving cult.”

December 6
Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles Times published a commentary by Crispin Sartwell that began, “Priestly abuses are entailed by the very idea of the Roman Catholic Church and will continue as long as it does.” He sympathized with Martin Luther’s desire to abrogate the authority of the Catholic priesthood and clear up “much of the mumbo-jumbo surrounding the sacraments.” He wrote, “The recent abuses of power in the Catholic Church are less shocking than they are typical. Compared with the extent of the corruption and concupiscence by the church in history, the current transgressions are mild.” He stated the “incredible wealth” of the Church was derived from the sale of indulgences, and the sexual intrigues of the papacy “have filled volumes.” He stated that the Church has done much good in the world but then added, “If you authorize a group of people to supervise your conscience and your relationship to God, you are likely to find that you have created a brotherhood of monsters.”

December 25
New York, NY – The cover of the December 25-31 edition of the Village Voice was of Marshall Mathers (Eminem) dressed as the Blessed Mother holding a child in the guise of the Infant Jesus. The caption was “Eminem & Child.”

December 31
Long Island, NY – Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote his 32nd article on the Catholic Church of the year. All 32 were filled with anti-Catholic statements. He continually attacked the pope, cardinals, bishops and priests, and relentlessly wrote outright falsehoods about Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre.

PERIODICALS

January
The Philadelphia Trumpet featured several articles that attacked the Catholic Church as being a part of conspiracies to take over the world. Among the items appearing in the January edition, “It will not be long before Europe is reunited as the Holy Roman Empire. It will be led assertively by Germany. These events show anyone willing to take notice that something dreadful is stirring in Germany and in the Vatican. Nazi atrocities and the Vatican’s involvement in protecting and hiding Nazi leaders during and after World War II are overwhelmingly documented.”

January 27
The New Republic featured an article, “What Would Jesus Have Done?”, an excerpt from a book that was published later in the year. The book, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair, is the work of historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. Going beyond criticism of Pope Pius XII or the Church’s actions during World War II or even criticism of the history of the relations between Catholics and Jews, the article and the book are deeply anti-Catholic. The author calls for the Catholic Church to reject Scripture, change its liturgy, deny that Christ is the way to salvation, reject papal infallibility, view all religions as equal and make reparations for its anti-Semitic history. The editor of the New Republic, Martin Peretz, was quoted in the January 13 Sunday Times of London as saying Pope Pius XII was “an evil man.”

Although other authors have been critical of Pius XII and the Church during World War II, none but Goldhagen have merited the title anti-Catholic. Going further than criticism, Goldhagen attacks the essence of the Catholic Church and its beliefs.

May 25
Billboard, the music newsweekly, carried a piece by editor-in-chief Timothy White that congratulated Irish singer Sinead O’Connor for ripping up a picture of the pope on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992; O’Connor declared, “Fight the real enemy.”

In reference to the current scandal in the Catholic Church, White cheered O’Connor by stating, “It would appear with each passing day that Sinead O’Connor has less and less to apologize for.” The rest of the article condemned the Catholic Church for being intolerant, misogynist and fascistic. It even managed to cite Galileo.

June 8 
Billboard continued with its condemnatory remarks about the Catholic Church, this time allowing those in the entertainment industry to attack the Church in its letters section. Brian Philips, senior vice president and general manager of Country Music Television, praised White for his “sensitive treatment of the issue.” Bob Leon, projects director of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, recalled his years in Catholic schools as being ones of “dread, anxiety and nausea”; he also said he remembered being whacked with a ruler. Sinead O’Connor wrote to convey her thanks to White as well.

August 
Jane magazine featured an article “How to get laid like a priest,” by Jeffrey Johnson. The satirical article was a guide for having casual sex like a pedophile priest. Johnson wrote, “The Bible is full of stuff about seas parting, water turning into wine and women getting pregnant without penetration—topics that if mentioned on daytime TV, would get you taunted by the audience.” The crucifix is described as an image of a “nude bearded dude nailed to a couple of pieces of driftwood.” The article carried a disclaimer saying it targeted pedophile priests only, not the Catholic Church in general. The accompanying photographs showed a storefront and display counter of a sex shop with Catholic imagery, including a priest blow-up doll.

September
Playboy featured an article by ex-Jesuit priest Charles J. O’Byrne. He wrote of his dislike of the Church’s teachings about celibacy, contraception, fornication and homosexuality. He conjectured that Jesus, Joseph and Mary engaged in sex. He blamed St. Augustine, Irish Catholicism and the natural law for contributing to sexual repression. The illustration accompanying the article showed a man kneeling under the cassock of a priest with his face at the priest’s genitals.

November
Details published an article by Bill Maher calling religious faith “stupidity.” He wrote, “Religion is a magic word that allows the priesthood to do anything they want to people…. The Catholics got away with f—ing kids!” This text was the highlighted text of the article.

