There are many ways of writing an annual report: some organizations list a few major accomplishments, while others provide a tally of incidents or events. We don’t quantify—it’s not easy to do so with qualitative data— but we do offer a descriptive account of the challenges that Catholicism faced in the previous year. Our goal, of course, is to track and combat anti-Catholicism. We don’t win every battle, but we do win our fair share of them. Importantly, we don’t shy away from entering the fray.

There are many good Catholic organizations that serve a host of worthy causes. However, they cannot do their job well in a hostile environment. We don’t expect these groups to spend their day fending off the bullies—they must do what they do best, which is to serve students, the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the lonely and others. The job of fighting the Catholic Church’s adversaries belongs to us.

Our success, to the extent we’ve achieved it, is the result of much hard work. Vice President Bernadette Brady has been effectively running the Catholic League since 1995; I came on board two years earlier. We have five other veterans: Alex Mejia, Tom Arkin, Mary Ellen Kiely, Suzon Loreto and Jeff Field. Mario Pacheco finished his first year with us, and in 2011 we picked up Don Lauer, Dolores Varley and Marcus Plieninger. Whether they work in the policy department or in the processing department, they all have important jobs. That they do their jobs so well is a blessing.

An annual report is not designed to be read cover-to-cover; it is a reference tool. But you may want to keep it handy if you encounter someone who thinks anti-Catholicism is a relic of the past. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Fortunately, we are making strides toward that end. Our agenda is to bring about its demise, and we won’t rest until we do so.

                                                               William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

President

When 2011 began, we did not expect that we would spend a disproportionate amount of time addressing attacks on the Catholic Church stemming from charges of clergy sexual abuse. But we did. Consider how this unfolded.

At the beginning of 2002, the Boston Globe published a series of articles on priestly sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. This led the bishops to pass a charter in June of that year that spelled out the reforms. The years that followed were predictably tough, but then everything settled down. There was evidence in 2010 that this issue was resurfacing, but it was not until 2011 that things began to boil again.

Like many Catholics, we were aghast at the revelations that emerged in 2002. Indeed, I was quoted in the New York Times saying, “I am not the church’s water boy. I am not here to defend the indefensible.” Moreover, we applauded the Boston Globe for reporting on rogue priests. Yet in 2011, we were highly critical of the media, including the Globe. What changed?

In a nutshell, what changed was this: in 2011, unlike what happened in 2002, virtually all the stories were about accusations against priests dating back decades, sometimes as long as a half-century ago. Keep in mind that not only were most of these priests old and infirm, many were dead; thus, only one side of the story could be told. Adding to our anger was the fact that no other institution, religious or secular, was being targeted for old allegations.

I refer to these events as Scandal I and Scandal II: the first was internal, the result of indefensible decisions by the clergy that led to the abuse scandal; the second was external, the result of indefensible cherry-picking of old cases by lawyers, victims’ groups and the media.

In 2011, it seemed as if “repressed memories” surfaced with alacrity, but only among those who claimed they were abused by a priest. That there was no similar explosion of “repressed memories” on the part of those who were molested by ministers, rabbis, teachers, psychologists, athletic coaches, and others, made us wonder what was going on. Nothing has happened since to shake our skepticism.

What accounts for the new wave of lawsuits and attacks on the Catholic Church? That’s not hard to figure out. Quite frankly, there are so few plausible cases of abuse these days that only by trotting out old cases can the game clock keep moving. As has been well documented, the scandal peaked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s, the years of the sexual revolution (AIDS effectively put an end to it when it was uncovered in 1981). Additionally, the reforms that have taken place in the last decade have also led to a sharp decline in cases. This would seem to make the issue moot, yet it hasn’t gone away.

Quite frankly, there are those who are motivated by revenge, not justice, and for them the best way to continue the scandal is to resurrect old cases of alleged abuse. This cannot happen unless state legislatures suspend the statute of limitations for such offenses. And this is exactly what these activists and attorneys have been doing—finding sympathetic lawmakers to introduce new legislation.

By going to state legislatures looking to suspend the statute of limitations, lawyers bent on “getting the priests” can keep the clock ticking. It must be said that when these changes in law are sought, no one seeks to blanket public institutions. In other words, the public school establishment has no skin in this game, even though most of the abuse takes place in the public schools. That’s another reason why Scandal II is so different from the initial scandal—it’s intellectually dishonest.

