Executive Summary

The most important Catholic event in the U.S. in 2008 was the papal visit that took place in April. Pope Benedict XVI not only brought joy and hope to the faithful, he swayed most of his skeptics. It was, by all accounts, a tremendous success, both in terms of publicity and evangelization. The goodwill that the Holy Father generated, among people of all religions, was incalculable.

While the Catholic League gave most in the media good marks, we also took note of the pope’s detractors. Sadly, much of the unfair criticism lodged against the pope came from dissident Catholic groups. The National Coalition of American Nuns, the Women’s Ordination Conference, Dignity, New Ways Ministry, Voice of the Faithful and Rainbow Sash all took cheap shots at the pope before he even landed in Washington, D.C. They were joined by sister organizations like the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the professional victims’ group, and Catholics for Choice, the anti-Catholic letterhead of an organization funded by the enemies of the Catholic Church.

All of these groups have an agenda, and none of it has anything to do with the best interests of the Church. They find fault with the Church’s teachings on priestly celibacy, criteria for the priesthood, sexuality and other issues, doing everything they can to discredit Catholicism. Though they received media coverage here and there, for the most part they were treated for what they are—yesterday’s news.

In fact, the media were so professional overall that they angered a so-called progressive media watchdog group, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). It ran a story, “Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History,” that was patently inaccurate. First of all, Pope Benedict was so forthcoming about discussing the sexual abuse scandal, over and over again, that it disarmed almost all of the Church’s critics; he didn’t get so much as a pass as he did admiration for his bluntness. Secondly, FAIR floated the idea that Cardinal Ratzinger, before he was named pope, attempted to cover up the scandal. As we pointed out, he did no such thing: he had nothing to do with the issue until after the scandal became a big story in 2002.

The number-one story for most Americans in 2008 was the presidential campaign and election. Our involvement was twofold: challenging Republican candidate John McCain on the endorsement he sought from Pastor John Hagee; and confronting his opponent, Democratic candidate Barack Obama, over his zealotry for abortion rights.

Pastor John Hagee and I started out as adversaries, but we ended as friends. In all my years as president of the Catholic League, never have I experienced a more sincere and contrite person than Hagee; the entire episode is recounted in the annual report. Hagee’s past comments about the Catholic Church are what angered me over McCain’s embrace, but I hasten to add that not only is our battle over, the outcome is something all Christians can be proud of: true reconciliation.

When Vatican officials contacted me with words of praise for bringing about a genuine turn of events, and when Hagee himself greeted me with warmness in front of 7,000 of his supporters (as he did at his annual Christians United for Israel dinner), then it puts to rest any lingering hostilities.

The McCain camp could have handled this matter better; they felt the issue would just go away. But they didn’t control the outcome—we had something to say about it. So when McCain officials called my office informing me of a conference call (one that would allegedly set me straight), I replied that it’s always better to ask. Thus did the conversation end.

Our brawl with the Obama campaign focused mostly on the candidate’s extreme position on abortion. He not only favored the Freedom of Choice Act—the most radical piece of pro-abortion legislation ever drafted—he refused to renounce his previous support for selective infanticide.

When Obama was in the Illinois state senate, he led the fight to deny health care to a baby born alive as a result of a botched abortion. The late New York State Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a supporter of Roe v. Wade, and former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, also an advocate of abortion rights, both drew the line at partial-birth abortion, saying it was too close to infanticide. Well, the bill Obama wanted wasn’t close to infanticide—it sanctioned it in some cases.

As our name suggests, the Catholic League defends “religious and civil rights.” The first right, of course, is the right to be born. Obama’s embrace of radical abortion laws was not something we could avoid, and we most certainly did not. We posted a special section on our website, “Obama and Infanticide,” that helped to educate the public on exactly what he had to say about the issue.

Obama gave the pro-life community pause when he said during the campaign that if there was one vote he would take back, it would be his vote authorizing government intervention in the Terri Schiavo case; that authorization, it is important to remember, was unanimously decided upon by the Senate. Just as startling was Obama’s comment that he believes the Sermon on the Mount justifies his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions.

When the Obama campaign announced the formation of a Catholic National Advisory Council, we urged him “to dissolve it immediately.” We took this position because of the 26 Catholic former or current public office holders listed as either National Co-Chairs (5), or as members of the National Leadership Committee (21), not one of whom agreed with the Catholic Church on all three of the following public policy issues: abortion, embryonic stem cell research and school vouchers.

Their record on abortion was abysmal. Of the two National Co-Chairs who had a NARAL (the radical pro-abortion group) tally, one agreed with the extremist group 65 percent of the time and the other agreed 100 percent of the time. Of the 20 members of the National Leadership Committee who had a NARAL scorecard, 17 earned a perfect 100 percent NARAL rating. Thus did we say that “Practicing Catholics have every right to be insulted by Obama’s advisory group.”

Most members of the Catholic advisory group sent me a letter defending their support for Obama. I wrote back immediately saying that “It is so nice to know that abortion ‘presents a profound moral challenge.’” I also asked, “Is infanticide another profound moral challenge?” It did not help the Obama campaign when bishops weighed in chastising pro-abortion Catholic officials in their dioceses.

Matters worsened when Obama’s running mate, Senator Joseph Biden, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, began reinterpreting Catholic teaching on abortion. Both tried to play theologian, and both were justly criticized for misrepresenting Catholic teaching on this subject. We were kind enough to send Pelosi a copy of Catholicism for Dummies.

Voters in California passed a resolution on election day that effectively banned gay marriage. Proposition 8, as it was called, led to a series of ugly incidents triggered by radical gays. Besides tying up traffic and vandalizing houses and cars, those who supported the traditional understanding of marriage as being between a man and a woman were targeted with hate speech, and more. African Americans and Latino’s were victimized, as were Catholics and Mormons. Swastikas were placed on Catholic churches and the Book of Mormon was set on fire in a Mormon chapel. A white substance, resembling anthrax, was sent to Catholics and Mormons. And gay extremists stormed an evangelical church.

Of all the issues the Catholic League faced in 2008, none was more disturbing than a series of Eucharist desecrations. And no one offended Catholics more than Professor Paul Z. Myers of the University of Minnesota’s Morris campus.

After a student from the University of Central Florida was criticized by the Catholic League for walking out of Mass with a consecrated Host—he was protesting a school policy he objected to—Myers took the student’s side and pledged to obtain the Eucharist and then desecrate it. On July 24, he made good on his pledge by driving a rusty nail through a Host, posting pictures of it on his Internet blog.

Protests to school officials got nowhere as the desecrations took place off campus. But as we pointed out at the time, had a professor insulted African Americans while working part-time at an off-campus comedy club, there would have been repercussions. The only step taken was a decision to sever the link between the university’s website and Myers’ blog. The hate mail we received for protesting Myers’ behavior was as voluminous as it was sick.

Just as sick was a Myers copy-cat who posted over 40 videos depicting the desecration of the Eucharist on the Internet site, YouTube. After a Catholic League protest, some restrictive measures were taken. If this wasn’t enough, a play at Brown University trashed the Eucharist. It was open season on Jesus.

Bill Maher continued his non-stop assault on Catholicism in 2008 by lashing out several times on TV and in movies. After he mocked Transubstantiation early in the year, I said on TV that I would love to step into the ring with him in Madison Square Garden so I could “floor him.” The comment was made in jest, but he kept repeating it all year, feigning victim status. His rant against the pope, made just before the Holy Father visited the U.S. in April, included a comment calling Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi. He apologized (sort of) after we went after him.

Maher’s film, “Religulous,” was a departure from his fixation on Catholicism: he ridiculed several religions. In anticipation of the movie, we listed a long list of his worst offenses. When “Religulous” opened, it was not as bad as we thought it might be, which is why we branded it more absurd than hateful. Absent from the movie was his usual tirade painting all priests as molesters. But in his season finale on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” he got right back in the thick of it by smearing priests once again.

We normally don’t get drawn into commenting on what happens at a party, but what occurred in January of 2008 was different. An ESPN anchorwoman, Dana Jacobson, got drunk at a “roast” in Atlantic City and went on a tear ripping the University of Notre Dame. She roared from the podium a string of “F” words, one that was aimed at Jesus. Initially, the sports network tried to downplay the incident, and while we never sought to get Jacobson fired—we understood the context—we wanted more than a lame statement. Finally, two apologies were granted and the anchorwoman was suspended. We considered it “case closed.”

There was no excuse for what happened at New York’s Carnegie Hall. For two nights, “Jerry Springer—The Opera” was featured. Vulgar beyond belief, the play was also blasphemous beyond belief. The crucifixion was mocked, the Eucharist trashed, the Virgin Mary was introduced as a woman who was “raped by an angel,” and Jesus was portrayed as a fat, effeminate character; the Christ-figure also had his genitals fondled by Eve. The play ended by saying, “Nothing is wrong and nothing is right” and “there are no absolutes of good and evil.” As we said at the time, “This is exactly what the Nazis said in their defense at Nuremberg.”

Those in the artistic community are among the most pampered elites in American society. They are pampered because they think that somehow they have a right to public funding—without strings. They consider themselves above reproach and feel they are entitled to bash religious groups with impunity. Especially Roman Catholicism. This kind of arrogance was once again on display when two reviewers for the New York Times tried to put a positive face on the infamous Terrence McNally play, “Corpus Christi.”

The Catholic League led a major protest against this play when it opened in mid-town Manhattan in 1998. The play, which depicts Jesus having sex with the apostles, was performed in New York again in 2008, but because it was in some no-name place in Greenwich Village, we ignored it this time around. Well, we tried to. Enter the New York Times.

One of the reviewers applauded the play as a “reverent spin on the Jesus story.” “Reverent”? We said it makes us wonder what the reviewer might say if the play substituted Martin Luther King for Jesus. The other critic took a shot at the 1998 critics of the play (who might that be?), arguing that the protest was a “stark reminder of lingering homophobia.” To which we said, “So when anti-Catholic homosexuals like McNally feature Jesus having oral sex with the boys, and Catholics object, it’s not McNally who is the bigot—it’s those protesting Catholics.”

The good news is that in our media statement on this subject, we listed the e-mail address of New York Times public editor, Clark Hoyt. He did a story on the controversy that, at the very least, made plain our concerns. But it was evident, nonetheless, that the two reporters just didn’t get it.

It is not hard to fathom art students doing something to offend—certain groups, that is—but it is more difficult to understand when they are rewarded for doing so. Such was the case at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Some of what the Arts faculty deemed as representing “major pieces” was a series of paintings by Felipe Baeza. Those paintings showed a crucifix extended from a man’s rectum; others showed rosaries with a penis attached to them. Oh, yes, there was a naked man with an erection and a halo hovering above him. This is considered great art.

At another prestigious institution of higher education, the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), plans were hatched to show footage from an anti-Catholic movie, “Constantine’s Sword,” at a seminar on war and peace. James Carroll, an angry ex-priest, and the author of a book by that name, has spent a good part of his adult life trying to pin the Holocaust on the Catholic Church. We initially got into a scuffle with officials from the USAFA, but it didn’t take too long before our message got through: Carroll has an agenda—he is not a Church historian—and his goal is to poison the minds of the student body into thinking that Catholicism is inherently anti-Semitic. The decision not to show the footage was the right thing to do. It was also a sweet victory for the Catholic League.

The pope that Carroll has been trying to tarnish for decades, Pope Pius XII, was the subject of a Catholic League petition in 2008; we sought his beatification. No one, we have long maintained, did more to help Jews during the Holocaust than Pius. We amassed over 15,000 signatures in three months and sent them to the Vatican.

When Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to New York in the fall, he and his supporters were greeted by a rally outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel. A slate of mostly Christian appeasers hosted a dinner for him, welcoming the anti-Jewish and anti-Christian dictator with open arms. I was happy to join my Jewish friends in condemning the event.

We ended the year with another round of battles over Christmas. It was apparent that a new strategy in the war on Christmas had emerged: instead of concentrating on banning nativity scenes on public property, attempts were made to turn December into Diversity Month. In many parts of the country, every conceivable racial, ethnic, religious and cultural tradition was chosen for celebration, the net effect of which was to dilute the special meaning of Christmas. We properly dubbed this phenomenon “contrived competition.”

Every year the issues we face are different, though there is a common denominator: anti-Catholicism. America has other expressions of bigotry, but it has only one that is tolerated year after year by well-educated men and women. When we reach the point where other groups in society have succeeded in getting to—making the bigots pay a public price for their words and deeds, then we will have made the kind of progress that Catholic League founder Virgil Blum, S.J. sought. As this report details, we are not there yet.

Finally, if there was ever any doubt that the Catholic League is making its mark, such concerns were put to rest once and for all when Mary Honeyball attacked us. Honeyball is a member of the English Parliament, one whose comments on Catholicism would have merited inclusion in our annual report had she been a member of the U.S. Congress. No matter, after getting into a spat with Catholics in Parliament, she blew up saying such controversies reminded her of that “dangerous” American group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Yes, Madam Honeyball, we are a very dangerous organization. But only to those out to sunder Catholicism.

 William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

Activist Organizations

January
Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized a resolution introduced by Virginia Congressman, Randy Forbes. The resolution would support a designated week each May for “the appreciation of and education on America’s religious faith.” Americans United faulted the resolution for “meddling in religious issues.”

January 15
Tuscaloosa, AL – The Tuscaloosa City schools suspended the screening of a Christian film due to pressure from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The film was about a small, losing football team that turned its fortunes around by being urged to “give their best to God.” Americans United called for the film to be banned and argued that the film was overtly Christian and violated the First Amendment.

February 5
The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission bashed Pope Benedict XVI for “political correctness.” This came on the heels of the announcement that the pontiff was to rewrite a Good Friday prayer for the Traditional Latin Mass, removing negative references to Jews.

February 26
Hudsonville, MI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation asked Mayor Don Van Doeselaar to remove the words “strive to serve God,” from the city’s mission statement. They argued that those words violated the separation of church and state. Van Doeselaar turned down the request from the organization.

February 27
Emsworth, PA – Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenged a federal grant to the Holy Family Institute saying that it violated the separation of church and state. The Institute, which serves as a child welfare agency, said that no student is required to participate in religious activities and only brings clergy to those who request it. Holy Family had received government funding for 100 years and provides care to children who are removed from abusive households. It also provides family counseling so that at-risk children won’t have to be removed from their homes.

February 28
Greece, NY – Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the town council and its supervisor because it opened its public sessions with a Christian prayer. According to the organization’s press release “the practices of favoring Christian clergy and prayers at Town Board meetings…convey the message that the Christian religion is favored or preferred by the Town over other religions and over nonreligion.”

March
San Diego, CA – The San Diego Chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (a group of gay men dressed as nuns) held “Sisters Saturday Night Mass” to raise money for their charities. The chapter, The Asylum of the Tortured Heart, also held a “Midnight Confessional Contest” where the “hottest” confession won prizes.

March 7
Round Rock, TX – Americans United for Separation of Church and State settled a lawsuit involving a policy that allowed students in the Round Rock Independent School District to vote on prayer at graduation ceremonies. The settlement followed a ruling that found the Constitution prohibits public schools from holding student votes on whether or not to allow prayer at graduation. Americans United said its “goal all along was to prevent students from being subjected to religious exercise based on the will of the majority.”

March 11
Annapolis, MD – The Military Religious Freedom Foundation opposed the resumed dipping of the American flag before an altar cross during Sunday services at the Naval Academy chapel. The activist organization claimed the practice violated the separation of church and state. The practice was suspended in October 2007, but the suspension was lifted in recognition of its tradition.

March 23
San Francisco, CA – The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence held a “Hunky Jesus” competition on Easter Sunday. The contest featured contestants dressed as Jesus. Some of the contestants stripped naked, wore sex toys, simulated oral sex, told jokes and were spanked. One of the Sisters that emceed the event bent over in front of one of the contestants and asked, “What would Jesus do right now?” Another jokingly asked the predominantly gay crowd why they liked Jesus. He then gave his punch line, “Seven holes,” and pointed to his “wounds,” his mouth and his rectum.

March 23
Chicago, IL – The Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War protested the war in Iraq by disrupting Easter Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. During Archbishop Francis Cardinal George’s homily, six people stood and shouted while squirting fake blood on themselves and surrounding parishioners. The protestors caused over $3,000 worth of damage to the cathedral’s property.

March 26
Everett, WA – A federal appeals court ruled that a monument of the Ten Commandments does not violate the Constitution just because it sits on public grounds near the Old City Hall. A spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State said that the “monument stands pretty much alone, and in that context, it presents a religious message.” The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals did not agree, especially because no complaints had been made about the monument in over 30 years.

April
West Pittston, PA – Local residents were mailed anti-Catholic tracts from Pastor Harold S. Day. The tracts include statements that the pope is the Antichrist, the Church and Communism seek to “enslave the world in bondage” and the Church is the “GREAT WHORE” with “many HARLOT daughters.”

April
Kentucky – A federal judge dismissed an ACLU lawsuit against Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children. The Baptist facility was accused of using government funds to promote religion, following the termination of an openly lesbian employee. She was terminated because her lifestyle was contrary to the Christian values of Kentucky Baptist Homes. The judge dismissed the claims on the grounds that taxpayers do not have standing to sue over executive branch funding of faith-based agencies. The Thomas More Law Center provided legal assistance to the Kentucky Baptist Homes’ principal attorney.

In July the ACLU teamed up with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and urged the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to deny tax funding to Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children. Americans United claimed that the Baptist childcare agency “has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.”

April 15
Only hours before the Holy Father landed in the U.S., we issued a news release addressing dissident Catholic groups. These groups planned to greet Benedict XVI in their own way. The following is a sample of how these angry Catholics welcomed the pope:

· The National Coalition of American Nuns, a pro-abortion group, said the pope was not welcome in the United States

· The Woman’s Ordination Conference played a game of make-believe by having women dress up like priests to say Mass

· DignityUSA, a group that once appointed gay rapist Paul Shanley its chaplain, staged a protest of Benedict XVI’s visit

· New Ways Ministry, a pro-sodomy group, held a press conference on gay sex that no one attended

· Catholics for Choice, an anti-Catholic front group, hawked condoms: they’d like no one to leave home without one

· The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a gang of professional victims greased by lawyers who have exploited the Church, wanted the United Nations to investigate the Vatican

· Voice of the Faithful, a group that flirts with bankruptcy, lectured the pope about Church finances

· Rainbow Sash, a gay organization, said it would throw ashes at the pope rather than confetti

Even though the Holy Father said he was “deeply ashamed” of predatory priests, and added that pedophiles would be rooted out of the Church, SNAP held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and criticized the pope for not doing enough. David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director, stated that the pope’s “soothing words and vague promises don’t protect kids.”

Along with these dissident Catholic groups, other anti-Catholic organizations protested the arrival of the pope. Among these were American Atheists who called the papal visit the “Vatican/Ratzinger agenda,” and the Westboro Baptist Church who called the Church the “Great Whore.”

April 16
San Diego, CA – The Jewish War Veterans challenged the transfer of a cross from the city to the Department of Defense in 2006. The opponents of the transfer saw the cross at the Mount Soledad war memorial as an unconstitutional religious symbol because it is on public land.

April 17
Detroit, MI – A coalition of seven organizations filed an amicus brief urging the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule against aid to churches that was distributed by the City of Detroit Development Authority in 2006. The coalition claimed that using public funds to repair churches violated the U.S. Constitution and threatened the independence of religious groups. The money was given to three downtown Detroit churches for repairs in order to spruce up their appearance prior to Super Bowl XL.

The coalition included: the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty; American Jewish Committee; Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America; the Hindu American Foundation; Americans United for Separation of Church and State; the Interfaith Alliance Foundation and Americans for Religious Liberty.

April 18
Fargo, ND – The Red River Freethinkers, a church-state separation advocacy group, filed a lawsuit seeking to remove a Ten Commandments monument on city property. The lawsuit was filed after the city denied the organization’s request to erect its own monument near the Ten Commandments. The Freethinkers’ monument would have said, “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

April 18
Siren, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation called on Wisconsin Supreme Court justice-elect Michael Gableman not to attend a prayer breakfast hosted by the local sheriff’s office. The organization claimed that his attendance would violate the separation of church and state because of the sponsorship of the sheriff’s department. Gableman publicly stated that he would still attend the meeting regardless of any complaints.

April 23
Holmen, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the American Humanist Association planned on purchasing land from the town so that they could remove a cross that has occupied the area for more than 50 years. The Holmen Lions Club, which maintains the cross, planned to buy the land, but didn’t disclose its offer.

April 29
Soon after the successful visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) ran a report titled, “Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History.” FAIR claimed that during his reign the pope has been given a pass on his “record of downplaying the [sex abuse scandal].”

FAIR claimed that in 2001, before he was named pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger “sent a letter to church bishops invoking a 1962 doctrine threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic official who discussed abuse cases outside the Church’s legal system.” The group cited an English newspaper, the Observer, to back up its claims. The accusation that Ratzinger had helped cover up the scandal was the same one we fought in 2003 when the CBS Evening News reported the same bogus story.

The document in question, On the Matter of Proceeding in Cases of Solicitations, did not apply to sexual misconduct—it applied only to sexual solicitation that might take place in the confessional. By sexual solicitation it meant “whether by words or signs or nods of the head,” the priest may have crossed the line. Because the policy was specifically aimed at protecting the secrecy of the confessional, it called for an ecclesiastical response: civil authorities were not to be notified because it involved a sacrament of the Catholic Church, not a crime of the state. Guilty priests could be thrown out of the priesthood and a penitent who told someone what happened had 30 days to report the incident to the bishop or face excommunication. In other words, the document detailed punitive measures for miscreants—just the opposite of a cover-up.

On May 2, we issued a news release that pointed out FAIR’s inaccuracies in the story. We noted that rather than do its own homework, FAIR resorted to a British tabloid to do its dirty work. Less than two weeks later, FAIR challenged our statement and stood by its original report. FAIR argued that the document could be read to include acts outside the confessional and cited a priest that failed to substantiate FAIR’s accusation.