November
The Berean Call included the article “Catholicism and Islam: Ties that Bind” by T.A. McMahon. He writes that Islam and Catholicism are similar, noting their “baby-oriented process for increasing their ranks.” He writes Catholic’s “veneration and even worship of Mary” is paralleled by the Islamic “deference” for Mary. Both faiths have “rote and repetitive prayers” which is a “stock item in ancient and modern paganism.” He concludes, “What truly binds Catholicism and Islam together: They both have a Jesus who cannot save their souls.”

December 20
Entertainment Weekly had a section called “Sound Bites: The Year’s Most Quotable Quotes.” Included was “‘You swallowed our Lord and Savior’—Larry David’s SISTER-IN-LAW…after he ate the Baby Jesus cookie she’d baked for a Nativity scene on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.'”

RADIO

February 12
Los Angeles, CA – The “John and Ken Show,” a KFI radio program in Los Angeles, aired several bigoted remarks about Catholic priests. An e-mail to KFI on February 19 asking for verification resulted in the station admitting that the following remarks (among others) were made on the February 12 show: “Ten percent of priests are pedophiles and the other 90 percent are equally as guilty because they don’t do anything about it”; “I have always heard that men have a calling to the priesthood. Now we know that the calling is in his pants.”

For several days after our verification check, the “John and Ken Show” hosts then lied about the Catholic League on the air. They said the league defends pedophile priests and that the league threatened a boycott of the show’s sponsors.

March 27
San Francisco, CA – Ray Taliaferro, late night host on KGO 810 AM, frequently conducts his show in the persona of “Reverend Ray,” calls his audience his “congregation” and refers to his studio as his “chapel.” On this particular night he talked about the Catholic Church and said, among other things, “…there is no ritual more gross and crude than Communion….Any human being who can stand up and say, ‘I’ve got some crackers up here, and now it’s time for Communion.’ So I’m gonna do this little prayer, and this little dance, and this little incense…then whoa!, the cracker becomes the Flesh of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.”

May 8
Atlantic City, NJ – The hosts of the “Scott and Casey Show” on WKXW (New Jersey 101.5) were discussing the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Among the things they said was that according to the pope, God thinks it’s OK for priests to rape 15-year-old boys. Following a complaint, the station manager said there was no worry that any such statements would be aired on the station again and that he was looking to replace the show.

May 13
Bangor, ME – WKIT 100.3 FM disc jockey Scotty Moore, in discussing the Catholic Church, said he sued to be an altar boy and that the Body of Christ has no taste. He suggested that the Church make a sour cream-and-onion or garlic flavored Body of Christ. In response to a complaint, Moore said his comments were simply comedy.

May 15
Detroit, MI – In discussing professional tennis player Martina Hingis, Gregg Henson of the “Jamie and Gregg Show” on WDFN Sports Radio 1130 said she looked like a boy. To that he added, “Catholic priests love her.”

July 25
Louisville, KY – On WHAS radio, show host John Ziegler engaged in a diatribe against Catholicism. He lambasted celibacy, saying how “freaky somebody has to be to become a priest when celibacy is required.” He also blasted Church teaching and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. He said Mass is arguably “the biggest news story that is being ignored every single Sunday—that someone is taking food and turning it into God and then eating it—or the Catholic Church is lying about that.” And, “That a group of people—priests—think they have the ability to say a marriage never existed, that that group of people would have a scandal like they’re currently embroiled in right now. That to me is not mysterious at all.” The Catholic League filed a complaint with the general manager of the station. He replied saying that he received numerous complaints about Ziegler, who was new at the station, and assured us that after speaking to him, neither the Catholic Church nor the recent scandals had been mentioned on his show.

August 15
New York, NY – As part of a contest hosted by “The Opie and Anthony Show,” broadcast by WNEW, a man and woman engaged in sexual intercourse in the Cathedral of St. Patrick at 4 PM on the Feast of the Assumption. While engaged in the act, comedian Paul Mercurio relayed via cell phone a graphic description to the hosts of the show, Greg (Opie) Hughes and Anthony Cumia, who broadcasted it live. The next morning the Catholic League lodged a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) demanding that WNEW have its license revoked. The league also lodged a complaint with Viacom, which owns Infinity Broadcasting; WNEW is an Infinity Broadcasting station. On August 22 the show was cancelled and the hosts were fired. The league also received an apology from Viacom and from Boston Beer, which sponsored the contest.

September 29
On “Weekend Gamenight” on ESPN radio, hosts Doug Brown and Charlie Pierce did a bit in the style of Johnny Carson’s “Carnac the Magnificent.” Pierce said, “The answer is Priest Holmes.” The question was, “Where don’t parents want their adolescent boys going on a Saturday night?”

October
John MacArthur, Jr.’s audiocassette, “The Scandal of the Catholic Priesthood,” was advertised on WORD FM radio. Included on this tape are the statements: “There is the scandal of an aberrant, unbiblical, bizarre pagan theology of the priesthood and the mass; there’s the scandal of the power and the grasping materialism of a Satanic religious system that wants to engulf the earth.”