The Catholic League did a lot more than protest Scandal II: we took out full-page ads in newspapers exposing the players. For instance, on April 11 the New York Times published an ad I had written that addressed the issue of the sexual abuse of minors forthrightly; it was chock full of information and data on the subject that the average reader was not likely to know. The response to the ad, ranging from bishops to the laity, was so encouraging that a Catholic League member from the Chicago area stepped forward to pay for the same statement to run on April 17 in the Chicago Tribune. The word was out—Scandal II was contrived.

One of the most notorious Church-suing lawyers in the nation is Jeffrey Anderson, a man who has made hundreds of millions bilking the Church. Ever since Cardinal Timothy Dolan was the archbishop of Milwaukee, the Minnesota-based Anderson has had a particular hatred of the New York archbishop. We responded to Anderson’s attacks on March 13 with an ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Jeffrey Anderson’s Vendetta.”

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia was also in the hot seat in 2011. It had previously been the subject of grand juries, processes that served only to smear the Church—they led to no indictments—so when another was convened, we knew what would happen.

By singling out the Philadelphia archdiocese again in 2011, it was a sure bet that it would garner plenty of negative media coverage. Of course, old accusations made against priests are hard to prove, but at the end of the day they had already been convicted in the mind of the public.

Voice of the Faithful is a loose band of aging and bitter Catholics with little money and even less clout. The Philadelphia branch came out of retirement to “survey” the 900-plus priests in the archdiocese, asking loaded questions designed to force them to either agree with Voice or to be painted as insensitive. But the activists weren’t counting on the Catholic League to throw a monkey wrench into their plan: we wrote to all the priests encouraging them to ignore the survey. They did. Thus, the entire caper proved to be an utter failure.

Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Rigali resigned in 2011; he was replaced by Archbishop Charles Chaput from Denver. We knew that the forces which had worked against Rigali would continue their attacks on Chaput, so we were ready for the fight. What we did not count on, however, was an unusually vicious attack on the archdiocese in the pages of Rolling Stone, the pop music magazine. I wrote a long article rebutting the smears, attempting to set the record straight. It’s a disgrace that Rolling Stone would publish such an ignorant rant.

In the spring, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released its report on the “Causes and Consequences” of priestly sexual abuse. We took a balanced view of it, praising the report when it merited such a response, and questioning its logic when it deserved criticism. We did not raise questions about its data collection, but we did point out serious omissions.

Most important, we called attention to the report’s conclusions that were not supported by its own data. In particular, we showed how inventive the authors were in skirting the obvious: because homosexual practices were involved in most of the abuse allegations, it appeared obvious that homosexual priests did most of the damage. But to say this requires courage in our society today, and the John Jay authors were sorely lacking in this quality.

I responded to the John Jay study with a report of my own; it was sent to all the bishops, as well as to many in the media. No one issued a rational rebuttal. Yes, it was greeted with the usual cat-calls and other irrational comments, but no one published a professional rejoinder. When something like this happens, it says a great deal about the motives of those who simply resort to vitriol.

One of the prime movers and shakers in the war on the Catholic Church is the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). At one time, there was reason to believe that SNAP was genuinely concerned about the plight of victims. But it has become increasingly evident that its real goal is to discredit the moral authority of the Catholic Church. In short, it wants to “get the priests.” Here’s the proof.

When I learned that SNAP was planning a conference just outside of Washington, D.C. in July, I arranged for two trusted sources to attend, and to report back. What they witnessed was a weekend of unrelieved hostility directed at the Catholic Church. The Church was not an organization that had made some serious mistakes—it was an “evil institution.” Miscreant priests were not seen as wayward souls; they were cast as part-and-parcel of a systematic abuse of power, all emanating from Rome. This kind of paranoia went unchallenged for days.

The good news is that the report I wrote, which was based on the information provided to me by our confederates, also went unchallenged. In other words, none of the participants at this Church-bashing conference disputed a single statement from the report, SNAP Exposed.

