We’ve had big years before, but never have we had more blockbuster victories than in 2007. And never before were we engaged in so many different types of controversies; the range of issues was truly impressive.

We usually don’t get involved in issues that don’t have an anti-Catholic element to them, leaving it to other activist groups to take on those matters. But after years of the Catholic Church being singled out for special retribution because of a small number of miscreant priests, our lid blew when we learned in January that Hollywood was trying to peddle a soft-child porn movie at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, “Hounddog,” featured 12-year-old Dakota Fanning playing a sexually promiscuous girl who is violently raped on the screen.

To demonstrate the utter hypocrisy at work, we decided to do more than protest; we decided to see whether the federal statutes on child pornography had been violated. So we asked the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division to investigate the matter. We were delighted to learn that the case was turned over to the FBI. We were just as happy to learn that because of our efforts, no distributor decided to touch this movie with a ten-foot pole.

More in our ballpark was the display of anti-Catholic posters on a billboard along Interstate 65 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, near the Indiana-Kentucky border. The posters featured anti-Catholic comments, courtesy of the Eternal Gospel Church, a breakaway sect of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. When we found out which billboard company allowed the bigoted remarks to be posted—CBS Outdoor—we decided to ask if we could post a statement of our own. It agreed. Well, almost.

After being nothing but cooperative, an official at CBS Outdoor got cold feet when we told him the content of our sign (we never indicated that we were upset with the Eternal Gospel poster). We wanted to post a billboard in the same area that said, “CBS Sponsors Anti-Catholicism.” When told that our request was denied, we issued a news release listing the e-mail address of the CEO of CBS Outdoor. They got the message and took down the anti-Catholic posters.

A much more serious issue occurred when we learned that presidential hopeful John Edwards had hired two women known for their anti-Catholic writings. Amanda Marcotte was hired as Blogmaster and Melissa McEwan was selected as the Netroots Coordinator. We managed to force the two of them out the door, but it wasn’t easy.

Marcotte had said things like, “the Pope’s gotta tell women who give birth to stillborns that their babies are cast into Satan’s maw,” and “the Catholic Church is not about to let something like compassion for girls get in the way of using the state as an instrument of force women to bear more tithing Catholics.” She was also capable of getting into the gutter: She asked, “What if Mary had taken Plan B after [here she described the Virgin Birth in vulgar terms],” to which she offered the reply, “You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.”

In her writings, McEwan had lashed out at the pope, Christians in general, and used vulgarities to trash the Catholic Church. “What don’t you lousy [expletive] understand about keeping your nose out of our britches, our beds, and our families?” She also used obscenities to describe herself.

Our first response was to say that “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots. He has no choice but to fire them immediately.” Edwards did just that. But then he rehired them. We then threw down the gantlet.

We contacted the New York Times and reserved a space on the op-ed page to run an ad on February 16. Titled, “Presidents’ Day Message: Courtesy of John Edwards,” it detailed some of the vile remarks made by Marcotte and McEwan. Then we hit a roadblock: the Times refused to print the vulgarities. So we resubmitted the ad leaving a blank space in the deleted area; we also mentioned that the newspaper wouldn’t print what the two women had written, but that interested readers could go to the Catholic League website to see what they said. Within minutes, we were told that the Times would run the ad as originally submitted.

Alas, the ad never appeared. That’s because the two foul-mouthed bigots were forced to quit just before the ad was about to run.

One of the biggest scams we’ve ever encountered surfaced when “Titanic” director James Cameron teamed up with TV-director Simcha Jacobovici to release a film claiming to have evidence of Jesus’ tomb; they said they had found the remains of Jesus and his family.

Our first reaction was “here we go again.” That’s because not a Lenten season goes by without some author, reporter or TV producer trying to cast doubt on the biblical account of Jesus. Our suspicions were confirmed when we quickly learned that Israeli archeologist Amos Kloner was in charge of the 1980 investigation of the tomb that Cameron-Jacobovici seized 27 years later to make their allegations. Kloner immediately said that their claims were completely bogus.

Other experts, like Rockefeller University archeologist Joe Zias, bluntly said that “Simcha has no credibility whatsoever.” To top it off, an Israel Antiquities Authority committee unanimously condemned the preposterous claim as a modern-day forgery. But it took a wave of media coverage, featuring the Catholic League’s input, before Cameron and company were discredited.

The Easter season proved to be a busy time for the Catholic League. During the first week of April, the Roger Smith Lab Gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City was set to display a 6-foot tall anatomically correct sculpture of Jesus in milk chocolate; the figure was depicted as crucified. But thanks to the Catholic League, the figure never saw the light of day.

When we learned that the “Chocolate Jesus” was to be displayed during Holy Week—at street level where children would have easy access—we hit the media with press releases galore. We also contacted some 500 organizations, representing a wide range of religious and secular institutions, to join with us in our protest. What pushed the exhibit over the top was the announcement that the public would actually be invited to take a bite of the sculpture.

It didn’t take long before a wave of public support for the Catholic League’s protest emerged. When I debated the artist, Cosimo Cavallaro, on radio and TV, I realized that his idea of art was nothing short of bizarre. He confessed that not only does he work with chocolate, he uses feces. When asked where he gets the feces, he said he uses his own.

Needless to say, the more the public learned of this exhibit, the more pressure was brought to bear on the hotel to cancel it. It did just that. As a coda to this story, it should be noted that when the same artist displayed his same work at the end of the year, the Catholic League did not complain. Why? Because it was shown at some second-rate gallery in New York and didn’t occur during a sacred time in the Church’s calendar. We also knew that Cavallaro wanted us to take the bait and give him plenty of free advertisement, so we decided to disappoint him.

Of all the TV shows in 2007 that gave air to relentless Catholic bashing, none approached the ABC program, “The View.” Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar, two angry ex-Catholics turned anti-Catholic, found it near impossible to discuss any subject that touched on Catholicism without going off the rails. They not only showed how utterly uninformed they are about their former religion, they showed how coarse and intolerant they are.

Things got so bad by the spring that we decided to launch a salvo of our own. Our target—Barbara Walters. Walters, to be fair, did not make anti-Catholic remarks on “The View,” but because she was co-producer and co-owner of the show, she was in a position to get the panelists to zip it. She obviously didn’t think this was her job. But when she read our ad on the op-ed page of the New York Times on June 12—detailing 15 incidents of Catholic bashing since Labor Day of the year before—it struck a chord. And that’s because we made her the subject of our ad, “What’s Happened to Barbara Walters?” She got the message: we didn’t hear an anti-Catholic peep out of the panelists for the rest of the year.

Fodor’s travel guides are known by millions as the premier reference source for tourists. Well-written and well-researched, they are a handy tool to have when traveling. Unfortunately, many of the guide books, especially those that cover countries with big Catholic populations, are laced with snide and wholly gratuitous slaps at Catholicism. No other religion is treated with such disrespect.

We decided to register a protest with the top brass at Fodor’s. What we got was a wholly professional response: the anti-Catholic remarks were acknowledged as such and a pledge to remove them from further printings was given. End of story.

We occasionally work with other organizations which share our values, even when there is no palpably anti-Catholic issue in play. So when I was asked by Beth Gilinsky, a friend and ally in the culture wars, to join with her group, the Jewish Action Alliance, to protest the Khalil Gibran International Academy in New York City, we looked into the issue and decided to get on board. What was at stake was the establishment of a publicly funded “Arabic-themed” school in New York City.

We wanted to know whether this was really an “Arabic” school or an Islamist school. We wanted to know why the woman who was named principal was an activist. We wanted to know why radical imams were listed on the school’s advisory board. We wanted to know what the curriculum was. We wanted to know why there is money in New York for this kind of school but not a dime for vouchers. And at every turn, we were stonewalled by the Department of Education. Hence, our willingness to join with our Jewish friends in opposing the school.

Our interest peaked when it was reported that the principal refused to condemn pro-terrorist T-shirts that her friends were hawking. On the front of the shirts it said, “NYC Intifada”; the term Intifada has been used to describe Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli Jews. After much controversy, the principal was forced to resign and reassurances were given that the school would not become a hotbed of radicalism.

From September through December, the Catholic League took on many issues, but none were more important than our twin boycotts: Miller beer and “The Golden Compass.” We won on both issues, but not without a struggle.

About a week before San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair took place on September 30, 2007, we learned that the gay S&M event was using a poster of half-naked men and women dressed in leather mocking the Last Supper. We also found out that the Miller Brewing Company was sponsoring the fair. Ergo, we asked for an apology and for Miller to pull its logo from the poster. After some initial resistance, we got what we wanted and considered this chapter closed. But we were wrong.

We soon found out that an anti-Catholic group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence—gay men dressed in habit—was to receive some of the proceeds from this event. So we asked for Miller to dissociate itself from the street fair. It refused. At that, we announced the start of a nationwide boycott of Miller beer.

Things worsened when we learned that at the fair, religious objects such as crucifixes were sold as sex toys. Moreover, a man dressed as Jesus, and a woman dressed as a stripper, were hoisted in cages above a Catholic church at the Sunday event. There was more. Incredibly, men had sex with each other in the street, masturbated in public and were whipped with chains in front of men, women and children. The police were under orders to arrest no one. They dutifully complied.

We decided to hit Miller on another front: we launched a PR campaign sending pictures of the depraved men to every Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim cleric in Milwaukee (home of Miller Brewing); secular institutions also received the mind-boggling pictures.

It took about six weeks before we got what we wanted: an apology for the anti-Catholic antics of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; an apology for the sacred symbols sold as sex toys; and an apology for the man and woman hoisted in cages above the church. Thus did we squeeze a total of four apologies from Miller (the first being for the poster).

What made the boycott work was people like Mike Setto, a Chaldean beer and liquor store owner from Michigan. He, and others in the Chaldean community, refused to stock Miller beer, causing consternation at Miller headquarters. And the PR campaign embarrassed the brewer to no end—pictures don’t lie. Yet without the support of Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim and Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the campaign against Miller would not have worked. They were both fantastic.

We closed the year with a successful boycott against “The Golden Compass.” From the beginning, our goal was to see to it that the film did not meet box office expectations, thus making it unlikely that there would be movies made of the second and third volumes of Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials. As it turned out, we crushed their numbers at the box office, throwing mud on the idea that future films based on Pullman’s work would be made.

The movie was never our central concern. Rather, it was the likelihood that unsuspecting Christian parents might be encouraged to buy the Pullman books as Christmas presents if their children liked the movie. After all, the producers and screenwriter openly admitted that they were watering down the most anti-Catholic elements of Pullman’s work. But as we said over and over again, the movie was bait for the books, and it was our judgment that most Christian parents would not want to introduce their children to the wonders of atheism and the horrors of Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism. At Christmastime, no less.

In other words, our mission was to give parents a big FYI, a sort of consumers alert—caveat emptor—so that they could make an informed decision. To that end, we published a booklet on “The Golden Compass” that unmasked Pullman’s agenda. We simply quoted what his friends and foes had to say about his writings, offering proof of his anti-Catholicism. Most significantly, we printed exactly what Pullman had to say about the subject, e.g., “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”

Perhaps the most revealing comments came from American Atheists and England’s National Secular Society: they blasted Pullman for giving his blessings to a movie adaptation of his book that didn’t sock it to the Catholic Church. I congratulated the leaders of both organizations on television for being honest bigots. And they certainly helped to make our point about the anti-Catholic nature of Pullman’s books, however unwittingly.

One more item. On April 5, 2007, policy analyst John Hogan came into my office to tell me that “South Park” made a cartoon character of me on an Easter show that aired the night before. Stunned, I accessed the show and found that my character—which did resemble me—was depicted chastising Pope Benedict XVI as being “too soft.” The show then had me ordering the arrest of both the pope and Jesus. After Jesus was killed by one of the show’s regulars, Kyle, he resurrects and kills me.

When asked about this on TV, I took it in stride wondering why anyone would really think I would be upset; some in the media wanted to know if I would sue Comedy Central. After all, I reasoned, this was the cartoon version of being lampooned, and to make anything more of it would smack of humorless. That was not my style. Indeed, I got a kick out of it.

So it was a huge year for the Catholic League. It most certainly will be one that those doing research on bigotry will find incredibly rich for many years to come.

January 5
Michigan – Michigan Atheists director Arlene Marie admitted that a letter sent by the group to the Howell School District, which stated that the curriculum of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools had been found unconstitutional in four states, was incorrect. Michigan Atheists, an affiliate of American Atheists, acknowledged that the curriculum had never been found unconstitutional.

January 10
Madison, WI – A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, thus allowing the Department of Veterans Affairs to ask about religion and provide pastoral care in treating ailing veterans. The Freedom From Religion Foundation claimed that the provision of pastoral services by the VA violated the separation of church and state. “The choice to receive spiritual or pastoral care, the choice to complete a spiritual assessment, and the choice to participate in a religious or spiritually based treatment program always remain the private choice of the veteran,” District Court Judge John Shabaz wrote. “Accordingly, there is no evidence of governmental indoctrination of religion.”

January 11
San Juan Capistrano, CA – Three local school board members attempted to rename the two-week winter vacation “Christmas Recess.” Anti-Defamation League national civil rights director Deborah Lauter objected to the renaming, claiming that Christian values were being placed above all others. “Public schools should seek to be welcoming and inclusive and respect all religion, or even those with no religion,” she said.

March 5
San Francisco, CA – The California Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling and allowed three Christian schools in the southern part of the state to borrow money from bonds issued by local governments. Although the funding was for buildings such as cafeterias and gymnasiums, the ACLU opposed the financing of the school because they claimed the state would have problems differentiating secular and religious instruction, and that the state Constitution forbids public funding of religion.

April
San Francisco, CA – Various homosexual activist groups including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (a group of gay men dressed as nuns) assaulted Christian sensibilities again during Holy Week. A bar called The Cat Club held a “Mondo Porno: Res-Erection” party with free pornography and sex-toy giveaways; those dressed in “religious garb” received an admission discount.  “Night of the Living Easter,” a zombie-themed performance, was held in Dolores Park. The Catherine Clark Gallery hosted a “Venus and Pope” exhibit that featured nude nuns in bondage. Terrence McNally’s notoriously anti-Catholic play “Corpus Christi” was performed at The Voice Factory.

April 6
Chicago, IL – A spokeswoman for the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee objected to a cross and an Easter sunrise service in Daley Plaza. “I’m not sure this belongs in the public square, and I’m uncomfortable with holding something that is essentially private worship there,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

April 17
San Francisco, CA – Planned Parenthood Golden Gate released a television ad featuring a couple being interrupted from having unprotected sex by their “guardian angel.” The angel, a sloppy-looking male, ate popcorn at the head of the bed, watching the couple in delight. A female angel appeared and urged the male angel to intervene. Using a TV remote, the male angel rewound the scene of the couple in bed. Starting over, the woman asked her male partner if he had any protection. After he answered, “Yeah, of course,” the woman responded, “Amen!”

April 18
Kutztown, PA – RepentAmerica, a self-described “evangelistic organization,” yelled out anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay comments during a gathering at Kutztown University.  The group was ordered off campus because they had not obtained a permit from the university to be there. The Reading Eagle reported the group’s anti-gay comments but not its anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic ones.

April 19
On the American Atheist website, blogger “Dave” wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion was “very bad news for all women in the United States, all gays and lesbians in the United States, and of course, anyone else not Catholic, especially Free-thinkers, Agnostics, and Atheists (Our Italics). “

May
Fillmore, NY – The Most Holy Family Monastery, a sedevacantist group, mailed out a DVD that was received by several Catholic League members. Two sermons on the DVD by Michael Dimond claim that Pope Benedict XVI is a heretic. Dimond falsely attributes numerous erroneous teachings to Benedict, including: Jesus may not be the Messiah; infant baptism has no purpose; the Bible is full of myths; and the Resurrection of the Body will not occur.

May
The Rainbow Sash Movement, a homosexual activist group, urged members around the country to wear rainbow-colored ribbons across their shoulders when receiving communion at Sunday Mass. Rainbow sash-wearing homosexuals have been denied communion in the past—not because they are homosexual, but because they have used the Eucharist to push a political agenda.

May 7
Sacramento, CA – During debate in the California legislature on a bill to legalize doctor-assisted suicide, Californians for Compassionate Choices said in a news release, “How can lawmakers follow the dictates of the Catholic Church rather than legislate on behalf of ALL Californians?”  Compassionate Choices claimed there is “a well-funded pressure campaign to force Vatican dogma on all terminally ill Californians.” The group also placed radio ads throughout California questioning the constitutional right of Catholic clergymen to speak to the issue of doctor-assisted suicide. The bill’s supporters in the legislature withdrew it from the floor when they realized that there weren’t enough votes to pass it.

May 16
Odessa, TX – The ACLU and People for the American Way filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight parents who claimed that an elective Bible study course in the Odessa school system violated their religious liberty. The parents were concerned that this course would have promoted religious beliefs that all of the students did not share. Despite the course being an elective the ACLU was afraid of religious indoctrination, calling the class, “Sunday school inside the walls of a public school.”

June
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide distributed the anti-Catholic tract “The Pope’s Secrets.” The tract accused the Vatican of assassinating Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy; controlling several U.S. government agencies including the IRS and the Department of Labor; running “slave labor camps;” and controlling law-enforcement agencies that forcibly place “the mark of the beast” on people’s.

June
New Brunswick, NJ – “Secrets of the Vatican,” a DVD by a conspiracy-theory group called Inner Light, lodged numerous inflammatory accusations against the Catholic Church. Among the charges: the Vatican houses a secret group of Satanists; it has knowledge of an approaching earth-destroying comet through a linkup with the Hubble telescope; it has a time machine through which it has gone back to witness Jesus’ crucifixion; and it is responsible for Lincoln’s assassination and the sinking of the Titanic. The group claims that the DVD was filmed with secret cameras inside the Vatican.