TELEVISION

January 8
An episode of the CBS show “Family Law” featured a priest who found out he had fathered a child earlier in his life, before becoming a priest. In the arguments among the lawyers about whether the priest should raise the child, the character of Joe Celano (played by Tony Danza) says, “Maybe the kid would be better off without all that superstitious crap screwing her up.”

January 15
The season premiere of the ABC show “The Job” depicted a detective dressed as a priest and a stripper dressed as a nun; it was not disclosed until the end that the “hot nun” was actually a stripper. The “nun” was shown stripping in front of one of the male detectives while three other detectives (two male, one female) watched her from behind a two-way mirror. There was another scene where the “nun” put her foot on the crotch of one of the male detectives while being interrogated. This was followed by a scene where she put her foot on the crotch of a female detective. The detective “priest” was shown abusing the confessional by seeking to squeeze information from a penitent known to have stolen money from the collection basket. An actor cast as a real monsignor was then depicted as being more concerned about his own reputation than he was about the detective who misrepresented himself as a priest in the confessional.

March 5
ABC’s “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” featured comedian Jimmy Kimmel as a guest. He mocked what he thought was the Immaculate Conception by saying, “God has a penis.” When the audience reacted with nervous laughter, he said, “Oh, like He doesn’t? How do you think we got Jesus?” To the continuous laughter of the audience, Kirk Franklin remarked, “See, that’s why we’ve gotta move people away from religion. I think religion is one of the worst things that ever happened to America.” Franklin, a black musician, then attacked the Eucharist by complaining, “gotta take the cracker.” To which Maher replied, “Gotta take the cracker from a cracker.”

March 6
The new season for Comedy Central’s “South Park” was preceded by a promo that showed a young woman in the confessional. With trepidation in her voice, she says to the priest: “Forgive me, Father. It’s been two months since our last meeting, and the visions have not yet stopped. Eternal damnation, the Anti-Christ, and people with asses where their faces should be. Oh, Father, are these signs of the Apocalypse?”

March 8
Bill Maher relentlessly attacked Catholic priests on the ABC show “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.” In an extended segment, Maher exploited the problem of the sex abuse scandal in the Church. Among his comments: “Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics…. I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests].” The lone guest who challenged Maher was Jason Jones of Human Life International. When he commented that this problem was not prevalent in Europe or South America, Maher shot back, “You’re right. In African countries they rape the nuns.”

March 15
In the HBO show “Dennis Miller Live,” Miller’s opening monologue included the topic of the priest sex abuse scandal in the Church. He said to the audience, “F— the priests, they’re weird.”

March 16
Actor Ian McKellen as the guest host of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” ripped the Catholic Church, saying it won’t not allow gays to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade (which is untrue) but allows gays in the priesthood.

March 17
FOX television’s “King of the Hill” featured a storyline in which the character Peggy posed as a nun in order to teach at a Catholic school. In the plot, Peggy gained her understanding of Catholicism by watching a Spanish soap opera about a monsignor, in which the monsignor shot a disarmed gunman in a church. He was also depicted being disrespectful to the Precious Blood. Peggy taught a course on Catholicism but admitted to knowing nothing about Transubstantiation. She was also shown dropping a “practice wafer.” She simply picked it up, dusted it off, and gave it to the child who was to receive it. Peggy dreamed that the monsignor burst into her classroom as she was about to talk about safe sex. He then pulled a lever, which opened the classroom floor and dropped all the kids into hell. Furthermore, he was depicted as a devil with horns in Peggy’s dream, and her husband (a propane salesman) was in charge of keeping the fires of hell burning.

April 20
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” opened with a segment about the cardinals of the United States being called to Rome. Each cardinal was shown in stereotypical manner such as a secret agent, motorcyclist, gun-toting, etc. When they finally got to Rome, the pope, played by actor Alec Baldwin, told the cardinals, “I’ve got one thing to say to you guys: Keep your p–ker in your pants.”

May 3
Dennis Miller, host of HBO’s “Dennis Miller Live,” started his monologue on freedom of speech by saying, “Freedom of speech has become a topic that is touchier than a Vatican summer camp.”

May 7
Bill Maher, the Catholic-bashing comic of TV’s “Politically Incorrect,” admitted on the May 7 episode of his show, “I have hated the church way before anyone else. I have been pounding religion for nine years on this show.” We agree.

May 9
Bill Maher, host of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” told a joke about a mining labor union leader, saying a particular policy was a “blow to miners.” Maher added that Cardinal Bernard Law said he had nothing to do with it.

May 10
On ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” host Bill Maher talked about the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. He remarked, “So it is in this spirit that I offer this modest proposal that the Catholic church just drop the pretense and just go gay. Just come out of the confessional. Preach the sermon on the mountain. Embrace it. Let the straight people be Baptists. It’s high time you gay Catholics stood up and announced to the world, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get Eucharist.'”

May 15
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said: “I’m looking forward to the next ‘Star Wars’ movie—’Attack of the Clergy.'”