May 10
San Diego, CA – The San Diego Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence held the “Sisters’ Saturday Night Mass: INKED, A Celebration of Tattoos” at Bacchus House, a gay club. The proceeds from the event benefited AIDS Lifecycle and the Sisters’ condom fund.

May 21
Baton Rouge, LA – The House Education Committee produced a bill that allowed Louisiana public school science teachers to use supplemental materials when discussing evolution, global warming and human cloning. Americans United for Separation of Church and State opposed the bill saying that it was an attempt to legitimize teaching biology from the perspective of intelligent design.

May 29
Mansfield, OH – The ACLU asked a federal court to hold the Richland County Common Pleas judge in contempt for posting the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the judge’s poster, which he denied is in the courtroom, violated the Constitution. The poster that currently hangs in his courtroom includes the Ten Commandments and, according to the judge, illustrates a debate about philosophies that affect the handling of criminal cases.

June 9
New Orleans, LA – The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State submitted an amicus brief to a federal appeals court urging them to rule against an amendment made to Texas’ “moment of silence” statute. The word “pray” appeared in the amendment, leading these organizations to believe that Texas’ mandatory “moment of silence” promoted religion.

June 13
Florida – A group of activist organizations, teachers unions and educational organizations filed suit asking the Second Circuit to block a vote that, if approved, would allow for school vouchers.

The ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, the Florida School Boards Association, the Florida Education Association and the Florida Association of School Administrators were among those who backed the suit.

June 18
Madison, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to the State Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch asking him to end the Assembly’s 160-year-old practice of opening sessions with a prayer. The Foundation claimed that the prayers often “proselytize and advance the Christian faith” and excluded non-Christians. The Senate’s prayer policy, which has been in place since February 2007, states that invocations should be “two to three minutes long; non-denominational, nonsectarian and non-proselytizing; refrain from referring to specific deities such as Christ, Buddha or Allah; and to be apolitical and free of denominational appeal.” (Our Italics)

June 19
South Carolina – Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit claiming that South Carolina’s “I Believe” license plate violates the First Amendment; the plate depicts a yellow cross that is superimposed on a stained glass window. Americans United claimed that the plate gave preferential treatment to one religion.

We noted that Americans United would have been opposed to a license plate for other religions as well. So for the organization to call the “I Believe” license plate “preferential treatment” for Christians is a red herring.

Two other groups complained about the license plates: the American Jewish Congress defined the plates as an endorsement of Christianity and the ACLU told the AP that the plates were an example of “the government’s underhanded attempts to endorse one particular religious viewpoint.”

On December 11, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that South Carolina could not issue the license plates and that it had to remove information about the plates from the state website.

June 25
Minneapolis, MN – Archbishop John Nienstedt nixed a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) prayer service at St. Joan of Arc Church. In the wake of his decision, Archbishop Nienstedt came under attack from several activists.

One local gay Catholic leader, David McCaffrey, said that Nienstedt was guilty of “yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed at LGBT persons and their families under [his] reign of homophobic hatred.” This was a remarkable statement considering Nienstedt didn’t take over as archbishop until May.

Even before Nienstedt took command of the archdiocese, radical gay groups were gunning for him. Just over a week before he assumed his new duties, Nienstedt was blasted by Catholic Rainbow Parents for giving “license to hatred and violence against all of us.” We commented to the media: “Lucky for people like them that American libel laws aren’t as loose as they are in England, otherwise they could have been prosecuted.”

June 29
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an editorial on the papal appointment of Archbishop Raymond Burke to head the Vatican’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. The mostly favorable editorial ended with a startling paragraph that cited accusations made by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group charged that “dozens of proven, admitted, and credibly accused predator priests have been welcomed here.” SNAP also said that “there’s not a bishop in America who has imported so many pedophile priests into his diocese as Burke has.” (Emphasis is ours.)

We noted that no bishop “welcomes” or “imports” troubled priests into his diocese. What many do is treat priests for behavioral disorders at various centers. Two such treatment centers are located in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Neither of them is owned nor operated by the Archdiocese and were both built before Burke became Archbishop of St. Louis.

We waited for SNAP to provide us the evidence that the Archbishop “welcomed” and “imported” molesting priests into his diocese and it failed to deliver.

We called for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to issue a public apology and SNAP to take an ethics course or shut down altogether.

July
Philadelphia, PA – On the city’s website, a biography of a city commissioner stated, “She is a firmly committed Christian and seeks to have biblical principles govern her lifestyle and her decisions.” When asked about this, a representative from the ACLU said that the bio was a harmless effort to humanize a city official and that there isn’t a problem with it. When the Anti-Defamation League was asked what it thought, a representative stated, “It’s outrageous and totally inappropriate and something we plan to challenge.” When the official changed the wording to say that her Christianity governed her personal decisions, the ADL still objected and stated it would attempt to get any mention of religion deleted.

July 25
An ad criticizing the Catholic Church for its teaching on artificial contraception was placed in Italy’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera. The “Open Letter to the Pope” was a work of Catholics for Choice and was signed by many dissident Catholic organizations.

We issued a news release calling to attention that some of the signatories of this letter had absolutely nothing to do with contraception. Among those were: Dignity and New Ways Ministry (gay organizations that object to the Church’s teachings on homosexuality), Pax Christi of Maine (an organization focused on peace), Voice of the Faithful of New Jersey (a group founded to address the sex abuse scandal) and Women’s Ordination Conference (a group for women’s ordination).
We also mentioned that if it weren’t for the Ford Foundation and other anti-Catholic members of the foundation establishment, there would have been no ad.

August 5
Chicago, IL – The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that taxpayers could not sue the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for incorporating religion into its health care programs; the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit. The organization tried to put an end to the Department’s asking patients about their religion, its use of chaplains to treat patients and drug and alcohol rehabilitation that incorporates religion, but the court ruled that taxpayers couldn’t challenge those expenditures.

August 11
Denver, CO – The Freedom From Religion Foundation posted a billboard with the words, “Keep Religion OUT of Politics” on it. The billboard was placed near the site where the Democratic National Convention took place.

August 13
Seattle, WA – The group Death With Dignity, a pro-assisted suicide organization, attacked several Catholic dioceses and organizations for funding the opposition to Initiative 1000, an initiative permitting assisted suicide. The group accused the church leadership of “focusing on politics instead of focusing on the families in their own neighborhoods.” The reason for this accusation was because some dioceses contributed money against Initiative 1000 although they had lawsuits against them. We said that groups are free to disagree with the Church on this position, but to use intimidation tactics such as this was reprehensible.

September 2
St. Paul, MN – The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed a “Keep Religion OUT of Politics” billboard near the site of the Republican National Convention.

September 25
The Freedom From Religion Foundation said that churches that wish to engage in politics should give up their tax-exempt status. This statement was in regards to the Church’s opposition to Proposition 8 in California.

October
The president of Compassion & Choices—a pro-euthanasia organization—accused the Catholic Church of “relentless” and “ruthless” lobbying tactics in its opposition to Initiative 1000, a ballot initiative that would legalize doctor-assisted suicide in the state of Washington. When she was accused of Catholic baiting, she denied those accusations, saying that she was merely “naming a powerful political force and defending against it.” Supporters of the initiative claimed that the Catholic Church would be the initiative’s “enemy.”

Catholic leaders said that Compassion & Choices was playing on “emotion, fear and anti-Catholic bias.”

October 22
Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez wrote an article claiming that Catholics were using God for an agenda in regards to Proposition 8. When citing the story of Father Geoff Farrow—a Catholic priest who was removed from his parish because he protested the Church’s stance on gay marriage during a homily—Lopez wrote, “Speaking up for the dignity of gay people must be a greater sin than being accused of molesting minors.”

October 25
A deceitful letter by Jon O’Brien of Catholics for Choice was published in theWashington Post. In his letter, O’Brien said, “In Catholic theology there is room for the acceptance of policies that favor access to the full range of reproductive health options, including contraception and abortion.” This is flat wrong. The Catholic Church has always been opposed to both contraception and abortion. But we were not surprised that this pro-abortion, anti-Catholic organization would spread such lies.

October 25
The Rev. Daniel Kanter, a Unitarian, claimed that the Catholic Church “employs a measure of fear” to get Catholics to oppose abortion.

October 25
When speaking about the Catholic Church’s opposition to Proposition 8 in California, the Rev. Jonathan Tran, a Baptist, opined, “If the Church doesn’t tell us what to do with our ballots…and genitalia, who will?”

October 26
Coronado, CA – Opponents of California Proposition 4—requiring parental notification for abortions to minors—demonstrated outside of a Catholic church and singled out people who were going to Mass.

October 27
Americans United for Separation of Church and State stated that while tax laws don’t forbid religious groups to speak out on referenda (California Proposition 8), “it’s still deeply troubling to see three extraordinarily powerful faith traditions—the Religious Right, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) and the Roman Catholic hierarchy—throwing their weight around so blatantly on a sensitive civil rights and civil liberties issue.”

October 28
Cobb County, GA – Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU protested the ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the use of prayers before government meetings.

October 28
In a post on his blog, musician Atheos called Proposition 8 “nothing but Bigotry—good ol’ Christian bigotry.” He then went on to accuse the Church of persecuting Jews and murdering people because of religious intolerance. He also accused the pope of assisting the Nazis.

October 29
California – Opponents of Proposition 8 sent out news releases singling out the Knights of Columbus for its support and contribution to the proposition. The contribution of the Knights was quite small but by flagging a Catholic group, opponents of the proposition threw red meat to anti-Catholic bigots.

October 30
California – The Vote No on Proposition 4 activists produced a video on Proposition 4 named “Therapy”. The video had two young men with opposing points of view sitting on a couch discussing the issue. The pro-parental consent fellow was depicted as making his case based on emotion, not evidence. Worse, he confessed that he was trying to “impose [his] moral view on others”; he also cited his reliance on the Bible.

November 2
San Jose, CA – “Bigots Live Here” was spray-painted on an SUV of a Christian family that supported Proposition 8.

November 5
Lynchburg, VA – The Liberty Counsel stated that self-identified homosexuals on a number of homosexual blogs, advocated violence against Christians and other supporters of traditional marriage. One blogger asked, “Can someone in CA please go burn down the Mormon temples there, PLEASE.” Another warned, “I’ve got a big list of names of mormons and catholics that were big supporters of Prop 8…. As far as mormons and catholics…I warn them to watch their backs.”

November 7
Palm Springs, CA – An elderly woman was roughed up and the styrofoam cross she was carrying was smashed to the ground at a Proposition 8 protest.

November 9
Lansing, MI – A band of about 30 gays stormed a church in Lansing, Michigan. Some were well dressed—as if they were legitimately attending the church service—and were stationed inside Mount Hope Church; others were outside of the building dressed in pink and black. The group of self-described homosexual anarchists, Bash Back!, claimed the evangelical church is guilty of “transphobia and homophobia.”

The protesters outside the church were beating on buckets, shouting “Jesus was a homo” on a megaphone and carrying an upside-down pink cross. Inside the church, the well-dressed protesters set off fire alarms, stormed the pulpit and unfurled a huge rainbow-colored flag with the inscription, “IT’S OKAY TO BE GAY! BASH BACK!” The church was vandalized, obscenities were shouted and worshippers were confronted. There were no arrests.

Bash Back!, a nationwide organization, had been planning on terrorizing the church for a month before executing their protest.

The facts were indisputable—all one has to do is visit Bash Back!’s website. There one could find that on October 12 and 23, a memo was sent to members of the group to commemorate the founding of “Michigan’s newly formed chapter” asking “Queers and Trannies” to join in storming the church. The group boasted that in 2008 there had been “an explosion in Radical Trans/Queer organizing,” citing progress that had been made from “Maine to the Midwest to The Bay Area.” Bash Back! was founded to fight “State recognition in the form of oppressive institutions such as marriage and militarism”; it says both are “steps towards heteronormative assimilation.” The radical nature of the group has led it to protest pro-gay marriage organizations like the Human Rights Campaign.

Eaton County Sheriff Mike Raines was able to identify the protesters, but unfortunately the pastor of the church did not want to press charges; therefore, the guilty got off scot-free.

This urban fascism was labeled by the left-wing site, the Daily Kos, as a “funny story,” and it conducted a survey on the subject. Only 19 percent thought Bash Back! crossed the line.

November 11
The American Humanist Association launched its “Godless Holiday Campaign” with ads in the New York Times and Washington Post. The ad read, “Why believe in god? Just be good for goodness’ sake”; the same ad appeared on Metro buses in Washington, D.C.

When commenting on this campaign, Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said, “Morality doesn’t come from religion. It’s a set of values embraced by individuals and society based on empathy, fairness and experience.”

We responded to Speckhardt’s comments stating, “Codes of morality, of course, have always been grounded in religion. For those of us in Western civilization, its tenets emanate from the Judeo-Christian ethos. By casting this heritage aside, and replacing it with nothing more than the conscience of lone individuals, we lay the groundwork for moral anarchy.”

November 13
New Haven, CT – An envelope containing a suspicious white powder resembling anthrax was found at the Knights of Columbus’ national headquarters. The Knights donated over $1 million to help pass Proposition 8 in California, but a spokesman for the organization said that there was no reason to believe that this mailing was related to that.

November 13
Denver, CO – The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against Governor Bill Ritter Jr. for issuing National Day of Prayer proclamations. According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit is part of a campaign by the group to overturn the 1952 law, designating a National Day of Prayer and mandating an annual proclamation by the president.

November 14
San Francisco, CA – Hundreds of activists swarmed a group of Christians who were singing and praying in the Castro District—a heavily gay area of town. Some members of the angry mob threatened to kill the Christian group. One woman was covered in hot coffee while another woman was hit over the head, pushed to the ground and kicked.

After law enforcement showed up, the Christian group was escorted through the screaming mob. One man was caught on camera saying, “We don’t want them coming back. Do you understand that, other Christians? Do you understand that, other Mormons? I’m talking to you, people. Yeah, you. Stay out of our neighborhood if you don’t like us. Leave us alone.”

November 17
Indianapolis, IN – The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s “In God We Trust” license plates are constitutional. This decision upheld an earlier ruling against the ACLU of Indiana which claimed that motorists who asked for the “In God We Trust” plate get preferential treatment because they don’t have to pay an administrative fee for them. The court ruled that this plate is an alternative to the standard plate and that motorists don’t need to pay an extra fee for them.

November 19
Michelle Malkin wrote a piece in the New York Post highlighting the bully tactics displayed by gay marriage supporters following the election. She reported that the website JoeMyGod had a post stating, “Burn their f***ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers.” She also reported that vandals defaced a Christian church in California because its members supported Proposition 8. One church member had his car keyed with the phrase, “Gay sex is love” and “SEX.”

November 19
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) accused House Chaplain Daniel Coughlin and Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George of wrongdoing during Coughlin’s time in Chicago.

SNAP accused Coughlin of helping to conceal felonies during his time ministering to troubled priests. Although SNAP made the accusation, the group could not offer any evidence that the priest ever broke the law.

On November 20, SNAP claimed that Coughlin “oversaw pedophiles” during his time in charge of the troubled priests. Moreover, we said SNAP’s comment that “There’s no evidence that he [Coughlin] called police or warned parishioners about them” was too cute: SNAP had no evidence that Coughlin was ever in a position requiring him to call the cops or issue warnings about anything. SNAP may just as well have said there was no evidence Coughlin ever called the fire department about a church fire.

November 25
More than 60 organizations issued a 55-page report advising the incoming Obama administration on the need to provide more money for abortion-related services. “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration” called for the most sweeping abortion-rights reforms ever envisioned. It not only wanted more money to be spent, it recommended a host of regulatory changes, stressing the need to appoint judges who will implement its plans. Significantly, it endorsed the Freedom of Choice Act, the most radical abortion-rights bill ever proposed.

From the very beginning, the pro-abortion industry has not only opposed any religion that is pro-life, it has adopted a confrontational approach. This document was no different. For example, in the section on “Comprehensive Sex Education,” it explicitly advises, “Do not teach or promote religion.” It also launched a preemptive strike against a regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services that protects the religious rights of health care workers. The document recommends that Obama rescind the “Provider Conscience Regulation.”

It did not surprise us that groups like the Secular Coalition for America supported this assault on religious liberty. But when religious organizations give their assent, it is troubling. Among the signatories were the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Union for Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and Women of Reform Judaism; the anti-Catholic front group, Catholics for Choice, also signed the report. Evidently, their passion for abortion rights is so extreme that it eclipses any interest in the religious liberty rights of others.

December 1
Olympia, WA – The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed a sign at the Washington State Capitol rotunda—next to the nativity scene—criticizing religion. The sign read:

“At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

December 2
Madison, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed its anti-religion “Winter Solstice” sign in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

December 8
Springfield, IL – The Freedom From Religion Foundation placed its anti-religion “Winter Solstice” sign in the Illinois State Capitol.

December 10
The French submitted to the U.N. General Assembly a non-binding declaration that would decriminalize homosexuality. The Vatican opposed the document, citing its concerns over language that could impose same-sex marriage in law.

As soon as the Vatican noted its opposition to the declaration, its critics went ballistic.  Italian newspapers branded the Catholic Church’s position “total idiocy and madness,” accusing it of being “obsessed with sin.” Amnesty International weighed in against the Vatican and Time magazine branded Pope Benedict XVI “Scrooge” for resisting the French declaration. All of these boilerplate comments were off base.

When addressing the declaration, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N., made it very clear that the problem with the document was not that it seeks to protect homosexuals from being persecuted—the Church is obviously opposed to any such behavior—but that it opens the door to sanctioning gay marriage. His concerns are real: gay activists in support of the declaration already had said that this was the first step towards a binding U.N. resolution. And the problem with that is that it would ineluctably grease the slide towards gay marriage. As anyone who has seriously followed the gay rights movement would know, this is not a matter of conjecture—rather, it is part of the gay agenda.

After the Vatican declared its opposition to the French declaration, the reaction among gay activists was hysterical. The following are some examples of their hysteria:

· The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said the Vatican “brushed off accusations of supporting violence against gay[s]”

· “The Catholic General leading the dirty war” on gays is what the Rainbow Sash Movement had to say about Pope Benedict XVI

· Peter Tatchell, an English activist, said, “The Holy See is so viciously homophobic” that it won’t oppose “the murder” of gays

· A San Francisco “alternative” media outlet, beyondchron, opined in a post that the “Vatican Doesn’t Care About Execution of Gays”

· The bigqueer blog said, “The Vatican doesn’t think that we should stop persecuting, or let’s just say, killing, GLBT people”

· The daddydanforth blog had a piece entitled “Vatican Thinks LGBTQ Are Criminals”

· The blog ozwayssomething accused the Vatican of “condoning those countries that impose the death penalty upon homosexuals”

· “Catholic Church Opposes U.N. Resolution to Stop Homosexual Executions” was a headline on lesbianofcolornews

· A story titled “Vatican Would Rather Gay People Were Executed Than Married” was posted by the National Secular Society

In addition to these slanderous remarks, three dissident Catholic groups condemned the Vatican: Dignity, Call to Action and New Ways Ministry. The anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice, also chimed in on the Church’s decision. All of the above maliciously distorted the Vatican’s position.

December 10
Wisconsin Rapids, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation complained about a publicly owned nativity scene in a local park. The city attorney stated that the nativity scene would not be removed because it was only a small part of the city’s larger holiday display.

Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Imagine No Religion” Campaign

The Freedom From Religion Foundation erected anti-religion billboards in numerous locations throughout the year. The words “Imagine No Religion” were placed on the billboards with a stained-glass window in the background. The billboards appeared in the following locations in 2008: Columbus, Ohio; Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Rancho Cucamonga, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Canton, Ohio.

The organization also placed a full-page ad in the New York Times on September 9, just in time for the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The ad featured a photograph of a pre-9/11 Manhattan skyline with the words, “Imagine a World Free From Religion.”

January – March
Los Angeles, CA – The Annie Hendy play “The Catholic Girl’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity” was performed at the Pico Playhouse. 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
Fort Lauderdale, FL – A touring production of the musical “Altar Boyz” opened at the Actors’ Playhouse. The show featured an all-male band that sings “Christian-themed” songs that 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” involves the performers striking crucifixion poses.

January 29 – 30
New York, NY – “Jerry Springer—The Opera” was performed for two nights at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. The show assaulted Christianity on a number of levels.

In the show Jesus is introduced as the “hypocrite son of the fascist tyrant on high.” Jesus is also portrayed as a fat, effeminate gay-like character that had his genitals fondled by Eve. The play also mocked the crucifixion, trashed the Eucharist, and presented the Blessed Virgin as a woman who was “raped by an angel.”

We wrote to each of Carnegie Hall’s corporate sponsors to voice our disapproval with the production. The most responsible response came from Bank of America. The bank made clear that it had no role in sponsoring the show. To be exact, while Carnegie Hall did, in fact, rent its facilities to the production, the patrons of the famous musical hall did not sponsor this particular event. Bank of America told Carnegie Hall that it wanted them to issue a statement informing the public that the corporate sponsors of the hall had nothing to do with the show. Carnegie Hall did so and Bill Donohue personally lauded the efforts of Bank of America during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.”

February 23 – March 29
New York, NY – The Luhring Augustine art gallery presented an exhibition titled, “Christ: The Subjective Nature of Objective Representation,” by artist George Condo. The artist’s paintings continued his assault on Christianity; he had previously painted Catholic priests and altar boys as “objects of wrath and scorn, and not a little hilarity.” This is what the New York Times had to say about his new exhibit: “In the main gallery three large, square-shaped paintings of the Crucifixion present comically warped images of suffering. In ‘Gestas,’ Jesus has a balding head and is missing his lower legs; a wooden stake has been driven into his hairy paunch. In ‘Dismas,’ he appears to be swallowing his own neck. The subject of an equally grotesque ‘Jesus’ grimaces as his torso is enveloped by a shower of rainbow confetti. Not even the Father is spared. [In] a painting titled ‘God’…[the figure has a] weak chin, bulbous nose and cross-eyed stare.”

April 6
Chicago, IL – “The Best Church of God” debuted at Donny’s Skybox Theater with performances every Sunday morning. The show spoofs a religious congregation and religious ceremonies. The “church” literally interprets the Bible so much as to say that foreskin should replace money as currency and that “acne has God so pissed.”