June 13
Maricopa County, AZ – A Maricopa County judge ruled that the state’s school choice programs for children with special needs and in foster care was constitutional. The ACLU, among other groups, filed a lawsuit in February alleging that the programs violated the state’s Constitution. It was the fifth time that school choice opponents had tried to eliminate these programs.

June 14
Boston, MA – A gay-marriage supporter held up a poster in front of the State House that depicted Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley muzzling the Statue of Liberty. The poster implied that the Catholic Church is a fascist organization that tries to stifle freedom.

June 24
San Francisco, CA – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay men dressed as nuns, provided security for the annual Gay Pride Parade.

July
Fallbrook, CA – The San Diego Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigrant group, targeted St. Peter’s Catholic Church for protests after the pastor, Father Edward “Bud” Kaicher, allowed church property to be used as a day-labor hiring site. The Minutemen displayed Father Kaicher in effigy as Satan, harassed Catholics going to Mass, and intimidated children on the day of their First Holy Communion.

On July 10, one day after the Catholic League issued a news release objecting to the Minutemen’s tactics, the group accused the league of creating “hatred amongst Catholics nationwide against Americans standing up for what’s right and legal.” It also accused the Catholic Church of “outrageous crimes and deeds.”

The Catholic League received a flurry of hate-filled screeds via telephone and email following our complaints about the Minutemen’s tactics, including:

٭ “I’d be putting a mine field on the border—warn them of course and then do it.”

٭ “You compound your embarrassing blindness by attacking the messengers of these facts with petty name calling, and even go so far as to call for a ‘Catholic Jihad’ against those who are concerned about the impact that these very real issues will have….”

٭ “I am also very angry that you’re issuing your news releases in Spanish! Why does the Catholic League need to explain itself to these people!”

٭ “By this sweeping and arrogant elitist attack on the people who oppose the illegal invasion of our country from the south, you are putting yourself in the same league with the overwhelming leftist, gay-friendly, California Amchurch hierarchy which hopes to replenish its dwindling flocks with illegal Mexicans.”

July 28
Arcata, CA – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay men dressed in nuns’ habits, held a barbeque at the Mad River Pump Station to mark the first anniversary of the group’s Humboldt chapter, “Abbey of the Big Red Wood.” The Eureka Times Standard reported that the barbeque featured “the quirky entertainment of dozens of queer nuns.”

September 8
Slidell, LA – The ACLU filed a lawsuit against a judge who refused to remove a portrait of Jesus from inside the courthouse. While the ACLU called the display an endorsement of religion by the government, the judge called the accusation nonsense.

Following the lawsuit the judge had portraits of Confucius, Hammurabi, Moses, and John Marshall put up alongside that of Jesus. He hoped that this move would reassure doubters that the court had no intention of endorsing Christianity, but to demonstrate those who had a profound effect on law. The ACLU still wanted the picture of Jesus removed because they saw the addition of the other portraits as a way to cover up the religiosity of the court.

Following the addition of these other portraits, U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle said that the picture could stay because one could assume that it served a secular purpose

September 21
Albany, NY – New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines unilaterally rejected $3.5 million a year in federal funds for abstinence-only sex education programs, a move that the Catholic League pointed out would primarily affect Catholic institutions.

Bill Donohue wrote to every member of the New York State Senate, asking them to introduce legislation that would reinstate the funding for abstinence programs. Donohue pointed out that Dr. Daines’ ruling was rendered on the very same day that a New York Civil Liberties Union report claimed that federal funding to schools promoting abstinence smacks of religious bias. The NYCLU report said that 53 percent of schools receiving abstinence-only funding are religious, causing Donohue to maintain that the group’s claim of religious bias was “pure conjecture.”

Donohue added that Daines’ ruling would cause Catholic schools to either violate their doctrinal prerogatives and accept federal money, or abide by Catholic teachings and suffer for doing so.

September 27
Las Cruces, NM – The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear an appeal by a local man seeking to have three crosses removed from the city’s official logo. A federal judge had dismissed the man’s lawsuit in 2005, ruling that the crosses reflected the city’s historical heritage and did not endorse religion.

October
Osceola County, FL – Americans United for Separation of Church and State told county commissioners to stop praying during public meetings. The Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that legislative prayer was permissible so long that it did not endorse any particular religion. The commissioners told those who were offended by their prayer that they could leave the chambers and return when the prayers were completed.

October 2
Harlan, KY – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against Harlan County Schools regarding a “Foundation of American Law and Government” display that included the Ten Commandments. The display also featured such images as the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, and the Mayflower Compact.

November 21
Salt Lake City, UT – A federal judge ruled that the crosses placed along the Utah highways do not violate the U.S. Constitution. American Atheists Inc. had demanded that the crosses, which commemorate state troopers who have died in the line of duty, be removed from public property.

December
Planned Parenthood e-mailed its supporters a Christmas card titled, “Choice on Earth.” The e-mail had an accompanying video named “Moments that inspired us in 2007.” One of the highlights of their year was the opening of a new clinic in Aurora, Illinois, a town that is heavily Latino. This is significant because it reinforces Planned Parenthood’s reputation as a eugenics-driven organization.

January 17-21
Cincinnati, OH – The Annie Hendy play “The Catholic Girl’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity” was performed at the Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park. The play is about a 24-year-old Catholic woman who is determined to lose her virginity by her 25th birthday after she finds out her priest is having better sex than she is.

January 19-February 4
Albuquerque, NM – The Desert Rose Playhouse hosted “Agnes of God,” a play based on the notoriously anti-Catholic movie by the same name. In “Agnes of God,” a novice nun gives birth in a convent and claims that the baby, who is murdered, was the result of a virgin conception.

February 13-25
West Los Angeles, CA – A touring production of the musical “Altar Boyz” opened at the Wadsworth Theatre. The show is about an all-male band that sings “Christian-themed” songs that actually ridicule Christianity. In one song, a gay band member sings, “Your posse might not think it’s dope/if you confess you like the pope.” The choreography in “Altar Boyz” sometimes involves the performers striking crucifixion poses.

February 18-March 11
Indian Head, MD – The Black Box Theatre hosted “Agnes of God,” a play based on the notoriously anti-Catholic movie.

March
New York, NY – “Stairway to Hell,” a death-metal musical featuring a rock band whose members are killed in an on-stage accident, was performed at a bar called Snitch. On the journey to the afterlife, the band members mistakenly end up in Heaven instead of Hell. They convince the Devil to allow them one more concert on Earth to prove to him that they belong in Hell.

During the show, the band members are told they can’t go to Hell because one of them is too pure. A set of Rosary beads is pulled out of one band member’s anus. When a Jesus-character appears, he is beaten by Satan and the band members, and has his spinal cord ripped out.

March 27
Pasadena, CA – “The Comedy Jesus Show,” a one-man standup comedy act with ex-fundamentalist Troy Conrad as Jesus, opened at The Ice House; it played in six other cities in the U.S. and Canada through September.

The act featured Jesus answering questions from the audience, including:

٭ Question: “Why are Christians taught that premarital sex is bad?”

Jesus: “Because the church wants 10% of your money and this is how they guilt you out of it!”

٭ Question: “How come dogs can lick their n**s, but men can’t?”

Jesus: “You can if you believe you can, if you have the faith of a mustard seed!”

٭ Question: “Did the nails hurt?”

Jesus: “F***ing-A, they hurt!”

The “Comedy Jesus Tour” web site links to several short videos on the Internet, including:

٭ “Disclaimer for the Bible,” a mock TV ad saying that reading the Bible may cause a variety of conditions including bigotry, homophobia, sexism, and mass murder

٭ “Jesus’ Bad Day,” which mixes scenes from “The Passion of the Christ” with clips of the “Comedy Jesus” character falling off a bike, dropping an ice cream cone, and stubbing his toe

٭ “Jesus doesn’t like the iPhone,” in which Jesus become irritated at someone’s iPhone ringing while he tries to pray as he hangs on the cross

March-April
New York, NY – A six-foot anatomically correct sculpture of a naked Jesus made out of chocolate, created by artist Cosimo Cavallaro, was scheduled for display during Holy Week at the Roger Smith Hotel art gallery. The hotel planned to display the sculpture on street level where it would be visible through windows; the public was invited to eat the Jesus figure.

Cavallaro’s “My Sweet Lord” (altered for publication)

The Catholic League contacted 500 allied organizations in the religious and secular communities, asking them to join in a boycott of the Roger Smith Hotel. The hotel was soon bombarded with angry phone calls and e-mails, which led to a sharp rise in Catholic League membership as well as a surge in hate mail received (see below for a sampling).

The hotel cancelled the “Chocolate Jesus” exhibit two days before its scheduled opening—but not before Matt Semler, the hotel gallery’s creative director, accused the Catholic League of employing “hate speech” and engaging in a “fatwa” against the hotel. He resigned in protest.

When Donohue debated Cavallaro on a Los Angeles radio show, the artist admitted he had created sculptures with his own feces. Donohue responded, “You have just given new meaning to the term ‘B.S. artist’.”

Catholic League representatives granted numerous interviews to the broadcast and print media on the “chocolate Jesus” sculpture. They noted that not one newspaper or TV station in the country showed the entire sculpture.

March 6
San Francisco, CA – A touring production of “Altar Boyz” opened at the Orpheum Theatre.

March 15-16
Kirkland, WA – The Kirkland Performance Center hosted “Bigger Than Jesus,” a one-man play by actor Rick Miller. The performance center’s website described the play this way: “Two thousand years after his death, Jesus continues to be a potent and controversial figure, inspiring both devout worship and incalculable violence. Who was Jesus? Was he the Son of God or just another prophet? A politically correct social worker or the Messiah? This challenging new one-man show features the trademark humor and intelligence of Rick Miller as he grapples with these thorny questions.”

In the piece, Miller sings a satirized parody called “Gethsemene,” and includes Darth Vader, John Lennon and Judy Garland at the Last Supper.

April
Los Angeles, CA – “Christ Killa,” created by digital and video artist Eric Medine, was featured at the Niche.LA Video Art Gallery. The audience was invited to play a video game and shoot “homicidal Jesus Christs.” The person with the most “Christ-kills” was awarded a trophy. The game landscape featured Christian themes including an image of St. Peter’s Basilica.

April
Brooklyn, NY – Like The Spice Art Gallery exhibited “Organized Religion,” a collection of works dealing with religious beliefs. It included a statue of Mary painted black with obscenities written on it, and a photograph of a crucifix with Santa Claus hanging on it instead of Jesus.

May 11-12
Taos, NM – Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More, a book by “lesbian Christian author” Kittredge Cherry, was exhibited at the National Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art. The book features images of Jesus with contemporary gay people, a “faggot crucifixion,” a sculpture of “a nude Adam and the new Adam,” and a female Jesus. “These new images are much needed now because Christian rhetoric is used to justify discrimination against women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” said Cherry. “Christ belongs to everyone. The gay Jesus and the woman Christ are here to free and empower people who feel left out when Jesus is presented as a straight man.”

June
New York, NY – The New York Philharmonic performed the opera “Sancta Susanna” at the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In the opera, while Sister Klementia and Sister Susanna prayed in the convent chapel, Klementia told Susanna that years before, she saw another nun strip naked and embrace the crucified Jesus on the cross. Susanna then disrobed and approached the crucifix. The other nuns entered the chapel and condemned Susanna as “Satana,” a devil.

We wrote to Zarin Mehta, president and executive director of the New York Philharmonic, asking him why the Philharmonic had the audacity to insult Catholics this way. Mehta never responded.

June
Burbank, CA – A play called “Dusk,” in which a woman sues the Catholic Church after her son’s suicide, was performed at the Grove Theater Center. In the play, the woman’s son had been molested by a priest and started using drugs before he killed himself. The play’s writer, James McLindon, also wrote “The Garden of Dromore” (another play involving sex abuse in the Church) and “The Ballad of Father Gallagher.”

June
State College, PA – “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” was hosted by the Millbrook Playhouse. The play cruelly caricatures nuns and priests, and ridicules Catholic sacraments.

June 22
Saugatuck, MI – The anti-Christian musical “Altar Boyz” made its regional premier at the Mason Street Warehouse Theater.

July 13
Lawrence, KS – The Jackpot Music Hall hosted the play “Naughty Needles Knitted Burlesque Revue.” One of the acts, “Nasty Habit,” featured a woman dressed as a nun who took off her habit to reveal a devil costume described by the Kansas City Star as “sultry.”

All of the proceeds from the show went to Planned Parenthood.

August
San Francisco, CA – “The Big Voice: God or Merman?” was performed at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. The two-man play, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “very funny chamber musical about growing up gay and religious,” stars gay men who grew up Baptist and Catholic respectively. In the play, one character achieves a “spiritual epiphany” during a religious pilgrimage when he sees a performance by Ethel Merman.

August
Culver City, CA – The play “Bob and Ed’s Discount Enlightenment Warehouse” played at the Fanatic Salon Theater. In the play, Bob and Ed are “con men” who sell “self-help theologies.” Members of a dysfunctional family named Larson, described in the play as Catholic, came to the “warehouse outlet” one by one looking to buy religious truth. God appeared as a sex-addicted man who is furious at people who don’t believe in him or who blame him for the world’s problems; he tried to seduce Mrs. Larson in a bar.

September 22 – October 7
St. Louis, MO – The anti-Christian musical “Altar Boyz” opened at the Repertory Theatre.

October 12
Sarasota, FL – The anti-Christian musical “Altar Boyz” opened at the Florida Studio Theatre.

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“Chocolate Jesus” Hate Mail and Phone Calls

The Catholic League was deluged with nasty phone calls and hate mail after we succeeded in having the Roger Smith Hotel “Chocolate Jesus” sculpture exhibit cancelled in April. Here is just a small sample.

Phone calls

* “Good Lord! A chocolate Jesus with a penis! I think your Catholic League would do better to worrying about the priests touching the penises of young boys…”

* “There should be a chocolate Virgin Mary, a chocolate Joseph…you guys need to get a little bit more real about yourselves because your religion is as silly as Winnie the Pooh. It has no respect in the real world. Artists do what they want; you guys just worship a silly God…”

* “I express disagreement with your organization. When I heard that people from my church called and issued death threats, I thought of the times of the Inquisition where people were burned at the stake for having different beliefs. This sculpture isn’t bad. It’s from a different artistic point of view. Instead of criticizing this sculpture, maybe you folks should go after the Vatican for having sexually perverse pictures in its museum!”

* “You’re no better than the Taliban, I’m sorry to say.”

* “I was born and raised a Catholic and I am happy to say that I’m a recovering Catholic and your immaculate misconception is further being exhibited today with your denial of culture of Christ, in chocolate of all things!”

* “He [Bill Donohue] should worry about the pedophilia that’s rampant in the Church and not a statue of Jesus who’s naked…Worry about the pedophilia and stealing in your own church! It’s a free country and people can look at whatever they want. Catholic people are no longer ignorant as they were when they came off the boat!”

* “Yeah, I just like to say I think your organization is reprehensible especially in regards to the display at the Roger Smith Hotel in the gallery. Your organization, Mr. Donohue, are nothing but a bunch of thuggish terrorists, which is obvious from your members because you are the premier organization basically leading the charge trying to get this exhibit stopped. It had to be your members making all these phone calls to the Roger Smith Hotel threatening their lives and such. Your organization is just despicable beyond belief and the fact that you cloak yourselves in religion, as if you’re holy, makes it even more sick! You’re a terrorist organization and a bunch of thuggish, low-life scumbags!”

* “I would like to urge the Catholic League to press hard and stop with the molestation within the Church. At this point in history, the Church is now a criminal institution, which has been harboring pedophiles for years…Is he [Bill Donohue] working as hard on the problem within his Church, which is hurting so many people in such a despicable, horrifying, devilish, evil, satanic, blasphemous way? There is nothing as worse as the abuse of innocent children sexually by the Catholic Church so can you please focus on this instead of statues of Jesus? May God bless you and save you! I wonder what sins you have Mr. Donohue? I think we are going to start investigating that!”

* “I’ve been a Catholic all my life and I’m appalled by Mr. Donohue’s actions…”

* “I would like to comment on Bill Donohue’s remarks. I saw him getting worked up on this chocolate Jesus statue on TV, which I think is very hypocritical. Maybe he should be more concerned with priests f**king little boys than over an anatomically correct, naked statue of Jesus. I personally wonder who is going to s**k Jesus’ c**k! HEE HEE HEE, I CRACK ME UP!”

* “Organized religion is false and everyone who follows it is lost. Jesus Christ was an [inaudible] and we are probably too, so f**k you!”

Emails

All misspellings, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical errors are included.

* “I was completely disappointed in Bill Donohue’s behavior on ‘Anderson Cooper 360°’ tonight concerning the naked chocolate Jesus. His comments were ungodly, childlike, and embarrassing. As the president of the Catholic League, I pray that he will be more Christlike—full of compassion and mercy and be reminded that those in the Bible prayed for God to ‘have mercy on people because they do not know what they do.’ They did not say to attack verbally.”

* “Why did you bow down to that stinking pile of human s**t Donahue? That slimy Irish pig should take the jesus statue and shove it up his wife’s dried up c**t along with Bush! As for the pope, that old f**king drag queen…should take his beliefs and sit on it… Religious should be outlawed and taxed.”

* “I just saw Anderson Cooper. Bill Donahue, what can I say—I have never been so ashamed to be a Catholic. I am truly amazed that the corporeal nature of Christ, as specifically understood through Catholic doctrine, not only goes unrecognized but is violently, (yes violently, Donahue words were as hateful as I have ever heard within a ‘Defense’ of religion; truly unchristian) disputed by a so-called mouth-piece of Catholicism. Your organization has moved form that which was tolerable, irrelevance, to what is intolerable, a hateful, un-Christian presence. Your organization, and your surrogate Donohue, makes me regret the years I have spent in the service of the Church. I plan to speak to my pastor Sunday as I hope many others are.”

* “How many children did the Catholic Church RAPE? How many child rapists did you protect?”