May 17
The season finale of the NBC show “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” was titled “Silence.” It featured a senior priest involved in pedophilia and a subsequent diocesan cover-up. The episode was originally scheduled to run in September. The sex abuse scandal, however, coupled with the frenzy over the May sweeps, pushed NBC to switch plans.

The Catholic League continued to note that no television dramas mocked Muslims since the events of 9-11. However, Catholics and Catholic priests were continually used for script during the sexual abuse scandal.

June 3
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host told the following jokes: “The paper here in New York is saying there is a priest shortage now. Well, finally some good news in the world. This is how bad it is now. In Brooklyn there is a priest who says he now has to grope himself!”

June 5
Bill Maher, host of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect” responded to a guest who had said that no one wants to see the Catholic Church go away by saying, “Well, no, I’d love to see the Church go away. And there are lots of people who would.”

June 7
Jay Leno of NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” said: “Rapper R. Kelly was found guilty of 21 counts of child pornography. It’s so bad that he’s thinking of changing his name to Father Kelly.”

June 11
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said the following: “The Gambino crime family will now probably fall apart. That will make the largest crime organization in the city…the Catholic Church!”

June 17
On NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” the host said the following: “This week hundreds of Catholic bishops arrived in Dallas for their annual convention. It was held at the Fairmont Hotel. They wanted to hold it at the Ramada Inn, because at Ramadas, kids stay free.”

July 3
Comedy Central’s “South Park” aired an episode titled “Red Hot Catholic Love.” It boasted that it is one “the Catholic Church doesn’t want you to see.” The show satirized the sex scandal by portraying priests eager to have sex with boys, and a bishop complaining in front of the pope that “we’ll never be able to have sex with boys again.” Catholics were revealed to really worship a “Queen Spider” and were lectured that the Church got out of hand because it deviated from the Scriptures, which are only ethical platitudes.

July 12
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said the following: “The forest fires in Canada are making things hazy here. It’s been so hazy that today a Catholic priest groped another priest.”

July 28
HBO’s “Sex and the City” aired a show “Unoriginal Sin.” The boyfriend of one of the characters, Miranda, an unmarried mother of a newborn, insists on baptizing the child to please his Irish Catholic mother. The mother is depicted as a drunk and a simpleton who is afraid her grandchild will go to hell. Miranda reluctantly agrees but insists there be no mention of Christianity in the ritual. The main character, Carrie Bradshaw, then comments, “Miranda was surprised the priest was so flexible. But the truth is, in these troubled times the Catholic Church is like a desperate 36-year-old single woman, willing to settle for anything it can get.” Miranda then quips, “It’s one less bath I have to give him.”

August 19
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said the following: “A couple got in trouble for having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They were found having sex, then they were arrested, then booked, and then ordained.” And, “A nearby priest was so shocked by the couple’s antics, he fell off the altar boy.”

August 21
David Letterman of CBS’s “The Late Show” said the following: “Last week here in New York City a couple was arrested for having sex inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And listen to this—earlier today they were transferred to another parish.”

August 26
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said the following: “A few weeks ago, a couple was caught having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Well, now it’s gotten crazy; now whenever they light candles in the church it’s for a romantic mood.”

September 4
David Letterman of CBS’s “The Late Show” said the following: “The Catholic Church is opening a $200 million cathedral in Los Angeles…you know that’s just about as much money they have spent on hush money this year…they really spared no expense putting up this cathedral. Each one of the confessionals has a panic button in it.”

September 6
On CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said the following: “They’ve got a big settlement up there in Boston. The archdiocese is offering a $10 million settlement…That works out to a dollar a victim.”

September 16
Jay Leno of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” said the following, referring to a Notre Dame football victory: “I guess going to a Catholic school as a young boy, you really learn how to run fast.”

September 18
According to Variety, at a banquet for Adopt-a-Minefield, emcee Jay Leno said the following: “I hear Warner Bros. is doing ‘Exorcist 3.’ They’re bringing Satan in to get the priest out of the teenager.”

September 28
The opening skit on FOX’s “MADtv” depicted priests as child molesters. They were shown acting in a lewd manner towards boys in a cabin. One of the lines in a song sung by the priests was, “We’ll just get switched to another parish.” The priests stripped off their clothes wearing only bikini underwear and their collar. They danced provocatively and then played the game Twister. The audience laughed heartily, though there was an audible gasp when the priests danced with each other in an obscene way.

October 21
An episode of the CBS show “CSI: Miami” revolved around a priest who learns that a boy has been abused by his father (at first the priest was suspected as the abuser). The priest tries to convince the boy to go to the police, but the boy refuses. The boy’s mother subsequently kills the priest, blaming him for not protecting her son. In the episode a detective asks, “Who would want to kill a priest?” One of his colleagues answers, “Nowadays, anyone.” The following day, on the CBS.com website, there was a survey question on the home page of “CSI: Miami.” It asked, “Do you think Catholic priests should be obligated to inform the authorities when one of their parishioners confesses to a crime?”