The show’s website contains “Communion Recipes” that include “Lord Tartar,” “Low Carb Braised Christ Tongue” and “Mince Savior Pie.” Also on the website are various “Top Ten” lists. One is on “Why Christianity is the Right Religion.” The number ten reason is “When God found out Jesus was Jewish He had Him hung on a cross until He was dead.”

The cast of nine is made up of characters, Pastor Dave Shepherd (who had previously formed God’s Good Church and the Better Church of God, before he founded the Best Church of God); Lyle Gastro, who is in charge of the “Communion Division” and has a self-published book called A Happy Mouthful of God; Ruth Shepherd, whose hobbies include “being home-schooled” and “protesting in front of Planned Parenthood”; Kathy Shepherd, the pastor’s wife; Brother Henry, a member who thinks the Apocalypse is upon the world; the Rev. Joy Phillips, a motivational pastor; Ms. Cindy Sunday, the choir director and Sunday school teacher, is quoted as saying, “Since I’m barren, teaching Sunday school is the next best thing”; B. Eric Elam, the pianist, never makes a mistake because “Jesus plays through him”; Sam Samuelson, a missionary and Pastor Dave’s protégé; and Matthew Luke David, the deacon, who spends his spare time by creating “fetus dolls out of wood, sheepskin and carpet” for protests around the country.

The show also features a “Savor the Savior” segment where the audience was invited to feast on the “nonmetaphorical flesh and blood of the Lord” which was charred meat and red wine.

April 22 – June 1
Denver, CO – The anti-Christian musical “Altar Boyz” played at the Arvada Center.

April 24
New York, NY – The musical “Cry Baby” opened at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway. The play was based on the 1990 John Waters movie of the same name. In the play there are jokes about priest molestation and a miniskirt-wearing nun who apparently “helps” inmates by performing oral sex on them (when she says she helps inmates, she wipes the side of her mouth).

May 1 – 24
Scottsdale, AZ – “Catholic School Girls,” a play by Casey Kurtti, opened at the Chyro Arts Venue. Characters in the play include nuns that are tyrannical, flaky, or senile. Girls in the play are, among other things, punished for saying Jesus was a Jew.

June 3 – June 22
New York, NY – The play “Saved” ran at Playwright Horizons. The play, based on the 2004 movie with the same name, focused on the events at a Christian high school. In the play, the Christian characters are portrayed as good-hearted but narrow-minded people who can’t negotiate life. On the other hand, the non-Christians are portrayed as tolerant and wise.

June 26 – August 3
Cincinnati, OH – The anti-Christian musical “Jerry Springer—The Opera” played at the New Stage Collective. The play mocks the crucifixion, trashes the Eucharist, and presents the Blessed Virgin as a woman who was “raped by an angel.”

June 27 – August 2
Park City, UT – The anti-Christian musical “Altar Boyz” played at the Egyptian Theatre.

July 22
New York, NY – The Museum of the City of New York held a panel discussion on the question, “Is anti-Catholicism dead?” The panelists agreed that anti-Catholicism exists but the question was entertained as a rebuttable presumption. In any event, what really settled the issue was not the presentation of the panelists: it was the bald-face bigotry of those who responded to a New York Times story on the event. The following is a selection taken verbatim from the Times’ blog posting:

· “I don’t think its so much that people are anti-Catholic (the partitioners) but many people rightfully object to the church and their missions. Those missions include: 1.) subverting the U.S. through encouraging, aiding and abetting illegal immigration in contravention to our laws 2.) sewing insurrection in countries in Central America which is detrimental to American interests and in contravention to the historical role of the Catholic church in encouraging unrestrained population growth and actually subjecting the indigenous people to slavery (in Guatemala for instance) 3.) subjecting their own parishioners to sexual abuse 4.) encouraging a bigoted viewpoint towards people who are of alternative sexual orientations 5.) being anti-woman 6.) and encouraging unrestrained population growth leading to the perpetuation of poverty and hopelessness. How dare the Pope come over to our country and preach about America’s supposed failure to help the helpless in his comments about the U.S. immigration policy.”

· “I’m inclined to agree that a bad catholic is better than a good one. A good catholic believes the irrational supernatural nonsense that he’s been taught to believe, usually through rigorous childhood indoctrination. The good catholic is the skeptical catholic who questions what has been driven into his head, and sees the absurdity of it all.”

· “Why is it okay to be anti-communist, but not okay to be anti anything else?”

· “Again, the vestiges of anti-Catholic sentiment at this point are largely grounded in reality. Catholicism is ridiculous and rigidly incompatible with modern social values. Shunning contraception in the face or rampant over-population and HIV in the developing world, stoking the most regressive strains of anti-gay and anti-woman sentiment, protecting pedophile priests the world over for centuries… this is the modern legacy of the Catholic church.”

· “I would say that anti-Catholicism is alive and well. Gays who are excluded from the RCC are anti-Catholic, and so are married women who are not prepared to have their 5th child and yet are told by the RCC that they cannot use birth control. Countries whose citizens are dying in droves from AIDS and yet are told by the RCC that they cannot distribute condoms are anti-Catholic. Divorced people who fled abusive marriages who are now excluded from communion in the RCC are anti-Catholic. I mean, how can any thinking, feeling person NOT be anti-Catholic? It was Jesus himself, if he were here today, would be anti-Roman Catholic.”

· “I’d rather deal with ‘bad’ catholics any day, those who respect my beliefs, rather than ‘good’ ones who look down upon me for not sharing in all their beliefs, ignoring my right to use the brain that God has given me. To those who say that the RC church doesn’t teach that anymore, read Dominus Iesus. It’s a rather current (2000) reaffirmation of their superiority and self-assuredness.”

· “I’m not against Catholics…as long as they don’t go to Mass. In fact, I’m going to marry one, though he knows that our kids will never set foot inside a Catholic Church. All this recent hullaballoo over the Pope just confirms to me that there’s something weird and creepy about a religion that elevates a man to god-like status when one of the central commandments (“Thou shalt have no other god before Me”) says explicitly not to do that.”

· “Anti-Catholicism, like all anti-religious beliefs, will be around as long as religions are anti-life, anti-reason, fear-generating, anti-humanity and anti-science AND act on their delusional beliefs in the most detrimental of ways to human life.”

· “As long as women around the world are denied reproductive freedom, and adolescents are denied access to contraception knowledge and education – I hope anti-Catholicism will grow in strength. We have only the Catholic church to blame for these blights on our world. We cannot discuss population control in order to preserve our limited global resources – for fear of offending Catholic superstition and despotic devotion to church laws that harm us all.”

· “I think it’s time to be anti-religion.”

· “If anti-Catholicism is dead, what will the ever-apoplectic William Donohue do!?!?!?!?!? If we’re lucky, he’ll finally explode into a million pieces, when alone in a windowless room.”

July 23 – August 1
Providence, RI – A one-woman play by Rachel Caris, “You’re Eating God,” ran at the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium. The play is about a family living in a backyard bomb shelter in the 1960s. According to Bryan Rourke of the Providence Journal, “The title of the piece comes from one of its lines which one character delivers after seeing another character ravenously eat a pile of Eucharistic hosts.” He also stated that the play “satirically questions the conventions of Catholicism.”

The play’s webpage flagged the following: “Warning! ‘Eating’ is an outrageous farce. It contains graphic language, sexual situations, and religious satire. Not for the faint of heart. Inappropriate for children and young teens.” On the same page was a picture of Caris drinking a soda in a diner booth with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

August 22 – September 6
Centreville, VA – The musical “Bare” ran at the Waddell Theater. The musical, set in a Catholic boarding school, is about two young gay lovers that the Church “fails to understand.”

October 9 – November 9
New York, NY – 31GRAND held an exhibit, “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” which featured the works of artist Jason Clay Lewis. One of the works, named “d-CON Mary,” features a statue of the Blessed Mother covered in rat poison packaging. Another image, “Poison Christ,” features the image of a crucified Christ made from rat poison and foam.

Business & Workplace

January
Daly City, CA – A man-turned-woman sued Seton Medical Center after being denied breast augmentation surgery following a transgender operation. The Catholic hospital, which is run by the Daughters of Charity, said that the surgery violated Catholic teaching and was outside the procedures of the hospital. Following the hospital’s denial, the transgender person refused to look elsewhere even though there were other hospitals that would have performed the desired surgery.

We addressed the media by saying:

“Catholic hospitals are not required to perform abortions, and neither should they be forced to perform transgender operations…If Catholic hospitals are denied the right to proscribe such operations, it effectively nullifies their right to remain Catholic.”

January
Equinox fitness clubs began the new year with a marketing campaign, displaying ads in their gyms and in publications like Boston Magazine and New York Magazine. The “Happily ever” campaign featured an ad with attractive young women, all dressed as nuns in habit, sketching a naked man while gawking at his genitals.

After we addressed the ad, calling it “sophomoric,” Fallon Worldwide, Equinox’s ad agency, defended the ad by saying, “We’re [Fallon] not saying they’re nuns. They are all dressed in a certain way. It isn’t meant to be a religious commentary…For those who jumped to the conclusion they were nuns, they should be corrected.”

See page 19 for the ad.

January
On January 11, ESPN television anchor Dana Jacobson attacked Jesus at a celebrity roast of radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. When it was her turn to roast the duo, a drunken Jacobson roared, “F*** Notre Dame,” “F*** Touchdown Jesus,” and finally “F*** Jesus.”

We issued a news release on January 22 calling out ESPN and Jacobson for her offensive remarks. At first ESPN’s response was to suspend Jacobson for a week and to issue a statement by Jacobson saying: “My remarks about Notre Dame were foolish and insensitive. I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words.”
Our first reaction was that this was a lame response made by ESPN, because she didn’t address the most offensive thing she said, “F*** Jesus!” We noted that she made these remarks while representing ESPN at a public event. We also compared her situation to those of Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder and Mel Gibson; one made racist comments about blacks, the latter made drunken, bigoted remarks about Jews.

On January 24, we issued a news release that put this issue to rest. Bill Donohue spoke with two ESPN officials and they maintained that, in the six to seven years they had worked with Jacobson, they had never heard her say anything bad about any religion. They stressed that she “fell on the sword” the day after her drunken rant. At Donohue’s request, ESPN issued another apology. On her first day back on the air, Jacobson apologized again: “I want to say how truly sorry I am for my poor choices and bad judgment.”

March 27
Pittsburgh, PA – A federal jury awarded $100,000 to a former police officer that was fired for his religious beliefs. The jury found that officials had harassed the former officer because he wore a cross on his uniform.

May 18
Amazon began selling the self-published book by Charles Webb, Sex with the Virgin Mary: She Has Waited Long Enough. The description on Amazon read, “A previously unknown Biblical prophesy [sic] must be fulfilled before the Second coming of Christ. Mary must enter the carnal world of the flesh and Jimmy Cahill is marketing the item.”

May 27
Rockaway, NJ – Bill Donohue wrote a letter to the CEO of Warner Chilcott Inc. regarding a company drug presentation. In the presentation the speaker made a number of bigoted slurs against the Catholic Church and indicated that the Church persecuted the developer of the birth control pill until he met a horrible death.

We did not hold Warner Chilcott responsible for the behavior of its speaker. We said that we were concerned that Warner Chilcott acted as a venue for anti-Catholic outbursts and asked if such statements were acceptable at its drug presentations.

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

January 17
Madison, WI – A U.S. district judge ruled that the University of Wisconsin-Madison must stop denying funding to student organizations that engage in prayer, worship, or proselytizing. The school refused to fund the Roman Catholic Foundation because the university believed it would violate the separation of church and state. The judge ruled that denying the Foundation money would be an infringement on its right to free speech.

On September 24, a federal judge ruled that while the school could give money to religious student organizations, it was constitutionally permissible to deny the same organizations funding for activities such as prayer and worship.

January 22
Albany, NY – The State University of New York at Albany’s Division of Finance and Business held a presentation by a motivational speaker. During the presentation the speaker made snide references to his Catholic childhood and even ridiculed the Eucharist. Bill Donohue wrote a letter to a school official requesting that this speaker never be invited back to the campus.

February 2
State College, PA – A Penn State University alumnus was denied a request to inscribe “Joshua 24:15” on a brick on Alumni Walk. The university then reversed its decision and allowed him to have the inscription on the brick. The university called the original rejection a mistake and unintentional.

February 17 & 18
The Oregonian ran a two-part series on the problem of child sexual abuse in the Oregon public schools; it made us wonder, where was the public outcry? The series demonstrated that it’s not the children that matter; rather, it’s the identity of the alleged abuser.

The series brought to light many disturbing trends that are not specific to Oregon, but exist nationwide. Among them:

· Instead of punishing child molesters, they’re simply moved from place to place without anyone getting a heads up

· It takes almost a year-and-a-half to investigate claims of abuse

· If the accused is guilty of touching a minor or accessing porn on a computer, he can continue working provided he sees a shrink

· Even molesters who admit to their crimes are given a second chance

· Those empowered to do the investigation are mandated to seek rehabilitation for the offender

· The investigators are not commissioned from the outside; rather they are all staffed from the inside

· Deals are routinely cut for accused molesters in secret, protecting the identity of the molester from the community

· The accused molesters not only walk, they walk away with cash settlements, health insurance, and letters of recommendation—just so long as they agree to get lost

February 27
Marysville, CA – A student at Yuba College was warned that he faced expulsion for handing out gospel tracts without a permit. Attorneys for the student challenged the school’s policy saying that permits restrict free speech to one hour each on Tuesdays and Thursdays and to a site in front of the school’s theater. Along with being threatened with expulsion, the student was threatened with arrest by campus police because he didn’t comply with the free speech zone.

March 6
Kentucky – A judge ruled that the Kentucky General Assembly violated the state Constitution by appropriating $11 million to the University of the Cumberlands, a Christian institution, for a pharmacy building and scholarships.

The representative of the Interfaith Alliance, a plaintiff in the case, called the ruling “a repudiation of doctrinal ideology intruding on state funds.” The representative also called the ruling a “validation” for the separation of church and state.

March 6
Deerfield, IL – Deerfield High School assigned the book, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, as required reading. Following a formal complaint by outraged parents, the book was changed to “optional.” The book is filled with racist remarks, depictions of anal sex and an explicit description of a sexual act with Mother Teresa.

Bill Donohue wrote to the superintendent regarding the obscene reference to Mother Teresa. He said: “While we condemn the negative stereotypes of gays offered in the play, as well as the abundant profanity and racism, we take particular exception to the line, ‘Suck my d***, Mother Teresa.’ Such an obscene and slanderous assault on a woman who has been beatified by the Catholic Church is intolerable.”

March 13 & 14
Charlottesville, VA – The University of Virginia’s student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, ran two cartoons that mocked Christianity. We blasted the newspaper for its bigotry and hypocrisy, which led to an apology the next day.

The first of the offensive cartoons depicted a crucified Jesus doing stand-up comedy as He hung from the cross. The second cartoon took aim at the Blessed Virgin. It depicted her standing bedside in her underwear, buttoning up her shirt, as a man lay in the bed smoking a cigarette. She asks the man, “Come on God, be honest—Did you really get a vasectomy? I can’t let Joseph find out about this.” The man replies, “Well, Mary, you’re F***ed.”

We noted that this wasn’t the first time we have had problems with the Cavalier Daily. In the Fall of 2006, we requested an apology for cartoons that mocked the crucifixion and indicated that the Virgin Mary had an “Immaculately Transmitted” venereal disease. (The apology was originally denied, though eventually the cartoons were removed from the paper’s website and a statement of regret was posted.)

We also called attention to the newspaper’s hypocrisy. Along with the Blessed Mother cartoon on March 14, the paper ran a cartoon acknowledging that any depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammed are banned. We also noted that in 2007 a cartoonist was forced to resign because the campus chapter of the NAACP objected to a cartoon mocking Ethiopians. And in 2005 the paper apologized to homosexuals for commenting that the crane is the “gayest-looking of all birds.”

On March 15, the Cavalier Daily removed the cartoons from its website and issued a statement of regret. The newspaper also pledged to review its cartoon policy.

March 17
Charlottesville, VA – The Cavalier Daily ran a crude cartoon of St. Patrick. In the cartoon the saint is sitting between two young women and says, “Hey ladies, you know, there’s one big snake I didn’t banish from Ireland…Boom! Talking about my penis.”

March 20
Charlottesville, VA – A University of Virginia (UVA) graduate wrote several posts on UVA’s HoosOnline Network about his distaste for Catholicism, linking the Church to the Holocaust, Lincoln’s assassination, the election of George W. Bush and the attacks of 9-11. Over the previous months, UVA officials failed to ban the alumnus for his screeds, but did delete a few of the posts. Following inquiries from The Daily Progress, the local newspaper, UVA officials asked the alumnus to find another online venue to post his views.

April
Hutchinson, MN – A sixth-grade student was publicly singled out and ridiculed by teachers and his principal for wearing a t-shirt that expressed his pro-life beliefs. On more than twelve occasions, the student was ridiculed in front of class, removed from class, sent to the principal’s office, forced to turn the shirts inside out or threatened with suspension for wearing the t-shirts.

On June 3, the Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit in defense of the student. According to the lawsuit the school officials violated the U.S. Constitution and its own dress policy “which specifically states it is not intended to abridge the rights of students to express political or religious messages.”

April 1
Madison, WI – A student at Tomah High School filed a lawsuit that alleged his teacher censored his drawing because it contained a cross and a biblical reference. The student’s class was assigned to draw landscapes, which he did and he added a cross and the words “John 3:16 A sign of love.” The teacher asked the student to remove the reference, saying that the other students were making remarks about it. When he refused to remove the biblical reference, the teacher gave him a zero for the project.

Later in the semester the student’s metals teacher rejected his idea to build a chain mail cross, because of fears that the religious nature of the cross might offend someone.

In May, the Alliance Defense Fund and the Tomah Area School District reached a settlement that removed the school’s ban on religious expression in class assignments.

April-May
East Brunswick, NJ – On April 14, The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the East Brunswick public school system did not violate the constitutional rights of their head football coach when they prohibited him from “taking a knee” during the team prayer. The ruling follows an appeal by the school district, filed in 2007, after a 2006 ruling by the U.S. District Court for New Jersey that allowed the coach to bow his head and “take a knee” during team prayer.

On May 15, the same court panel denied the coach’s appeal of the April 14 decision. After his appeal was denied, the coach said he planned on taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

April 16
Mount Vernon, OH – A public school science teacher refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk after school officials told him to do so. The teacher had previously removed a copy of the Ten Commandments from a collage in his classroom at the school’s request but stated that asking him to remove his Bible infringed on his First Amendment rights.

May
Sumter, SC – The University of South Carolina – Sumter published its annual student literary magazine The Sandhill. According to the school’s handbook the magazine contains manuscripts, artwork and photographs from the student body that have been judged anonymously by student editors. The winner of the Sandhill Award for Poetry was  George C. Floyd who had three poems published, one of which attacked the Catholic Church. In “Counterfeit Christians,” Floyd railed on Christians as being intolerant of Muslims and disrespecting Buddha but held his anti-Catholicism for his last stanza:

A good atheist sleeping good at night
Has more insight than a believer stealing spotlight.
Keys to resting in peace have many versions,
And it’s not necessarily urging virgins to be alone.
Especially when a Catholic priest manipulates
A small boy to get his freak on.

We made note that the university is publicly funded by the state of South Carolina and has received millions of dollars in federal aid.

May 8
Shippensburg, PA – The Christian Fellowship of Shippensburg University filed a lawsuit against the university after the school threatened to shut it down. The school’s Student Senate threatened expulsion to the Christian Fellowship due to its membership requirements; every member is required to be Christian. By threatening to expel them, the Fellowship claimed that the university violated a 2004 agreement with the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education when it “reinserted unconstitutional provisions into current university policy.”

May 15
Phoenix, AZ – An Arizona court of appeals ruled two school voucher programs violated the state constitution by using public money to help private and religious schools. The two voucher programs were used to assist foster and disabled children who attended private schools. According to the court, the article that was violated, know as the “Blaine Amendment,” forbids any appropriation of public funds to any church, or private or sectarian school. The “Blaine Amendment” was born from religious bigotry in the late 19th century.

May 27 – June 10
New York, NY – The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art hosted an exhibition of student art on their campus. The school’s website stated that the exhibit featured “major pieces by students representing ‘the best of’ each discipline.” One example of the “best” art took a shot at Catholicism. A series of paintings by Felipe Baeza was selected to be displayed at the event. In one of his paintings, Baeza showed a man with his pants pulled down with a crucifix extended from his rectum. Under the painting was the phrase, “el dia que me converti catolico,” or “The day I became a Catholic.” Baeza had other similar paintings. One substituted a Rosary for the crucifix that extended from his rectum; another showed a man with his pants down and an angel holding two Rosaries with a penis attached to each of them; and there was a painting of a naked man with an erection and a halo hovering his head.

We stated that these works being deemed “major” by Cooper Union did not speak well for the institution. We said that this is an example of the junk that passes for art these days.

June
Portland, OR – The principal of Capitol Hill Elementary replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a singing version of the preamble of the Constitution during the fifth-grade promotion ceremony. The principal removed the pledge from the event “out of respect for the diversity of religious faiths.”

June 6
Oklahoma City, OK – Gov. Brad Henry vetoed the “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act” that would have allowed students to “express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions.” Gov. Henry claimed that the bill was well-intended but vague and “may trigger a number of unintended consequences that actually impede rather than enhance such expression.”

June 8
Holland, MI – A West Ottawa High School co-valedictorian was forced to remove a Bible passage from his graduation speech. The verses he removed, Corinthians 10:1-13, are about what happens when people put their wishes before God. The Superintendent said that the student was “giving a religious speech” and that it violated the separation of church and state.

June 29
Orlando, FL – As an act to protest student fees for religious services at the University of Central Florida (UCF), a student walked out of a campus Mass with the Eucharist. Webster Cook, a student senator, returned the Host a week later.

On July 7 we issued a statement: “For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage—regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance—is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table including expulsion.”