Toward the end of the year, SNAP and its lawyer friends took aim at Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn. This time they were joined at the hip by the Kansas City Star, a newspaper with a history of treating the Catholic Church unfairly. At the turn of the millennium, the Star conducted a wholly unscientific survey of priests looking to see how many had contracted AIDS; no other segment of the population was “surveyed.” When the results proved disconcerting to them, they were not too happy. Now they were back looking to take down the local bishop.

What got the anti-Finn crowd going was the revelation that a priest in the diocese had taken some inappropriate pictures of girls. (It must be noted that it was the diocese that went public with the information—otherwise no one would have known about it.) Although none of the pictures were pornographic, they were disturbing. When the priest learned that his superiors were on to his sick habit, he attempted suicide. After receiving therapy, he was placed under restrictions. When he violated those strictures, the diocese called the police and asked for an independent investigation.

SNAP went ballistic. But the real news was the role played by the Star: it sought to clobber Bishop Finn. There was scant evidence that the bishop had done anything illegal, and indeed he was not under any legal mandate to report the offending priest to the authorities. Moreover, there was no complainant. But this didn’t matter to those who saw an opening, and after a rush of negative publicity, local county prosecutors took aim at Finn.

The Star was so thoroughly biased in its reporting that we decided to inform the Kansas City community of what really happened: we sought to take out a full-page ad exposing the SNAP-driven crusade against Bishop Finn. Though initially we were told that our ad would run, we were turned down at the last minute. There was no explanation. This was unprecedented—never have we had one of ads turned down before by any newspaper. What made this so striking was the precarious financial condition of the Star; it laid off over 1,000 employees in the last ten years. That it turned down $25,000 tells us how desperately it wanted to keep the public in the dark about SNAP’s real agenda.

This didn’t stop us. If anything, it emboldened us. We had the ad published in the Northeast News, a weekly suburban newspaper, and we posted it on our website. We didn’t stop there: we sent copies of the ad that the Star did not want the people of Kansas City to read to every Catholic parish, Protestant church, synagogue, mosque, school, civic association and college in the area. We also hit over 150 local businesses, including the Chamber of Commerce, every major government official, and an array of bars, barbers shops and beauty salons.

In November, the Catholic League held a press conference outside the headquarters of the Star. Four of us traveled to Kansas City to make the point that Bishop Finn was unjustly being attacked by SNAP, and the Star was covering for them. We also wanted to gin up support for Finn, which clearly we did. When we were finished, few in Kansas City were unaware of how thoroughly politicized SNAP is, and how ideologically tainted the Star is.

We were busy on other fronts as well in 2011. Government, at all levels, created some problems for us, though the most serious offenses took place at the federal level. The refusal of the Obama administration to defend the Defense of Marriage Act was a shot across the bow at people of faith, not just Catholics. Where the Catholic bishops felt the pinch the most was in their dealings with Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services; she has had more run-ins with the Catholic hierarchy than any Catholic public servant alive today.

Things came to a head when the administration’s “Obamacare” legislation was being considered for implementation. Yes, there was a religious exemption, but it was functionally meaningless: in order not to provide sterilization and contraceptive services (including abortifacients), Catholic institutions had to employ and service mostly Catholics. Of course, one of the great strengths of the Catholic Church historically has been its record of not discriminating against people on the basis of religion. But now this asset was being treated as a liability.

The Catholic community was astounded when it learned that a program that the bishops’ conference had been running for years—an outreach program to the victims of human trafficking—was not going to receive its usual funding. As it turned out, the process was rigged: even though the proposal submitted by the bishops scored highly in an internal review of applications, it was rejected because the Church does not see abortion as a legitimate way to “help” women in need. The animus against Catholicism was palpable.

Sexual politics was at work in the states, as well. Because the Catholic Church does not accept homosexuals in its adoptive and foster care programs, states like Illinois followed the lead of Massachusetts in denying Catholic agencies funding. So much for all the talk about diversity, tolerance, religious liberty, and conscience rights; it came to a screeching halt when the interests of the gay lobby were in play.

At the local level, New York City Michael Bloomberg showed how contemptuous he is of religious rights when he summarily denied the right of the clergy to speak at the 9/11 commemorative events. His gag order had nothing to do with fidelity to the First Amendment—it had everything to do with his secular orientation and hostility to the public expression of religion.