October 26
The CBS show “The District” featured an hour-long drama based on the current scandal in the Catholic Church. Viewers were introduced to molesting priests, diocesan cover-ups and the like. One of the characters, Detective Temple, looked right into the camera and pronounced on the virtue of putting faith in the Lord—but not in an institution. Similarly, there was a scene where another character, Detective Debrino, was pictured alone, peering into the camera, commenting on celibacy. He opined that the discipline of celibacy is not God-given, but is rather a rule from the Middle Ages mandated by the Vatican to protect its economic assets. He says it is “man who banned sex, not God.”

November 7
Comedy Central’s website for the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” included a mock news story about the discovery of a burial box with the inscription “James the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus.” It ends with, “While James is mentioned in the New Testament as being Joseph’s brother, [sic] the reference has been controversial among Roman Catholics who believe in Mary’s ‘perpetual virginity,’ meaning she and Joseph never had sex, although Catholic scholars still have not reached agreement over whether that includes oral.”

November 10
David E. Kelley’s “The Practice” on ABC used the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church for script. It revolved around a lawsuit filed by one abuse victim against another. The lawyer for the plaintiff lashed out at his Catholic partner: “It’s been systemic…Shut the Church down. Start a different institution of the Catholic faith…Stop giving the current institution the money.” The partner then spoke with his wife, who said she didn’t want to raise her child Catholic because of the possibility he could be abused. She said, “The Church has to accept some responsibility for my bigotry.” The lawyer then left the Church. According to Kelley, the purpose of this episode was to pose a question to Catholics: “Can Catholics adequately express their rage without quitting the church?”

November 12
On David E. Kelley’s “Boston Public” on FOX, the character Harvey Lipschultz said the following: “When I was growing up, there used to be a cardinal law against teenage sex. Now it seems there’s a Cardinal Law for teenage sex. We call him Bernie. A little Catholic humor….”

November 14
Long Island, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon recommended a bill that would mandate all professionals, not just clergy, report cases of sexual abuse. Judy Jacobs, Presiding Officer of the Nassau legislature criticized his comments by saying they “crossed the line between his personal beliefs and upholding the law.” A reporter for News 12 Long Island cable news reported the story and injected that Dillon is “a staunch supporter of the Catholic Church.”

November 15
On NBC’s “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno said, “And today Catholic Bishops announced that they are against war with Iraq. Well, of course, the Catholic Bishops are against it—they want to see our boys stay at home and not have to go off to war.”

November 17
David E. Kelley’s “The Practice” on ABC continued the storyline of the Catholic abuse crisis. A lawyer who has left the Church was forced to defend a sex abuser.

December 2
David E. Kelley’s “Boston Public” on FOX featured a reckless boy who admitted to his concerned teacher that a priest had been sexually abusing him. It turned out that the molesting priest had previously abused the teacher. The latter then confronted the priest, threatening him with violence. The teacher angrily stormed out of the church yelling, “I am not afraid of you anymore!”

December 17
David E. Kelley’s “Boston Public” on FOX continued the storyline about abuse by a priest. A teacher goes to the police to expose a molesting priest who abused him and his student.

INTERNET

February
The Internet portal Yahoo! was called to task by the Catholic League because of biased entries against Catholics. When the word “Catholic” was typed in the search engine, the second of the Category Matches had a listing called “Christian History > Catholic Inquisition.” By clicking on that category, the listings of “Torture” and “Witch Hunts” appeared. But when the words “Protestant,” “Judaism,” or “Islam” were typed in, no negative episodes associated with these religions were listed. No other Internet portal showed an anti-Catholic bias. Just as disturbing, when “Catholicism” was typed in, the first listing under Web Site Matches was “The Case Against Catholicism.” It consisted mainly of the work of “Joseph McCabe’s Rationalist Encyclopedia.” More accurately, it included some of the most remarkably twisted interpretations of the history of the Catholic Church ever produced. The second listing was called “Gay and Lesbian Catholicism”; it was replete with criticism of the Church’s teachings on sexuality. No other religion had a gay section listed on Yahoo!.

February 19
The Internet site afunworld.com posted a picture of a nun in habit holding a double candle stick holder. The light produced a shadow that made her appear as a devil in the shadow.

April 18
The Internet site The Drudge Report featured a story about actor Robert Blake being arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife. The site posted a picture of Blake in a Roman Catholic priest’s collar. While Blake at one time played a priest in a television series, it was neither his most well-known nor his most recent role. The picture was removed within a day.

April 22
The Internet site annoy.com featured a manipulated image of a man exposing himself to two children. The image of the pope’s head was placed on the man’s body.