We also encouraged our members to contact UCF’s President John C. Hitt and voice their opinions on this matter. After our members inundated his mailbox, Hitt issued a statement:

“UCF takes this situation seriously and we are glad to know the student has returned the Eucharist and written a letter of apology. We encourage students to express their views respectfully, and we expect them to comply with university codes of conduct.

“Any disciplinary action will be handled through the university’s student judicial system, per our published procedure.”

On July 17, Cook was impeached by the student government in a 33-2 vote; the impeachment had no effect on his status as a student. Before the vote, UCF’s senate speaker said, “The situation involving Senator Cook and the Catholic Campus Ministry is an isolated event and one that has interfered with our true purpose.”

In August, a panel of students and administrators convened to determine whether or not Cook violated the code of student discipline, unanimously voted to dismiss all charges against him despite the range of options available to punish this act. At the very least, a disciplinary warning was warranted to send a message that the concerns of Catholics are taken seriously at UCF.
When classes resumed in the fall, Cook’s fellow student government officials voted to remove him from the student senate.

July 8 – September 9
Morris, MN – Paul Z. Myers, a biology professor at the Morris campus of the University of Minnesota (UMN), desecrated the Eucharist in response to the outcry following the events at UCF. Myers was angry with us for criticizing the student and voiced his objections on his blog; there was a link from the university’s website to his blog. Despite a strong protest by the Catholic League, no penalties were measured against Myers.

See the end of this article for a chronological account of how this issue unfolded.

October 6
Alameda, CA – Two students filed a federal lawsuit against the College of Alameda after being threatened with expulsion for praying. A faculty member found one of the students praying with her instructor and followed the student and her friend outside of the office to rebuke them. The students were informed a few days later that the school intended to suspend them for violation of school policy.

October 29 – November 2
Cape Girardeau, MO – The anti-Catholic play “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” was performed at the Wendy Kurka Rust Flexible Theater at Southeast Missouri State University. The play by Christopher Durang features a vicious nun who rails against her dysfunctional students, derides the teachings of the Catholic Church, attacks Jesus and disparages the Virgin Mary.

December 18
Hattiesburg, MS – An 11-year-old student received a grade deduction from his teacher for mentioning Jesus in a poem. The assigned project was for the student to write about what Christmas meant to him; after the student wrote that it was about the birth of Christ, the teacher circled the word “Jesus” and deducted a point from his grade.

CHRONOLOGY OF A DESECRATION

July 8: In a blog post titled “It’s a Frackin’ Cracker!,” Myers wrote: “Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?” Myers continued by saying, “if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I’ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won’t be tempted to hold it hostage (no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching Bill Donohue kick the pope in the b—-, which would apparently be a more humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web.”

We followed this with a news release stating, “It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ.”

July 10: Myers pledged to desecrate the Eucharist; he asked the public to give him some consecrated Hosts. Donohue accused Myers of violating UMN’s policy governing the school’s electronic pages (there was a link on the university’s website to Myers’ personal blog) and violating UMN’s Code of Conduct regarding uncivil behavior. UMN’s President, Board of Regents and Minnesota’s public officials were contacted.

Myers went on a Houston radio station (KPFT) charging that Donohue “declared a fatwa” against him. Donohue responded by saying of Myers, “He should know better—I don’t need others to do the fighting for me. I’m quite good at it myself. But he’d better be careful what he says, because if I get any death threats, it won’t be hard to connect the dots.”

July 11: Donohue received a letter from UMN President Robert Bruininks thanking him for bringing this issue to his attention. “Let me assure you that the views expressed by biology professor Paul Myers on his personal blog do not reflect those of the University of Minnesota, Morris or the University of Minnesota system,” he said. “Per the University’s Web policy, the link to Myers’ personal blog from the University’s Web site has been deactivated.”

We issued a news release, “Hysteria Marks Myers and His Ilk,” drawing attention to all the hate mail we received from around the world. “Myers, who claims expertise in studying zebrafish,” Donohue said, “has quite a following among the King Kong Theory of Creation gang.” In another development, Thomas E. Foley, a Virginia activist and delegate to the Republican National Convention, made a public statement about the need for additional security at the upcoming convention in Minnesota’s Twin Cities; he cited the hatred drummed up by Myers against Catholics.

July 14: Myers said, “I have to do something. I’m not going to just let this disappear.” He stated that he acquired a Host on July 11: “Something will be done. It won’t be gross. It won’t be totally tasteless, but yeah, I’ll do something that shows this cracker has no power.”

July 15:  Donohue accused Myers of previously showing deference to Islam and asked him to treat Catholicism the same way.

July 17: Myers granted an interview to Catholic Radio International. He said that his planned desecration was “an issue of civil liberties.” He reasoned that because he is not Catholic or a believer of any kind, he was free to do what he wanted to the Eucharist. In fact, he went so far as to say that there was “an orchestrated campaign by Bill Donohue to demand that secular people…have the same reverence for this object.” Myers then attacked Donohue: “I would make a deal here to return these wafers to the nearest Catholic church if the Church could come out and disavow the tactics of Bill Donohue and the people who have threatened my job and who have threatened my life.” [Note: No one from the Catholic League ever threatened his job, never mind his life.]

July 21: Myers responded to Donohue by saying, “Thanks to all those who have demanded that I treat that silly book [the Koran] with disrespect, I’ll have to treat both equally.”

July 22: Donohue states in a news release, “The latest threat by Myers only makes matters worse….This is his idea of equal treatment.”

July 24: Myers desecrated the Eucharist, posting a picture of it on his personal blog. He explained: “I pierced it [the Host] with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash.” He also tore pages from the Koran, and, in a failed attempt to show impartiality, he included a few pages from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and nailed them to the Host. He then said, “They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. (His emphasis.) Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet.”

The Catholic League contacted UMN’s president, Board of Regents and the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office at the school, as well as Minnesota’s governor and both houses of the state legislature. Also contacted were Minnesota’s Catholic community and Muslim groups nationwide. We stated, “Just as African Americans would not tolerate the burning of a cross, and Jews would not tolerate the display of swastikas, Catholics will not tolerate the desecration of the Eucharist.”

July 25: UMN Chancellor Jacqueline Johnson  issued a statement condemning religious intolerance. She cited UMN’s Code of Conduct that “prohibits such behavior in the workplace—of course this includes the classroom—and I expect those who work and study here to comply with that policy.” But she hastened to add that UMN “affirms the freedom of a faculty member to speak or write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint….” She ended by saying that Myers’ views were his own and the “The University deactivated the link between this blog and the University of Minnesota, Morris website….” The Catholic League appealed to UMN’s Board of Regents citing a previous incident wherein a faculty member was brought up on charges of violating the Tenure Code for possessing images of child porn on his computer.

July 31: Chancellor Johnson faxed a letter to Donohue saying she needed to clarify his “misunderstanding” of her July 25 statement. She said it was not her intention to say that Myers had violated UMN’s Code of Conduct. Indeed, she claimed that since Myers posted his comments on his personal blog, he did not violate the Code.

“I am sorry for my generosity,” Donohue answered, “ I took it that the reason you began your statement of July 25 with a citation of UMN’s Code of Conduct as it applies to religious intolerance was your way of acknowledging Myers’ delinquency. I now stand corrected: Your comment was simply a ploy—a cute way of acknowledging that something was wrong, but certainly not anything that would demand your attention. And just so you don’t misunderstand me: You could have issued a statement saying that while UMN has no authority over what Myers says in his blog, it is morally indefensible for anyone to intentionally desecrate the Eucharist. But, no, you couldn’t even say that. Instead, you hide behind legalisms. We will let the Catholic community know of your decision.”

September 2: Myers comments on the removal of UCF student Webster Cook from the student government. In his post, “The Catholic League Gets One Petty, Cheap Victory,” he predicts that Donohue would be “gloating” over the news. He was half-right: Donohue wanted Myers punished as well.

September 9: Myers posts a statement, “That Explains Something,” in which he complained, “I’ve recently seen a significant surge of howling mad Catholics shrieking at me.” He attributed the surge to Catalyst.

We were deluged with nasty phone calls and e-mails after we called attention to Paul Z. Myers’ pledge to desecrate the Holy Eucharist. The following is just a small sample of the hate-filled messages we received.  All comments appear as we received them:

· “You bunch of death worshipping, closed minded, gay hating, poverty causing, child abusing bigots.”

· “You silly fools. F*** the pope and the body of christ.”

· “ “It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ.” Well, priests f***ing altar boys seems a lot more vile to me.”

· “I guess wanking over your Eucharist wafer is a no no then?! Get a life – you’re a waste of space- go do something useful. “Ooh someone called the pope a bad name…”. Wake up-the POPE is the greatest enemy you people have.”

· “Uh oh, better increase security! A biology professor in Minnesota said he would do bad things to a cracker.”

· “What’s so sacred about a flavorless wafer? Apparently it’s supposed to turn into a piece of “the body of Christ” when a priest blesses it…The whole “body of Christ” bull**** is symbolic?”

· “I stuck the cracker in my mouth but I didn’t try to walk out of the church with it, I went to their public bathroom, took it out of my mouth, and ejaculated all over the cracker, and flushed it down the toilet.”

· “Do you really need to start acting like the American Taliban and exhibiting the same thinness of skin we saw in the Danish Carton/Muslim fiasco? Can we expect future generations of Catholics in the US to be incited to riot and even commit assault because someone disrespected the sacraments? Is this Iran? Is the Catholic League ready to start issuing fatwas?”

· “Please recall to your mind the long history of such intolerance and the egregious acts committed against individuals and groups who spoke against it or were simply on the sidelines and caught up in the insanity of those who cannot or will not tolerate any form of criticism of their beliefs, rituals, or actions. Such criticism could lead to torture and death.”

· “In the past, the Catholic Church has also been accused (with a great deal of historical evidence) of doing violence against those that disagree with them…Please note that this is not a hate letter or one that could even remotely be classified as one.”

· “Mr. Bill Donohue stated “It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ.” Really? Perhaps he is forgetful of the sexual abuse of thousands of children worldwide by ordained Catholic priests, and the consequent exercise in covering-up this abuse?”

· “You people are loony for “christs” sake whining about a cracker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

· “You people disgust me with your puerile magical beliefs. It’s obvious that all religions were made up by people.”

· “With all due respect, sir, it is not against any law that I know of to laugh at another person’s silly beliefs nor to “abuse” a cracker–whatever that means. If your magic cookie is REALLY the body and blood of Jesus Christ, then submit one to DNA testing for the absence before “Hocuc Pocus” and the presence afterward of Jesus” DNA. He was both god and MAN, wasn’t he?

· “STOP THE BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT”S A FKG PIECE OF FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WANT TO DO RELIGION, ;MOVE TO THE FKD, CROOKED, LYING VATICAN!!!!!!!!”

· “You are utter morons. I previously had little or no desire to insult Catholics in particular but following “Crackergate” I will do so if I get the chance. You and your imaginary friend are beneath contempt.”

· “Is the Catholic Church trying to cash in on the “respect-our-religion-of-peace-or-we-will-kill-you” scheme that radical Islam is using? If so, can we expect the acts of terrorism required to back it up? Are we going to see internet videos of nuns beheading people?”

· “Crackers are not people and people who believe that they are, or who believe that the crackers in question are the actual body of God, are themselves a bit crackers. In the past it has always been polite to accept and afford a modicum of respect for these silly beliefs, all in the spirit of live and let live. However in this post 9-11 world, it has become obvious that these harmless delusions are not so harmless. It’s time that we called a cracker a cracker and face reality…After watching Bill Donohue’s choleric diatribes, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Catholic League is no better than Al-Qaeda and the world will know now peace until self-righteous ideologs like Bill Donohue are recognized as the lunatics they are…You should worry less about people insulting crackers and more about pedophile Priests.”

· “A cracker is stolen and you go ballistic. Perhaps you would be better served directing your disgusting venom at your child-f***ing priests.”

· “Crackers are crackers both before and after the Catholic wizard casts his magic spell on them. It doesn’t matter what anyone does to them because they are crackers. They don’t feel anything. They don’t scream when you them. They are little no very good tasting-crackers.”

· “You are delusional. Do you really think that some invisible man in the sky exists, and that by consuming some little cracker that you’re eating his flesh? That is not only pathetic, it’s disgusting.”

· “You’re the same thing, if not worse then. Those nutty Islamist bastards you always talk about. F U, F— jesus and his slut mother.”

· “It’s hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ” How about having priests like that to f*** little boys up the a**??? That was pretty f***ing easy to think of and it certainly is more vile than intentionally desecrating a f***ing cracker.”

· “Perhaps the long history of psychological abuse practiced by the church in how they have used fear to keep their adherents in place. And let’s not forget all of the condemnation of homosexuals and others that the Catholic Church has issued (often from the mouth of the Pope).”

· “This kind of retaliation makes both religion and the Catholic League very foolish and no less fanatical then the Muslim fundamentalists who bombed Danish embassys after Salman Rushdie’s cartoon containing the profit Muhammed. These such actions only breed the kind of atheists who would rudely steal your holy cracker.”

· “I have, in the past, had no real animus toward the catholic church in spite of their history of oppressing non-believers, child rape, support of politicians, qualifications and beliefs on a multitude of other important matters, and medieval rejection of science and all that it has done for us…I am now of the belief that any restraints pit on catholithism are to be supported. Indeed, catholithism is reminding those of us who are rational that it deserves a place amongst those religions, like fundamental christianity and islam that needs to be resisted and constrained for the good of society.”

· “You’re as insane as the muslims who want to kill Danish cartoonists over some cartoons in which the prophet Mohammed appears…You’re delusional. It’s a cracker. It’s bad enough that you are engaged in an act of ritual cannibalism, but to give someone this level of grief over it; get serious.”

· “You want to know why there is so much so called bias against you? Because you have to be loopy or a crook to believe what you believe. I dont mean any disrespect. It’s just a fact…Then there is the killings and all sorts of suffering you cause.”

· “Are you people insane? You are calling the non-eating of a CRACKER a HATE CRIME? You people ARE crazy. A hate crime is what happened to Matthew Shephard/ NOT WHAT HAPPENED TO A F***ING CRACKER you think is “JESUS.”…Your church is crazy. You are crazy…YOU ARE THE HATE THAT RUINS THE WORLD.”

· “I would suggest you read and try to understand the writings of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. These scholars follow simple logic and not the entirely unfounded (head in sand) beliefs in religious myth and fanatism…I am certain (or at least hopeful) that the day will come when Catholic (and all other religious) fanatism will disappear, using simple logic rather than blind belief and “fairy tales” crated and repeated by the various religions.”

· “You are a bunch of bigoted, intolerant throwbacks to the Inquisition.”

· “How can I sign up to desecrate a piece of food. If it makes your heads explode I will pay double for the privilege.”

· “I’m going to call out Donohue and his merry band of haters for what they are – heretics and blasphemers…It’s time to be bold and say that Bill Donohue and the “Catholic” League are, in fact, acting against Christ, and need to repent of their hatefulness.”

· “Apparently conspiracy to wound a biscuit is a cardinal sin if you’re an insane Catholic.”

· “Personally, I’ve always thought Gingerbread Jesus would get the point across much more efficiently. But then you get into sticky area if you bite off Jesus’ head.”

· “Several crackers met an untimely death in my bowl of vegetable soup today.”

· “The irony of all this is that the agenda is basically to turn America into a theocracy where the rights of atheists are threatened.”

· “Catholics are f***ing nuts. Religious f***ing idiots.”

· “You guys started the inquisition and murdered Giordano Bruno for believing there might be planets around other stars and you have the audacity to worry about anti catholic bias.”

· “Are you completely nuts? It’s a cracker! Your god doesn’t even exist. Get over it and grow up.”

January
Denver, CO – Colorado state house member Gwyn Green introduced two separate bills—one for private institutions and one for public institutions—regarding lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of children. We addressed this legislation with two releases noting that Rep. Green’s bills made suing private institutions easy and essentially gave public institutions a pass. Her legislation reminded us of the invidious doctrine of “separate but equal.”

Two years earlier, Rep. Green sponsored similar legislation specifically targeting private institutions, i.e. Catholic schools and the Church. When it was exposed as a witch-hunt, public schools were blanketed with the same legislation. Once the Colorado education establishment realized that it would be placed under the same scrutiny that the Church was, the legislation was effectively killed. For the record, Colorado bishops, led by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput (as well as the Catholic League), favored the bill as long as it was inclusive of all institutions.

When interviewed, Green wears her Catholicism on her sleeve, but rubs it in the dirt as well. She knew that the Colorado bishops had never opposed bills that treated all institutions equally when she remarked, “I think it’s really ironic that the leaders of a church that profess to follow Jesus would be working against the protection of children.” Green never apologized for this lie.

We also noted that Rep. Green has a 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood and highlighted the score on her website. Along with Planned Parenthood’s glowing score, she is also endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, undercutting her so-called commitment to the protection of children.

After we contacted the Colorado lawmakers asking them to nix Green’s politicized effort, we received both support and opposition. Rep. Morgan Carroll claimed our releases hurt our credibility and made us look like we were “about politics over policy.”

We are happy to note that State Sen. Dave Schultheis pledged his “full support” for our position if the bill reached the senate.

On March 5, Colorado’s House Judiciary Committee killed Green’s objectionable bill.

January-March
The Colorado legislature introduced three bills that would limit the freedom of faith-based hospitals to practice medicine in accord with their religious beliefs.

HB 1173 would allow courts to modify a hospital’s use of funds if it was thought that they were not being used appropriately. HB 1203 would forbid transactions between licensed hospitals that would interfere with practices such as abortion and sterilization. SB 182 stated that hospitals must provide “essential health service” which would be defined by the Colorado Department of Health.

We commented on this stating, “It is the Church’s adversaries who want to impose their secular conception of health care on [Catholic hospitals]. What is bothering some Colorado lawmakers is the right of Catholic hospitals not to perform operations, or make available certain drugs, which violate their ethical standards.”

February
Annapolis, MD – On February 6, we reported that Maryland legislator Eric Bromwell introduced legislation that would have suspended the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases for almost two years. It would allow alleged victims to sue the alleged predators and the organizations where the abusers worked. The bill, however, did not apply to public institutions, which would be subject to less punitive measures.

We opposed this legislation because it treated private and public schools differently. Although Rep. Bromwell appeared to have benign motives, he was wrong on the issue nonetheless. We said it was simply intolerable to allow one set of penalties for private institutions and another set for public ones. If the protection of the children is the goal, then justice demanded that all institutions be treated equally.

On February 28, we reported that Rep. Bromwell withdrew the bill and stated that he would give “serious consideration” to resubmitting the bill during the next legislative session.

February 27 – May 22
After being pummeled by the Catholic League, Senator John McCain made a straightforward denunciation of anti-Catholicism and explicitly cited Rev. John Hagee’s role.

When McCain solicited and embraced the endorsement of Rev. Hagee on February 27, he slapped American Catholics in the face. Hagee, a pastor from San Antonio, had a long history of anti-Catholic bigotry. He had also made a living out of demonizing Catholicism and had distorted the historical relationship between Catholics and Jews.

We slammed McCain with ten news releases before he denounced the bigotry of Hagee. Prior to our denouncing Hagee, McCain had only offered a pedestrian response simply saying that he didn’t agree with the views of everyone who endorsed him.

After McCain put this issue to rest, we noted that we never doubted that he was a friend to Catholics and we only wanted him to distance his campaign from Hagee’s bigoted comments.

In May, a complete reversal occurred—John Hagee apologized for offending Catholics. In a May 12 letter addressed to Bill Donohue, Pastor Hagee wrote, “I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics found hurtful.” A few days later, on May 15, Donohue and Hagee met for the first time and put the issue to rest. Hagee’s change of heart came after weeks of meeting with Catholic scholars and leaders on Catholic-Jewish relations. At the end of their meeting Donohue and Hagee pledged to work together on the moral issues where they found common ground: abortion, embryonic stem cell research and doctor-assisted suicide.

A week after the meeting, Pastor Hagee pulled his endorsement of John McCain; subsequently McCain renounced Hagee’s endorsement. Donohue commented on the situation by stating: “Hagee’s decision to sever all ties to McCain is noble: He knows he has become a liability to McCain, even after he has made amends with Catholics….Pastor Hagee can now move in the religious circles he has become accustomed to, and continue his ministry without distraction.” (See the end of the article for more information)

March 2
Nelsonville, OH – Senator Barack Obama told a crowd that he believed that Christ’s Sermon on the Mount justified his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions.

In a campaign speech Obama said, “I don’t think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state,” he continued, “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than obscure passage in Romans.” He was referring to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans condemning homosexuality.

In the same speech Obama addressed the issue of abortion and his belief that his support for abortion didn’t make him “less Christian.”

March 19
Sacramento, CA – A U.S. district court judge ruled in favor of the Alliance of Catholic Health Care and rejected a challenge by the State of California to the Hyde-Weldon Amendment, a federal law that protects hospital and health care workers from being forced to perform abortions. The court’s decision “merely recognizes what has always been the case in our country: liberty of conscience and religious freedom matter,” said the California Catholic Conference.

April
La Crosse, WI – The Fourth District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that Catholic schools operated by the Diocese of La Crosse were not exempted from the state’s age discrimination laws. The ruling came after a former employee sued the diocese for age discrimination, but Coulee Catholic Schools argued that the employee’s position was ministerial, therefore exempting the diocese from anti-discrimination laws.

The ruling was an example of the state overstepping its boundaries by placing jurisdiction over the Church.

April
The ACLU of Florida stood in the way of a specialty license plate that promoted Christianity. The license plate featured a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the inscription “I Believe.” We supported the bill’s sponsor Rep. Edward Bullard and contacted every member of the Florida House urging them to do the same.

The ACLU argued that the license plates would send “a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state.” If that were the case, we wondered, why not adopt an “I Believe” plate with a Star of David for Jews or a Crescent and Star for Muslims? Florida already has many types of specialty plates such as “Choose Life,” “Family First” and “Family Values.” Why then should it deny Christians and other religions the opportunity to display their religious beliefs?