Celebrities always get into the act by taking cheap shots at the Catholic Church, and 2011 was no exception. Jay Leno continued his tirade against priests, though he pulled back noticeably when we did a mass mailing to all the top officials at NBC detailing his sordid history. Lady Gaga showed her ugly side several times, and another “raised Catholic” superstar, Susan Sarandon, showed what she is made of when she took a low blow at the pope. Even after Sarandon was denounced by the Catholic League and the ADL for calling the pope a “Nazi,” she refused to apologize (I specifically did not ask for one, knowing full well that she meant it—she repeated the slur a second time at a tony Hamptons event).

Fortunately, the proverbial “War on Christmas” was less intense in 2011 than we’ve seen in many years. Not only were there less untoward acts of vandalism reported in 2011, there were many signs that Christians have had it. Christmas celebrations that had previously been banned resurfaced; nativity scenes that hadn’t been erected on public property in years were displayed again; and obstinate local officials who sided with the radical secularists were the object of protests.

Fighting anti-Catholicism yields uneven results. In 2011, we made progress combating bigotry in the media, but we had less success fighting the onslaught of attacks emanating from government. The battle against the “get the priests” crowd of lawyers, activists and reporters was mostly positive, although there were setbacks. One thing is clear: we have a lot of Catholics on our side, to say nothing of the priests who are counting on us to even the playing field.

The Catholic League is not a big organization, but there is no other entity that accomplishes so much with so little. That is something all our supporters can be proud of—it certainly energizes us.

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

President

 

January 24
Colorado Springs, CO – The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed a lawsuit against the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) because they scheduled a prayer luncheon on February 10. The Superintendent of the USAFA, Lt. Gen. Michael C. Gould, invited 1st Lt. Clebe McClary, a committed evangelical, to be the guest speaker. MRFF sought to silence him because of his religious views. Along with MRFF was a USAFA economics professor, David Mullin, who claimed that his attendance at the luncheon was mandatory, and would face reprisal if he chose not to attend. The judge who ruled on this case showed that the event was voluntary. Moreover, Mullen testified that he never suffered retribution when he decided not to go to previous prayer luncheons. Bill Donohue answered this by publicly applauding Gould for standing by his decision to welcome McClary.

February 14
Church-suing attorney Jeffrey Anderson accused former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan (now the archbishop of New York) of moving $75 million to the parishes in 2004. Dolan did so because the money was held as an investment account for the parishes and was returned to them.

Anderson also wanted to know why $55 million was moved to a cemetery trust in 2008, a year after a Wisconsin court said victims could sue for fraud. In reality, the cemetery transfer took place in 2007, and was entirely consistent with previous practices: the cemetery trust existed, de facto, since the early 1900s and was not formalized until 2007.

Assisting Anderson was Los Angeles lawyer Gillian Brown. On February 11, she got so out of hand in her rambling attacks that presiding Assistant U.S. Trustee, David Asbach, had to put the arm on her. Brown also asked about the monetary value of the bishops’ rings and crosses.

March 2
We issued a press release demonstrating that the pro-abortion community was lashing out due to fear of legislation assuring civil rights to the unborn. Below are some examples.

• Pro-abortion enthusiast Amanda Marcotte said pro-lifers want to force women back to the “sadistic punishments” of the pre-Roe days when they were allegedly forced to mutilate their own babies.

• The Feminist Majority accused pro-lifers of “domestic terrorism,” and a writer for religiondispatches.org said “state-endorsed terrorism” was at work.

• The National Organization for Women outdid everyone by engaging in rank anti-Catholic invective: it said it would be a “dream-come-true” for the bishops if women were to lose access to pap smears and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

March 2
Jeffrey Anderson said he possessed a “smoking gun” that showed that when Archbishop Dolan led the Milwaukee archdiocese before coming to New York, he and the Vatican worked in concert to “keep secrets and avoid scandal” in their handling of an abusive priest, Franklyn Becker.

However, unlike his predecessor Archbishop Weakland, Dolan moved with dispatch to get Becker out of ministry. In his letter of May 27, 2003 to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the pope), he said that all efforts to rehabilitate Becker were a failure, and that “it is clear that he will never be able to assume public ministry” (Becker had just been arrested in California for crimes he allegedly committed in the 1970s). Furthermore, Dolan said that if the California trial went forward, it “makes the potential for true scandal very real.”