* “Well leave it to the biggest hypocrites on the planet to once again censor the arts! I saw the sculpture. What’s the problem? Is it the dark skin, heaven forbid. Jesus look like an African American, does a sculpture have to be made of marble, stone, wood for it to be acceptable. Or maybe it’s the nudity? …Whatever the case, maybe The Catholics should be more concerned with stopping pedophile priests, than banning the arts. Instead you try to cover the truth with high powered lawyers and protect pedophiles by moving the to different parishes where they can continue to molest young children…”

* “So is this an attack on Catholics? I can only hope so. Every Catholic I have ever met has been a complete hypocrite, then again everything about your faith contradicts itself.”

* “I was born and raised Catholic, and the years of attending Catholic School I only really learned one thing about Religion and that is, all organized Religion is evil and that Catholics are the biggest offenders. Throughout the ages you have killed and maimed in the name of Christ. What kind of an “all loving God” would condone such a thing? My years in Catholic school were horrific. The methods of fear and guilt, still used to indoctrinate small children into your faith is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. My parents after years have apologized for raising me Catholic, I have forgiven them. They no longer support or donate to your religion. I can only hope that more and more people do the same. A world without Catholicism will truly be a better place for everyone…you have become your own worst enemy. I read with joy everyday in the papers to see more and more Catholic schools and churches being closed. The school that I was forced to go to as a child will be closed this year, and I believe that is a great thing. No more will smack children be made to feel guilty and fearful so you can keep your horrific anti-vision alive.

“So label me a sinner, sentence me to hell for all eternity. If the alternative is going to be haven and spending eternity with pedophiles, murders, hypocrites and liars like I find most Catholics to be. I will openly choose hell. However anyone with any sense knows that Hell is what you have created for us here on Earth.

“I now proudly support Atheism and will continue to fight to have Religious symbolism removed from public places, prayer taken out of public schools and to keep Church and State separate.

“Please continue to make statements to the media condemning the arts, while protecting pedophiles. It makes my work and the work of many others much easier.

January
Los Angeles, CA – Jaguar Distribution, a company that edits movie content for airlines’ onboard entertainment, edited the word “God” out of the film “The Queen.” After a public outcry, unedited versions of the film were sent out to airlines to replace the edited version.

January
Seattle, WA – Accoutrements, a novelty toy company, advertised two items on its website called “Nunchuck” and “Nunzilla.” “Nunchuck” is a plastic toy gun that catapults little toy nuns from it. “Nunzilla” is a plastic wind-up toy nun, in full habit and clutching a ruler,  that spits sparks from its mouth as it moves forward.

January 22
Providence, RI – The Trinity Brewhouse hosted a party that “welcomes Catholics to a free choice celebration marking the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.” Rhode Island State Senator Joshua Miller owns the pub. Roger Limoges of the notorious pro-abortion group Catholics for a Free Choice, which has twice been denounced by the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference as a fraud, spoke at the event. In conjunction with the event, the pub posted on its website a picture of the Last Supper with various American celebrities substituting for Christ and the apostles.

January 22
Phoenix, OR – Ephemera, Inc., a company that produces novelty items, featured items such as a magnet that reads, “I gave my body to Jesus but now he never calls” and one with the image of the Virgin Mary and the caption, “Member of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Shopping.”

February
An English company called Made by Niki launched its “Rosary Collection” in stores worldwide. The company claimed the collection came with instant redemption because it featured Swarovski crystal and Czech glass Rosary necklaces suspended from straps or chastity belts, or worn separately.

February
Elk Grove Village, IL – Collections Etc. sold on its website a “Cat Nativity” scene, with figurines of cats replacing the Holy Family.

February 6
Jeffersonville, IN – CBS Outdoor, a division of the CBS Corporation, posted anti-Catholic billboard ads on the Indiana-Kentucky border along Interstate 65. The Eternal Gospel Church, a breakaway sect of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, bought the ads. The Eternal Gospel Church is an anti-Catholic group that, in the billboard ads, accused the Pope of being the Antichrist.

In response, the Catholic League contacted CBS Outdoor asking them to post a billboard ad in the same area that read, “CBS Sponsors Anti-Catholicism.” After the request was denied, the Catholic League posted the e-mail address of Wally Kelly, the CEO of CBS Outdoor, in a February 6 news release. After being bombarded with letters of protest, Kelly contacted the Catholic League and said the Eternal Gospel Church ads would come down the next day.

Billboards on Interstate 65 along the Indiana-Kentucky border. MMM is 666 on the telephone, a.k.a. “The Mark of the Beast.”

February 21
South Carolina – A Catholic member of the state Highway Patrol was ordered by his supervisor to remove ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday, on the grounds that the ashes violated uniform policy.  The trooper refused to remove the ashes and completed his shift without incident.

April
Sewickley, PA – We received several complaints about a portrait of Pope Pius XII hanging near a urinal in the men’s room of the Sewickley Café.  We sent the café’s owner several copies of the league’s reader, Pius XII and the Holocaust, and asked him to make them available to patrons.  “You have said you thought the portrait would make an impression on visitors walking into the men’s room,” we wrote. “[We are] confident that reading about Pius’ works will have a more profound and lasting effect.”

May
Washington Mutual Bank ran radio advertisements on the west coast portraying a ruler-wielding nun as a mortgage lender. A man asked the nun questions about getting a mortgage, to which she answered “no” and hit him with the ruler. A public-relations official at the bank called the Catholic League to apologize and said that the ads would be pulled.

July 
American Greetings featured several greeting cards that were offensive to Catholics. One card featured two nuns lifting up the skirts of their habits while wading into a lake; one nun said, “Why wouldn’t Mother Superior let us wear a bikini?” and the second nun replied, “Don’t worry, the seminary is across the lake.”  Another card had three nuns on the front; the first nun said “Loud, raucous music,” the second nun said, “Excessive drinking,” and the third said, “Lewd, unspeakable acts;” the inside of the card said, “Sounds like your birthday’s going to be one heck of a good time.”

July 8
Santa Fe, NM – The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Seams Unusual, a custom-clothing shop, created “a slew of naughty nun outfits” for an event at a local bar.

August
New York, NY – Manhattan Mini Storage placed a billboard on Manhattan’s West Side Highway in August that showed a large wire hanger with the inscription, “Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose.” The Catholic League took exception to the company’s crude cultural commentary, as well as its depiction of the pro-life community, which is primarily Catholic and Protestant, as oppressive.

Manhattan Mini Storage displayed this crude billboard in order to take a cheap shot at the pro-life community while promoting its business.

September
Milwaukee, WI & San Francisco, CA – A logo for Miller beer appeared on a poster advertising the Folsom Street Fair, a gay sadomasochistic street festival held annually in San Francisco. The Catholic League issued a news release on September 25 calling on Miller to have its logo removed from the poster, which featured half-naked gay men mocking the Last Supper with sex toys on a table standing in for bread and wine. The next day, Miller issued a statement saying that it had asked the fair’s organizers to remove its logo from the poster.

We then learned that one of the charitable beneficiaries of the Folsom Street Fair was a group of gay men known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who dress in mock nuns’ habits and ridicule the Church. Featured at the fair were sex toys in the shape of Catholic items, such as crucifixes and rosaries. We alerted Miller to this and asked that the company withdraw its financial support of the fair, but it refused.

The Catholic League demanded an apology for four offenses: The Last Supper poster; the antics of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; the selling of religious objects as sex toys; and the hoisting of a woman stripper and a man dressed as Jesus in cages over a Catholic church on Sunday.

We quickly received an apology for the first offense but Miller refused to extend an apology for the other three. Therefore we launched a two-prong protest: A boycott of Miller beer and an anti-PR campaign of the brewing company.

The latter consisted of a mass mailing, to religious and secular leaders in Milwaukee, of photos of men having sex in the street and other incredibly lewd behavior.

Once Miller granted an apology for the remaining three offenses, we ended our protest.

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Miller’s Sponsorship of Anti-Catholicism

In late September the Catholic League launched a boycott of Miller Brewing Company over its refusal to withdraw its support of San Francisco’s sadomasochistic and anti-Christian Folsom Street Fair. Here is a chronological rundown of our campaign against Miller.

September 25: “We have contacted Miller Brewing and expect that they will cooperate and do what is ethically right.”
—Bill Donohue, regarding Miller Brewing’s logo on a Folsom Street Fair featuring half-naked gay men mocking the Last Supper

September 26: “We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately.”
—Miller Brewing news release

September 26: “Tomorrow night, the group that Miller is funding via the festival will hold ‘The Last Supper With the Sisters,’ an event that will ridicule this sacred moment in history. Indeed, on its website it describes this sick stunt as the best way ‘to prepare your mortal flesh for the kinkiest weekend on Earth.’ (Its emphasis.)”
—Bill Donohue, referring to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay men who dress up as nuns and ridicule the Catholic Church

September 26: “Apparently, Miller has decided to side with a small band of depraved and bigoted gays against Catholics (25 percent of the population) and Protestants (60 percent of the nation). This is an ethical and marketing fiasco of colossal proportions…. The collision course that Miller wants with Christians is now on.”
—Bill Donohue, after the Catholic League learned that Miller decided to continue its sponsorship of the Folsom Street Fair

September 27: “Miller leaves us with no options: we are calling on more than 200 Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu organizations to join with us in a nationwide boycott of Miller beer. We feel confident that once our religious allies kick in, and once the public sees the photos of an event Miller is proudly supporting, the Milwaukee brewery will come to its senses and pull its sponsorship altogether.”
—Bill Donohue, after Miller again refused to withdraw support of the fair even after learning that some money raised at the event was going to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

September 28: “Miller Brewing will now be known as S&M Miller, and that is because it has apparently decided to drop anchor with the sadomasochistic festival that it is proudly sponsoring on Sunday [Sept. 30] at the Folsom Street Fair…. If S&M Miller doesn’t pull its sponsorship, we will announce a game plan on Monday that will make the company regret it ever decided to insult Christians.”
—Bill Donohue, on Miller’s continued refusal to drop its support of the fair

October 1: “We regret that our failure to adhere to our own policy led to an inappropriate use of our trademark and apologize to anyone who was offended as a result, particularly members of the Christian community who have contacted us to express their concern. We are conducting an immediate audit of our procedures for approving local marketing and sales sponsorships to ensure that this does not happen again.”
—Miller Brewing news release

October 1: “We called Miller today asking for clarification of this statement, and we are pleased to note that a full-scale review of all its promotional policies is underway…. We expect that Miller will resolve this issue before too long.”
—Bill Donohue, responding to Miller’s statement

October 4: “If Miller wants to be so bold as to throw Catholics and Protestants overboard for the sake of siding with the most morally depraved persons in our society—persons with whom no self-respecting heterosexual or homosexual would ever associate—then it must suffer the consequences. The boycott is on, and now the campaign to blanket religious and secular leaders in the Milwaukee community with the evidence of Miller’s complicity in this sordid affair has begun.”
—Bill Donohue, after Miller failed to promise never again to sponsor an anti-Christian event

October 9: “It is hard to imagine the Coors family, with its stellar reputation, as well as the Molson’s, a distinguished Canadian family, wanting to support public displays of religious bigotry and sodomy. That is why we are asking them to carefully examine Miller’s promotional policies and pledge that sponsorship of these kinds of morally indefensible events will never happen again.”
—Bill Donohue, after Miller and Molson Coors Brewing announced they would combine U.S. operations as early as the end of 2007

October 23: “I would like to apologize to anyone who felt that the image was disgraceful to their religious beliefs. Indeed, the poster was created in order to affirm our community, not to disgrace anyone else. No malicious intent was involved…. The mission [of the fair] is to create volunteer-driven leather events that provide the adult alternative lifestyle community with safe venues for self-expression while emphasizing freedom, fun, frolic and fetish and raising funds to benefit charity.”
—Andy Cooper, president of the Folsom Street Fair Board of Directors, explaining a promotional poster for the fair that mocked the Last Supper

October 24:  “We are not asking for much. Just as important, we will not settle for less. Any corporation that sponsors events that belittles people on the basis of religion is no better than one that belittles people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation. Why this even has to be argued is testimony to the incredible double standard at play in our society.”
—Bill Donohue, once again calling on Miller to pledge never to support anti-Catholic events such as the Folsom Street Fair; at this point Miller had only yanked its logo from an offensive poster promoting the fair, not its sponsorship of the fair itself

October 25: “The poster was the least offensive part of this Catholic-bashing forum. What was even more offensive was the sight of Christian symbols being sold at this Miller-sponsored fair as sex toys. The obscene and blasphemous names of these vulgar sex toys are so disgusting that no mainstream newspaper would print them. Then there was the incredible sight of a stripper and a man dressed as Jesus hoisted in cages above a Catholic church on a Sunday. This was done to provoke, taunt and insult Catholics…. The Folsom Street Fair news release on this subject shows how utterly clueless its officers are.”
—Bill Donohue, rejecting Cooper’s apology because it did not address the anti-Catholic acts and objects that permeated the Folsom Street Fair

October 26:  “Miller Brewing Company today issued a formal apology for the offense caused by the use of Miller brand logos on a poster promoting the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. The company said it has taken action to ensure that such an incident will not happen again.”
—Miller Brewing news release apologizing once again for the company’s logo appearing on the offensive Folsom Street Fair poster

October 29: “They either don’t get it or they think we’re stupid. Miller’s latest apology is nothing but a rehash of what it has been saying all along—it limits its apology to the use of its logo on the offensive Last Supper promotional poster for the Folsom Street Fair. But it still refuses to apologize for the anti-Catholic nature of the event itself. As we have repeatedly said, sacred symbols were sold as sex toys at the Miller-sponsored event, a stripper and a man dressed as Jesus were hoisted in cages above a Catholic church on a Sunday, and men mocked nuns in the street. Evidently, Miller thinks these kinds of things are okay.”
—Bill Donohue, rejecting Miller’s apology for failing to address the core issues regarding the anti-Catholic nature of the fair

October 30: “We are aware of other disrespectful activities, objects and groups associated with or present at the fair which, like the promotional poster, violate our marketing policies. We extend our original apology to include these unfortunate events and items as well.”
—Miller Brewing Vice President Nehl Horton

October 31:  “The Catholic League is happy that Miller has reconsidered this ugly issue and has no plans to revisit it again…. Now it’s time for everyone who enjoys Miller beer to resume consumption again.”
—Bill Donohue, accepting Mr. Horton’s October 30 apology and ending the boycott

The poster advertising the Folsom Street Fair.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, one of the charitable beneficiaries of Miller’s support of the Folsom Street Fair.

A stripper in a cage hoisted over a Catholic church at the Folsom Street Fair. Sex toys in the shapes of crosses and other religious imagery could be found at the fair, which also featured public acts of sodomy.

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October
Medford, NY – Residents at a gated community, Country Pointe at Coram, were told to remove religious statues from gardens and other common areas, or else face a fine. The ban did not apply to the display of non-religious items, calling the rule’s legality into question. The Catholic League urged residents who had a grievance to contact the New York State Division of Human Rights; the league told the media that “this confrontation could have been avoided altogether had respect for diversity been operative.”

October
Spirit Halloween (a division of Spencer Gifts) carried particularly offensive costumes this Halloween. “Happy Priest” was a costume of a priest with an erection, and “Thank You Father Nun” depicted a pregnant nun.

October
Bolingbrook, IL ― The Evil Intentions house featured “skeletons dressed as priests and nuns-crucified upside down” as well as “dead babies strung up on barbed wire.”

October
Grayslake, IL ― The Dungeon of Doom haunted house had a crewmember dressed “as a priest with a large, bloody cross ‘burned’ on his forehead.”

January
Fayetteville, AR – A photo of an outhouse that looked somewhat like a church, with the caption “Jesus Saves!  And this is where He does it,” appeared on a University of Arkansas Press brochure enclosure. The enclosure featured history textbooks, thus making the photo and caption uncalled-for and inappropriate.

February 21
Cleveland, GA – A substitute teacher wiped the Ash Wednesday ashes off the forehead of a student at White County High School, then berated the girl and made derisive remarks about Catholicism when the girl and her classmates protested.

We wrote to Paul Shaw, superintendent of the county education board, wanting to know what disciplinary measures would be taken against the teacher. Shaw downplayed the incident, replying that the teacher “made an honest error in judgment” and that “a similar incident will not be repeated.” Donohue called Shaw’s response “beyond lame” and “morally reprehensible.”

We then contacted Kathy Cox, Georgia’s superintendent of schools, telling her that Shaw’s response was “totally unsatisfactory.” We cited Georgia’s Code of Ethics for Educators, which specifically bars teachers from harassing students on the basis of religion. Cox replied that she had no legal authority to investigate the actions of a county superintendent such as Shaw.

The school board removed the teacher from the list of available substitutes in March, but for reasons having nothing to do with the Ash Wednesday incident. On April 26, we learned that the teacher’s name had reappeared on the school system’s substitute-teacher list.

February 22
Philadelphia, PA – The mother of a 10-year-old boy who was not allowed to wear a Jesus costume at Willow Hill Elementary School’s 2006 Halloween celebration filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son. Willow Hill required that students were to come dressed in costumes in order to participate in a school party. Although officials allowed other students to dress as witches and devils, the school’s principal suggested that the boy identified himself as a Roman emperor, rather than Jesus.

March
Long Beach, CA – A woman filed a federal lawsuit against California State University Long Beach after the school terminated her internship for sharing her Christian faith with co-workers during off-hours. The university tried to make her sign a document admitting she was unable to separate her religious beliefs from her role as an intern. She was released from the internship and threatened with expulsion from the school’s graduate program after refusing to sign the document.

March 1
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN – The University of Minnesota’s Department of Theatre, Arts and Dance hosted the Dario Fo play “The Pope and the Witch.” The play involves a witch disguised as a nun who secretly arrives at the Vatican to cure an unnamed pope, who suffers from a “crucifixion stroke” that has left him paralyzed with his arms outstretched. Under the witch’s control, the pope issues an encyclical approving illegal drugs and artificial birth control.