We issued a statement that demonstrated the hypocrisy of the ACLU. We noted that in the 1980s and 1990s, the ACLU chapters in Louisiana and Pennsylvania opposed laws that limited the size of vulgarities on bumper stickers. For example, words that described bodily functions, women’s body parts and sex acts were only allowed if the lettering was in small print; the ACLU objected to these terms.

The ACLU and those who opposed the bill needed to realize that censorship over public expression of religion is un-American.

April 8 – 11
Colorado Springs, CO – We learned that some faculty and cadets were mandated to attend an April 9 seminar at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA); the seminar featured footage from the virulently anti-Catholic movie, “Constantine’s Sword.” We issued two news releases lambasting the academy for playing host to the film. Because of our relentless effort, the USAFA brass came to their senses and pulled the plug on the film before the event began.

It all started when we caught wind of an article in the Colorado Springs Gazette stating that the USAFA would host an event titled, “USA’s War on Terror: Not a Battle Between Christianity and Islam.” The seminar featured three speakers representing the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), an advocacy group for the separation of church and state; among the speakers was MRFF president Mikey Weinstein. The seminar was made mandatory for hundreds of cadets and faculty whose coursework intersected with the topic discussed.

The seminar was billed as an event on the war on terror and to counter speeches that were given at the USAFA in February by three “former terrorists” who allegedly “demonized” Islam. The event was also meant to combat the alleged heavy-handed evangelical Christian proselytizing that occurred on the campus. The Gazette also reported that during the seminar, those attending would watch clips from the controversial film, “Constantine’s Sword.”

The movie is based on a book of the same title, written by disgruntled ex-priest James Carroll. The book version says that the Gospels are inherently anti-Semitic and that unless the New Testament is gutted to the point where the messiahship of Jesus is rejected, Christian anti-Semitism will not end. Carroll’s book was discredited by the New York Review of Books saying of the author, “He is not a historian; everything he has to say on the subject of anti-Semitism is borrowed from other writers, and much of what he offers as fact is in reality highly contentious.”

The movie version of “Constantine’s Sword” goes a step further. The movie’s director, Oren Jacoby, asked the following question on the movie’s website: “Is there something in the DNA of Christianity—the majority religion in our country—that demonizes ‘the other’ and is inclined toward violence?”

On April 8, we sent copies of books by noted authors to the Academy’s library. These books refuted the propaganda that was on display in the film. We also contacted the officials of the U.S. House and Senate who oversee the military academies. On April 9, we applied more pressure. We wrote to the Board of Visitors of the USAFA and asked them to launch a probe of what was occurring; we copied their letters to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

We felt the added pressure was necessary, especially after USAFA director of communications, Johnny Whitaker, placed a phone call to his counterpart at the Catholic League, Kiera McCaffrey. Whitaker admitted that he had seen the entire film and that it was indeed anti-Catholic but that those clips wouldn’t be shown. He also told us that Weinstein wanted to include some inflammatory clips, but that the USAFA denied that request.

The event went on as planned on April 9, but one thing was removed from the agenda—the officials at the USAFA decided to cancel showing the clips from “Constantine’s Sword.” Indeed, we were delighted at this result.

On April 10, Lt. Gen. John F. Regni, the superintendent of the USAFA, called Bill Donohue and had an honest and fruitful exchange. Donohue commended him for his intervention that proved to be decisive. We were glad that Lt. Gen. Regni recognized that this film did not contribute to the overall aim of the seminar and omitted it from the event.

We issued a news release later that day stating: “We know that there have been accusations of religious bias on the campus, and if that is true, it needs to be rooted out. What can never be tolerated is to slam one religion while purportedly addressing religious intolerance expressed toward another religion.”

Because the clips were cancelled, we considered the matter closed. And in fairness, we wrote to all of the public officials we had previously wrote to asking them to ignore our request for an investigation.

April 11
Senator Barack Obama announced the formation of his Catholic National Advisory Council and said he was “deeply honored to have the support and counsel of these committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates.” Of the 26 Catholic former or current public office holders listed as either National Co-Chairs (5), or as members of the National Leadership Committee (21), not one of them agreed with the Church on all three of the following public policy issues: abortion, embryonic stem cell research and school vouchers. Of the two National Co-Chairs with a NARAL tally one agreed with the extremist group 65 percent of the time and the other agreed 100 percent of the time. Of the 20 members of the National Leadership Committee with a NARAL score, 17 scored a 100 percent rating.

We urged Obama to dissolve the Council immediately, stating that Catholics had every reason to be insulted by an advisory group on matters Catholic when most of its members reject the Catholic Church’s position.

On May 8, Obama’s Catholic advisors responded to Donohue’s request for Obama to “purge” his Catholic National Advisory Council (letter can be found at the end of this section). Donohue replied by saying, “It is more than embarrassing—it is shocking—to read how these Catholics regard abortion. The Catholic Church regards abortion, as well as embryonic stem cell research, as ‘intrinsically evil.’ But not these folks. For them it is merely ‘a profound moral issue.’”

No sooner had Obama’s Catholic advisors written to Bill Donohue than Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann censured one the National Co-Chairs, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, due to her long support of abortion rights.

April 16
Slidell, LA – U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle ruled that a painting of Jesus that hung in the foyer of the Slidell City Court was unconstitutional. The judge also ruled that inserting an image of Jesus in a group portrait of other historical figures was permissible. Lemelle ruled that the plaintiffs’ (the ACLU) constitutional rights were violated by the display of the portrait of Christ.

May 21
Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, asking the senator to reconsider his reservations about Judge Robert Conrad. Judge Conrad’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit was held up for over 300 days because Conrad was (falsely) accused of anti-Catholicism. The accusation of Conrad’s anti-Catholicism stemmed from his criticism of Sister Helen Prejean’s book Dead Man Walking. We mentioned that there was a fine line between criticism and bigotry. Note that in 2007, Leahy criticized the Church for its record of protecting priests accused of sexually abusing children: “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.” We recognized that this was a criticism and not an attack on the Church and asked that Judge Conrad be treated with the same respect.

June 5
Frankenmuth, MI – The city council voted unanimously to retain the Thomas More Law Center to assist them in keeping a cross in their city shield and a cross in the city park. The city had come under attack by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, stating that the crosses violated church-state separation.

June 10
Clermont County, OH – The Clermont County Public Library banned quoting from the Bible in its community room. A couple had planned to use it for a financial planning seminar, but were told by library employees that the library’s policy would not permit them to use the room because they would be using the Bible during the seminar.

On August 14, a federal court ruled that a library couldn’t stop a conservative Christian organization from meeting inside the library’s meeting room. The library prohibited the Christian-based group from activities in the meeting room because they were quintessentially religious” and had the “inherent elements of a religious service.”

August
The Democratic Party credentialed offensive blog sites to cover the Democratic National Convention. The most offensive site that was credentialed was Bitch Ph.D.

On the home page of Bitch Ph.D., there was a picture of two children: one of them was shown flashing his middle finger. The lead post on August 17 was titled “Jesus Christ.” It began with, “I’m a really crappy Catholic who hasn’t been to mass in ages because most parishes around here ‘will insist on being aggressively anti-abortion….’” The writer then objected to some children’s toys on the grounds they were more offensive than desecrating the Eucharist. The toys were actually balloons that were made to depict Jesus in various poses, including a crucified Christ; one of the images showed Jesus with a penis. Several people commented on this image; some made patently obscene comments.

Another offensive blog site was Towleroad, a site that describes itself as “A Site with Homosexual Tendencies.” It had a post on Pope Benedict XVI that took him to task for wearing a cape with ermine. They proudly displayed profane and vulgar comments about the pope’s attire.

We called for these offensive blogs to be nixed from the Convention, saying, “To allow them access to the Democratic National Convention sends a message to Catholics they will not forget.”

August – November
Virginia – Keith Fimian, the Republican candidate for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, came under attack by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in a series of mailings and video clips; he was accused of “rolling back women’s rights,” and being “an officer of an organization that promotes a group so extreme they encourage women to be more submissive. The organization DCCC referred to is Legatus, a Catholic group of CEOs founded to bring their faith-based values to the workplace; Fimian belongs to Legatus.

In its campaign, the DCCC said that Legatus “promotes groups supporting a radical agenda.” That was an outright lie. In fact, Legatus does not promote any group. Like many organizations, it contains a “Links” section on its website that lists various sister organizations; as is customary, Legatus makes it clear that it does not necessarily endorse everything said on these outlets. The DCCC knew this, but chose to lie anyway.

The website that the DCCC referred to in its attacks is a Christian group called e5 Men; the biblical reference to women cited in the DCCC’s ad was taken out of context so as to embarrass Fimian.

We issued two news releases defending Fimian and called attention to the despicable acts of the DCCC. In the September 10 Washington Post, Bill Donohue was quoted as accusing the DCCC of lying about Fimian and misleading the public on Legatus.

In our releases we didn’t hold Fimian’s opponent, Gerald Connolly, responsible for the actions of the DCCC, but we requested that he denounce the anti-Catholic bigotry; Connolly, a Catholic, failed to do so, even though he was the beneficiary of the attacks.

We also called on the DCCC’s head, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to intervene and immediately stop these scurrilous ads.

November 18
Beaufort County, SC – Beaufort County Councilwoman Laura Von Harten blasted the Catholic Church for its strictures regarding the priesthood and its teachings on abortion. She took the occasion to vent at a scheduled hearing regarding a zoning request by a local Catholic church, St. Gregory the Great in Bluffton, South Carolina, that would allow it to expand. Several area residents quickly denounced her for her comments; when the vote was taken (which passed 6-0), she recused herself.

Von Harten ripped the Church for not allowing women priests and for its anti-abortion position (what she called “uterus rights”), saying they were “an affront to my dignity and all womankind.”

When we caught wind of Von Harten’s rant, we quickly issued a statement saying: “Without the slightest provocation, Laura Von Harten decided to bash Catholicism. This suggests an animus so deep as to call into question her fitness for public service. She should do more than recuse herself on matters Catholic—she should resign from her post as councilwoman.” We ended our news release stating, “There is no legitimate role for bigots in public life.”

The following is the text of Obama’s National Catholic Advisory Council’s letter to Bill Donohue:

Dear Mr. Donohue:

We write in our individual capacities and not on behalf of the campaign. Last week you labeled many of our friends, and some of us, as “Catholic dissidents” because we support Senator Obama.

Unlike the Catholic League, the U.S. Catholic Bishops advise careful consideration of candidates’ positions on a broad set of issues. While abortion and other life issues are of fundamental concern, the bishops teach that particular issues must not be misused “as a way of dismissing or ignoring other serious threats to human life and dignity” such as “racism and other unjust discrimination, the use of the death penalty, resorting to unjust war, the use of torture, war crimes, the failure to respond to those who are suffering from hunger or a lack of health care or an unjust immigration policy” (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, #29). Our bishops go on to point out that “these are not optional concerns which can be dismissed.”

Across these issues Senator Obama offers much to the well-formed Catholic conscience, which helps explain why many Catholics are supporting him.

As Catholics, we view abortion as a profound moral issue. But what have nearly three decades of Republican promises to end abortion accomplished? Other aspects of the conservative Republican agenda have been carried out with fervor, such as weakening of the social-safety net, privatization, deregulation, destruction of labor unions, and belligerent and aggressive foreign policy. But ending abortion remains the perennial promise, one that is too often hijacked by partisan operatives who seek only to divide voters. Many Catholics are fed up with the divisive tactics and empty promises around this issue.

Senator Obama recognizes that abortion presents a profound moral challenge, tied in part to a loss of the sense of sacredness of sex and lack of parental involvement. On the campaign trail he regularly calls on parents to turn off the television and has called on fathers to meet their family responsibilities. Regrettably, these clips are not included in your press releases.

Senator Obama has also reached out to Americans on both sides of this issue and embraces practical proposals designed to reduce the number of abortions in this country, including comprehensive health care and sex education, better health care, economic support for women, and promoting alternatives like adoption.

Like other Americans, we have watched as many candidates brought to office on a so-called pro-life platform insisted on policies that have left the lives of millions more of our brothers and sisters at risk from war, uncontrolled pollution, deeper poverty, and a growing economic inequality.

Not this year.

This year, there are many Catholics—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—who won’t let that happen again.

We are proud to be counted among Senator Obama’s Catholic advisors. Collectively our experience spans decades of scholarship and service working for and with the Catholic Church on the broad set of issues under the “consistent ethic of life.”

We were drawn into the campaign by Senator Obama’s vision for the common good, his profound message of hope, and his ability to unite citizens across class, race, and even party lines. We are excited about his promise as president, and we commend him to our fellow Catholics.

Mr. Donohue, your work to fight legitimate cases of anti-Catholic bigotry in this country should be applauded. But when you smear other Catholics with whom you disagree, you betray your own cause. Our measure of what it means to be a “good” Catholic is not defined by the narrow pronouncements of partisan operatives; but rather by the rich teachings of our Church and our informed consciences.

HAGEE IN HIS OWN WORDS

The following are some of the offensive comments Pastor John Hagee made over the years prior to his apology to Catholics:

· “This is the Great Whore of Revelations 17. [Hagee is pointing to a picture of a woman on the back of a beast.] This is the anti-Christ system [pointing to the beast]. This is the apostate church [pointing to the woman again]. In this cup [the cup the woman is holding], if you will read it in the Book of Revelation, is the blood of the saints. This is talking principally about the blood of the Jewish people. Where from the crusades that happened back here [pointing to a place on a timeline], from the Spanish Inquisition, from the Holocaust. When Adolf Hitler came to power he said, ‘I’m not going to do anything in my lifetime that hasn’t been done by the Roman Church for the past 800 years, I’m only going to do it on a greater scale and more efficiently.’ And he certainly had done just exactly that. God has said, ‘I gave you the time to repent but you did not.’ You, this false cult system [pointing again to the woman and beast] that was born in Genesis 10 and progressed through Israel and became veiled worship. God says, ‘The day is going to come when I’m going to cause this beast to devour this apostate system.’ So you can see very clearly that while the Church is in Heaven, this false religious system is going to be totally devoured by the anti-Christ.” (From a video of Hagee discussing the Book of Revelation, available on YouTube)

· “There is no difference between the popular religious hatred of the Church Fathers and the Nazi hatred for the Jews, save the clerical robes of the religious princes and the Swastika arm bands of the Third Reich.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome…. This poisonous stream of venom came from the mouths of spiritual leaders to virtually illiterate congregants, sitting benignly in their pews, listening to their pastors. They labeled the Jews as ‘the Christ killers, plague carriers, demons, children of the devil, bloodthirsty pagans who look for an innocent child during the Easter week to drink his blood, money hungry Shylocks, who are deceitful as Judas was relentless.’” (Jerusalem Countdown, with a quote from, Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “The church fathers did not tell you who to kill; they told you who to hate!” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· The Crusaders “were thieves and they were murderers who marched from Europe to Jerusalem. Who murdered, who robbed and raped the Jewish people coming and going because they had been forgiven by the pope in advance of their sin before they left Europe.” (“Southern Steps: Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy”)

· “The Roman Catholic Church, which was supposed to carry the light of the gospel, plunged the world into the Dark Ages…. The brutal truth is that the Crusades were military campaigns of the Roman Catholic Church to gain control of Jerusalem from the Muslims and to punish the Jews as the alleged Christ killers on the road to and from Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “The Crusaders beheaded thousands of people. Others were shot with arrows. Infants were tossed into the air and caught on swords. Others were forced to jump from the towers of the city wall to their deaths…What Jews the Crusaders could not find were accused of having aided in the defense of the city [Jerusalem]. They were rounded up and taken to the synagogue. There the Crusaders locked them in the synagogue, set the synagogue on fire, and as they listened to men, women and children begging for their lives, screaming for mercy, the Crusaders marched around the synagogue singing ‘Christ, we adore thee.’” (“Southern Steps: Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy”)

· “The Spanish Inquisition was perhaps the most cynical plot in the black history of Catholicism, aimed at expropriating the property of wealthy Jews and converts in Spain for the benefit of the royal court and the Roman Catholic Church.” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “In the fanatical effort to determine who was truly a loyal Catholic and who was not, Jewish children were choked to death in the presence of their parents.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “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.” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “When Hitler came to power he dutifully followed…Roman Church policies.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “It is to be noted that Hitler’s blood-purity rule in which Germans had to prove they had no Jewish blood for three generations was clearly formulated by the Roman Church in Spain five hundred years before Hitler came to power.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “Adolf Hitler attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, ‘Pereat Judea.’” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “Nazi legality was immensely strengthened by the concordat with the Vatican (July 20, 1933), an agreement that the Catholic Church had refused to grant the previous Weimar Republic. Hitler described the Concordat of Collaboration as an ‘unrestricted acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican.’ Indeed it was, since it subordinated all of cultural and educational activities of the church to Nazi ideology and regimen. It began with the placing of Hitler’s portrait on the walls of all Catholic, parochial, and Sunday schools, and ended with the church bells ringing at every Nazi victory, including the arrest and transportation of the last Jew from every town and hamlet in Germany. The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself…The German bishops followed the Vatican, represented by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli, and later Pope Pius XII. The priests obeyed the bishops, and the parishioners fell in line.” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “In all of his [Hitler’s] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it’s an electric chair.” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· Hitler “simply enforced policies that had been approved by the church over the course of history and that remained the official policy of the church when the Nazi party came to power.” (In Defense of Israel)

· “Need we be reminded that the loving theology of the New Testament, as translated by the Roman church fathers, is what sponsored the Crusades, the Inquisition, and ultimately produced the Holocaust?” (In Defense of Israel)

· “Was Hitler a Christian? The Roman Catholic Church certainly thought so…” (Jerusalem Countdown)

· “The Nazis dismissed every Jew working in a civil service job in Germany. Overnight, thousands of Jews were without jobs. It was, once again, economic control of the Jews through the law and a reflection of a long-standing policy of the Catholic Church…. Hitler, the most notable example of anti-Semitism in the twentieth century, simply enforced policies that had been approved by the church over the course of history and that remained the official policy of the church when the Nazi party came to power.” (In Defense of Israel)

· “Where are the Jews of Spain? They were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Portugal? They were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Italy and France? They were murdered in cold blood by the Roman Church! Where are the Jews of Austria and Hungary? A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years, produced a harvest of horror.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “The venom of Christian hatred for the Jews reached its crescendo with the coming of Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407), known as the ‘bishop with the golden mouth.’ One of the first to describe the Jews as ‘killers of Christ,’ for centuries Chrysostom’s anti-Semitic venom was considered classic Roman church reading.” (Final Dawn Over Jerusalem)

· “The words of this honored clergyman [Chrysostom] rang in the ears of Christianity for 1600 years. ‘God hates you…and I hate you.’” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

· “The crusaders were, in fact, seasoned soldiers operating under a blanket of papal protection known as the indulgence…in other words, the crusaders could kill, maim, rape and steal from the Jews with impunity—and God would turn a blind eye to their sins.” (Final Dawn Over Jerusalem)

· “The Fourth Lateran Council met in November of 1215 in response to the call of pope Innocent III…The official Christian policy that came out of the Fourth Lateran Council was a formal declaration supporting the conduct of the Roman Church toward the Jews for centuries prior. It would be the officially approved standard of conduct for European Christians toward Jews until Adolf Hitler came to power.” (Should Christians Support Israel?)

HAGEE – McCAIN TIMELINE

The following is the timeline from John Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain to Hagee’s apology for his past anti-Catholicism.

February 27: Republican presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain appeared with Pastor John Hagee and embraced the endorsement of the anti-Catholic bigot. McCain proudly exclaimed he was “very honored by Pastor Hagee’s endorsement,” calling the minister, “the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement.”