BOOKS

Fall
Knopf published A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. The author calls for the Catholic Church to reject Scripture, change its liturgy, deny that Christ is the way to salvation, reject papal infallibility, view all religions as equal and make reparations for its anti-Semitic history. He also demands that the Vatican cease being a state, get rid of its diplomatic corps and fully support the nation of Israel. Going beyond criticism of Pope Pius XII or the Church’s actions during World War II or even criticism of the history of the relations between Catholics and Jews, this book is deeply anti-Catholic. There have been books critical of Pius XII by Michael Phayer, John Cornwell, Susan Zuccotti, and Garry Wills, and even ones that go beyond them and criticize the Church’s practices and teachings, such as books by David Kertzer or James Carroll. While we have found fault with these works, none have merited the title anti-Catholic as Goldhagen’s book does.
Goldhagen uses almost no original research, but instead relies on the above authors, despite the flaws in their studies. Many of his accusations are given with no citation of evidence. The book is so riddled with simple factual errors, contradictions, and outright falsities that if the author were to correct them, the thesis of the book would collapse.

January 5
New York, NY – The Catholic League received hate mail from a person identifying himself as a member of the “Sons of the American Revolution.” The card read, “OF COURSE—that wonderful Frances Kissling is 100% right and YOU are a barking dog. It is your medieval ‘catholic church’ [sic] which is the anti-Christ…denounced by Our Lord Jesus Christ.” The card ended with “Read your own history of the papacy—a scandal-ridden outrage—we need a new REFORMATION!”

January 11
The rock music band “Hell on Earth” sold something called “Anal Rosary Beads” on its website. The design of the rosary bead package featured a bare-bottomed bishop and a naked woman removing rosary beads from him with her teeth.

January 15
Auburn, ME – The new $12 million St. Dominic Regional High School became a vandalism target. Roman Catholic Bishops Joseph Gerry and Michael Cote were greeted by spray-painted images when they arrived at the new school to perform the first Mass held in its chapel. Some of the graffiti were insulting and profane. There were also Lewiston High School’s initials and a fuzzy image of that school’s mascot, the blue devil.

January 18
Rolling Prairie, IN – For the second time in less than two days, a Catholic cemetery was vandalized. While vehicle tires caused earlier damage to St. John Kanty Catholic Cemetery, the latest incident was directed at specific objects in the cemetery, including the figure of Christ on a crucifix; the legs on the body were smashed. Damage was estimated at $7,500.

January 19
The Catholic League received a letter from Steven Ross of Springfield, OR. In it Ross wrote, “…the Catholic Church’s belief are [sic] about equivalent to those of bin Laden.” He then went on to reference the Inquisition and Northern Ireland.

January 21
Las Vegas, NV – Vandals struck the home of the youth minister for Christ the King parish. The youth minister was on the grounds of the church conducting a homeless retreat when vandals spray-painted satanic writings (666 and pentagrams) on the home. A boulder was thrown through the front window. Police classified the attack as a hate crime.

February 27
Islip Terrace, NY – Vandals struck statues at St. Peter the Apostle Church. A statue of the Blessed Mother had the feet and hands broken off. A few feet away a statue of St. Anthony was decapitated. The statue of the Blessed Mother had been in the church garden since its founding.

March
Hollywood, CA – Residents of the Hollywood area received an anonymous mailing that showed a picture of the pope with the heading, “THE HEAD OF THE AXIS OF EVIL.” The mailing accused the pope of overpopulating the world, increasing AIDS, and creating a climate where priests rape little boys. It concluded, “Rent or watch ‘The Boys of St. Vincent’—a mini-series all about molestation that the pope and the Catholic League does not want you to see.” The mailing was purposefully dishonest, and clearly was meant to promote anti-Catholicism.

March 1
Los Angeles, CA – The California Court of Appeals ruled that an employee of a Catholic hospital in California had a right to conduct anti-Catholic proselytizing of co-workers and patients because he had a First Amendment right to “speak his mind.” The hospital claimed it had a right, as a religious institution, to choose its members and employees consistent with its religious mission. The case then went to the California Supreme Court.

March 22
Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, the most prolific attorney for those who claim to be victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests, announced a new plan of attack. Anderson filed suit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The law was written by Notre Dame professor G. Robert Blakely, who said it was aimed at fighting the mafia.

March 28
New York, NY – The Catholic League received at its New York headquarters a postcard of New York’s Episcopal Trinity Church. It was signed by the “Clergy of Trinity.” It read, “You are the true white sepulchers denounced by Christ Our Lord. SHAME ON YOU. And thank you for the true Protestant Reformation!!!!” Officials at the true Trinity Church in New York wrote to the Catholic League to condemn such hate messages.

April 3
Two civil lawsuits were filed naming the Vatican as a conspirator in the Church’s sex abuse scandal. Also named were the dioceses of Portland, Chicago and St. Petersburg, as well as two religious orders. The attorney filing the suits, Jeffrey Anderson, recently filed a RICO suit against former Palm Beach Bishop Anthony O’Connell, the aforementioned three dioceses where he served, and all American bishops. Past attempts to file suit against the Vatican failed.