When a panel discussion on the play was scheduled in response to complaints, no Catholics were invited to join the forum. According to Dean Steven Rosenstone of the school’s College of Liberal Arts, “nobody was selected for the panel on the basis of faith or religion.” We wondered if the university would ever host an anti-Semitic play and if Jews would be excluded from a panel discussion on it.

March 2
Vancouver, WA – Twelve students of Heritage High School were suspended for holding a morning prayer in the school cafeteria. The students, who normally prayed outside before school, were forced into the cafeteria before classes began due to inclement weather. The vice principal claimed that the prayer meeting would disrupt education and told them to pray outside. When they refused to do so they received the suspensions. A few weeks earlier they requested a room in the school to hold their meetings but were denied by the vice principal.

March 17
East Brunswick, NJ – Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the East Brunswick school district asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to deny a football coach’s motion to dismiss the school district’s appeal of a lower court ruling. The lower court ruling allowed the football coach to ‘take a knee’ during a team prayer. The school district argued that “taking a knee” was a religious gesture. In 2006 Borden won a lawsuit that permitted him to “take a knee” or bow his head during the team prayer, which is led by the students.

March 24
Tiverton, RI – Public schools superintendent William Rearick banned the Easter Bunny from a Saturday fundraiser and banned the word “Easter” from all school events. He told the Providence Journal that Easter themes might make non-Christians feel excluded.

Taking the Easter Bunny’s place at the fundraiser was Peter Rabbit. In a March 23 statement, we jokingly noted that Peter Rabbit was a thief who stole from Mr. McGregor’s garden, and that holding him up as a role model for youngsters sent the wrong signal. The league also noted that choosing Peter Rabbit smacked of sexism because his three sisters—Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail—were passed over even though they had never committed a crime.

Our protest of the decision led to hundreds of letters flooding Rearick’s e-mail inbox. It also led to national news coverage of the incident.

March 27
Columbus, OH – An anonymous female journalism student wrote a column in The Lantern, a student newspaper at Ohio State University, titled “Going Down with the Catholics.” She wrote that her Catholic friend Megan hasn’t had vaginal sex with her boyfriend John, who “won’t break up with Megan because he said it’s the best head he’s ever had in his life.”

Penelope, the anonymous writer, continued, “Catholics can’t do a lot of things: eat meat on Friday, listen to Marilyn Manson or vote Democrat, so pre-marital sex is just another item on the list. But when did God say it’s OK to give a blow job so long as that’s as far as you go?” She added, “Oral sex doesn’t get women pregnant, only penetration does. (Unless you’re Catholic, then Immaculate Conception does, too.)” She ended by writing, “Maybe God is looking down on the world smiling as He’s getting oral pleasure guilt free, no strings attached.”

We contacted Ohio State president Dr. Karen Holbrook, hoping that she would treat the matter with the same severity she addressed past racist incidents on campus. She acknowledged that the column was “offensive” but said it contained “the view of one student and in my opinion is not characteristic of the overall feelings and actions of Ohio State’s student body.”

April
Liverpool, NY – A New York court reprimanded the Liverpool school district for preventing a fourth-grade girl from dispensing a flyer, which demonstrated her relationship with Jesus, to her fellow students. Her teacher denied her request to hand out the flyer because it had a religious connotation, therefore violating the school’s policy on religious material. The court stated that it could not, “say the danger that children would misperceive the endorsement of religion is any greater than the danger that they would perceive a hostility toward religion as a result of the district’s denial of her request to distribute the fliers.”

April
Mount Washington, KY – A middle school boy was not allowed to broadcast his book report on the Acts of the Apostles during the morning announcements. The principal said that the religiosity of the report might have overwhelmed the younger students of the middle school. The boy’s mother stated that she felt, “Christian kids should be allowed to speak about their faith and not be ashamed.”

April 19
Lake Bluff, IL – A middle school teacher gave an assignment to her students pinpointing who was responsible for the Holocaust and listed Pope Pius XII along with Himmler and Goebbels. The Catholic League sent the teacher a copy of the league’s reader on Pius XII as well as Rabbi David Dalin’s The Myth of Hitler’s Pope. We received a grateful reply from the teacher, who said she’d had no idea that Pius XII played an important role in undermining Hitler and rescuing Jews.

April 20
Chicago, IL – University of Chicago law professor Geof Stone, commenting on the Gonzales v. Carhart case in which the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the partial-birth abortion ban, wrote, “Here is a painfully awkward observation: All five justices in the majority in Gonzales are Catholic. The four justices who are either Protestant or Jewish all voted in accord with settled precedent. It is mortifying to have to point this out. But it is too obvious, and too telling, to ignore.” Stone’s remark appeared on the University of Chicago Law School faculty blog.

May
Wisconsin – Two religious student groups, one of them Catholic, won religious-discrimination lawsuits against the University of Wisconsin. The Roman Catholic Foundation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was awarded $250,000 in student fees after a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the school had violated the group’s freedom of association rights; membership in the group is limited to Catholics. The University of Wisconsin-Superior agreed to pay $20,000 in legal fees to the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; the university had refused to recognize the organization because its leadership positions were reserved for Christians.

May 1
San Diego, CA – The Thomas More Law Center sued the Poway Unified School District on behalf of a teacher who was ordered to take down several educational banners because they mentioned God. The banners, which the teacher had been putting up in his classroom for nearly 25 years without complaint, featured excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and popular patriotic songs.

May 16
Higley, AZ – An honor student at Higley High School wondered why the word “God” was omitted from his biography in the school’s yearbook. In his biography he intended to thank all of those who helped with his success, specifically God. The student was later informed that “God” must be left out of the text due to concerns of separation of church and state. The Higley Unified School District later apologized.

May 18
Lakewood, CO – Colorado Christian University was denied federal funding for students by a federal judge. The ruling upheld a state decision in 2004 that labeled the university as “pervasively sectarian.” The university claims that the denial of aid violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee to freedom of religion. The school appealed the decision because of “blatant religious discrimination.” The Department of Justice came to the defense of the university and stated that the Colorado Commission on Higher Education acted unconstitutionally in denying the funds.

May 22
Carbondale, IL – Southern Illinois University announced that they would recognize the Christian Legal Society, a religious student organization. The university had denied recognizing the organization because in order to join the club, one must adhere to Christian beliefs. The university claimed this violated its affirmative action policy. The recognition came two years after the society sued the university, claiming the school’s decision to not recognize the club violated the rights to free speech and freedom of religion.

June
Pleasanton, KS – A lawsuit between the Pleasanton School District and a student-based Christian club was settled. Under the settlement the Christian club was granted the same rights that other clubs received from the school, rights which they were previously denied.  The Christian club received benefits such as broadcast announcements and use of school facilities at no charge.

June
Farmington, MI – The Christian student group ALIVE filed a lawsuit against the Farmington Public School District because the district denied them the establishment of a Bible club. ALIVE sought to receive the same rights that other student organizations received such as announcements over the PA system and inclusion in the yearbook. The district said there were no religious clubs in the district because of the policy on separation of church and state.

June 5
Dearborn, MI – The Detroit News reported that the University of Michigan-Dearborn planned to spend $25,000 for footbaths, making it easier for Muslim students at the school to practice their religion. We wrote to all Michigan lawmakers, asking them if they would open to suggestions on how to better accommodate the religious needs of Christian students on campus.

State Sen. Gilda Z. Jacobs replied to Donohue and defended the footbath arrangement, comparing it to the rescheduling of Saturday exams for Jewish students and the closing of school on Christmas and Easter. The Catholic League responded by pointing out that the footbath arrangement constituted sponsorship of religion, while the other examples illustrate mere accommodation of it.

June 25
Columbus, OH – A federal judge ruled that employees whose religious beliefs conflict with the political positions of their labor unions cannot be forced to pay union dues. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit by a Catholic schoolteacher, who refused to pay National Education Association dues because of the union’s pro-abortion stance.  The teacher sued Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board after the board ruled that only members of religions with historically held objections to union membership, such as Seventh-Day Adventists and Mennonites, could be exempt from union dues. Federal judge Gregory Frost ruled that the board’s regulation was discriminatory, in that it allowed members of some religions to opt out of union membership while denying that choice to followers of other faiths.

July
Chicago, IL – With the aid of the Thomas More Law Center, a third grade boy was permitted to read his Bible while at school. The boy had been denied the right to read his Bible during his class’ “reading time” at Elementary School District 159.

July 13
Broward County, FL –A former Broward County College instructor won a religious discrimination lawsuit against the school. The instructor filed the lawsuit claiming that because he was Catholic, he was discriminated against when course assignments were made. The jury found that the Philosophy and Religion Department, where he was an instructor, favored evangelical Protestants in hiring, promoting, and course assignments.

August 7
Dallas, TX – A proclaimed atheist filed a lawsuit challenging Texas’ minute of silence, which had been in place in public schools for four years. The man claimed that the moment of silence was an attempt for the state to reintroduce prayer into public schools. The Texas law clearly states that during the silence, students may “reflect, pray, meditate, or engage in any other silent activity.” He argued that the word pray showed that the state had religious intent, while the state claims that the moment of silence’s purpose is secular.

December 13
Santa Ana, CA – A high school student filed a lawsuit against a teacher for making anti-Christian remarks in class. The student claimed the teacher demeaned Christians and showed “a sense of hostility toward religion.” The lawsuit claimed that the teacher said, “When you put on your Jesus glasses you can’t see the truth.” The lawsuit also claimed that the teacher said churchgoers are more likely to commit rape and murder and that religion is not connected with morality.

January 9
Lincoln, NE – State Senator Lowen Kruse introduced a bill that sought to curb underage drinking. In addition to banning minors from consuming alcohol in their own homes, the proposed legislation extended to places of worship during religious rites.

In response to protests from religious leaders of various faiths, Kruse claimed that it was unlikely that authorities would enforce the ban on wine used in Communion services. We weren’t convinced and demanded that the bill be changed at once, pointing out that even under Prohibition there was a religious exemption for wine.

Senator Kruse proposed a compromise that would allow up to a half an ounce of alcohol in a religious ceremony. We rejected this offer, maintaining it was not the business of government to be measuring wine at Catholic Masses.

After debating Bill Donohue on a radio show, Senator Kruse modified his bill so as not to burden religious liberty.

January 11
Louisville, KY – Federal judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that a sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican could go forward. The lawyer who sought to sue the Vatican, William McMurry, won a $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2003, taking $10.3 million for himself and his legal team. One of McMurry’s three clients in the suit against the Vatican said he “thought” the local bishop was following Vatican orders in dealing with his three-decades-old abuse case. Another says a priest touched him through his pants pocket in 1928, and the third client’s alleged abuser died in 1983.

McMurry’s action against the Vatican was spurred by a 1962 document, leaked to the press, which was falsely reported to have implicated Rome in a cover-up of sexual abuse. In fact, the document proscribed penalties for priests who made sexual advances in the confessional, as well as penalties for penitents who did not report such misconduct. In other words, the document shows how seriously the Vatican took the issue of sex abuse.

February
On February 6, we demanded that presidential hopeful John Edwards fire two recently hired anti-Catholics who had joined his team: Amanda Marcotte as Blogmaster and Melissa McEwan as the Netroots Coordinator. He chose to fire them, and then rehire them. After we exposed another anti-Christian screed by Marcotte—written only three days after Edwards had assured everyone that this would not happen again—she was forced to quit. She blamed Bill Donohue as she waltzed out the door. The next day, McEwan also resigned.

Writing on the Pandagon blogsite on December 26, 2006, Amanda Marcotte wrote that “the Catholic church is not about to let something like compassion for girls get in the way of using the state as an instrument to force women to bear more tithing Catholics.”

On October 9, 2006, she said, “the Pope’s gotta tell women who give birth to stillborns that their babies are cast into Satan’s maw.” On the same day she wrote that “it’s going to be bad PR for the church, so you can sort of see why the Pope is dragging ass.” And on June 14, 2006, Marcotte offered the following Q&A: “What if Mary had taken Plan B after [here she described the Virgin Birth with vulgar sexual terms],” to which she offered the reply, “You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.”

On November 21, 2006, Melissa McEwan wrote on the website AlterNet that “some of Christianity’s most prominent leaders—including the Pope—regularly speak out against gay tolerance.” On November 1, 2006, on her blog Shakespeare’s Sister, she referred to President Bush’s “wingnut Christofascist base” when lashing out against religious conservatives.

On February 21, 2006, she attacked religious conservatives again, this time saying, “What don’t you lousy [expletive] understand about keeping your noses out of our britches, our beds, and our families?” An entry under “Greatest Hits” on her website (where she brags about being appointed to Edwards’ campaign) is titled something so filthy we cannot in good conscience reprint it here.

Our initial news release was easy on Edwards: “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots. He has no choice but to fire them immediately.”

On February 16, 2007, the Catholic League was to run an ad on the op-ed page of the New York Times calling for the removal of these two bigots from the Edwards campaign. The ad was to run the exact words of the two women. The Times declared the verbiage as too offensive, so the Catholic League planned to run the ad with the quotes deleted and in the empty space informing readers to find the quotes on the league’s website. The Times later changed their position and allowed the quotes to be in the ad. The league pulled the ad before it ran because both Marcotte and McEwan quit the Edwards campaign.

The ad above was to run on February 16 on the op-ed page of the New York Times. But since Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan quit the Edwards campaign just as the ad was about to run, we pulled it.

March 1
Washington, DC – The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center was ordered to reinstate a Catholic chaplain after it was found he had been fired due to anti-Catholic bias. Fr. Henry Heffernan had objected to “multi-faith chaplaincy,” in which chaplains at the center would minister to patients who were not of the same faith. Fr. Heffernan believed that he would be compromising his faith by going along with this type of chaplaincy for the center’s Catholic patients. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also found that the center’s supervising chaplain, a Methodist minister, had exhibited animosity toward Catholics on several occasions.

March 13
Hartford, CT – State Representative Deborah Heinrich urged lawmakers to require all Connecticut hospitals, including Catholic ones, to offer Plan B emergency contraception to rape victims despite the fact that this would violate the doctrinal prerogatives of the Catholic Church. We noted that doctors at Catholic hospitals provide rape victims with a list of facilities where Plan B is available, as well as free transportation to them. The league wrote to all members of the state legislature’s Human Services Committee, urging them not to jeopardize the religious-liberty prerogatives of Catholic hospitals.

March 26
Hartford, CT – Brian Brown, executive director of the Connecticut Family Institute, testified on same-sex marriage before the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee. Two committee members, Representative Michael Lawlor and Senator Edwin Gomes, asked Brown a series of personal and intrusive questions regarding his Catholic faith. Lawlor asked Brown if “people who love people of the same sex are intrinsically evil” (which the Church does not teach) and Gomes told Brown, “When I was a kid, they scared us with Heaven and Hell and all that. I thought you were going to say I was going to Hell if I cast my vote” in favor of gay marriage.

April 
Sacramento, CA – State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Catholic, called Roger Cardinal Mahony’s remarks “extreme and dogmatic” after the cardinal expressed disappointment in him for supporting a bill to legalize doctor-assisted suicide. Another legislator responding to Mahony’s comments, Assemblywoman Patty Berg, said, “Why aren’t they taking care of their own shop?” We objected to the attempts of both lawmakers to silence Cardinal Mahony regarding public issues.

May 7
San Francisco, CA – Wesley J. Smith, an international expert on bioethics, called California’s proposed doctor-assisted suicide legislation “strongly and implicitly anti-Catholic” and urged defeat of the bill. The bill would allow physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to people with terminal illnesses who have less than six months to live. Smith said the bill was “trying to bend the Catholic Church’s moral teaching to the will of the culture of death agenda.”

May 9
Senator Patrick Leahy, when asked about the pope’s comments regarding possible excommunication of Catholic pro-abortion politicians, said, “I’ve always thought also that those bishops and archbishops who for decades hid pederasts and are now being protected by the Vatican should be indicted.”

May 10
Washington, DC – Eighteen Catholic members of the U.S. House of Representatives—all of them Democrats—signed a statement chiding Pope Benedict XVI for reaffirming that Catholic lawmakers who vote for legalized abortion should not receive Communion. “The fact is that religious sanction in the political arena,” the statement read, “directly conflicts with our fundamental beliefs about the role and responsibility of democratic representatives in a pluralistic America—it also clashes with freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.”

The statement smacked of a government edict dictating to the Church who should and should not receive Communion.

June 6
San Francisco, CA – The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals forwarded for review a complaint of judicial misconduct by the Catholic League against Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. The judge had issued a sneering response in ruling against the Catholic League in a First Amendment lawsuit filed against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The Thomas More Law Center, representing the Catholic League, sued the board over its resolution condemning Catholic teaching on homosexuality as “hateful” and “callous.” In ruling against the league, Patel stated, “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provoked the debate, indeed may have invited entanglement by its [doctrinal] statement.”

When a Thomas More attorney informed the judge that the Church doesn’t have the power of law and can’t tax, she replied, “You’re saying the power to condemn someone to Hell isn’t more important to some people than being condemned by the state to have to pay a fine or go to jail?”

It wasn’t the judge’s ruling that concerned the league; rather it was her comments indicating an abiding hostility toward the Catholic faith.

June 19
Dover, DE – The state House passed a bill that eliminates the two-year statute of limitations in cases involving the sexual molestation of minors. The bill applied only to private institutions such as the Catholic Church. It did not apply equally to the public sector; under a legal concept known as sovereign immunity, public schools and other government entities can claim exemption from the elimination of statutes of limitations in sex abuse cases.

After we issued a news release on June 20 pointing out the disparity, Sen. Karen Peterson, the principal sponsor of the bill, took umbrage at our charge that unequal justice is at work. Yet on June 21 she was quoted as saying that the bill allows victims to sue the state if they can meet the high standard of “gross negligence.” She further admitted that the state has the right to claim sovereign immunity, and that it is up to the courts to decide whether it should apply. Thus did she verify the Catholic League’s charge that there were two standards in play.