February 28: “There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system…’ Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee.”
—Bill Donohue on McCain’s embrace of John Hagee’s endorsement

February 29: “If Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama were fighting over the support of Louis Farrakhan, we’d say they’re nuts. So what are we to conclude about McCain’s embrace of Hagee, and Huckabee’s lament for not getting the bigot’s endorsement…McCain repudiated the remarks of talk radio host Bill Cunningham. He should now repudiate Hagee’s long record of bashing Catholicism.”
—Bill Donohue commenting on Mike Huckabee’s disappointment with Hagee’s endorsement of McCain

February 29: “[It] does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues…In no way did I intend for his [Hagee’s] endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee’s views, which I obviously do not.”
—John McCain responding to the criticism surrounding the Hagee endorsement

February 29: “McCain’s latest response is helpful, if disappointing…Contrast McCain’s tepid response to what George W. Bush said…regarding his 2000 appearance at Bob Jones University. Bush said he did not approve of ‘the anti-Catholic and racially divisive views associated with that school…’ McCain will have other opportunities to address this issue. He would be well advised to model himself on Bush’s Bob Jones response if he wants to bury it altogether.”
—Bill Donohue comparing McCain’s tepid response to the concrete response from George W. Bush in 2000

February 29: “While John McCain certainly cannot be expected to defend or espouse the views of every individual who has thrown their support to him, McCain completely repudiates any and all remaining elements of anti-Catholicism in America today.”
—Senator Sam Brownback defending McCain

March 2: “I think they’re two very different situations. Pastor Hagee has done some very good things, particularly with regard to Israel and the support for Israel and denouncing terrorism in that area…His endorsement, I think, is for people who believe and work for him.”
—Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson comparing Hagee’s endorsement of McCain to Farrakhan’s endorsement of Obama

March 3: “Farrakhan has done some very good things too…yet no one is citing his good work as a justification for his bigoted comments. The same rule should apply to Hagee. We hope McCain gives us something concrete the next time he speaks to this issue. And we’d like to hear from him, not his surrogates.”
—Bill Donohue responding to Brownback and Hutchinson

March 3: “I am shocked and saddened to learn of the mischaracterization of my views on Catholics that has spread while I spent the weekend celebrating the 50th anniversary of my entry into the ministry with family and friends.”
—John Hagee’s statement on this issue

March 3: “Did we also mischaracterize Hagee when he called my religion ‘The Great Whore,’ the ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ’ and a ‘false cult system’? McCain cannot ignore Hagee’s lies any more than he can tolerate his bigotry. This is getting out of control.”
—Bill Donohue responding to Hagee’s statement

March 4: “The difference between the way Obama and McCain have handled their endorsements by bigots is enormous. Even worse, McCain actually solicited for Hagee’s endorsement. If Karl Rove is right to criticize Obama for not being strong enough in his denunciation of Farrakhan (which Obama explicitly did), what does that say about McCain’s response to Hagee’s endorsement? In short, Obama has set the bar for McCain. Whether he wants to clear it or walk away is his choice.”
—Bill Donohue responding to Karl Rove’s criticism of Obama’s repudiation of Farrakhan

March 4: “I’ve learned that some have accused me of referring to the Catholic Church as the ‘great whore,’ of Revelations. This is a serious misinterpretation of my words. When I refer to the ‘great whore,’ I am referring to the apostate church, namely those Christians who embrace the false cult system of Jew-hatred and anti-Semitism.”
—An amended paragraph to John Hagee’s statement of March 3

March 4: “Anti-Catholic Protestants have long labeled the Catholic Church ‘The Great Whore,’ and no amount of spin can change that reality.”
—Bill Donohue responding to Hagee’s amendment

March 5: “If McCain was right to slam Bob Jones in 2000, why is he letting Hagee off the hook now? In fact, when Bush did apologize for his visit to Bob Jones (he was explicit and forceful in his denunciation of the school), McCain criticized him for taking so long. He said, if ‘you don’t say anything until three weeks later, then you have—are—abandoning your role as a—as a person.’”
—Bill Donohue comparing McCain’s reaction to the Hagee controversy with his reaction to Bush’s speech at Bob Jones University in 2000

March 6: “No one should take from my criticism of McCain on this issue that I in any way think he is anti-Catholic. If anything, John McCain has been a good friend to Catholics. But he and his staff have, thus far, grossly mishandled this issue.”
—Bill Donohue on McCain’s poor judgment regarding the Hagee endorsement

March 6: “Pastor Hagee endorsed me. That does not mean I endorse everything Pastor Hagee said. All I can say is lots and lots of people endorse me. That means they embrace my ideas and positions. It does not mean I endorse them.”
—John McCain when asked about the Hagee controversy while in Georgia

March 7: “Fortunately for McCain, he did not shut the door and say this matter is over. But time is running out. We expect to hear a more definitive statement that explicitly rejects Hagee’s anti-Catholicism…It is one thing for a candidate to disagree with the Catholic position on certain public policy issues, quite another to break bread with an anti-Catholic bigot.”
—Bill Donohue on McCain’s steadfast tepidness

March 7, evening: “We’ve had a dignified campaign, and I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics…I sent two of my children to Catholic school. I categorically reject and repudiate any statement that was made that was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature. I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it.”
—John McCain when interviewed by the Associated Press

March 10: “Sen. McCain has done the right thing and we salute him for doing so. As far as the Catholic League is concerned, this case is closed.”
—Bill Donohue, in response to McCain’s repudiation of Hagee’s anti-Catholic comments

May 12: “I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful. After engaging in constructive dialogue with Catholic friends and leaders, I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism.”
—An excerpt from Hagee’s letter to Bill Donohue

May 12: “Pastor John Hagee has demonstrated an improved understanding of the Catholic Church and its history….The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it. Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology. What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns. But he has done just that.”
—Bill Donohue commenting on Hagee’s letter of apology

The following is the text of Pastor John Hagee’s letter of apology to Bill Donohue:

Dear Mr. Donohue,

Insofar as some of my past statements regarding the Roman Catholic Church have raised concerns in your community, I am writing in a spirit of mutual respect and reconciliation to clarify my views.

Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful. After engaging in constructive dialogue with Catholic friends and leaders, I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism.

In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews. In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impressions that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not. Likewise, I have not sufficiently expressed my deep appreciation for the efforts of Catholics who opposed the persecution of the Jewish people. It is important to note that there were thousands of righteous Catholics—both clergy and laymen—who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust. According to many scholars, including historian Martin Gilbert and Rabbi David Dalin (author of The Myth of Hitler’s Pope), Pope Pius XII personally intervened to save Jews.

In addition, I better understand that reference to the Roman Catholic Church as the “apostate church” and the “great whore” described in the Book of Revelation is a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary.

I hope you recognize that I have repeatedly stated that my interpretation of Revelation leads me to conclude that the “apostate church” and the “great whore” appear only during the seven years of tribulation after all true believers—Catholic and Protestant—have been taken up to heaven. Therefore, neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church.

In recent decades, Catholics and Evangelicals of good will have worked together to defeat the evil of Communism, promote what Pope John Paul II called “a culture of life” that protects every human life from conception to natural death, honors the institution of marriage, and defends the rights of the poor.

As I wrote in my tribute to Pope Benedict XVI after President Bush welcomed him to the White House, he “spoke for all of us when he said that ‘any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted’ and called for Christian participation ‘in the exchange of ideas in the public square.’” Both Catholics and Evangelicals have been engaged in an effort to assert the primacy of faith and values in our increasingly secular society.

My profound respect for the Catholic people has been demonstrated in my own ministry. For example, when the Ursuline Sisters of San Antonio were on the verge of losing their home, our church bought the property for our school and allowed them to continue living in their home free of charge for twelve years. The sisters were part of the daily life of the school, walking the grounds and the hallways where the children would embrace them and hold their hands in friendship. The love of our school children for these sisters symbolized my own feelings as well. I pledge to address these sensitive subjects in the future with a greater level of compassion and respect for my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is this sense of Christian fellowship I hope to reestablish with Catholics with whom I and all Evangelicals must unite to be a voice for life, the family, marriage, and Christian values to our nation and the world.

BOOKS

June 3
Lewis Black released his book, Me of Little Faith. In his book, Black attacks the Church, Orthodox Jews and Mormons, but gives Islam a pass. Black’s chapter on Islam, titled “Islam. All I’m Saying Is, I Got Nothing to Say,” is the shortest chapter in the book (only three paragraphs). The chapter begins with the following: “I have nothing to say. Nothing. And let’s leave it that way.” But Black had no problem with saying that the “history of the Catholic Church is littered with more bull****” than he could put up with. He also stated that the Church has a “history of being greedy and violent and underhanded and a home for sexual predators.”

We said it was sickening that Black received praise for “pushing the envelope” and being countercultural. In a news release we told the media: “There is nothing courageous about pushing buttons that everyone knows are safe.”

INTERNET

January 11
The blogsite, Wonkette, slammed both the Catholic League and the Eucharist. A posting, “Thin-Skinned Catholics Offended by ‘Deep Fried Christ,’” referred to the league’s reaction to the anti-Mike Huckabee skit that trashed the Eucharist. The site’s editor posted the following:

“Anyway, this is apparently a big deal because there are very serious crazy people who don’t want you to say the wrong thing about how you put a cracker in your mouth and it turns into a little little Jesus, and if that gets stuck in your throat just drink his blood because, hey, vampires!” (Original italics)

April 18
On her blog, columnist Michelle Malkin slammed the Catholic Church’s immigration policies in a post on her website. In a blog entry she wrote: “Open borders benefit Catholic churches looking to fill their pews and collection baskets. The Vatican and American bishops, led by radical L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony, have long promoted anarchy and lawlessness.”

April 21
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, did more than lecture Pope Benedict XVI after his successful visit to the U.S. in April—she blamed him for making the sexual abuse scandal worse. Her evidence? None. But she did make the case that homosexuality has absolutely nothing to do with the scandal. However, she did not explain why the majority of the victims were post pubescent males. Instead, she blamed “homophobia” for creating the scandal. The entire tone of her column was condescending and smacked of a deep-seated bias.

June 23
Sally Quinn, a Washington Post journalist and founder of the blog On Faith, posted why she decided to take Communion at the funeral Mass for Tim Russert. Quinn, who was an atheist most of her life, posted the following:

“Last Wednesday I was determined to take it [the Eucharist] for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I’m so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it.”

Quinn also admitted the following: “I had only taken communion once in my life at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started On Faith and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

We noted that Quinn’s statement reeked of narcissism and showed a profound disrespect for Catholics and the beliefs they hold dear. We also stated that if she really wanted to honor Tim Russert, she could have done so without trampling on Catholic sensibilities.

June 29
The website NewsBlaze ran an article by Robert Paul Reyes called, “The Pope Should Ditch His Red Designer Loafers.” In the article, Reyes comments that Pope Benedict XVI should act more like Jesus and not dress “like a clown.” Reyes also says that the pope’s wearing of red designer shoes is enough to “make a drag queen blush.”

September 29 – October 18
Over 40 videos depicting the desecration of the Eucharist were posted on the website YouTube by a young man, Dominique (who’s username is fsmdude). What he did was to flush the Eucharist down the toilet, put it in a blender, feed it to an animal, drive a nail through it, etc.

On September 29, Bill Donohue wrote to YouTube CEO Chad Hurley asking him to remove the offensive videos. When Hurley didn’t respond, Donohue called him. After no reply, a video of Donohue registering his protest was posted on YouTube on October 6; a news release on this subject was issued the next day.

After being pummeled by angry Catholics responding to our news release and video, a YouTube official called Donohue on October 15. She informed Donohue that a decision had been made to “age-gate” the videos, meaning that they were not available to the general public—age confirmation was required. Moreover, the viewer would be informed that the video’s material might not be appropriate.

The official stressed that this was a “preliminary step,” part of an ongoing review process. In other words, YouTube took our complaints seriously. On October 16, we issued a press release and we also posted a video on YouTube wherein Donohue discussed the outcome. A few days after YouTube “age-gated” the videos, fsmdude removed his desecrations from the website.

October 26
A copycat video was placed on YouTube by “Discipline01” pledging to continue the work of “fsmdude.” He vowed to continue the “DESECRATION OF THE EUCHARIST AND THE BIBLE…AND ALL THINGS HOLY…IN HONOR OF FSMDUDE!”

MAGAZINES

January
In Columbus Monthly, a section called “A Year of Fools and Foibles” highlighted the magazine’s 2007 Annual Awards. In that section, a quip was made about Columbus (OH) Bishop Frederick Campbell’s mild heart attack. The magazine implied that he suffered his heart attack because “he met a straight priest.”

February
An issue of Colorado Avid Golfer featured an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a picture of golfer Lauren Ochoa’s face in place of the Virgin Mary’s. The image appeared with an article that celebrated the success of the golfer. The editor of the magazine followed with an apology to anyone that was offended by the image stating that the magazine “did not intend to show disrespect to anyone.”

April 12
In a Newsweek article “Why This Pope Doesn’t Connect,” Lisa Miller stated that the pope cannot bridge the gap between “what the Church teaches and what the American laity practices.” In her article, Miller said:

“Benedict is not the man for this job. His defenders know this, or his advance team of bishops, archbishops and theologians wouldn’t have been out there spinning in the weeks before the papal visit, telling anyone who would listen how very, very kind and gentle the Holy Father really is. Feeling is not Benedict’s strong suit. It’s not just his unfortunate visage that puts people off, or his predilection for the more outré aspects of papal fashion (antique chapeaux and ermine-trimmed capes), or his decades employed as John Paul’s theological enforcer. It’s that Benedict is a Christian believer first and an intellectual second, a man who shows little comfort on the global stage with the messiness of human life and politics.”

Of course, Miller’s article looked foolish after the successful papal visit. The Holy Father showed his compassionate side on many occasions, including his meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse.

June 11
The online magazine Slate ran a piece by William Saletan on virginal restoration. Saletan’s piece followed articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times about Muslim women in France who have elected to have their hymens surgically reattached. On the homepage of Slate’s website, Saletan’s column was flagged by a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; below the image was the inscription, “A Defense of Virginity Restoration Surgery.” We asked why Slate could not find any suitable Muslim images to draw attention to Saletan’s article; we called them gutless for taking a cheap shot at Catholicism.

December
The Mexican edition of Playboy ran a cover showing a nude woman depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary. After a protest led by the Catholic League, the publisher apologized.

When asked for a comment by the media entertainment outlet, TMZ, Bill Donohue said: “Playboy’s juxtaposition of the sacred with the profane is a game that many have played, but to exploit Catholicism and insult Latinos in the same breath is novel. The December cover of its Mexican edition demonstrates once again that when it comes to good taste, Playboy remains quintessentially virginal.”

To make matters worse, the apology was insincere. “The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure,” said publisher Raul Sayrols. “The intent was to reflect a Renaissance-like mood on the cover.”
When Rick Sanchez of CNN asked Donohue whether he accepted the apology, he replied, “They are liars. I mean everybody knows it has nothing to do with the Renaissance.” Sanchez then asked whether it would have made a difference had they not lied. “No,” Donohue said, “I wouldn’t be okay with it. But at least I wouldn’t call them dishonest.”

MOVIES

May 9
The film “Bloodline,” which claims Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, had children and was  entombed in France, opened in New York. Bruce Burgess, who previously made documentaries exploring the Bermuda Triangle and searching for Bigfoot, produced “Bloodline.”

October 5
Bill Maher’s movie, “Religulous,” opened and it was clearly more absurd than it was hateful. Because of Maher’s history of smearing Catholicism, we expected more of the same in the film, but in fairness this did not happen.

Apparently the public didn’t care too much for the movie either. The film came in 10th after its first weekend out, and dropped to 13th the next weekend.

October 26
Palo Alto, CA – The documentary “Immaculate Confession” played at the United Nations Association Film Festival held at Stanford University; it focuses on people who left the religious life “for love.” The film is directed by Simone Grudzen and produced by her sister Corita; they are daughters of a former nun and priest.

The film baited Catholics by altering a photo used in the film’s poster to make it look like a priest and a nun were engaged in a sensual embrace; in the original picture the man and woman were dressed in lay clothes.

NEWSPAPERS

January 8
Bill Donohue wrote to the managing editor of the Times Herald Record (NY), about the omission of a story regarding Christmas vandalism. The Walton Firehouse in Chester, New York, had its Infant Jesus statue decapitated and the crèche vandalized for the second straight year. Local news outlets covered this story but the Times Herald Record deemed it was not newsworthy. It is interesting to note that incidents of Christmas vandalism had attracted the attention of national newspapers such as the Washington Post but still garnered not a peep from the Times Herald Record.

Although we received no response from the newspaper, we were happy to send our gratitude to the parish of St. Columba in Chester for their help.

February 19
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial about a defrocked priest and called for the statute of limitations to be suspended for sex abuse claims after the priest faced no criminal charges after allegedly abusing eleven minors in 25 years. Bill Donohue wrote to the editors offering Catholic support, but only if public and private institutions were placed under the same legislation.

February 22
The Palm Beach Post (FL) ran an editorial by Steve Gushee, a long-time enemy of Catholics, slamming Pope Benedict XVI on several accounts. Gushee criticized the pope’s revision of the Good Friday liturgy asking that the Jews acknowledge Christ as their savior. Gushee wrote that the new prayer would be a step back from the Catholic-Jewish progress that had been made under the pontificate of John Paul II.

Gushee filled his piece with snide comments and bashed the pope for granting indulgences to those who visited Lourdes, France during the year. Gushee called the declaration of indulgences a “fund-raising marketing tool that mocks the mission of the church, the theology of Scripture and the justice of God.”

The column ended with Gushee demanding that Benedict decide where he would stand in world affairs. He stated:

“The pope needs to choose the role he wants to play. He can act as the cult leader catering to the emotional needs of his followers and the power lust of his institution. He can take a responsible place in the world’s religious community, embrace his ‘elder brothers (Jews)’ and give up the indulgence fantasies.”

February 24
The Star Ledger ran an ad for The Church of Christ that stated the teachings of the Catholic Church were “The Doctrine of Demons.” We responded by writing a letter to John Dennan, the General Manager of the Star Ledger.

On March 4, we received a letter from R. Wayne Wedgeworth, the Star Ledger’s Local Retail Advertising Director. He apologized for any offense that the advertisement may have caused but said that doctrine and religious interpretations are “not generally afforded the same protections” as cultural or ethnic groups. He finished his letter by saying: “We take your position seriously and will balance it with our commitment to allow voices in our newspaper to express opinions and positions that might be adverse to others if they are legal and in good taste.”

February 24
On February 24, an op-ed column by Joe Feuerherd in the Washington Post attacked the United States bishops.

Feuerherd said he was proud to vote for a pro-abortion candidate in the Maryland primary, namely Barack Obama, even if it meant that the bishops had consigned him to Hell. Indeed, according to Feuerherd’s interpretation of what the bishops had said, it meant that he put his “soul at risk,” all but assuring himself of a “ticket to Hell.” He concluded by charging, “the bishops be damned.”

For example, the bishops’ document that Feuerherd referenced, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, says at one point that “It is important to be clear that the political choices faced by citizens…may affect the individual’s salvation.” Two paragraphs above that one it explicitly says that when all candidates “hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil,” the voter may decide not to vote or to “vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.” In the next paragraph it says, “In the end, this is a decision to be made by each Catholic guided by a conscience formed by Catholic moral teaching.” Does this sound like the bishops have condemned him to Hell?

Feuerherd would have us believe that the document lists as “intrinsically evil” such things as “abortion, stem cell research and same-sex marriage.” He is twice wrong. The document does not call either stem cell research or same-sex marriage “intrinsically evil.” There are eight acts which merit that label: abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, the destruction of embryos, genocide, torture, racism and targeting noncombatants in war.

As we said to the press, “Feuerherd is angry because issues like ‘affordable housing’ are not given the same preeminent status as killing the innocent. He is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to bash the bishops or distort their words, not even in his quest for martyrdom.”

We weren’t the only ones that took notice of Feuerherd’s antics. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the director of media relations for the USCCB, wrote an article in theWashington Post that denounced Feuerherd. She called Feuerherd’s column a “screed” that was full of “demeaning and mocking words” and epitomized the “incivility” of the campaign season. She also slammed him by saying, “The crude reference to the Eucharist as ‘the wafer’ should be beneath anyone who respects people’s religious sentiments, let alone an acknowledged Catholic.” Finally she points out that the “damning of the bishops, is unworthy of both Feuerherd and The Post.”

March 25 & 26
Only a few weeks before the pope arrived in the United States, The Journal News conducted an online survey of lapsed Catholics. The newspaper, which is owned by Gannett and covers the Lower Hudson New York counties of Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam, posted the following survey:

“Are you Catholic? As part of The Journal News’ coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York next month, we’re hoping to interview Roman Catholics who consider themselves lapsed or non-practicing on their views about the pope’s visit. If you’re willing to be interviewed please contact Ernie Garcia at elgarcia@lohud.com”

After we saw this survey, we returned the favor and secured the e-mails of 134 Journal News employees, ranging from Publisher, Michael J. Fisch, to the Gardening and Horticultural Editor, and sent them the following survey:

“Protestants: Given that no religious group switches denominations more than Protestants, can you tell us what it feels like to bounce around from one contiguous neighborhood to another in search of the ideal church?

“Jews: Given that the vast majority of Jews do not attend synagogue and that 52 percent of them intermarry, can you tell us what it feels like to be a non-Jewish Jew?

“Muslims: Given that Muslims who convert may be murdered, can you tell us if you’ve at least fantasized about converting?”

We ended our news release by asking our members to contact The Journal News. After the publication was bombarded with e-mails, they asked us to call off the dogs.

March 30
Michael Sean Winters wrote a piece in the Washington Post entitled, “Wholly Different Angles On The World.” The article focused on the political differences of the Vatican and the United States. Winters predicted the pope would denounce the U.S. for its occupation of Iraq during his speech to the United Nations.

His piece was one of the first salvos thrown by left-wing Catholics. It proved to be utterly baseless—the pope did no such thing, instead he focused on natural law and natural rights.

April 13
The Chicago Tribune ran a piece, “Ghostwriting for the Pope,” by Robert McClory, a former priest. McClory offered to the readers what he wished Pope Benedict XVI would say during his visit to the United States. The following is what the ex-priest hoped the pope would say:

“I [Benedict XVI] am therefore inaugurating a series of international conferences, dialogues and debates on some of the most disputed church issues, including its position on the ordination of women, homosexual acts, marriage after divorce, stem cell research and artificial birth control. (Our italics)

“I want these issues to be openly considered from all sides, not just by bishops and other clergy but by theologians and biblical scholars, by educators and catechists at all levels, and by experts in the social sciences….

“In addition, I will invite input from Orthodox and Protestant churches, whose traditions in these matters have great significance….”

McClory seemed to realize just how absurd his wishful thinking was; he quickly acknowledged that the reader might dismiss his idea as “the product of an unhinged imagination.”

April 13
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial entitled, “The Catholic Church; Who will be left to speak and hear?” The editorial accused the Church of helping to create the shortage of priests by “insisting on ancient disciplines such as priestly celibacy and the bar against women in the clergy.” The editorial also noted that there is much to be ashamed of in the Church “including the Inquisition and an often ambiguous response to Nazism in World War II.”

Bill Donohue followed these outrageous allegations by writing a letter to the editor:

“The editorial on the Catholic Church was a classic. You blame celibacy for the declining numbers of priests yet fail to recognize that all of the mainline Protestant denominations, which do not require celibacy, are hurting big time. Your history is also suspect: it was civil authorities, not the Church, which played the lead role in the Inquisition, and the Church’s efforts in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust were surpassed by no other religion or institution.”

April 14
Emmett Coyne, a Catholic priest, wrote an editorial in the Washington Post titled, “A Time for Penance, Not Pomp.” Coyne stated that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States should be penitential and not celebratory due to the sex abuse scandal. The editorial stated, “Benedict’s visit to America ought to be in purple, scarlet or black robes, penitential colors—not triumphal white or gold.”

If the pope addressed the scandal, the priest stated that the papal visit could be Benedict’s “Obama Moment,” referring to Barack Obama’s public address concerning the controversial remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Coyne also wrote, “A true leader hits head-on, rather than ducking, vexing issues,” almost as if to compare the pope’s leadership qualities with Obama’s.