The term “scandal” in the Catholic lexicon is very specific: it is defined as “a word or action evil in itself, which occasions another’s spiritual ruin.” In other words, once the public found out more about Becker, his misconduct would give scandal to the Church by causing the faithful to question their faith. For that reason, and for his past record, Dolan said he wanted him out of the priesthood. Anderson knows his way around Catholic circles and knows full well what Dolan meant, yet he chose the more conventional understanding of the word “scandal” to condemn him.

March 7
Sacramento, CA – Atheist activist Michael Newdow was denied certiorari in his fight to excise “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. He had been trying unsuccessfully for years.

March 28
An editorial in the Seattle Times said that 37 priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese were allowed to continue in ministry despite a finding of sexual misconduct by a grand jury. But the grand jury did not find anyone guilty. Moreover, all of the accused were initially investigated and 24 were suspended on a second look; most of the others were found innocent or had left ministry. 

March 28
Archbishop Dolan was condemned by the National Survivor Advocates Coalition for allegedly engaging in a “shell game.” A website run by activists, BishopAccountability.org, took aim at the Bridgeport archdiocese for not listing the names of “accused priests”— not “credibly accused priests.”

The National Catholic Reporter also ripped into Archbishop Dolan for his remarks on “60 Minutes.” Dolan correctly said that the scandal is “over with”—most of the abuse took place between the mid-60s and the mid-80s (recent stories are about decades-old cases)—and for this he was treated with scorn by Jamie L. Manson. Unhappy with the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics, she spoke derisively and disrespectfully of the archbishop.

April 7
Daniel Neill’s family sued the Philadelphia archdiocese, blaming it for his suicide.

In 1980, Daniel Neill accused Rev. Joseph J. Gallagher of fondling him when he was an altar boy at St. Mark’s in Bristol, PA. His accusation was not deemed credible by the principal of the school. The case was dismissed. The boy’s parents did not sue the school. The case was dismissed again in 2007, when Neill, knowing that a grand jury had been impaneled to look into old cases, decided to report his alleged abuse to the Philadelphia Archdiocese. Since the investigators could not substantiate an uncorroborated accusation of an alleged act of abuse that occurred 27 years earlier, they dismissed the case. In July 2008, Neill was notified of the decision. In June 2009, he killed himself.

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson represented Neill’s family. He supported their case on the grand jury report which held that the investigators should have deemed Neill’s claims credible, but offered no evidence to support its position.

The grand jury report said falsely that Neill’s account was based on “the corroboration of other witnesses.” In fact, there was no corroboration by anyone. While the report said there were a few altar boys who said that they, like Neill, had discussed masturbation in the confessional, “none of them said they were molested by Father Gallagher.” More important, the report never said that even one of these friends was witness to—or even heard about—the alleged abuse. And indeed the only person Neill said he discussed his travails with at the time was the priest’s sister, who was mentally handicapped

April 13
Jeffrey Anderson accused Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, of knowing about the conduct of a Wisconsin priest, Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who allegedly abused Anderson’s client in 1960. The lawsuit, filed in 2010, was procedurally defective and therefore went nowhere. In 2011, the proper channels were pursued, but the end result was the same.

The fact is that the Vatican was never notified of Murphy’s behavior, which involved many boys extending back to the 1950s, until 1996. The Vatican could have ignored the case, maintaining that the statute of limitations had expired, but instead ordered a trial. The judge in the trial, Father Thomas Brundage, testified that Ratzinger’s name never came up during the proceedings. The trial was called off once it became clear that Murphy was near death; he died soon after.

April 25
Voice of the Faithful, a dissident Catholic group, sent a letter to the 900-plus priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia asking them to agree with its position that Pennsylvania lawmakers should abolish the statute of limitations for sexual abuse, opening a two-year window for civil suits.

The letter by Marita Green of the Steering Committee said that supporting its position is a “measure of integrity.” Included was a “survey” which asked priests whether they agreed with its stance. To top things off, it explicitly said that “the number [of postcards] that are not returned will be recorded as votes against abolishing the statute-of-limitations shield.”