On June 20, Rep. Greg Lavelle, who sponsored a separate bill that would mandate an equal playing field, called the Catholic League requesting data on public school teachers who abuse kids. The next day he said that our response “offended” him, and he commended his colleagues for taking “all necessary steps to be sure that all children in Delaware are protected regardless of where they go to school….” We noted that if his colleagues really were taking such necessary steps, his separate bill would not be needed.

June 27
Buffalo, NY – The City Council passed a resolution objecting to a decision by the Diocese of Buffalo to close some parishes and schools. Council President David A. Franczyk charged that the diocese was abandoning some neighborhoods, giving off “the whiff of ethnic cleansing.” Franczyk also said that if the Catholic Church was having financial problems, it should consider selling the Vatican. Some council members later admitted that the use of the term “ethnic cleansing” in the resolution was wrong; Franczyk, however, did not apologize.

July
Grand Rapids, MI – Mayor George Heartwell sent out campaign postcards to Catholic voters that showed a picture of a local Catholic church on the front and names of seven local Catholic leaders on the back. Heartwell, an abortion-rights advocate, was running for re-election against city commissioner Rick Tormala, a pro-life Catholic; Tormala labeled Heartwell’s postcard tactic “insulting and deceptive.” We objected to Heartwell’s pandering and religious profiling.

July 19
Washington, DC – We issued a news release criticizing efforts to delete Cardinal Edward M. Egan’s name from a U.S. House resolution. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Vito Fossella of New York City, commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Archdiocese of New York. Within hours of our news release, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee passed the resolution with Cardinal Egan’s name still included.

August 
A television ad produced by the Louisiana Democratic Party took several comments about religion made by Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bobby Jindal, a Catholic. The comments originally appeared in an article by Jindal in the December 1996 New Oxford Review. The Democrats’ ad said that Jindal “insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants. He has referred to Protestant religions as scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical.” As the league pointed out in a news release, the quotes were taken out of context in an egregious manner.

By “scandalous,” Jindal was referring to the sad division within the Christian house; he made reference to the “scandalous series of divisions and new denominations” of the post-Reformation period. Regarding the terms “utterly depraved,” “selfish desires” and “heresy,” Jindal was citing Calvin, who warned against random interpretations of the Bible. As individuals, Calvin instructed, Christians were burdened with “utterly depraved” minds and “selfish desires.” According to Jindal, what concerned Calvin was a “subjective interpretation which leads to anarchy and heresy.”

We called the ad “one of the most scurrilous the Catholic League has ever seen” and called on the Louisiana Democrats to withdraw it immediately. Soon after, the ad was pulled.

August
Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Attorney Loring Spolter petitioned the U.S. District Court seeking the recusal of U.S. District Judge William Zloch on the grounds that the judge exhibited religious bias. Spolter objected to the fact that Zloch, who is Catholic, has a close association with Ave Maria Law School, a Catholic. Spolter’s affidavit failed to detail a single instance of religious bias on the part of Judge Zloch.

September 5
Washington, DC – Congressional hearings began on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, aimed at prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. While previous versions of the legislation granted unconditional exemptions for religious organizations, the bill’s new version narrowed such exemptions.

For instance, exemptions in the new bill would apply only to religious organizations that are directly engaged in teaching or spreading religious belief. We expressed our concern that some institutions, such as Catholic schools and hospitals, do not teach religious belief as a primary function and thus would no longer qualify for an exemption.

We also noted that the new bill called for religious institutions to identify “which of its religious tenets are significant” enough to warrant an exemption. We objected to the idea of judges deciding what would constitute a “significant” religious tenet, pointing out that the First Amendment prevented such encroachment on religious freedom by the government.

Finally, we compared the new bill to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which has led to affirmative action plans based on race even though the Act expressly prohibits such racial preferences; thus, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act could force religious organizations to develop affirmative action plans for hiring gays.

We wrote to every member of the House asking that the original language regarding religious exemptions be maintained.

September 21
Madison, WI – The state Department of Justice removed a religious hymn and a closing prayer led by a Lutheran pastor from a memorial service for murder victims. The action followed a complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “We certainly wouldn’t want to have an appearance of a potential church-state violation overshadow the event,” a department spokesman said.

Books

February
Broadway Books released Karl Shaw’s 5 People Who Died During Sex And 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists, which contained numerous dubious statements about various Catholic popes. Among the claims: John XXIII was a “former pirate who obtained the papacy through force of arms” in 1410 (he actually reigned from 1958 to 1963); Alexander VI liked “to travel in public with a retinue of scantily clad dancing girls”; Paul III was “Rome’s biggest pimp”; and Leo X “was promiscuously gay.”

May
A revised edition of Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Texas, was released. One chapter, “Centuries of Mistreatment,” contained numerous attacks on Catholicism and historical inaccuracies regarding the Inquisition, the Crusades, the history of anti-Semitism, and Pope Pius XII’s actions during World War II. To cite one example, Hagee wrote, “Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.” Hagee has a long history of anti-Catholicism.

August
Responding to two complaints from the Catholic League, Random House agreed to remove several objectionable references to Catholicism in itsFodor’s travel guides. The removed comments included the following:

● From Mexico 2007: “Outside the Antigua Basilica stands a statue of Juan Diego, who became the first indigenous saint in the Americas with his canonization in summer 2002. (This canonization was widely seen as a shrewd political move on the part of the Catholic church as it tries to retain its position, particularly among Mexico’s indigenous population.)”

● From Exploring Ireland (6th Edition): The position of women in the republic is much affected by the power of the Catholic Church, and by Pope John Paul II’s reaffirmation of its doctrines on contraception, abortion and divorce. Ireland ranks last among the world’s developed countries with access to birth control (though the impact of AIDS has had a sharper effect than decades of religious dogma), and until 1996 was alone in Europe in having no civil divorce. A booming economy and child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church have pushed the South further towards the liberalism of mainland Europe.”

● From France 2007: “The main point on interest in the region is the Abbaye de La Celle, a 12th-century Benedictine Abbey that served as a convent until the 17th century, when it was closed because its young nuns had begun to run wild and were known less for their chastity than ‘the color of their petticoats and the name of their lover.'”

“Thousands flock to Lourdes annually, many in quest of a miraculous cure for sickness or disability. In season a mob jostles to see the grotto behind a forest of votive candles. Some pundits might say that Lourdes ingeniously combines the worst of both worlds.”

● From Portugal (7th Edition): “In a 1930 Pastoral Letter, the Bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief, thus approving the ‘Cult of Fatima.'”

We thanked Tim Jarrell, the vice president and publisher of Fodor’s Travel Publications, for his professional and straightforward handling of these issues.

Internet

May
The Cartoon Network website featured “Bible Fight,” an online video game where “Biblical icons battle it out in the world’s greatest immortal combat.” The game featured Jesus using a cross as a weapon and the Virgin Mary armed with a “Rosary whip,” plus other well-known Biblical figures.

July
The video site YouTube featured a short documentary spoof video in which comedian Louis C.K. “learns about the Catholic Church.” When Louis asks “an Archdiocese of New York spokesman” what the Catholic Church is all about, the “spokesman” (wearing a clerical collar) replies, “The Catholic Church is an ancient worldwide organization dedicated to the constant goal of f***ing young boys.”

When Louis says, “But I thought the point of the Church was to worship God; the boy-f***ing was just incidental,” the “spokesman” replies, “No, it’s just the other way around. The point of the Church is just boy-f***ing. All the other stuff is just busy work.” After Louis contacts the Vatican to confirm this, he receives a letter “from the Pope himself” which states, “We at the Catholic Church f*** boys all day long. That’s all we ever do.”

Later, Louis is taken to a “situation room” where pedophile priests are monitored and moved around the world “so they don’t get caught.” He is also escorted to a factory that processes “purity bricks” to build churches; the “bricks” are made from the excrement of priests who have molested boys to “steal their purity.”

July 17
On the Washington Post “On Faith” blog site, Chicago Theological Seminary president Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite attempted to tie the renewed interest in the Latin Mass to the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. “At a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S. needs to be working on becoming more open and more accountable to its laity to prevent more child sexual abuse,” wrote Thistlethwaite, “the reintroduction of the Latin Mass signals that the Catholic Church as a whole is moving in a reactionary direction, becoming more closed rather than more open.” She continued by adding, “This is a worship practice where the ordinary people could not understand the language and the clergy become remote figures, conducting mysteries in secret on the altar.” In conclusion, she charged that “the Catholic Church is once again circling the wagons, rejecting necessary reforms and consolidating its power in the hierarchy.”

Thistlethwaite never responded to the letter above.

July 11
Pinkdome, a Texas political blog, carried this entry in response to a Vatican document reasserting the primacy of the Catholic Church: “So, if you aren’t molesting young boys you aren’t going to Heaven? What’s that about? That man [Pope Benedict XVI] has got some nerve. Benedict ain’t even his real name … That pisses me right off. What a d***head.”

July 11
Regarding the Vatican document on the primacy of the Catholic Church, Ginny Cotts wrote on the Democratic Daily blog, “What ON EARTH gives this man [Pope Benedict XVI] the idea that he can dictate such nonsense to other denominations?” Cotts also wrote, “How do the five Catholic Supreme Court Justices get to interpret this? That all Jews appearing before the court or appealing a conviction are liars?”

October 26
The blog, Gothamist, commented on the letter Catholic League president Bill Donohue sent to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein questioning why crèches cannot be displayed in New York City schools. The blog placed a poll on the page asked if public schools should include nativity scenes in holiday displays. The three choices offered were: “Yes, it would be more inclusive”; “No, menorahs and Ramadan symbols don’t have people in them”; and “I can’t wait until Easter when the Catholic League demands a crucified Jesus.” The results of the poll showed that almost half said that they couldn’t wait until Easter. This survey was an invitation to anti-Catholic bigots to make their voice heard. It is hard to imagine that they would have invited such bigoted speech concerning Jews or Muslims.

Magazines

February 12
The front cover of The New Yorker featured a sketch of subway commuters with thought bubbles. It suggested that a little boy was wondering if the priest across the way was gay.

July
Redmond, WA – Media Spotlight, a fundamentalist Christian publication, ran an article about the decision of Francis Beckwith, president of the Evangelical Theological Society, to return to the Roman Catholic faith in which he was raised. The article asked regarding Beckwith’s tenure at the ETS, “Could he have been planted by the Catholic Church just for such a day as this?” The article also said, “No truly born-again believer in Jesus Christ who has left Romanism would return to its system of unscriptural laws and idolatrous worship of man-made objects, not the least of which is a wafer of bread believed worthy of the same worship due the true God.”

August
Kingston, NY – In his “Editor’s Note” column, Chronogram editor Brian K. Mahoney wrote of his attendance at a performance by the Wau Wau Sisters, a musical act featuring two women dressed in girls’ Catholic school uniforms. Mahoney wrote that the show featured “Communion wafers, cigarettes, and a chalice” and added that when he was asked to go onstage and dance with the musicians, “I bounded out of my seat without a second thought.”

September 13
Newsweek’s website flagged as its “Top Story” a piece by Karen Springen about a Missouri woman who was “ordained” a Catholic priest. In the article Springen made snide comments about the Church’s rules governing ordination, and implied that the Church thinks “it’s a sin to be gay” and excludes divorced people. The “woman priest” featured in the article, Jessica Rowley, is pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality, which we told the media made her “just the kind of person who would make a great addition to Newsweek.”

Movies

January
On January 18, we called for a federal investigation into the movie “Hounddog,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22. Our goal was to ascertain whether federal child pornography laws were violated during filming (the story involved a young girl whose violent, graphic rape is depicted onscreen). Federal statutes on child pornography define a minor as anyone younger than 18. Dakota Fanning, the actress who portrayed the rape victim, was twelve.

Though this issue would normally be outside our scope of action, we were astonished by the hypocrisy at work: though the Catholic Church is routinely criticized and scrutinized for its handling of sex abuse of children, Sundance—a major player in the film world—had no qualms about airing a scene involving such a young actress.

Hollywood, along with all other industries and groups, should be held to the same standard of child protection, as is the Church. Bill Donohue wrote to the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section within the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as well as to First Lady Laura Bush (who has spoken out about the necessity of fighting child pornography and pedophilia) about the matter. The Department of Justice turned the case over to the FBI for review.

February 23
“Amazing Grace,” a film about 18th-century British abolitionist William Wilberforce, was released in the United States. The film greatly downplayed Wilberforce’s devout Christianity and the fact that the abolitionist movement in the West was a largely Christian pursuit.

May
An independent film, “Sinner,” depicted a traditional Catholic priest as cruel and deranged while portraying a dissident priest as more humane. The film was also laced with sexual overtones.

July 20
“Goya’s Ghosts,” an English-language film released in Europe in 2006, opened in the United States. The film, set in Spain, recounts the actions of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in the late 18th century. While a film about the Inquisition is not in itself a problem, the Catholic League objected to the fact that every member of the clergy in the film was depicted as cruel and vengeful. We applauded the fact that the film did poorly at the U.S. box office.

August 3
“The Ten,” an irreverent comedy that ridiculed the Ten Commandments, opened in select theaters. The characters include a woman who has sex with a wooden dummy, prisoners who sodomize one another, and a woman who travels to Mexico and begins an erotic affair with a carpenter named Jesus H. Christ.

The film received these comments from reviewers, who were not concerned by the film’s anti-Christian content:

● “Only Christians with a very liberal sense of humor are likely to enjoy ‘The Ten.’ Even lay viewers will need to be tolerant of gags as envelope-pushing as anything in ‘Borat.'” [Variety]

● “[Gretchen] Mol stars as a 35-year-old virgin who gets deflowered—in lusty romance novel fashion on a trip to Mexico. Her hunky lover boy’s name? Jesus Christ.” [philly.com]

● “‘The Ten’ is cohesive in the irreverence of its scenarios (in my favorite, Jesus Christ—Justin Theroux as a disheveled, overly hirsute carpenter….)” [notcoming.com]

● “Mol plays a mousy librarian…who travels alone to Mexico and has a wildly sexual fling with a local handyman named Jesus H. Christ (Justin Theroux in long hair and beard).” [Associated Press]

● “They’re almost gleeful in their crudity; grinning ever-wider as they seem to ask the audience just who this bit of blasphemy is hurting.” [eflimcritic.com]

● “Comprised of ten blasphemous vignettes, each inspired by one of the Biblical Commandments, [it] goes out of its way to be irreverent and hilarious….”
[emanuellevy.com]

● “‘The Ten’ is comprised of 10 blasphemous and hysterical stories that put the insanity back in Christianity.” [Roger Ebert]

October 12
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” a film about Queen Elizabeth, was released in theatres. According to the New York Times, the portrayal of the “Catholic-led holy war” waged by Spain’s King Philip II against Elizabeth, “with its ominous monks and Latin chants, reeks of ‘The Da Vinci Code.'” The critic for the National Catholic Register reported that the film showed that “everything bad, evil and corrupt in the world ultimately is the bitter fruit of…Catholicism.” According to the Register, Protestantism represents “conscience, religious freedom, and of course heroic resistance to Catholic oppression.”

October 30
The Bravo Network re-aired a Halloween special, “The 100 Scariest Movie Moments” hosted by John Landis. In commenting on “The Exorcist,” he said, “It took a completely unbelievable situation and made it seem realistic, that the devil would take over a young girl and the Catholic Church would be the good protecting us from evil—when they weren’t molesting young boys….” (Our emphasis.)

December 7
Gener8Xion Entertainment released the film “Noëlle.” The film depicted the story of two unsatisfied priests who questioned their vocations. One priest, Father Simeon Joyce, disregards Church regulations and is an alcoholic. The other priest, Father Jonathan Keene, only joined the priesthood to escape the guilt he had from pressuring an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion. Both of the priests are in love with the same woman, but it is Father Keene who leaves his vocation to marry her. Throughout the film confession is trivialized, celibacy is ridiculed, the Virgin Mary is disrespected, nuns are belittled, last rites are mocked, and priestly vocations are caricatured.

Music

September
Singer Joni Mitchell attacked the Catholic Church in “Shine,” her first new song in nine years: “Shine on the Catholic Church / and the prisons that it owns / Shine on all the churches / that love less and less.”

September 7
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” rap music star Mos Def (whose real name is Dante Smith) said, “The Catholic Church’s stance about child molestation is a form of terrorism in and of itself.”

October 30
Britney Spears posed for photos depicting racy scenes with a priest in a confessional. The photos were for her album “Blackout.” In one of the photos Spears is seen sitting on the priest’s lap. In the other photo she is posed suggestively as the priest eagerly leans in to hear her.

Newspapers

March 26
Los Angeles, CA – A Los Angeles Times article gave credence to a baseless charge made by sex-abuse plaintiffs’ lawyer Irwin Zelkin against the Catholic Church. In the article, “Catholic Doctrine is Cited in Priest Sex Abuse Cases,” Zelkin said that Catholics are permitted under a so-called “doctrine of mental reservation” to skirt the truth under oath in order to protect the Church. Such a “doctrine” is mentioned nowhere in the Catechism of the Catholic Church or in canon law. The article also called into question the veracity of Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles and Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego.

The Times ran a correction on March 31, but the Catholic League dubbed the correction “entirely too lame” and called on the paper to print an apology to Mahony and Brom. The paper did not issue such an apology.

April 5
Los Angeles, CA – In a Los Angeles Times column, George Skelton attacked the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Cardinal Mahony, for criticizing a Catholic politician who supported doctor-assisted suicide. The Catholic Church, Skelton wrote, was “looking like an ugly old political attack dog.” He accused the Church of violating church-state lines and called for its tax-exempt status to be reexamined. “The church hierarchy,” Skelton wrote, “is on shaky grounds these days when lecturing about moral leadership.”

In March 2006, after Cardinal Mahony publicly opposed tough immigration bills, a Times editorial praised him for “reinforcing the right of religious leaders to speak out on the moral ramifications of political issues.” The Catholic League wondered why, one year later, a Timescolumnist was now seeking to silence Mahony on the issue of doctor-assisted suicide.