May 31
Miami, FL – Vandals damaged or destroyed 80 headstones in the historic Woodland Park Cemetery. The perpetrators toppled statues of saints, cracked dozens of flower vases, split at least one marble crucifix in half and beheaded a statue of Jesus. Officials called it the worst case of vandalism at the cemetery in 97 years.

June 3
Tesuque Pueblo, NM – George Victor Downey and Jason Tapia set a fire that gutted the 87-year-old San Diego Catholic Church. The two men used candles and matches from the church to ignite a pile of vestments. They also decapitated statues of the Blessed Mother and saints and stole the tabernacle, thinking it contained money. Downey, an unconfirmed member of the American Indian Movement, stayed behind to watch the church burn, and afterwards told investigators, “That ain’t my [expletive] religion. It’s a slave religion.”

June 12
Los Angeles, CA – Emad Ibrahim Saad was convicted for the October 28, 2001 vandalizing of St. Augustine Church and School in Culver City. Saad decapitated a statue of the Blessed Mother, cut off the hand of a statue of St. Rita and stole a statue of Blessed Junipero Serra. He also dumped 2,000 copies of a magazine, stolen from a mosque, which declared, “Allah is the only true God.” The stolen statue was found at a Culver City mosque. Officials at the mosque apologized to the church, saying the vandalism attempted to cause a rift between them.

August
The website of Concerned Women for America offered the video “America, Israel & Islam,” by Dave Hunt, a fundamentalist Protestant who engages in anti-Catholic rhetoric. Other items by this author were also available. The video is rife with anti-Catholic statements. When a complaint was lodged with the organization, the video and the rest of Hunt’s merchandise were removed from the website.

August 31
Bellerose, NY – A 7-foot marble statue of St. Gregory the Great, which stood for 38 years in front of the parish and school that bear his name, was toppled and smashed into four pieces. The head of the statue, too heavy for one person to lift, had its nose smashed off. Grooves, apparently from chains, were cut into the statue’s shoulders.

August-September
The Catholic League received literally thousands of pieces of hate mail by phone, website and regular mail in the wake of the “Opie and Anthony” show being taken off the air. Included were every possible profanity and vile statements of hatred of the Church, Jesus, the Blessed Mother and Catholic practices. Most mentioned the sex abuse scandal. Included were: “I think I understand why the catholics [sic] are against abortion, every aborted fetus is one less child to molest.”; “[I] think the church should be cancelled due to pedophile priests.”; “Why dont [sic] you put your house in order first and get some priests that dont [sic] touch little boys!”; “I guess that the only people that could have sex in church are Priest [sic] with little boys”; “GO F— SOME MORE BOYS AND LEAVE OPIE & ANTHONY ALONE. YOU F—ING F—ER PERVERTS!”

September 1
Bayside, NY – Anti-Catholic graffiti was sprayed across the front and steps of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church. The graffiti referred to the abuse scandal.

September 7
New York, NY – A man got into an argument with the “Black Israelites” over their displaying of a picture of Jesus with horns. Eight members of the gang beat up the man, stomping on his head. He was taken to the hospital with severe head trauma.

September 16
Brooklyn, NY – At the Church of the Good Shepherd, vandals spray-painted swastikas and crude markings on the exterior walls and doors of the church and on an exterior statue of the Blessed Mother. This was the third Catholic church vandalized in the Diocese of Brooklyn in two weeks.

September 17
In Britain’s Guardian newspaper, actor Christopher Reeve accused President George W. Bush of bowing to Catholic interests on stem cell research. He charged that as a result of this alleged obstruction of research on the part of Bush and the Church, he was unnecessarily confined to a wheelchair; Reeve supports stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. He also saw another sinister aspect to the story: “We’ve had a severe violation of the separation of church and state in the handling of what to do about this emerging technology.” After the Catholic League brought attention to his comments, Reeve apologized on September 18.

September 19
The Catholic League received a fax in response to the league’s call for a “death chamber” in the NYC Museum of Sex. It said the Catholic Church should set up death chamber exhibits in churches exhibiting the Inquisition, Hitler, Jewish persecution and the “millions” of murders committed by the Church. Catholics are called “insane” for believing in God. The writer concludes “F— your God. To hell with your Holy Spirit,” because “you have used them to abuse humans….”

September 19
The Catholic League received a phone message in response to the league’s call for a “death chamber” in the NYC Museum of Sex: “The last death chamber I know is for the Jews in World War II and this was because of the Catholics. Every time I see a priest I chuckle because I know he wants to grab a little boy but he is not allowed to anymore.”

September 20
A postcard was received at the Catholic League with the picture of a half-dressed man and bearing the homosexual pink triangle. It said “Christianity like judaism [sic] & the Islamic Faiths should be outlawed. These 3 religions are the source of many major problems on earth.”

September 25
Rosedale, NY – At St. Clare’s Church, the third instance of vandalism in five weeks occurred. A garbage can was thrown at a large crucifix, smashing the arms of the figure of Jesus. A week before a beer bottle was thrown at a stained glass window, breaking its protective cover. On August 10 a wooden shrine to St. Therese was thrown over and broken.