April 16
The News-Press (FL) ran an editorial prior to the  papal visit. The editorial stated that Pope Benedict XVI “owes it to the church to address his congregants’ concerns.” Among the concerns the editorial stated were: ordination of women, gay rights and the ban on contraception. The editorial went on to say that the clergy sex abuse scandal “dented the church’s moral authority, leaving many Catholics divided, damaged and demoralized.”

April 27
Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle wrote a column titled “Equal Justice for Prophets and Priests.” In the column Casey addressed the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound that was raided in Texas and the state’s protection of children. Casey stated: “You can, however, wish the state of Texas had shown similar vigor in protecting the children of some other religious groups with sexual practices that seem out of touch with modern society. Say, for example, the church that prescribes celibacy for its priests.” Casey goes on to criticize Texas for turning a blind eye and abetting the Catholic Church for years.

May 16
In the opinion section of the Kansas City Star, Barbara Shelly wrote a piece titled, “Archbishop Seeks Improper Church-State Mix.” Her column focused on Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann’s request that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, refrain from receiving Holy Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

The archbishop censured Sebelius after she vetoed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, a bill the archbishop described as an attempt to “protect women.” Shelly determined that this bill was designed to “diminish women’s authority to make medical decisions and ease the way for lawsuits against providers.”

Shelly finished her piece by stating: “Naumann’s harsh request is more likely to alert the public to an uncompromising stance that forces Catholic politicians to choose between ethical public service and participation in their church.”

June 20
The Chronicle of Higher Education published a letter to the editor from a philosophy professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt from the letter follows:

“From reading Musgrove’s column, you would never know that Catholic colleges have fired or silenced Catholic professors such as Charles Curran, who evidently carried critical thinking too far. Nor would you know that the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach that it has a unique and superior knowledge of truth and reason in religion and morality…. But let’s not forget the dark side of Catholic higher education, whose main victims are Catholic students and faculty members.”

August 14
An editorial titled “Church can’t have it both ways,” appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. The editorial lectured the Diocese of Springfield (MA) on church-state separation because it exercised its freedom of speech in promoting traditional marriage. The paper also scoffed at the diocese’s opposition to a local government official requesting a moratorium on local church closings. The editorial smacked of anti-Catholicism.

August 15
Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a satirical piece attacking the Catholic Church. Throughout the article, Morford implied that all priests were pedophiles.

He wrote that the Church issued “a decree under which all priests of Rome must undergo a brief medical procedure in which a tiny electrical device is implanted just beneath the foreskin. The microsensor, known as God’s Little Cherub, measures holy heart rate, heaviness of breathing and blood flow to the penis and is designed to deliver an electric shock ranging from ‘mild’ to ‘Cazzo!’ when the priest comes into proximity with nubile flesh.”

Morford also mentioned that priests should wear special sunglasses designed to dim the “bright light of a child’s tantalizing innocence…”

October 11
The New York Daily News ran a front-page story about a priest who was arrested for sending graphic images of himself through e-mail to an undercover cop; there was a follow up on the story the next day. Only a few days earlier, on October 7, the Daily News buried a story about a rabbi who had sex with his daughter for 10 years, beginning when she was 9.

Bill Donohue wrote to the Daily News’ editor-in-chief, Martin Dunn, asking him why the story about the priest garnered front-page attention, but the story about the rabbi was relegated to page 18. Donohue also mentioned that neither the New York Times nor the New York Post covered the story, yet Dunn’s paper decided to make it a lead story.

In his letter Donohue said, “What is disturbing is the flagrantly different standard that the Daily News uses in running stories on clergy sex scandals.” Donohue concluded his letter by asking Dunn, “Could you please explain why the Daily News decided not to do a front-page story on a rabbi who raped his daughter?”

October 19 & 22
The New York Times ran two articles praising the Terrence McNally play, “Corpus Christi.” The play features Jesus as an ordinary person who has gay sex with his apostles.

In the October 19 edition of the Times, Mark Blankenship said those that protested the play when it opened in 1998 offered “stark reminders of lingering homophobia.” Bill Donohue responded by saying, “So when anti-Catholic homosexuals like McNally feature Jesus having oral sex with the boys, and Catholics object, it’s not McNally who is the bigot—it’s those protesting Catholics. One wonders what this guy would say if a Catholic made a play about Barney Frank showing him to be a morally destitute lout who ripped off taxpayers. Would he blame objecting gays for Catholic bashing?”

On October 22, the Times’ Jason Zinoman applauded the play for its “reverent spin on the Jesus story.” To which Donohue said, “One wonders how debased a performance against Catholicism must become before this guy would call it irreverent. Moreover, one wonders what this guy would say if the play substituted Martin Luther King for Jesus.”

On our website and in our e-mail blasts, we asked Catholics to contact the paper’s ombudsman, Clark Hoyt. To our surprise, Hoyt contacted Donohue and wanted to know more about our reaction to what happened. On November 9, Hoyt ran an article about the controversy, stating Donohue’s concern. Donohue didn’t object to the Times’ coverage of the play, but to the two articles about it.

October 29
The comic strip “Agnes” appeared throughout the country and compared Pope John XXIII to a mass murderer. In the strip, the character Agnes shaves her head in preparation for Halloween; she was attempting to look like Samuel B. Krotty, a 12th century mass murderer. When her friend tells her that Krotty’s head wasn’t shaved, Agnes says that the picture she had of Krotty featured John XXIII on the other side and she forgot which one was which. The cartoon—created by Tony Cochran and syndicated by Creators Syndicate—appears in prominent newspapers such as the Washington Post.

November 1
An editorial titled, “Vatican’s Gay Hunt,” appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. The editorial was strewn with factual errors claiming that the Church has a “pedophile problem” and shows “antipathy toward homosexuals.” We didn’t object to the fact that the editorial was wrongheaded, but because it shows the deep-seated bias against Catholicism that we have noticed in the paper for a long time.

November 12
The Times Record ran an ad from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide that took unwarranted shots at the Catholic Church. Alamo claims that because of the sex abuse scandal, “The Catholic church and schools are far too dangerous for children, both boys and girls, to attend. They are also extremely dangerous for adult men and women.”

November 19
Roll Call made a big splash on its website with a “Breaking News” story on Father Coughlin. The headline, “Chaplain Managed Abusive Priests,” gave the impression that Coughlin either did something illegal or something immoral. The fact of the matter is that he did neither.

In the November 20 print edition, Roll Call discussed how Coughlin ministered to troubled priests in Chicago. For example, it said that he played the role of “caretaker, providing services ranging from room and board to spiritual support and advocacy.” Coughlin admits to “pastoring priests” and the article mentions that he “was not responsible for overseeing the men.”

So that was the story. Father Coughlin, before being named House Chaplain, tended to the needs of troubled priests. Instead of being smeared—which in fact Roll Call did—Coughlin should have been applauded.

We issued a release calling on Morton Kondracke, the executive editor of Roll Call, to extend an apology not only to Father Coughlin, but also to the Catholic community as well for exploiting the issue of priestly sexual abuse.

Kondracke refused to apologize.

December 18
A letter to the editor appeared in The Commercial Appeal that smacked of bigotry against the Catholic Church and had no legitimate role in public discourse. The writer called the Church hierarchy “a bunch of silly old geezers” that has no say in the sexual morality of the public.

December 18-24
The Long Island Press ran an ad from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide that took unwarranted shots at the Catholic Church. Alamo claims that because of the sex abuse scandal, “the Catholic church and schools are far too dangerous for children, both boys and girls, to attend. They are also extremely dangerous for adult men and women.”

RADIO

January 7
Salt Lake City, UT – Utah’s National Public Radio station, KCPW, trashed the Eucharist on the show, “Fair Game with Faith Salie.” The skit was aimed at making fun of presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, but offended Christians instead.

The following is a transcript of the offensive segment:

[Woman’s voice]: “And now another Huckabee family recipe leaked by his opponents.”

[Male Voice]: “Tired of bland unsatisfying Eucharists? Try this Huckabee family favorite.  Deep-fried Body of Christ—boring holy wafers no more. Take one Eucharist.  Preferably post-transubstantiation. Deep-fry in fat, not vegetable oil, ladies, until crispy. Serve piping hot. Mike likes to top his Christ with whipped cream and sprinkles. But his wife Janet and the boys like theirs with heavy gravy and cream puffs. It goes great with red wine.”

[Woman’s voice]: “Now that is just ridiculous. Everyone knows evangelicals don’t believe in transubstantiation.”

After we issued a news release, the producers of the show, Public Radio International, called Bill Donohue to apologize and pulled the skit from its rotation, as well as from the show’s archives. Importantly, it also issued an on-air apology.

March
Washington, DC – During Holy Week, WTOP ran a commercial that ridiculed the Sacrament of Confession. The spot, paid for by a local Presbyterian church, mimicked a man confessing his sins to a priest. The priest repeated the man’s sins back to him, and with each sin (e.g., having lustful thoughts while watching lingerie ads and coveting a neighbor’s lawn equipment) a cash register clicked, as if to tally up the sum of each sin. At the end, a voice told listeners that with the Presbyterian Church their spiritual journey doesn’t have to be a “guilt trip.”

We received many complaints regarding the ad and contacted WTOP. They confirmed the ad and played it for us. After Catholics complained to members of this Presbyterian Church, they agreed it was offensive and pulled the ad.

April 19
On NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” the panel discussed the papal visit. During the discussion, panelist Roy Blount Jr. was asked the question, “What will be the next gift which the pope receives from President Bush?” Blount said that the president would give the pope a “notorious rough and wild bronco,” which was reputed to be able to “separate the men from the boys.”

June 27
George Knapp, who was the guest host on the “Coast to Coast AM with George Noory” radio program, had on filmmakers René Barnett and Bruce Burgess, the directors of the anti-Catholic documentary “Bloodline.”  The film claims Jesus was not divine and was, in fact, married to Mary Magdalene and that the two had a child and escaped to the South of France following his crucifixion.

August 8 – 11
The daily Internet show “Keith and the Girl” took a cruise with listeners on Carnival Cruise Line and staged a “Mass” in which they desecrated the Eucharist. The “Mass” was staged in protest over the University of Central Florida Host-stealing incident.

We wrote to Carnival to notify them of the event that was scheduled to take place on their cruise; we did not receive a response.

TELEVISION

January 4
Bill Maher bashed Christianity during an appearance on the NBC program, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Maher commented on the highly publicized speech made by presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, explaining the role of religion in the government.

Maher remarked:

“You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”

Looking uneasy, O’Brien followed up by asking Maher whether or not anyone who is religious is schizophrenic. He responded, “Well, yes, sort of, because they have walled off a part of their mind.”

January 11
“Comedy Central Presents Stephen Lynch” featured a song, “Craig Christ,” by the comedian. In the song, Lynch sings about Jesus’ “brother” Craig and the lifestyle he leads. “Craig Christ” accuses the Apostles of homosexuality, grows marijuana with Judas and “layin’ every lady in the Testament.”

Lynch is also known for his song, “Priest,” which is about a priest being tempted to sexually molest an altar boy.

January 25
On his HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher was joined in a discussion about UFOs with some panelists. Here is what he had to say about the possibility of UFOs:

“But I think it is much more likely that there could be space ships from outer space, than what a lot of things people believe. People still believe, you know, excuse me I know I may inject religion into every show but UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman…”

February 4
On CNN’s “Larry King Live,” comedian Bill Maher railed against religion. Maher exclaimed:

“They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don’t have it out especially for Catholics. I think all religions are coo-coo. Ok? It’s not just the Catholics. I’m not a bigot. Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn’t make me a bigot.”

February 7
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” comedian Ed Helms introduced a Homometer; a radar device that determined the “gayness” of things. One of the items that he tested was a statue of the Holy Family outside of a church. When Helms waved the Homometer over the statue it said, in a stereotypical gay voice, “Oh my god that’s so gay! Oh my god that’s so gay!”

February 18
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno lashed out against priests, citing a news report about the Vatican and sex scenes in movies:

“Oh, I love this story. Did you see the pope at the Vatican today? Oh, they came out. They’re very strict. The pope and the Vatican asking actors not to do sex scenes in movies. They don’t want actors doing any sex—good luck! They can’t keep priests from doing sex scenes! What are you talking about? [Laughter and applause.] Come on! Please!”

February 19
On ABC’s “The View” the panel of Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd made fun of the Church’s canonization process. Behar exclaimed that “some of [the saints] may have been psychotic” because they heard the voice of God. She also stated that there are not as many saints in current times, because people can take medication to stop the voices in their heads.

February 23
During the Weekend Update segment on “Saturday Night Live,” guest correspondent Tina Fey opined about Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign. Fey said:

“What bothers me the most is people say that Hillary is a b****. Let me say something about that. Yeah, she is. So am I…You know what? B****es get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests. They’re mean old clams and sleep on cots and are allowed to hit you. At the end of the school year you hated those b****es, but you knew the capital of Vermont. I’m saying it’s not too late; Texas and Ohio get on board. B**** is the new black!”

February 26
On ABC’s “The View” the panel discussed a Pew Research Center study on religion in the “Hot Topics” segment of the show. The conversation turned to Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s dislike of the Sacrament of Confession and why she left the Church.

When she spoke about why people change religions, Hasselbeck said: “I guess I can kind of relate to this. I grew up in a Roman Catholic Church…and I found at some point I kind of wanted to—I moved to a more nondenominational church. I think it was some of the structural things in the Catholic Church that just for me felt manufactured…and I questioned all the time, like going to confession. Since second grade I would be in detention because I didn’t want to go.”

February 26
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” Jay Leno commented on a report about teenage sex:

“According to a new report on teenage sex by researchers…4% of teenagers lost their virginity in a car, and 56% lost it in their homes. When they heard this, child development experts said it might help if teenagers talked to someone like a teacher or a priest, which is how the other 40% lost it.”

March 1
Fox reran an episode of “MADtv” which featured a skit of priests, wearing only Roman collars and bikini bottoms, chasing frightened boys around a campsite, dancing obscenely with one another and boasting about sexual molestation. Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Marcy Ross, Fox’s Programming Executive Vice President, regarding this episode and asked that Fox refrain from airing anti-Catholic episodes in the future.

The episode first aired in 2002.

March 12
Comedy Central aired the first show in a new series, “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil,” in which Black played a judge ruling on who was more evil—the Catholic Church or Oprah Winfrey.

The episode featured two comics, Greg Giraldo and Paul F. Tompkins, debating the evilness of the Church and Oprah. Giraldo held the task of proving the Church was the more evil of the two.

Giraldo focused his attacks on the sex abuse scandal, the Blessed Virgin, the Inquisition, and Pope Benedict XVI. The following are excerpts of his vitriol:

· “The Church is sack tickling its way into bankruptcy.”

· “The Catholic Church is also evil because it has such a grip over the mindless masses that they’ll wait in line, thousands of them in the rain for hours, just to get a glimpse of a pork rind in the shape of the Virgin Mary…God impregnated Mary. We have a whole religion based on one woman who really stuck to her story.”

· “Let’s not forget the Inquisition. In the 1400s, Jews and Muslims in Spain were forced to convert to Catholicism. And to test the sincerity of these conversions, thousands were tortured.”

· “The pope, to me, is a hypocrite in his Prada loafers and his ball gown. How can he condemn homosexuality when he dresses like he is on his way to nickel comso night at the Veiny Shaft Tavern”?

The day after the premier episode, we slammed the show. We pointed out that it is estimated that public school teachers are a hundred times more likely to molest minors than are priests (see the work of Dr. Carol Shakeshaft.) Yet it was not the public schools that were labeled evil by the show.

We also wondered why it was the Church that was singled out and not Muslims. We noted that radical Muslims behead their enemies, real and contrived, terrorize non-combatants, fly planes into buildings, shoot nuns in the back, kidnap and kill bishops, burn churches to the ground and legally murder those who wish to convert. Despite all of this, the show did not have the guts to call them out.

March 18
On ABC’s “The View” the panel discussed the controversy surrounding Barack Obama and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Elisabeth Hasselbeck compared Wright’s inflammatory comments, such as “God damn America,” and “The U.S. of KKKA,” to the reason she left the Catholic Church.

Hasselbeck stated that when she “found out the heads of the Church were up to things that were not good…I left. I say, ‘you know I don’t want to be a part of that at all.’”

March 22
On the Bloomberg Channel’s “Political Capital,” host Al Hunt was speaking with guests Bob Novak and Margaret Carlson about the 2008 election. In response to Novak bringing up the controversy with Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Carlson brought up “pedophile priests.” The following is a transcript of what was said:

Novak: “Howard Dean is a joke. But don’t count Hillary out yet. The problem is Obama is fading in the polls. In the Gallup poll he is behind her. In several other polls he is behind McCain. It is because of this flak over his pastor. I would say that the Obama campaign right now is on a very serious problem with this racial divide in the party. And that is the only hope for Hillary is the divide is going to push her over. What that means for the Democratic Party in this year’s election is something Democrats don’t want to consider.”

Carlson: “I’m so glad I don’t have to answer for the pedophile priests in my parish. I don’t know if you have any in yours.”

Carlson’s attack on the priesthood was unwarranted and gratuitous. This had absolutely nothing to do with what Novak was talking about.

March 22
The pope set off a firestorm by baptizing a Muslim-born journalist at the Vatican’s Easter Vigil. The pope’s critics had a field day with his baptism of Magdi Allam, an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism. The critics blew this situation way out of proportion and helped set off a media firestorm. The following is a sample of the attacks that the Holy Father received from around the world:

· “I cannot understand the Vatican’s motivation. Why with preparations for dialogue underway…would the pope revive antagonism this way?” [Sheila Musaji, founding editor, The American Muslim]

· “What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion. Why couldn’t he have done this at a local parish?” [Yaha Sergio Tahe Pallavicini, VP of the Italian Islamic Religious Community]

· “The problem lies in the vindictive atmosphere surrounding the conversion ceremony.” [Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh]

· The baptism was a “deliberate and provocative act…made into a triumphalist tool for scoring points.” [Aref Ali Nayed, head of Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre]

· “A new provocation for the Islamic world.” [Mohamed Yatim, commentator for the Moroccan daily, Attajdid]

· “The Vatican’s act seems unnecessarily incendiary and irresponsible.” [Calgary Herald editorial]

· “The problem is that he was baptized by the Pope in public and in front of satellite TV cameras. This is a hostile act against Islam….We were looking for a different approach from the Pope after his anti-Islam remarks two years ago. But the Pope’s baptism of a person who is known for his enmity to Islam and the Qur’an made us stick to our previous decision to suspend the IUMS relationship with the Vatican.” [Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars]

In our news release we credited the Jerusalem Post for its spot-on analysis of the controversy: “Allam was not a practicing Muslim, was educated in a Catholic school as a teenager, has been married for years to an Italian Catholic, and credits Pope Benedict for having influenced his decision…[and] he has been living under police protection for years, primarily because of his criticism of Islamic terrorism and defense of Israel—which, of course, is the real story here.”

April 1
NBC’s Jay Leno apologized for asking actor Ryan Phillipe to give his “gayest look” during an earlier episode of his “Tonight Show.” The actor was uncomfortable with Leno’s quip and the late-night host came under fire by gay rights groups for his remarks.

We issued a statement blasting Leno for his duplicity saying, “We have a fat file on Leno’s anti-Catholic comments, and with the lone exception of his phone call to [Bill Donohue] apologizing for his Catholic-bashing rant on February 7, 1997, we haven’t heard a word from him regarding our many complaints.” We closed our release by stating the only conclusion that could have been drawn from his lack of regret for anti-Catholicism: Gays and Jews are protected classes in Hollywood, but Catholics are not.

April 11
Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Fox Broadcasting’s President of Entertainment, Peter Ligouri, regarding an episode of “Family Guy.” The episode in question first aired in 2000, and features Peter Griffin receiving a chalice from a priest and drinking the Blood of Christ with the accidents of wine. Peter coughs and says of Jesus, “Man, this guy must have been wasted 24 hours a day, huh?” This clip was airing as part of a commercial for the program.

Donohue stated that Catholics are not without humor, but disparaging the Body and Blood of Christ crossed the line. We requested that Fox retire the episode in question and cease using the clip in its promotions.

April 11 – 18
On “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian saw the papal visit as an opportunity to slam the Church and in particular attack the Holy Father. On Monday, April 14, we slammed Maher for his bigotry and lies.

On the “New Rules” segment of his show, Maher addressed the raid on a polygamist compound in Texas, but quickly turned his attack to Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. The following is his bigoted rant:

“And, finally, New Rule: Whenever you combine a secretive compound, religion and weirdos in pioneer outfits, there’s going to be some child-f***ing going on. In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as ‘God’s infallible wing man’ here on earth, lock away the kids.

“Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound. And this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. [Photo of pope shown] That’s right. The pope is coming to America this week, and, ladies, he’s single!

“Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Bill, you can’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult! For one thing, altar boys can’t even get pregnant.

“But, really, what tripped up the ‘little cult on the prairie’ was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided. Religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!

“If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you ‘Pope.’

“It’s like if you can’t pay your mortgage, you’re a deadbeat, but if you can’t pay a million mortgages, you’re Bear Stearns, and we bail you out. And that’s who the Catholic Church is, the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia. Too big to fail.

“When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out. And that’s the Church’s attitude: ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.’

“Which is fine. Far be it from me to criticize religion. But, just remember one thing: if the pope was, instead of a religious figure, merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of daycare centers where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he’d be arrested faster than you can say, ‘Who wants to touch Mister Wiggle?’”

Maher’s anti-Catholic bigotry was nothing new; he had been on our radar long before. But this time Maher literally made things up.

Maher lied when he said the pope “used to be a Nazi.” Like all men in Germany at the time, Joseph Ratzinger was conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could). Every responsible Jewish leader has acknowledged this reality and never sought to brand the pope as a Nazi. But Maher was right there to chime in.

In the days following Maher’s outburst, many media outlets picked up on our news release and pounded Maher for his bigotry. Mike Gallagher, Investor’s Business Daily, Steve Malzberg, Les Kinsolving of WorldNetDaily, Newsbusters, Newsmax, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cunningham, the Culture and Media Institute, Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani and others were justly outraged.