April 17
Naples, FL – A Naples Daily News feature story, “Life along Corkscrew: The far-off in between,” profiled an old country store where local residents gather on the front porch to discuss current events. The writer, Vivek Kemp, described the discussions this way: “And, while conversations are not necessarily more enlightening here than other places— shifting from subjects like taxes to pest control to off-color jokes about Catholic priests— they play an important role in keeping this rural community connected.”

April 19
San Francisco, CA – The Bay Area Reporter ran an ad for a book titled Vatican Conspiracy Theory by Eric Bepots. The ad claims that the book offers “documented proof that the Vatican and Catholic Church are largely responsible for the Global spread of AIDS.” The ad features Rosary beads arranged in a cross shape, next to a photo of an unidentified young boy.

April 23
Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Daily News ran a cartoon depicting a cold-looking nun in traditional habit who refused to give painkillers to a woman in labor. The nun told the woman that her pain was a result of Eve’s original sin. The cartoon ran less than one week after the Daily News reported the closing of the third Philadelphia maternity program in a year’s time. “Looks like now’s the time to herald the nuns,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote to the paper, “not shun them.”

April 25
Chicago, IL – A Chicago Sun Times piece by Michelle Tsai made snide references to baptism and limbo, and compared contemporary theological debate on limbo to past debates on the legitimacy of slavery. “Church doctrine now states that unbaptized babies can go to heaven instead of getting stuck somewhere between heaven and hell,” Tsai wrote. “If limbo doesn’t exist, what happened to everyone who was supposed to have been there already?” The Church never declared limbo to be real and has always held that it’s possible for unbaptized babies to go to heaven.

April 27
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an online survey on its website about Archbishop Raymond Burke’s decision to resign as chairman of the board of governors of the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation. Burke resigned when the board failed to cancel an appearance by a highly active pro-abortion advocate, pop musician Sheryl Crow, at a foundation fundraiser. The Post-Dispatch invited the general public, whether Catholic or not, to vote on whether they agreed with Burke’s decision. The Catholic League noted that while it was fine for the paper to report Burke’s resignation, asking non-Catholics to opine on an internal Church matter was out of bounds.

April 27
Hartford, CT – A Hartford Courant cartoon by Bob Englehart addressed the issue of Catholic hospitals being forced by law to provide Plan B emergency contraception to rape victims. The cartoon showed a bishop on a doctor’s exam table and a man with sacks of money behind him. The man held a sheet of paper with “Plan B” written on it; he said, “I’m sorry, archbishop, your hospitals can’t have any public funds. It’s against our beliefs!”

May 11
Chicago, IL – Chicago Sun Times columnist Neil Steinberg called the Catholic Church “the bully in eyeglasses” regarding the issue of excommunication and Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion. Steinberg wrote that if the Catholic Church excommunicated pro-abortion lawmakers, “it should excommunicate the women who have the abortions, plus the husbands and boyfriends who support them.” The Catholic League took exception to Steinberg’s comments regarding excommunication, which is an internal Church matter and is none of his business.

May 14
The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers both reported that Pope Benedict XVI, addressing bishops in Brazil, had “defended the church’s often bloody campaign to Christianize indigenous people.” After we challenged both media outlets to supply evidence of these charges, the AP ran a revised story later in the day that omitted the reference to the pope justifying violence.

June 26
New York, NY – In The Villager, columnist Tim Gay wrote of a man who he thought was a non-active homosexual: “A lot of people say he’s a closet case. I don’t think so. Closet cases have sex. I think he’s just another nonpracticing guy with quaint ideas (or fears) about gay men. Either that, or his Catholic upbringing has forever stymied his libido.”

July 20
“Born a boy into an Irish-Catholic family” is how Tax Notes Todaydescribed a tax-court plaintiff seeking a medical-expenses deduction for a sex-change operation. Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote toTax Notes Today editor Heather Bennett, asking her if the publication would have mentioned it if the plaintiff were an Ashkenazi Jew or a Scottish Presbyterian.

August 13
Lexington, KY – In a Lexington Herald Leader editorial, John Fritz and Gayle E. Slaughter wrote, “The U.S. border crisis is the result of an unconstitutional and illegal alliance between church and state. Defending our borders will actually invoke the blessings of God, a position opposite that of the church.” They alleged that during the Kennedy administration, “a then-secret alliance between the United States, the Vatican and ecumenical Protestants began work to insert the decrees of several papal encyclicals and Vatican II into domestic and foreign policy,” including current U.S. immigration policy.

November 11
The crossword puzzle in the New York Times Sunday issue featured a pun that offended many Christians. The clue for Number 98 across asked, “Crucifix?” The corresponding answer to this clue was, “SEXTON SYMBOL.”

December 5
San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, an atheist, wrote a column on the dangers of religion. In the column he attacked Christians saying, “they raise their heads flags and cock their Bibles and pat themselves on their arrogant backs, conveniently forgetting that the only real difference between radical Islam and Christianity’s own bloody, murderous past is, well, a bit of time, with a splash of geography.”

Morford continued, attacking Catholicism in particular, “Ah yes, the bloody crusades, the sadistic assaults on conflicting belief systems, the gay popes and murderous priests and boundless hypocrisy, the book burnings and witch burnings and pagan slaughters and a billion sexual oppressions, the mountains of guilt and shame and sin sin sin.”

The pope was the next target for Morford. The columnist said that the pope is “perhaps the most dangerous, out-of-touch world figure in all of organized religion’s dour pantheon.” At the end of the piece, Morford mocks God and religion and states that he is going to name his favorite sex-toy “oh sweet Lord.”

December 11
In her review of Mitt Romney’s on his religion, columnist Kathleen Parker took an insulting—and wholly gratuitous—stab at Catholics: “No religion can bear close scrutiny if we go literal. Who among Christians wants to explain the Immaculate Conception? A talking snake? The rather peculiar ritual of ‘grokking’ Jesus by eating stale wafers and sipping cheap wine?” She ended her piece by congratulating Romney for promoting religious tolerance.

December 12
San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Chronicle columnist responded to the Archdiocese of New York’s coloring book on how to keep safe from sexual predators. In his column he wrote that sexual molestation and deep ongoing perversion have been going on in the Church for the past 2000 years. Morford commented on the coloring books by saying that it implied that children were to stay away from priests at all costs or in a room visible to adults where “police officers can see if said priest begins to give the holy sacrament to certain parts of your anatomy.” Morford claimed that if the Church was really trying to make amends for the sex abuse scandal, they “would have to fire Benedict XVI…abolish the silly celibacy law and the abhorrent ‘no female priests’ law and also the homophobia law and the ‘sex is bad for you’ law and, well, pretty much all the laws restricting spirit and sex and gender and love.”

Radio

April 19
Julianne Malveaux of National Public Radio said of the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the partial-birth abortion ban, “You’re taking us back to the Catholic days of you kill the mother to bring the baby into the world.”

October 18
The Disney Co. would not run an ad for the animated film “The Ten Commandments” unless the word “God” was removed from the script. The makers of the film, Promenade Pictures, wanted to use Radio Disney for their advertising campaign because the two companies share a target audience. The movie was promoted on other shows without having to scrap “God” from the ad.

Television

January 3
On CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” host Lou Dobbs criticized Catholic bishops for opining on U.S. immigration policy. “Just about the time you think this government can’t display more ignorance, more arrogance, you come up against a Catholic Church lecturing on a very secular matter, and that is border enforcement and the U.S. law. These sanctimonious bishops are just out of control.”

January 5
Former model Janice Dickinson appeared on CNN Headline News’ “Glenn Beck” to plug her new book and said, “If anyone out there is listening, please just read my book, know my story, that if you are molested or touched in inappropriate areas, please tell a neighbor, tell a friend, tell a priest. Not a priest, they’re all pedophiles, but tell someone.” When host Glenn Beck challenged Dickinson’s statement about priests, she replied, “Oh yes, they are.”

January 16
PBS public affairs series “Frontline” aired a 90-minute documentary, “Hand of God,” by filmmaker Joe Cultrera. It explored the circumstances surrounding his brother being abused by a priest 30 years ago.

In one scene, while Cultrera’s brother discussed the financial settlement he received from his diocese, money intermingled with Communion hosts was shown being poured into a collection plate; some of the hosts were broken in jagged pieces. In another scene, hands are shown opening a package of unconsecrated Communion wafers. They are spilled across a table as a voiceover states, “So all this stuff. All of it. In some ways this film has been making itself before I ever picked up a camera. Layer upon layer and I am still trying to fit the pieces. The bread into the blood. The wine into the sauce.”

February 1
On Fox’s sitcom “War at Home,” Mike went to a church social to meet “easy Catholic schoolgirls” but when he found none, he decided to leave. On his way out a priest stopped him to say hello. The priest put his hand on Mike’s shoulder and said, “It is always nice to meet a sweet handsome young man like you.” Mike had an uneasy look on his face.

Mike asked a gay teen how to tell if a guy is hitting on him. Hillary, Mike’s sister, asked who Mike thought might have been making advances on him. When Mike told her it was a priest, she said, “A priest, huh. Well, in that case, yes, he was definitely hitting on you.” Mike said that they all couldn’t be that way and was determined to find out. He went to the priest’s office and tried to seduce him but the priest ignored his advances.

The priest went to Mike’s house to tell his parents what happened in his office. His parents replied that he was wrong. Mike’s father told the priest that because he has not had sex in a long time, everything would seem sexual. When Mike walked in and saw the priest talking to his parents, he realized that he was busted; Mike’s parents could tell from their son’s facial expression that the priest was telling the truth.

February 7
In the “Hot Topics” segment of the ABC program “The View,” panelist Joy Behar said that people should “follow their heart” in dealing with sexuality and added, “That is why a lot of the priesthood is so screwed up right now.” Her fellow panelist Rosie O’Donnell followed with, “Celibacy is not part of the human condition. It is not normal, right, everyone is a sexual being.”

February 15
HBO’s program “America Undercover,” in an episode titled “Celibacy,” examined celibacy as it is practiced in the world’s religions. After a cursory glance at eastern religions, the show focused almost exclusively on Catholicism. The overall theme was voiced at the outset: “The worldwide crisis in the Catholic Church begs many questions: Is sexual denial healthy? Or can it become something dangerous? Is there any link between enforced celibacy and an apparent epidemic of child abuse by the clergy?”

Ex-priest Richard Sipe asserted that homosexuals and sociopaths are drawn to the celibate priesthood. Stories of sexual abuse were described in graphic detail, in contrast to the happy tales of priests who left and married. A pedophile priest named Robert admitted that castration set him free.

After distorting the travails of Galileo, the program posed the question, “How long will it take the Church to come to terms with the nature of human sexuality?”

February 22
On CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” Dobbs once again showed that he really doesn’t believe Catholic bishops should have the same free speech rights as other Americans. His vitriol was aimed at, among others, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.

February 27
On ABC’s “The View,” panelists Rosie O’Donnell and Joy Behar made mocking comments about the Eucharist. O’Donnell said, “The biggest thing when you are raised a Catholic when I was a kid was that you are not allowed to touch the Host with your hand.” Behar added, “Or chew the Host.” O’Donnell continued, “Or your teeth. So you would put it, would get stuck to the roof of your mouth and you would spend the rest of church going [she mimicked her tongue hitting the top of her mouth].” Later in the show, O’Donnell said of Jesus’ DNA, “You can’t get a Q-tip and swab the inside of his cheek.”

February 27
On The Learning Channel reality show “Miami Ink,” a girl went to a tattoo shop to get a Rosary tattoo on her foot. One tattoo artist said, “I don’t want to f**king do Rosary beads because I am a f**king Jew.” When the shop’s other tattoo artist asked what the big deal was, the first one replied, “Because I don’t like f**king Rosary beads. I don’t even know what they mean.”

March 4
The Discovery Channel aired “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” by “Titanic” director James Cameron and TV director Simcha Jacobovici. In the documentary, Cameron and Jacobovici claimed to have evidence of a Jerusalem tomb that allegedly held the remains of Jesus and his family.

In a March 26 Television Week interview, Jacobovici said, “The fact that nobody has been able to punch a hole in our reporting is a testament to how well we’ve done our homework.” In the Foreword of the book The Jesus Family Tomb, Cameron claimed “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the remains of Jesus had been found.

Both men’s claims ran counter to the conclusions of the archaeological and scientific communities. Even Ted Koppel, who moderated a panel discussion on the film after it was shown, found the Jesus tomb story unpersuasive.

TV director Simcha Jacobovici and “Titanic” director James Cameron claimed they found the authentic tomb of Jesus and his family. To read the testimony of archaeologists and others debunking this myth, see below.

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Experts Debunk “Jesus Tomb” Fable

The following is a selection of criticisms aimed at the claims of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”

William Dever, archaeologist and professor emeritus, University of Arizona:

● “It looks more like a publicity stunt than any kind of real discovery…They’re not scholars. They’re not experts. They didn’t discover this material. And I’m afraid they already have gone much too far. I don’t know a single archaeologist in this country or Israel who agrees with their findings.” (CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°,” February 28)

● “For me, it represents the worst kind of Biblical archaeology, even if it’s anti-Biblical, because it seems to me the conclusions are already drawn in the beginning, and that’s my real problem. I think the argument goes far beyond any reasonable interpretation.” (The Discovery Channel’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Critical Look, ” March 4)

Garrett G. Fagan, classics professor at Pennsylvania State University and author of Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public:

● “Modern architects of fantastic finds try to provide an air of legitimacy by invoking scientific jargon. They’re not scientists but they need to dress themselves in the clothes of science to past muster. Television is not in the business of education, even with the so-called educational channels like Discovery. Ultimately, they’re in the business of making money…. By the time the rebuttals come out, the mass media would have moved onto the next sensation, and people will have this vague notion that they have found the tomb of Jesus.” (Cox News Service, March 1)

Ronald Hendel, professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish studies at the University of California, Berkeley:

● “These are hucksters and snake-oil salesman who play fast and loose with historical details, said Hendel.” (reported in The Forward, March 2)

Ted Koppel, former anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” and moderator of the Discovery Channel’s panel discussion about the film:

● “This is drama. This is not journalism.” (Discovery Channel’s “The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Critical Look,” March 4)

Jodi Magness, professor of Judaism, University of North Carolina:

● “There are people who somehow would like to have physical validation for biblical figures and events, and this feeds into that. But most of the general public doesn’t have the expertise to validate these claims. This pretty outrageous claim is being thrown out in the public arena, and it’s set up like a situation where it seems like there’s legitimate debate about whether it’s true or not, and it’s virtually impossible to explain in a one-minute sound bite why this can’t be true.” (Cox News Service, March 1)

David Mevorah, curator at the Israel Museum:

● “Suggesting that this tomb was the tomb of the family of Jesus is a far-fetched suggestion, and we need to be very careful with that.” (New York Times, March 3)

Lawrence Stager, professor of archaeology of Israel, Harvard University:

● “One of the problems is there are so many biblically illiterate people around the world that they don’t know what is real judicious assessment and what is what some of us in the field call ‘fantastic archeology.'” (New York Times, February 27)

Joe Zias, former curator for anthropology and archaeology at the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem:

● “Simcha [Jacobovici, the co-director] has no credibility whatsoever…He is pimping off the Bible…He got this guy [James] Cameron, who made ‘Titanic’ or something like that—what does this guy know about archeology? I am an archeologist, but if I were to write a book about brain surgery, you would say, ‘Who is this guy?’ People want signs and wonders. Projects like these make a mockery of the archeological profession.” (Newsweek, March 7)

March 26
On ABC’s “The View,” panelist Joy Behar admitted to a lack of knowledge of the Bible, and added, “I never read the Bible as a child because I was Catholic.” Rosie O’Donnell added about the Bible, “I didn’t know about it. Again, Catholic, you just read the Missalette.”

March 28
An episode of the Fox crime drama “Bones,” titled “The Priest in the Churchyard,” centered on the discovery of a priest’s body; the priest’s death was ruled a homicide. The main character of the show, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan, sarcastically referred to Holy Water as “magic water.” Later, when interviewing a priest who expressed belief in Catholic doctrines such as the Resurrection, Brennan said, “But you seem like such an intelligent guy.”

An “old-school” priest, Fr. Donlan, confessed to the murder in order to protect the real killer, who turned out to be Lorraine, the parish administrator. Lorraine confessed that she poisoned the priest because she thought he had molested children, but hadn’t meant to kill him.

April 13
On “Fox News Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld,” political satirist Will Durst said that the ban on dogs in Iran should be respected as part of the country’s religious and cultural heritage. He likened this to Catholicism by saying Catholicism has altar boys wearing “dresses” and puts them on altars “standing next to celibate priests.”

April 13
In the “New Rules” segment of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher showed a picture of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and said, “New rules—snorting your father isn’t crazy” (a reference to Richards’ hoax about snorting his father’s ashes). Maher then showed a picture of a Catholic priest giving Communion and said, “Eating your father—that’scrazy.”

April 13
On ABC’s “The View,” after panelist Joy Behar was asked if she was superstitious, she answered, “When I was a kid I used to be, because the Catholic Church has a lot of that sort of thing in it, but then I sort of grew out of it.”

April 14
On the “Weekend Update” segment of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” comedian Seth Meyers said, “For the second consecutive year the number of sex abuse claims against the nation’s Catholic priests had dropped—undisputable proof that fewer kids are going to church.”

April 15
On the TV Guide Channel, comedian John Henson joked about Islamic suicide bombers; he questioned why any man would want to blow himself up to get into heaven to be with 72 virgins, when he could have “72 naughty Catholic schoolgirls” instead.

April 19
On ABC’s “The View,” the day after the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the partial-birth abortion ban, host Rosie O’Donnell complained about the presence of Catholic justices on the Court. “How many Supreme Court judges are Catholic, Barbara?” After Walters answered, “Five,” O’Donnell continued, “Five. Five are Catholic. Separation of church and state, America.”