October 8
Rosedale, NY – For the second time in as many weeks a crucifix was damaged at St. Clare’s Church. A blunt instrument was used to smash the statue of Jesus, but the metal rods installed after it was first vandalized kept it from falling to the ground.

October 14
Villanueva, NM – An outdoor shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe was vandalized. Statues of the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus were smashed. Devotional candles and rosary beads were broken and thrown to the ground.

October 31
San Francisco, CA – Among the Halloween costumes on the Castro, the San Francisco Chronicle reported there were “several nuns, at least one pope and even Mother Teresa. Nearby, someone draped a priest’s frock over a parking meter…”

November 1
Everett, MA – On the Feast of All Saints at Our Lady of Grace Church, vandals spray-painted the word “whore” on a statue of the Blessed Mother; they elsewhere painted the word “lies,” an inverted cross and a profanity. A former pastor of the church is accused of sexual abuse.

November 13
Chicago, IL – Mary Stachowicz, a member of St. Hyacinth Church and a volunteer at a funeral home, had an argument with the janitor, Nicholas Gutierrez, about his gay lifestyle. She asked him, “Why do you [have sex with] boys instead of girls?” This provoked Gutierrez to mutilate her with a knife, place a plastic garbage bag over her head, strangle her and then jam her body in a crawl space under the floor of his apartment. Gutierrez was not charged with a hate crime.

December 6
New York, NY – A Chick publication, “The Deceived,” was handed out at the subway station on East 14th Street. The pamphlet claims that the Catholic Church invented Islam as a way to enslave the Arabs.

December 22
New York, NY – A man poured gasoline on the front doors of the Church of the Holy Agony and set fire to them. The fire was quickly extinguished. There was some damage to the vestibule of the church, but not to the main body.

December 26
Fall River, MA – Figures were stolen from a nativity scene in front of St. Joseph’s Church. The large figures of the Christ Child, the manger, a Wise Man, two lambs, a sheep and an ox were taken.

December 27
Mount Healthy, OH – A 54-year-old nativity scene owned by the Paul R. Young Funeral Home was vandalized. The figure of the Christ Child was stolen and replaced by a stuffed monkey. The fingers of the other figures were broken off and the live animals used in the display were let loose into the streets.

December 27
Phenix City, AL – A manger that was displayed in front of St. Patrick’s Church was stolen. The figure of the Christ Child was thrown onto the back porch of the church.

December 27
Hollywood, FL – Brigitte Boisselier, the head of Clonaid, said her company was responsible for the world’s first cloned human baby; the company is tied to a religious group called the Raelians. Raelians have a history of anti-Catholicism. They advocate cross burnings to protest Catholicism; they’ve blanketed Canada telling Catholic schoolchildren they must renounce their faith; they’ve posted anti-Catholic signs outside Catholic schools; they’ve appealed to the U.N. to denounce the Holy See; they want the Vatican sued for “crimes against humanity”; and they’ve mocked Catholics during Gay Pride parades.

 This cartoon by Don Wright of the Palm Beach Post (1/16/02) ran in numerous newspapers including the New York Times. It viciously and untruthfully depicts Catholic moral teachings as enslaving women—a typical charge—except now it unfairly uses the sexual abuse scandal as a club. This was common in 2002.

The above cartoon by Mike Peters of the Dayton Daily News (2/10/02) ran in several nationwide newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. It charges that the Church considers ordaining women to be worse than child abuse. Again, the terrible circumstances of the scandal are exploited and used to advance a political agenda.

 This cartoon by Mike Luckovich was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution(2/25/02). It targets all bishops as delinquent in the handling of abusing priests. To target a particular bishop is one thing; to target all is bigotry.

This cartoon by Steve Benson appeared in the Arizona Republic (3/3/02) and other newspapers. It typifies the obscuring of the truth for political reasons. The cartoon says nothing about gay priests. Since 90 percent of the victims of abuse were male, the majority of the abusers were gay. Yet the artist would never admit this. Not one cartoon we reviewed in 2002 targeted gay priests—only priests in general.

Signe Wilkinson’s cartoon was published in the Philadelphia Daily News (3/13/02). It is typical of the false claim of critics of the Church during the sexual abuse scandal—the ordination of women would solve everything.

 

This cartoon by Michael Ramirez was published in the (4/27/02). It apparently implies that married priests won’t settle the abuse problem. What it avoids completely is that the majority of the abuse was committed by homosexual priests. This is something that was never a topic of cartoons.

 This cartoon by Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times (6/6/02) It falsely suggests that the Church condones child sexual abuse.

This cartoon by Mike Smith appeared in USA Today (6/6/02). Once again, a critic falsely interprets the bishops’ draft on the sexual abuse problem.

 

This cartoon by Mike Ritter appeared in several newspapers (syndicated, 12/9/02). It cruelly equates the Iraqi government with the Catholic Church.

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