On April 17, Bill Donohue received a phone call from an HBO executive regarding the league’s news release of April 14. The executive told Donohue that Maher was expected to apologize on his Friday, April 18 episode of “Real Time,” for accusing the pope of once being a Nazi. After researching this matter, HBO concurred with our assessment. Apparently, so did Maher. Maher acknowledged the pope was never a Nazi and mentioned that the Catholic League called this issue to attention. But Maher didn’t stop there.

After apologizing for accusing the pope of being a Nazi (which we accepted), Maher reiterated the point that if the pope were the CEO of an institution that housed molesters, he would have been fired. To suggest that Pope Benedict XVI was in charge of policing molesters, and failed in doing so, was patently absurd. As Pope John Paul II’s right-hand man, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s principal job was to make sure that theologians were faithfully presenting the teachings of the Church. He was not in charge of enforcing codes of conduct. Indeed, it wasn’t until after the scandal hit the newspapers in 2002 that he was put in charge of dealing with predatory priests, and by all accounts did so effectively.

April 16
On ABC’s “Nightline,” there was a segment on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that focused on Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George. The segment took him to task for the way he handled a case dealing with Rev. Daniel McCormack. We blasted “Nightline” for its failure to deliver the whole story and ABC for its glaring hypocrisy.

In the segment, “Nightline” focused on the decision of Cardinal George to allow Rev. McCormack back into the ministry after the police found him innocent. This is what happens every day in America—those found not guilty resume their jobs. Cardinal George’s decision was the logical consequence of innocent until proven guilty. The fact that McCormack was later found guilty of groping a male doesn’t change what’s at stake. Moreover, “Nightline” failed to tell the whole story.

In the initial case, the police and Cook County prosecutors found no credible allegations against McCormack. Interestingly, the Department of Children and Family Services concluded that McCormack may have been guilty but never notified the archdiocese or the school where the priest was working that it was conducting an investigation. To top it off, the agency didn’t even bother to tell them after it suspected he might be guilty.

What was really mind-blowing was ABC’s hypocrisy. In 2003, Steve Bartelstein, a New York anchor at WABC-TV, was accused of sexually harassing and stalking a male writer and producer at the station. WABC launched an investigation and concluded there was no evidence to remove Bartelstein and allowed him to keep his job; he was fired in 2007 for another matter. And last year in Miami, ABC reporter Jeff Weinsier at WPLG was arrested for carrying a loaded gun on school property while investigating school violence. He kept his job, too. If ABC had subjected them to their Cardinal George standard, they would have been canned immediately.

We called on ABC to make an apology to Cardinal George and all priests. They failed to do so.

April 17 – 21
After addressing the Catholic Church’s failure to act responsibly in handling the sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the social context in which the scandal took place, asking, “What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?” CNN’s Lou Dobbs took issue with the pope’s words and blasted him on two occasions. After we issued a news release challenging Dobbs to either a debate or apology, he quickly changed his tune.

The following are remarks made by Dobbs on April 17:
· “The idea that the pope would come here and criticize the United States this way is, I think, first of all bad manners. I don’t care if you’re infallible [sarcastically].”

· “It is absolutely out of all proportion with the world scale. The most welcoming nation, the most generous nation on the face of the earth. And for the pope to have this attitude and to make these comments is, in my opinion, absolutely repugnant.”

· “It seems to me that if one is going to reach to the level that he did, you have to have some moral standing for it. And what has been happening to this Church…seems to leave open his standing, cleaning up his own house.”

On April 19, Dobbs bashed the pope again:

· “Well, he’s in America, partner. And you know what, when we’re in Rome, we’ll do as Rome does. But when Rome comes to America, how about a little salute and stay out of our politics.”

· “I don’t care if he listens or not, but I’m going to send him the message [of staying out of politics] because I really don’t appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do.”

Following Dobbs’ outburst, we demanded that he either apologize or invite Bill Donohue for a debate. Although he did neither, our pressure got to him. During his CNN show, on April 21, Dobbs hosted a discussion about Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the U.S. Unlike previous nights, his panelists showed nothing but respect for the pope; Robert Zimmerman and Ed Rollins were particularly fair. But the biggest surprise came from Dobbs. The following is an excerpt from the discussion:

Rollins: “I thought the pope saying illegals should be treated in a humane way is not saying that they should stay here. I think he’s basically saying you shouldn’t mistreat them when they are here. Send them home, but don’t mistreat them.”

Dobbs: “You know, I could sign on with that….We’re going to have to take this all in. I like Pope Benedict XVI, is what [the conversation] just taught me here….By the way, I can close this out with one thing. He [the pope] changed the minds of a lot of priests around the country I believe.”

To his credit, Dobbs pivoted away from his previous remarks about the pope and conducted himself in a most professional matter. What cannot be picked up from the transcript was the sincerity of his comments. In doing so, he put to rest any concerns we had.

May 4
On MSNBC’s “The McLaughlin Group,” panelists Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift were discussing the Obama/Wright controversy. After Buchanan questioned how Obama did not know about Wright’s beliefs “when he [Obama] knew him 20 years,” Clift responded, “Because you didn’t know what the priests in your church were doing all those years you sat in the pews.” So instead of pointing out a few miscreant priests, Clift decided to make a sweeping generalization of the 40,000-plus priests as molesters. This was an unqualified and unprovoked attack on the Catholic Church.

May 14
On the ABC program “Boston Legal,” David E. Kelley, the show’s creator, once again displayed his hatred for Catholicism. The episode focused on the plight of an oppressed woman—she was being oppressed by the Catholic Church. The woman desired to be a priest and she sued the Catholic Church for discrimination. The same clergy strictures apply to Orthodox Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and Orthodox Christianity; why didn’t Kelley go after them? The answer is simple: those religions don’t count; it is the Catholic Church that Kelley sets out to attack.

There were other lies that were perpetuated in the episode. For example, lies were told about the Catholic Church’s alleged support for slavery, the execution of witches and the Inquisition. [Note: It was the Catholic Church—not any other religion—which first opposed slavery and for the most part, it was the civil authorities, not the Church, who punished witches and were responsible for the Inquisition.] At the end of the show the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status was revoked.

June 22
PBS aired the documentary “Tal Como Somos” to educate on the experiences of homosexual, bisexual or transgendered Latinos and the difficulties they face. The following is a part of a discussion by a gay couple:

“My foundation is Catholicism….I grew up like most Catholics, and I’ll dare say this, most Catholics grow Catholic by tradition, not by faith….Being gay and Catholic. Wow….Before I came out it was a big issue for me because I’ve always identified myself as very Catholic due to my parents’ upbringing, of course, and of course being something that’s not accepted by the religion or the Church but yet my conflict was, wait a minute, God loves me for who I am but yet I’m not accepted in the Church. I realize that if I am consciously going to a place where I’m not accepted and I am being stigmatized…why would I want to part of that group? It’s the same thing as me going to the KKK and saying, ‘You know, I’m a gay Mexican but I want to be part of the KKK although they hate me,’ I wouldn’t want it.”

July 7
On the E! Television show, “Chelsea Lately,” host Chelsea Handler commented on actress Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend, Raffaelo Follieri, who had been arrested for fraud. Handler made the following comment regarding his claim that he was the chief banker of the Vatican: “Anne Hathaway has broken up with her Italian boyfriend who is—he’s been arrested now on 12 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, and was accused of telling an investor that he had been appointed as the chief financial officer of the Vatican. First of all, you cannot mess with the Vatican. That’s like the Oprah of Italy, okay? We’ve seen what the Vatican does to the boys they don’t like or they do like, sorry. Sorry, screwed that up. Let’s just start over. Just kidding, go ahead.”

July 15 & 16
The Cartoon Network re-aired two episodes of its Adult Swim program “Robot Chicken.” The episodes in question, “Tapping a Hero” and “Celebutard Mountain,” mocked the life of Jesus.

“Tapping a Hero” features a sketch based on the movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” It is replaced with a trailer for the “33-Year-Old Virgin.” The parody focuses on the life of Jesus as a virgin and how He loses His virginity to Mary (Magdalene). The final scene shows the two of them laying in bed and Mary saying, “It looks like you’re ready for a second coming.”

“Celebutard Mountain” features a sketch based on the CW show “Everybody Hates Chris,”; the spoof is called “Everybody Hates Christ.” In the parody, Christ is scourged, crucified and ridiculed in a slapstick manner as a laugh track plays in the background.

July 18
Comedy Central re-aired a special featuring comedian Stephen Lynch. In the special Lynch sings a song named “Craig Christ,” in which he sings about himself as the sexually promiscuous brother of Jesus. In the song, Lynch also mocks Jesus and accuses Him and His Apostles of being homosexuals.

July 24
Comedy Central re-aired a “South Park” episode titled “Bloody Mary.” The particular episode centers on a statue of the Virgin Mary “bleeding out her ass” and spraying people with the blood. In December of 2005, an executive vice president at Comedy Central told the Catholic League that there were no plans for the cable channel to re-air “Bloody Mary.”

July 25
Comedy Central re-aired “Comedy Central Presents Ted Alexandro,” in which the comedian attacked the Catholic Church over the sex abuse scandal. Here is an excerpt of what he said:

“The pope was dying, Michael Jackson on trial. Tough times for the pedophilia industry, huh? Yeah. When it rains it pours. I think Michael Jackson gets too much press though, ‘cause he’s one guy. The Catholic Church is like the Microsoft of pedophilia, like giants in the industry…. Jesus juice, that was brilliant. You know priests had to be like, damn, why didn’t we think of that? It was right in front of us the whole time!”

July 28
“Late Night with Conan O’Brien” ran a skit that featured two foul-mouthed priests that were portrayed as fools. At the end of the skit, it was implied that Mary’s relationship with God was sexual. While most of the skit bordered on the objectionable, the way it concluded pushed it over the line.

We wrote to the show’s executive producer, Jeff Ross, and voiced our objection to the portrayal of the Blessed Virgin. We noted that it is a central tenet of the Catholic faith that Mary became pregnant by an act of God and that she remained a virgin.

August 8
Comedy Central aired an episode of “The Gong Show” that featured a duo, the Vava Sisters, who performed a “Stigmata Striptease.” The duo wore Catholic schoolgirl uniforms, carried Bibles and had the stigmata; they also took each other’s clothes off and fed each other a Communion Host.

October 8
On the Fox program “Bones,” the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation was ridiculed. The show, which features a female forensic specialist, Temperance “Bones” Brennan, and a male FBI agent, Seeley Booth, began with an exchange regarding a female Protestant minister who was reported missing.

The following is how the conversation went:

Booth: “She’s a pastor. Yeah. Looks like one of those grassroots community churches.”
Bones: “Huh. She was preparing for a sermon.”
Booth: “A pastor with augmentation and veneers.”
Bones: “So?”
Booth: “A spiritual leader shouldn’t be so vain.”
Bones: “The pope sits on a throne. He wears robes worth hundreds of dollars. Isn’t that vanity?
Booth: “Oh really? You’re going after the pope now?”
Bones: “One pastor gets her teeth whitened, and the other drinks wine on Sunday mornings and tells everyone that it’s been miraculously transformed into blood. Which of those is more outlandish?”

We issued a news release the following day and said:

“It does not matter that non-Catholics may not accept what happens at Mass. What matters is that they show respect. And to just throw this line in while the opening credits are running—about a minister, no less—shows how mean-spirited the writers are. If only they thought of Catholics as if they were an indigenous people, we’d be fine.”

October 19
On the Fox program, “Family Guy,” characters Brian (a dog) and Stewie (a baby) traveled back in time to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish friend) from the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Brian and Stewie dress Mort up as a priest to sneak him out of the country, a Nazi officer asks Mort, “Are you sure you’re a real priest?” Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.”

October 21
On the FX program, “The Shield,” a Catholic priest was portrayed as someone who allowed gang members to deal drugs under his watch, clipping a share of the profits for himself.

In another scene, the priest is accused of being a child molester. At this, the priest explodes, stating, “Just because some sick perverts decide to live out their fantasies through the collar doesn’t mean that every priest is a gay pedophile.” The confrontation continues and the priest admits to fathering a child with the gang leader’s sister.
November 2
“The Simpsons” aired its annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode and mocked Catholicism in the process. In the episode, the character Millhouse makes a declaration of faith to the “Grand Pumpkin” which was based on the Apostles’ Creed:

“I believe in the Grand Pumpkin, almighty gourd, who was crustified over Pontius pie plate and ascended into oven. He will come again to judge the filling and the bread.”

November 14
On the season finale of the HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the bigoted comedian said the following of Father Jay Scott Newman, a South Carolina priest:

“A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his congregation: If you voted for Obama you can’t receive Communion. That’s right. The cracker won’t let you get the cracker. He said supporting Obama constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil. Then he proceeds to pass around the plate so everyone could chip in to payoff the child f***ing lawsuits.” (Note: Newman did not say what Maher attributed to him)

January 4
La Grange, KY – A divorced-atheist father sued to keep his son from attending Catholic high school next year. Following the divorce, the child was ordered by a judge to remain in the Catholic school he was already attending. The father sued on the grounds that the Catholic high school would indoctrinate his son with religious convictions that he did not share.

January 20
Ridgewood, NJ – A gold-plated chalice was stolen from a safe at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

January 25
Arlington, TX – A crown, veil, and New Testament were stolen from a Greek Orthodox bishop’s car.

January 25
Detroit, MI – A bronze statue of an angel was stolen from Assumption Grotto Catholic Church. The statue was valued at over $700.

February 9
Levittown, PA – Vandals smashed statues, spray-painted a penis and the words “God is dead,” and left a fake pipe bomb outside St. Michael the Archangel Church. Vandals also defaced a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the same town.

February 10
Emmitsburg, MD – Two men vandalized the shrine at Mount St. Mary’s University. The men smashed glass and candles, removed a crucifix and threw it into a creek, and set fire to papers on the altar. The total damage was estimated at $1,500.

March 2
The Catholic League celebrated the 69th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII by submitting a petition for the late pontiff’s beatification.

The league along with the Society of Catholic Social Scientists amassed a “Petition to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Beatification of Pope Pius XII,” which garnered over 9,000 signatures in three months. The petition read:

“With profound respect and sincere devotion, We, the undersigned, humbly request that the cause for the beatification of Pope Pius XII proceed without delay. Pius XII’s virtuous life speaks for itself and is supported by an abundance of incontestable documentary evidence. The truth regarding his service to the Church and the World, as a diplomat and during his pontificate, prior to and through the World War II period, is also historically established. He has been the victim of an unjust smear campaign for fifty years. Now, however, overwhelming evidence has been amassed that proves beyond doubt that he labored without pause for peace, that he sought to assist in every way possible the victims of war, especially Jews, hundreds of thousands of whom were spared through his efforts, and that he constantly warned the world of the horrors of Nazism and Communism. We urge that you honor this holy and brave Pontiff at the soonest possible date.”

It is our hope that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI heeds our request and beatifies Pius XII.

March 9
Centerport, NY – A bishop’s cross was stolen from a drawer in Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church.

March 10
Pictures surfaced, on a picture-hosting website, of three Mormon missionaries mocking Catholicism at the Sangre de Cristo Catholic Church in San Luis, Colorado. The pictures were originally taken in 2006. In the photos the missionaries preached the Book of Mormon from a Catholic altar, held the head of a broken statue, and pretended to sacrifice each other on the altar. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed disappointment and apologized for these actions.

March 14
South Miami-Dade, FL – Two teenagers set fire to St. Catherine of Siena Church and caused over $1 million in damage.

March 16, 23 & July 4
Houston, TX – On Palm Sunday, a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was damaged outside of All Saints Church. The statue was put in place in 1945 to honor veterans of World War II. A week later, on Easter Sunday, a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was placed on its head and streaked with black paint. The vandals also spray-painted the words “Don’t let them worship idols. You are warned.” On Independence Day, the replacement statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was vandalized and defaced.

March 21
Gardner, MA – Seven churches and a school were defaced with anti-Christian graffiti on Good Friday. Statements such as “Jesus is dead,” and “Jesus never rose again,” were spray-painted on the sides of various churches. The man responsible for the vandalism turned himself in a few days later.

April 6
Harvard, IL – Statues of Jesus and St. Joseph were decapitated, while the face of a Blessed Virgin statue was damaged at St. Joseph Church. The vandal was arrested and was forced to pay the church over $7,000 for the damages.

April 21
Effingham, KS – Arsonists set fire to St. Ann’s Catholic Church, destroying the 111-year-old building.

April 23
West Hempstead, NY – A homeless man broke into St. Thomas the Apostle Church and stole money out of two poor boxes before being found in a church stairwell.

May 1
Naperville, IL – A white plaster statue of the Blessed Virgin was stolen from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. The statue was valued at $700.

May 20
Laconia, NH – A vandal set at least three fires to several altars at Sacred Heart Church. Along with the fires, the vandal tore pages from an altar prayer book.

May 30
West Jordan, UT – Arsonists threw a burning soda can full of gasoline through a window of St. Joseph the Worker Church. The fire caused damage to the curtains of the church.

June 13
Sauk City, WI – A Virgin Mary statue was stolen from St. Aloysius Catholic Church along with a processional torch and a prayer book. On June 28, the statue was found in a cemetery.

June 19
Germantown, TN – A statue of the Virgin Mary was decapitated at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. A smaller statue of the Infant Jesus was vandalized as well.

June 23
Southington, CT – Two teenagers were arrested for desecrating the St. Aloysius Catholic Church. The two teens spray-painted satanic symbols, swastikas and obscene language. They were charged with desecration of property, a hate crime, criminal mischief and breach of peace.

August 15
West Warwick, RI – A teenager was arrested and charged with stealing up to $50,000 from Sts. John and James Catholic Church.

August 25
Naperville, IL – A man broke into Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church and pushed over a statue of Jesus; the statue’s head broke off as a result of the fall. The statue was valued at $4,000.

September 9 & 15
Detroit, MI – Thieves stole a brass chandelier that dated back to the 1800s, several religious icons and the tabernacle from Most Holy Trinity Church. A few days later, vandals broke into St. John Neumann Church and stole items from there.

September 24
Philadelphia, PA — A bronze angel statue was stolen from the National Padre Pio Centre. The bronze statue was cast in the 1930s and had an estimated value of $60,000.

September 26
Pittsburgh, PA – A nun in her 60s was assaulted by another woman. The woman grabbed the nun by the throat, dragged her along the sidewalk, threw the nun against a fence and repeatedly punched her in the head. The woman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

October 3
Ojai, CA – Paint was tossed on an antique marble statue of St. Thomas of Villanova at Villanova Preparatory School. Nine teenagers were arrested in connection with the vandalism.

November 1
Berlin, NH – A number of items were stolen and both the sanctuary and sound system were damaged at St. Anne’s Church. The estimated damage was between $15,000 and $20,000.

November 2
Deming, NM – Nothing was stolen, but a statue of the Blessed Mother was smashed, a picture of The Last Supper was damaged and eggs were spread across the floor at Holy Family Church and Fruit of the Vine Preschool.

November 8
Jensen Beach, FL – A man attempted to take a handful of Communion wafers from a priest before parishioners stopped him.

November 9
Berwyn, IL – Two guitars worth $3,500 were stolen from St. Leonard’s Church.

November 9
Edwardsville, IL – A burglar broke into St. Boniface Catholic Church in between services and stole $16,000 in cash and checks.

November 14
Newport Beach, CA – A bronze statue of the Blessed Virgin was stolen from Our Lady Queen of Angels Church. The statue was valued at $30,000.

November 15
Hialeah, FL – A tabernacle containing the Eucharist was stolen from St. John’s Catholic Church. The jeweled tabernacle was valued at $8,000.

November 15
Kenner, LA – A chalice and safe were taken from the Nativity of Our Lord Church. The chalice, which the parish priest received from his family for his ordination, was valued at $3,000 and the safe in which it was kept was valued at $2,000.

November 23
Taunton, MA – Vandals shot BB pellets through the windows of two vans owned by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The windows were all damaged and had to be replaced.

November 30
Jasper, AL – A gasoline bomb was thrown against the front door of St. Cecilia Catholic Church leaving damage to the church.

December 2
Washington, DC – The brass crucifix in the chapel at Washington Hospital Center was stolen.

December 4
Greenwood, MS – Vandals damaged a prayer box and broke stained-glass church windows at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.

December 7
Washington, DC – A thief stole $125 from a safe at St. Peter’s Church prior to Mass.

December 12
Sacramento, CA – A picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe was stolen from the altar after a service honoring the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

December 21
Bentleyville, PA – A statue of Jesus was spray-painted in a cemetery at Ave Maria Catholic Church.

December 25
Virginia Beach, VA – Following the last Christmas Mass, the rectory of Star of the Sea Catholic Church was broken into, leaving the priest’s car, laptop, DVD player, and even his vestments missing.

Rather than focusing on the positive message that Pope Benedict XVI conveyed at the World Youth Day celebration in Australia, cartoonist Simanca Osmani took a shot at the Holy Father for rejecting the culture of consumerism. (Simanca Osmani, Erie Times-News, July 24)

This cartoon was in response to Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann’s request that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius not present herself for Communion due to her pro-abortion stance. Naumann’s request was due to Sebelius’ rejection of Church teaching on abortion and not for any other reason, as the cartoon indicates. (Lee Judge, Kansas City Star, May 24)

This cartoon inaccurately portrays Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino as a sort of dictatorial figure because he advocates denying Communion to any politician who supports abortion rights. (John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune, December 3)

Brian Fairrington, a nationally syndicated cartoonist, took St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to blast the Catholic Church. This cartoon misrepresents Church teaching and implies that sex abuse was not a sin until recently. (Brian Fairrington, The Macon Telegraph, March 18)

Bob Englehart took a shot at Connecticut’s Catholic Bishops for urging Catholics to vote “yes” on Question 1 in the state’s election—the initiative called for a Constitutional Convention to be held. The bishops advocated this due to the state’s Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage. (Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant, October 26)

Cartoonist Tony Auth, no stranger to anti-Catholic bigotry, drew the above cartoon depicting the Catholic Church as being built upon a foundation of deceit. The cartoon also shows the clergy hiding behind the sex abuse scandal rather than dealing with it. (Tony Auth, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 21)