April 22
On Fox’s “The Simpsons,” Homer gives Lisa a documentary DVD about riots at soccer matches; during one riot, a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and beats everyone up.

April 23
On ABC’s “The View,” Rosie O’Donnell and her co-hosts engaged in a mocking and silly exchange about limbo. Elisabeth Hasselbeck ridiculed her own child’s baptism and Joy Behar added that baptism is “a nice little sponge bath.” Behar also took a slap at the Church’s teaching on birth control.

April 27
St. Louis, MO – CBS affiliate KMOV-TV ran a story on its web site regarding the decision by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke to resign as chairman of the board of governors of the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation. The archbishop resigned to protest an appearance by pop singer Sheryl Crow, an ardent pro-abortion activist, at a foundation fundraiser. The KMOV story listed other arguably offensive celebrities who had appeared at past fundraisers for the foundation with no objection from Burke. The Catholic League chided KMOV for not minding its own business regarding an internal matter of the Archdiocese.

At the same time the story appeared, KMOV boasted four surveys on its website dealing with the Catholic Church. No other religion was open for question.

April 29
A church scene on the Fox cartoon show “Family Guy” featured references to the Eucharist as “cookies” and “punch” and to Catholics as “wafer-munchers.” A baby picked up a bunch of Communion hosts and ate them, then vomited on the church floor, prompting the priest to threaten the child with violence. When the baby cried, church members were shown thinking the baby needed an exorcism.

May 10
The NBC show “Scrubs” demeaned the Eucharist when one of the main female characters said that “Father O’Neill is going to crap out a Communion wafer when he hears” that she would be getting married.

May 11
On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” co-host Robin Roberts wondered if Pope Benedict XVI was “interfering in American politics from half a world away” regarding possible sanctions against pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Correspondent Dan Harris asked, “So even though he doesn’t vote here, he doesn’t live here, wasn’t elected here, he can impact the race here?”

May 18
On ABC’s “The View,” during a discussion on male nannies and how they could be pedophiles, Rosie O’Donnell asked Barbara Walters if she would have hired a male nanny for her daughter when she was growing up. When Walters hesitated, Joy Behar interjected with the comment, “A priest perhaps?” O’Donnell grimaced and the audience roared with laughter.

May 18
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host attacked the recently deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell and then devolved into an assault on Catholicism:

“And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I’ll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me—I don’t know how she got past the guards—and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in the confessional. Gay men, don’t say you’re life partners, say you’re a nunnery of two. ‘We weren’t having sex, officer, I was performing a very private Mass, here in my car. I was letting my rod and staff comfort him. Take this and eat of it, [our emphasis] for this is my roommate Barry. And for all those who believe there is a special place for you in Kevin.”

Bill Donohue wrote to all 14 members of the board of directors of Time Warner (HBO’s parent company) asking if Maher’s attack on Jesus merited the same punishment afforded Don Imus for his racist remark. On July 5, Donohue received a reply from Jeff Cusson, HBO’s vice president for corporate affairs, who defended Maher on creative-freedom grounds.

May 23
On CBS’ “Late Show,” host David Letterman said during his opening monologue, “You can tell it’s Fleet Week [in New York City]. The priests are out front whistling at sailors over at St. Patrick’s.” The episode was re-aired on July 4.

May 31
On ABC’s “The View,” all four co-hosts, including guest host Whoopi Goldberg, intruded into an internal matter of the Church by questioning a Wisconsin priest’s right to run his parish as he sees fit. The priest had dismissed his organist/choir director because the products she sold for a sex-toys company were incompatible with Catholic teaching. Joy Behar said, “She is selling [the sex toys] because the Catholic Church wants you to procreate,” Joy Behar said. “How do they think we have been doing it all these years? With sex toys, that’s how.”

Goldberg and Barbara Walters falsely claimed that the dismissed choir director no longer had access to spiritual guidance, when in fact there was no report that she had been denied spiritual advice or the sacraments. Elisabeth Hasselbeck questioned the merit of “probing into your private life in terms of how well you can do your job or keep your job.” There was no such “probing;” the priest discovered the nature of the woman’s sales job when she tried to sell her sex products at a church function.

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The league ran the above ad in the op-ed pages of the New York Times on June 12.

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June 18
Actor/comedian Robin Williams appeared as a guest on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” to plug his new movie, “License to Wed.” In the film, Williams plays a Protestant minister who puts an engaged couple through a grueling marriage preparation course. On Leno’s show, Williams pegged all Catholic priests as child molesters. Shuffling his hands as if hiding something under a cup, Williams said, “Here we go. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Here you go right now. Move ’em around, move ’em around. Oh, you found the pedophile.”

Williams then put his hand over his groin, saying, “You have to realize that if you are a Catholic priest, you have retired this. That’s it—no more sex.” Then he took a shot at confession: “But they are going to put you in a small dark box and people are going to tell you the nastiest sexual stuff they have done.”

June 20
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno joked the Vatican’s “Ten Commandments of Driving” during his opening monologue. He suggested that the 11th commandment should be, “Thou shall not use your car to transfer pedophile priests to another parish.”

June 20
Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” dealt with the Vatican’s “Ten Commandments of Driving.” The show’s “senior Vatican correspondent,” John Oliver, reported on a “sinalyzer,” a machine that looked like a statue of a bishop with breathalyzer-style tube extending from the groin area. Oliver “reported” that the machine was created in the Vatican’s labs and could reveal whether the person blowing into it was “horny.”

June 21
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno said during the opening monologue, “In Austin, Texas, a 61-year-old priest has been arrested after he left rehab. This priest leaves rehab, gets drunk and drives his car into a restaurant. So much for the Vatican’s Ten Commandments of safe driving. Imagine that, a priest driving drunk into a restaurant. Thank God it was not a Chuck E. Cheese. Oh my God.” Chuck E. Cheese is a chain of children’s themed restaurants.

June 21
On the Bravo Network reality show “Kathy Griffin: My Life in the D-List,” Griffin discussed her father’s illness with her mother, who said she was trying to get a priest to pray for him at Mass. Griffin replied, “Well, the priests were probably really busy molesting kids anyway. They will get to it in their own time.”

July 12
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno ridiculed Pope Benedict XVI for restating Catholic doctrine on salvation. “Pope Benedict announced this week that the Catholic Church provides the only true path to salvation and that other Christian groups are either defective or not true churches,” Leno said. “Then His Holiness went on to condemn bigotry and intolerance.”

July 18
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” Jay Leno made several jokes about the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s $660 million sex-abuse legal settlement. He began by saying that the strong stock market surge was partially due to “a sudden influx of cash from former Los Angeles altar boys.” When the crowd groaned at the joke, Leno replied, “A very judgmental crowd!”

Continuing about the settlement, Leno said, “And listen to this—a big chunk of that is paid for by insurance. They actually have sexual abuse insurance. What company sold them that policy? Was that the good hands people, you think? In fact, I understand they have a three altar boy deductible. You can get that.”

Leno then said that “there are signs of change” in the Church: “A lot of Catholic churches in L.A. now have a sign—’you touch it, you bought it.'”

July 23
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” Jay Leno said that the “Harry Potter book is so popular, a lot of L.A. priests are now using it as bait [for kids].” When the crowd groaned loudly, Leno responded by telling them to “Shut up.”

After several jokes about other topics, Leno joked about a Chicago priest who pleaded guilty to stealing parish funds and using the money on a male stripper at a gay nightclub: “You know what that means—he was cheating on his altar boy.” Leno’s bandleader, Kevin Eubanks, replied, “Those are some horny guys.”

July 25
On the FX drama “Rescue Me,” Denis Leary’s character had an exchange with a new firefighter about the Bible. He said the Bible is to Catholics what “The Godfather” is to the Mafia.

Continuing, Leary blasted the Catholic Church for being corrupt, maintaining that the 12 years he spent in the Church was effectively like being in prison. The biggest gangster on the face of the planet, he contended, is the pope.

Later in the episode, another firefighter returns to his apartment, one he shares with his girlfriend, a former nun. He finds her having sex—while wearing a habit—with his cousin.

July 25
On the BET show “Socially Offensive Behavior (S.O.B),” two actors dressed as priests entered a restaurant where they ordered drinks, looked at pornographic magazines, and made advances toward two women who didn’t know they were on camera. One of the women seemed interested in the men, but the other was not.

Host D.L. Hughley, who opened the segment by saying “Priests have had a rough year, but not as rough as some little boys,” wrapped up by saying, “So obviously the girl with the glasses saw no problem rocking it with the father, especially when a trip to Denny’s was put on the table. But the one with the braids was not with it. She was one Hail Mary away from kicking his ass and not about to sell out. Amen, sister.”

July 30
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” Jay Leno said, “And according to the Times of London, Paul McCartney has offered Heather Mills $40 million in a divorce settlement. She says no. She wants $100 million. Imagine that—$100 million just to have someone you had sex with go away. Or as the L.A. Archdiocese calls that, getting off cheap.”

August
The “Comedians A-Z” section of Comedy Central’s web site said the following of one of the channel’s regular performers: “In this day of watered down comedy, Nick DiPaolo’s brutally honest performances stick out like a Catholic priest at the Little League World Series.”

August 7
In a report on the opening of Rome’s new “Gay Street,” CNN’s Rome bureau chief, Alessio Vinci, said “In a country where practically everyone is Catholic, the words of the pope still carry some weight. And although the Vatican did not comment on the opening of Gay Street, the pope’s position is well-known: on numerous occasions, he reaffirmed that gays in the Catholic Church are not welcome.” The Catholic League pointed out that homosexual people are welcome in the Church but homosexual acts are not.

August 13
The first episode of “Californication,” the Showtime program, featured a dream in which a nun approaches the main character, a writer named Hank, in church. Hank uttered some profanities as he told the nun that he was experiencing “writer’s block.” He then asked the nun what penance he would need to do for cursing; the nun replied that he would normally need to say a few “Our Fathers” but that she would perform oral sex on him instead. Hank then woke up with a woman next to him in bed and the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” playing in the background.

September
We led the charge against comedian Kathy Griffin after she used an incredibly obscene slur against Jesus at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on September 8.

After winning an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program for her Bravo show, “My Life on the D-List,” Griffin complained about how some performers thank Jesus for their success. She went on to say that Jesus had nothing to do with her Emmy win, and finished off by saying, “Suck it, Jesus, this award is my God now!” According to the Hollywood Reporter, Griffin’s blasphemous comment “drew laughs” from the audience.

On September 10, the Catholic League called on Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chairman Dick Askin to denounce Griffin’s remark. The next day, the Academy branded Griffin’s comments “offensive” and announced that it would censor them from the taped airing of the awards ceremony September 15 on the E! channel.

We also called on Griffin to apologize; she refused to do so and responded to the controversy surrounding her saying, “Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?” In fact, Griffin is an ex-Catholic who hates the Church with a passion: in a June 2007 interview with OutSmart, Houston’s gay magazine, she described herself as a “complete militant atheist” and said that the Catholic Church is “stupid.”

The Catholic League never called for Griffin’s remark to be censored; we nonetheless received numerous phone calls from people accusing us of exactly that. Other calls that we received following our protest included the following:

● “I have no idea how somebody who believes in Noah’s ark could possibly have anything to say about somebody’s personal opinion.”

● “I think you should focus more of your time on keeping your priests from molesting young children.”

● “I think that Kathy Griffin’s comments were right on; she’s correct and the Catholic Church has to clean up its own act first before they start pointing fingers at other people.”

● “It’s very important that you start investigating the pope because it’s obviously clear to many people that we have been speaking to that he is gay. And I think it’s very important that you keep young children away from the pope.”

● “Bill Donohue, go f*** yourself, and f*** Catholicism, and f*** every priest that has ever touched any little boy, and get your fat f***ing face off of television!”

September 15
Fox’s “MADtv” began its 13th season with a series of some of the show’s past comedy skits. Included in the episode was one of several past skits lampooning the Catholic priesthood’s sex abuse scandals. While the show has repeatedly taken shots at priests, a look at the show’s history revealed little in the way of derogatory treatment of blacks, gays, or other groups.

September 30
CBS’ “Cold Case” showed sexually active Christian teens enrolled in an abstinence program. One girl in the abstinence program was stoned to death for breaking her chastity vow. In another scene, a minister told a girl to turn her back to him; he then preached the virtues of abstinence while he masturbated.

October 4
On ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg began by saying that because of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s position on abortion, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke “cannot give him Communion.” Elisabeth Hasselbeck, an ex-Catholic, intruded into the Church’s internal affairs by saying, “I always have an issue with a priest denying Communion,” and claimed to have a divorced relative who could not receive Communion until receiving an annulment. In fact, divorced Catholics who do not remarry are never denied Communion.

Hasselback and Joy Behar opined how annulments can be bought, and thus misrepresented the process by which Catholics can obtain them. Behar returned to the subject of Giuliani by saying that he “hasn’t necessarily had an abortion himself.” All four panelists then chimed in about the priesthood’s sex-abuse scandal.

October 9
ABC’s “Boston Legal” featured a 15 year-old girl who is enrolled in an abstinence-only sex education program, contracts HIV and then sues her school, blaming it for her condition. At the trial, the school’s principal, the girl’s attorneys and the judge all tout the virtues of condoms, fingering Christian activists for her irresponsibility.

The episode also featured a nun translating the testimony of a Mexican immigrant charged with cockfighting. Referring to a rooster as a “champion cock,” she commented how “it would bring me such joy to hold him.” Then, to the astonishment of the court, the nun said, “To hold that beautiful cock in my own two hands.”

October 16
On ABC’s “Boston Legal,” the same nun from the October 9 episode (see above) served as a translator for a Mexican man who wanted to return to Mexico with his young son so that the boy could participate in bullfighting. Translating the man’s words, the nun said, “Bullfighting is a tradition in my country. I would have done it if I had the gift. To climb in, see that big bull stallion. To have that big bull charge me, just me and that stallion bull. One time, me and a big horny bull. Oh, oh … !” She became increasingly excited as she spoke.

David E. Kelley, creator of “Boston Legal,” has a long-standing animus against Catholicism.

November 
Kathy Griffin attacked the Church and the Catholic League in her special, “Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell,” which aired on the Bravo network. She warmed up her act by ranting about the criticism she received for her “Suck it Jesus” comment at the Emmy’s. Griffin lashed out, “Don’t pull your Catholic kid f**ker bulls**t with me, mother f**kers.” She then continued to paint all priests as molesters by saying, “The Catholics, they should f**king talk. They got bigger fish to fry than my little jokes. I remember Father Porter.”

Activist Organizations

November 28
The Anti-Defamation League advised government officials on the placement of religious symbols on public grounds. One of the matters explained by ADL was “Choosing appropriate holiday symbols to decorate school grounds—among them Christmas trees, menorahs, reindeers, and snowmen.” Christian displays did not make the cut.

December
Section, CT – The Connecticut Valley Atheists erected a ten-foot-tall sign of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers with the words “Imagine No Religion” next to a nativity scene in a public park.

December 
Columbus, OH – The Freedom from Religion Foundation asked for an investigation on Governor Ted Strickland to see whether or not he violated his oath of office to uphold the constitutions of Ohio and the United States by allowing religious displays on public property. Strickland had resisted erecting non-seasonal pagan displays.

December 18
Madison, WI – The Freedom from Religion Foundation objected to the nativity scene on the lawn of the Manitowoc County Courthouse. Because the nativity scene was owned by a Catholic organization, the Foundation argued that the government was endorsing Catholicism.

December 19
Racine, WI – Atheists were upset that a crèche was erected on the city’s Monument Square. They said that the local church groups that sponsored the nativity scene were, “shoving [religion] into the face of the entire population.”

December 19
Webster, MA – Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the town to remove a nativity scene from the Town Hall lawn. Americans United claimed that the crèche was a government endorsement of religion.

December 24
Green Bay, WI – The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s display of the crèche on the roof of the City Hall.

The Arts

December 8
Los Angeles, CA – The “Merry Titmas” exhibit opened. The display included sacrilegious artwork such as a large-breasted Blessed Virgin Mary wearing a Hooters tank-top with chicken wings on the blanket where the Baby Jesus should be. The curator commented on the painting saying, “I really feel that if the Virgin Mary found herself knocked up today that she would have to go work at Hooters to support the baby Jesus.”

Business/Workplace

November 13
Lowe’s, the nationwide home improvement chain, apologized for referring to Christmas trees as “family trees” in its holiday catalog. A spokeswoman called the use of the term “family trees” a “plain old error.”

Education

October 9
Oak Lawn, IL – The Oak Lawn School District voted to include Ramadan as well as Christmas on the school calendar. Christmas had previously been removed from the school calendar as had Easter and secular holidays such as Halloween. Christian holidays were removed from the calendar because of complaints made by Muslim parents and students which make up one-third of the district’s enrollment.

December
A public elementary school in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. held its “Winter Concert” with various secular songs. During the concert a class performed the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” but the word “Christmas” was replaced throughout the song with the word “winter”.

December 19
Moore, OK – The Moore, Putnam City, and Midwest City-Del School Districts did away with Christmas parties in elementary schools. They replaced the Christmas parties with “Winter” parties. District administrators said that moving away from Christmas parties reflects the changing demographics of the area.

December 20
Weatherford, OK – The word “Christmas” was banned from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Decorations in the registrar’s office containing the words “Christ” or “Christmas” were covered up and there could be no use of “Merry Christmas” in e-mails.

Government

November 15
Oklahoma City, OK – The City Manager e-mailed a memo to the department and division heads of the city government concerning “Holiday Decorations.” In the memo the City Manager bans nativity scenes, cherubs, crosses, menorahs, etc. The memo also lists acceptable displays such as snowmen, reindeer, and evergreen trees.

November 27
Larimer, CO – A county sheriff was under investigation because he publicly expressed his frustration with the political correctness of Christmas.

December 13
New York City – A press conference was called at City Hall to discuss the topic of religious discrimination in the New York City schools. The schools allow the display of Jewish and Islamic religious symbols, but neglect to display Christian religious symbols. Bill Donohue spoke at the press conference along with Councilman Tony Avella, Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Jews for Morality, and Martin Kelly of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

The press conference followed months of correspondence between Donohue and the New York City Department of Education (DOE). On June 24, a press conference was called at City Hall to announce Councilman Avella’s resolution to allow the display of nativity scenes in public schools during the Christmas season. In October, Donohue wrote to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, “There is no constitutional prohibition or court ruling that disallows the display of nativity scenes in the New York City public schools.” The DOE responded that they permit “the display of holiday secular decorations with secular dimensions.”

On November 21 Donohue responded to the DOE stating that the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it was constitutional for religious symbols to be displayed in the schools, and stated that the federal district court erred by declaring the menorah and the star and crescent secular in nature. So by displaying the menorah and the star and crescent, the DOE is denying Christians parity by not allowing a crèche to be displayed.

The DOE’s General Counsel, Michael Best, replied to Donohue that the courts have upheld the DOE’s policy and that there is nothing wrong with it. On December 4, Donohue responded to Best stating, “It is plain to see that although New York City is not barred from permitting a crèche alongside the menorah and star and crescent, it has elected not to do so. This is not a matter for the courts, but for the legislature.” At the December 13 event, Donohue discussed Councilman Avella’s resolution that would grant parity to Christians.

Vandalism

November 22
Kearney, MO – A large portion of a man’s Christmas display was destroyed Thanksgiving night.

November 28
Schaumburg, IL – Two plastic figures of the Baby Jesus were stolen from two homes in a neighborhood. The homeowners had placed the figures on their front lawns only days before they were stolen.

November 28
Westbury, NY – A 72 year-old man was attacked as he was hanging Christmas lights in his front yard. The attacker, a 21 year-old man, followed the older man and smashed his nativity scene during the attack.

November 28
Lattimore, NC – A life-size Baby Jesus figure was stolen from a daycare. The figure was stolen a day after the children of the daycare, all under the age of 5, assisted the staff in setting up the display.

November 28
Windham, NH – Two 18”x 24” signs were stolen from the Windham Bible Chapel. The signs directed visitors to the chapel’s Journey to Bethlehem presentation, a live play with a cast of 100 telling the birth of Christ.

November 29
Elyria, OH – Vandals destroyed a man’s inflatable Christmas decorations and stole the Baby Jesus from his nativity set.

November 30
Hoffman Estates, IL – A man woke up to find seven or eight boys smashing his decorations and attempted to stop them from leaving. When he stepped in front of their car; he was hit and dragged, running over his foot in the process. The man valued his losses at over $1000.

December 1
Rogers, AR – Figures of St. Joseph and a donkey were stolen from a front yard. A few years prior the homeowner had an angel stolen from the set.

December 3
Marlowe, WV – A complete set of nativity figures was stolen, save the angel, from a nativity scene at a Christian retreat center.

December 3
Bozeman, MT – A full nativity set, except for the stage and hay, was stolen from a yard near Montana State University. Other outdoor decorations including a church, candy-cane lights, and a wreath were not vandalized.

December 4
Bal Harbour, FL – A figure of the Baby Jesus was stolen from a nativity set about an hour after it was displayed. In the park where the figure was stolen, a Christmas tree and menorah were untouched.

December 6
Glastonbury, CT – Figures of the Mother Mary and a sheep were stolen from a church’s nativity scene. The Baby Jesus was stolen last year from the same display. The stolen pieces would take $2000 to replace.

December 8
Tampa, FL – A 13-piece nativity scene was stolen from a front yard only hours after it had been put up.

December 8
Greensboro, NC – A nativity scene at Greensboro College was destroyed. Every figure of the scene was either ripped apart or smashed to the ground. The vice president of the school said that the set was an antique and was very valuable.

December 8
Longwood, FL – Two teenage girls, who were caught on the surveillance camera, vandalized The Walk Through Bethlehem attraction.

December 8
Sylvania Township, OH – A Baby Jesus figure was stolen from a nativity scene outside of a priest’s home. The priest was out of town for the week and returned to find only the Infant Jesus missing from the crèche.

December 8
Marietta, GA – A public school coach drove several middle-schoolers in his pickup truck and damaged Christmas displays with them. The coach and students placed lawn figures in sexual positions as well as trashed Christmas displays.

December 9
Manchester, NH – Figures of a Baby Jesus and a Wiseman were stolen from a nativity scene along with the nativity star.

December 11
Ft. Walton Beach, FL – Figures of Mary, Joseph and the three wise men were stolen from the front yard of a disabled lady’s home. The woman, who is confined to a motorized cart and had a figure of the Baby Jesus stolen in 2006, was only left with a couple of animal figures left in her nativity scene.

December 13
Sulpher, LA – A statue was stolen from a nativity set in front of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. The statue was valued at $1200.

December 14
Middlebury, CT – Vandals broke through a Plexiglas window vandalized the figure of St. Joseph from a nativity scene.

December 17
Antioch, CA – Two men smashed a hand-carved nativity into pieces and destroyed other Christmas decorations in a front yard.

December 18
Ft. Walton Beach, FL – A few figures were stolen from a nativity scene a day after they were erected. A week later the rest of the homeowner’s Christmas decorations were stolen and vandalized.

December 18
Nyack, NY – Figures of the Baby Jesus and a lamb were stolen from a town’s manger scene. It was the third time in four years that the Infant Jesus was stolen from this crèche.

December 18
Santa Clarita Valley, CA – A dozen Baby Jesus figures were found at a Church. A prankster had stolen them from various homes in the area and dropped them off in the grotto.

December 18
Ashton, ID – A life-size statue of the Infant Jesus was stolen from the city’s nativity set. The week before a sheep and shepherd figure were stolen from the scene. The shepherd was found damaged in a residents yard.

December 18
Mason, OH – A figure of the Baby Jesus was stolen from a nativity scene in a family’s front yard. The figure is a forty year-old family heirloom.

December 18
Sagamore Beach, MA – Figures of the Baby Jesus and Mary were stolen from a nativity scene from a deacon’s front yard.

December 18
Green Bay, WI – The mayor placed a moratorium on all religious displays until the City Council could draft new guidelines for displays. This came as a result of a Wiccan wreath that was damaged on top of City Hall.

December 19
Bangor, PA – The figures of the Baby Jesus and a lamb were stolen from a funeral home’s nativity scene. The nativity scene had been displayed for 21 years.

December 19
Eugene, OR – Baby Jesus figures were stolen from two homes and were replaced by pig’s heads.

December 19
Hartford, CT – A nativity scene was destroyed overnight outside of a Baptist church. The figures of Mary, Joseph, and the Wisemen were smashed and the Baby Jesus was knocked from the manger.

December 25
West Springfield, VA – Homemade figures of Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were stolen from an elderly couple on Christmas morning. The figures were over forty years old.

December 25
Concord, NH – The figure of the Baby Jesus was stolen from a church’s nativity scene. The thieves broke into the Plexiglas shield that protected the set.

December 26
Sioux Falls, SD – For the second year in a row, vandals robbed and destroyed Christmas decorations at a home in Sioux Falls. The homeowner stated that none of the secular decorations were destroyed, only the ones with sacred value. This year they stole a Baby Jesus figure from the manger and ripped the lights that spelled “Jesus” from the fence that read, “Happy Birthday Jesus.” The display benefits two charities: Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sioux Falls and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

December 29
Minneapolis, MN – A Baby Jesus figure was stolen from St. Olaf’s Church. The nativity scene, which was carved from the wood of an olive tree four to six hundred years ago, is valued at around $30,000.

December 29
Queens, NY – The nativity scene that is setup by the Bayside Business Association was stolen.

December 29
East Lampeter Township, PA – A figure of the Baby Jesus was stolen from the front yard of a local homeowner.

January 7
New York, NY – Two 20-year-olds and an 18-year-old were arrested for allegedly stealing statues of the Baby Jesus from nativity scenes over a two-year period. Police said they would not charge them with hate crimes; the three were each charged with 14 counts of petty larceny. Around the same time, a 20-year-old was charged with a hate crime for allegedly kicking a menorah and faced seven years in prison. The bias in hate crime enforcement means inequality as far as who is considered a victim of a hate crime.

January 28
Columbus, OH – Parishioners at Christ the King Catholic Church stopped two people who attempted to rob worshippers during Mass. The thieves entered the church with a handgun and said, “This is a robbery.” After stealing a woman’s purse and a man’s wallet, the thieves tried to leave but parishioners detained them until police arrived.

February 3
New Orleans, LA – Chris Rose, a staff writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, was King and Chief Warden of the infamously anti-Catholic parade “Krewe du Vieux.” Rose turned down a request by the Archdiocese of New Orleans asking him to address the parade’s past mockery of the Catholic Church.  In a February 6 column, after he had participated in the parade, Rose wrote that he agreed with the archdiocese’s criticism of the parade but said that the “krewe members” had the right to “express themselves in any way they see fit.”  In the same column Rose admitted that he would not allow his children to watch the parade.

February 12
West New York, NJ – A marble statue of Jesus was decapitated and knocked over outside Our Lady of Libera Roman Catholic Church.

February 20
New Orleans, LA – Two women who called themselves “Angry Little Sisters of the Apocalypse” walked around the French Quarter dressed in nuns’ habits with camouflage capes.  The women carried rulers with the words “weapons of mass instruction” written on them, as well as weapons called “novena bombs” and “rapid-fire rosaries.”

February 21
Santa Fe, NM – The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was evacuated during Ash Wednesday Mass when three CD players duct-taped to the bottom of pews began blaring foul language and pornographic references. Parishioners removed the CD players and called police, who sent the bomb squad to investigate.

February 23
South Ozone Park, NY – A man was charged with attacking a priest outside St. Anthony of Padua Church with a cane. The assailant had been released from prison 11 days earlier after serving time for setting fire to the same church.

March 16
Omaha, NE – A painting of the Virgin Mary called “The Virgin Immaculata,” valued at $100,000, was stolen from St. Cecilia Cathedral.

April 1
Port Richey, FL – Palm Sunday Mass at St. James the Apostle Church was interrupted when expletives could be heard coming from the church’s sound system. The disturbance occurred as parishioners were taking part in the solemn Palm Sunday procession at the start of Mass. A group of teenagers were believed to be responsible.

April 5
Baton Rouge, LA – Vandals spray-painted vulgarities and Satanic symbols on a crucifix, a statue of Mary, and a wall at St. Joseph Cathedral on Holy Thursday. The crucifix and the statue of Mary date back to the 1880s.

April 11
Warren, MI – Two men, both 21, were arraigned on charges of spray-painting “Arabs die” and other anti-Arab messages on the outside of St. Mary’s Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church. The men were charged with ethnic intimidation and malicious destruction of property.

April 22
Miami, FL – Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, an American cult leader who calls himself the “Anti-Christ,” cancelled a trip to Guatemala after the country barred his entry, saying he provoked conflict with Catholics and evangelical Christians. Miranda preaches that sin and the devil do not exist, and that his teachings supercede those of Jesus. His followers disrupted Catholic Good Friday processions in Miami, and in the past have destroyed Rosaries and statues of the Virgin Mary.

April 30
Memphis, TN – Three people were arrested after allegedly breaking into the Diocese of Memphis offices. The three were charged with vandalism, theft of cash and desecration of the diocesan headquarters’ chapel.

May 1
Bronx, NY – For the third time in a month, a statue of Jesus was vandalized outside St. Martin of Tours Church. The statue was found half-smashed, with “devil” and “666” written on it with a black marker. On April 23, the statue was knocked down and damaged. On Good Friday, April 6, the statue was pried off its pedestal and tossed on the ground.

May 11
New Castle, IN – A 33-year-old man was arrested after a fire burned down St. Anne’s Catholic Church five weeks earlier.  The man was charged with setting the fire in order to cover up a break-in. The church had been built in 1924.

May 17
Middletown, NY  – A woman participating in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was sexually assaulted by a man in a pew at St. Joseph’s Church. The attack was caught on the church’s security camera. The man fled after the woman fought him off by stabbing him with a pen

May 18
Lexington, KY – Vandals pulled up flagstones in a garden at Pax Christi Catholic Church and broke them. Stones were also pulled out of a dry-laid wall forming one side of the columbarium, where people’s ashes are laid to rest.  It was the third time in the past year that the church had been vandalized.

May 23
Cape Coral, FL – A statue of Jesus outside St. Katherine Drexel Church was knocked over and damaged.

June 5
Cooperstown, NY – A statue of Mary outside St. Mary’s Church was knocked to the ground.  It was replaced with a smaller statue and a sign that read, “We forgive.”

June 8
Westwood, CA – Two men were sentenced to federal prison terms for burning a cross in front of the home of a Catholic priest from Rwanda.  One man, 21, was sentenced to two years; his 18-year-old accomplice was sentenced to one year and nine months. The older man said he committed the crime because he hates black people.

June 23
St. Louis, MO – Vandals toppled over 100 headstones at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery.  A section where priests are buried was particularly hard-hit, with over a dozen granite crosses knocked down.

July
Windsor Heights, IA – An e-mail was circulated urging evangelicals to support Mike Huckabee of Arkansas for president over Sam Brownback; Huckabee is an evangelical, and Brownback is Roman Catholic. The e-mail’s author, Rev. Tim Rude of Walnut Creek Community Church, wrote, “I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002. Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s.”

July 7
Massapequa, NY – A fire destroyed a playground and damaged preschool classrooms at St. Rose of Lima Church. The local police and fire marshal deemed the fire suspicious.

July 8
Naperville, IL – Vandals spray-painted obscenities and gang symbols on the front sign and several windows at Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

July 24
Mobile, AL – A statue of Mary and a statue of St. Vincent de Paul were vandalized at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. Both statues had their heads knocked off and stolen.  A third statue, a small one of Mary, was also stolen.

August
Las Vegas, NM – Monuments and marble icons were vandalized at two Catholic cemeteries, both of which date back to the late 1800s. The cemeteries were also littered with old appliances, empty beer cans, and drug paraphernalia.

August
Ada, OK – St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and three Protestant churches were spray-painted with obscenities and phrases such as “Gay Pride” and “Only God Can Judge.”

August 14
St. Augustine, FL – A man was arrested after slamming his pickup truck into St. Anastasia Catholic Church.  He reportedly told police that he did it because he was angry at God.

August 25
Kendallville, IN – Two safes containing church documents and a small amount of cash were stolen from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. The safes held records of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths dating back to the 1840s.

August 26
Camden, NJ – Vandals knocked over a statue of Mary outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

September 10
Columbus, OH – A 51-year-old grandmother of five was sentenced to seven years in prison for an armed robbery committed during a January 28 Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church. The woman held open a bag to collect money while her accomplice pointed a gun at parishioners.

September 16
Las Vegas, NV – A woman walked up to the altar at Guardian Angel Catholic Church during Sunday Mass and exposed her buttocks to the congregation. Moments later, she was arrested just outside the church and charged with possession of cocaine.

September 18
Hoboken, NJ – A 16-inch wooden crucifix was stolen from inside Ss. Peter and Paul Church.

September 19
Dallas, TX – Vandals pulled a statue of Mary off its pedestal at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, breaking off the head.

October 24
Detroit, MI – Thieves broke into St. Andrew’s Catholic Church by smashing a window, and stole several items including a tabernacle, a chalice, and the top of the baptismal font.

October 25
San Francisco, CA – Police arrested an 18-year-old man for allegedly setting fire to the front and back doors of the Good Shepherd Convent. The fires burned out on their own and none of the six nuns inside were injured.

December 9
Colorado Springs, CO – According to the AP and CNN, Matthew Murray, a gunman who stormed a Christian youth mission center and then a nearby church, held a deep hatred for Christianity. Murray, who took the lives of four people before dying himself during a shootout with a security guard, targeted his victims because of their religion.

A look back at an Internet-message board he frequented, aimed at those who have left evangelical churches, reveals that on the morning of his killing spree he raged,  “You Christians brought this on yourselves.” He also wrote, “All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you…as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.”

It is interesting to note that Murray was a fan of rocker Marilyn Manson (a self-described Satanist); he even performed some of Manson’s songs at a mission concert.

December 15
Mandeville, LA – A Church was broken into and vandalized. The vandals stole guitars, video projectors, and laptop computers. They poured coffee inside a grand piano, punched holes in the walls, knocked over a Christmas tree among other things. The damage was estimated at about $100,000.

December 21
Pittsburgh, PA & Bartlesville, OK – A book called National Sunday Law: A Shocking Glimpse Behind the Scenes by A. Jan Marcussen was mass mailed in these two areas. The book is filled with anti-Catholic rhetoric including allegations that the pope is the anti-Christ, is responsible for the deaths of millions of Christians and is part of a conspiracy to take over the world.

This cartoon questions whether presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith would hinder his campaign. The Blessed Mother and God the Father are satirized, but the depiction of Jesus, relaxing on the sofa in a crown of thorns and bearing the stigmata, is the most vile. (New York Post, December 7)

This cartoon gives a sick twist to the Catholic belief that Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. (Justin Bilicki, syndicated, July 24)

This syndicated cartoon maliciously implies that the Catholic Church is only concerned with life in the womb. It ran in the Sentinel & Enterprise (MA) on January 10.

This cartoon contributed to the anti-Catholic bigotry that followed the Supreme Court upholding the partial-birth abortion ban. All five judges who voted to uphold the ban are Catholic. (Tony Auth,Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20)

On July 10, Pope Benedict XVI approved a document that restated important sections of the 2000 textDominus Iesus. Though the document was a respectful statement reaffirming Catholic teaching on doctrinal differences with non-Catholic Christian religious groups, many critics were enraged. These cartoons unaccurately and crudely accuse the pope of belittling Protestantism.

Top: J.D. Crowe (Alaska’s Press-Register, July 12)

Bottom: David Horsey (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 12)