Voice of the Faithful deliberately tried to engineer this “survey” so that it could go to the media “demonstrating” how few priests of “integrity” there are in the Philadelphia area.

After a priest sent us the correspondence from Voice of the Faithful, we mailed the 900-plus priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia a letter designed to short-circuit this agenda. It worked—few responded.

April 28
Planned Parenthood of Collier County, Florida hosted a Catholics for Choice workshop.

The Diocese of Venice in Florida declared that this event was “an attempt to distort Catholic teaching to advance a particular agenda that is offensive to Catholics and like-minded people of good will.”

To say, as they advertised, that “abortion can be a moral choice,” is to say that the intentional killing of innocent human life can be morally justified.

May 2
A federal appeals court overturned a previous ruling that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional. The court said that the plaintiffs did not have a right to be protected from “conduct with which they disagree.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation argued that this was unconstitutional on the premise that encouraging people to pray is against the First Amendment.

May 11
SNAP called on House Speaker John Boehner to withdraw his nomination of Father Patrick Conroy to be the 60th chaplain of the United States House of Representatives alleging that he did not call police about a previous case of sexual abuse. The charge was totally bogus, and Father Conroy became the new House Chaplain.

May 12
The National Survivors Advocates Coalition opposed the nomination of Father Patrick Conroy to be the Congressional chaplain: “This is not the time to place a member of the Oregon Province of the Jesuits in a position of privilege and influence.” The accusation was as bigoted as it was inacurrate.

May 13
Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report condemned the Holy See’s human rights record. However, it did not list a single instance of a human rights violation in 2010. Its entire entry on the Holy See smacked of bias.

May 16
The Vatican issued guidelines on how to address the issue of sexual abuse. The day before, SNAP condemned the guidelines in a press release: “To anyone unfamiliar with the church hierarchy’s long-standing secrecy surrounding child sex crimes and cover ups, these ‘guidelines’ may seem decent. To those, however, who realize that, right now, across the world, kids are being molested by priests and crimes are being concealed by bishops, these ‘guidelines’ are woefully inadequate.” The fact is that the Catholic Church has less of a problem with the issue now than any other institution. The charge was totally unfounded.

May 19
The bishops’ conference released the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on the “Causes and Context” of abuse. Two days before its release to the public, the New York Times reported that SNAP and BishopAccountability attacked the report before even seeing it. Co-director of the latter activist entity, Anne Barette Doyle, said, “There aren’t many dioceses where prosecutors have gotten involved, but in every single instance there’s a vast gap — a multiplier of two, three or four times — between the numbers of perpetrators that the prosecutors find and what the bishops released.” National director of SNAP David Clohessy said, “Predictably and conveniently, the bishops have funded a report that says what they’ve said all along, and what they wanted to hear back. Fundamentally, they’ve found that they needn’t even consider any substantive changes.” Once again these accusations were made without any supporting evidence.

June 1
The Freedom From Religion Foundation coined a “DeBaptismal Certificate” for people trying to escape religion. The radical atheist group promoted this ploy simply to offend Christians; it knew that this gambit lacked teeth.

June 2
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU of Virginia sent a letter to a Virginia school board denouncing the school’s proposed display of the Ten Commandments. They said that the school board “cannot hide the religious purpose behind this display simply by arranging other documents around the Ten Commandments.” As usual, these groups sought to nullify the historical significance of the Ten Commandments.

June
When the bishops assembled in Seattle for the USCCB conference, they grappled with the issue of clergy abuse. While some allegations were worthy of pursuit, others did not appear credible. The following cases were reported in the news in June:

• A Tennessee man claimed he was abused in the 1970s, though he and his lawyers admitted his memory was returning “a little at a time”

• A Louisiana man claimed he was abused in the 1970s, though he admitted that he “suppressed” his memories until recently

• A Texas man claimed he was abused in the 1980s but could not remember the accused priest’s name

• A convicted murderer from Pennsylvania claimed he was abused in the 1960s, though two of his own brothers didn’t believe him

• A Kansas man who initially accused a priest of wrestling with him back in the 1970s later claimed he was groped

• The Seattle archdiocese was sued by a woman who claimed she was fondled in the early 1960s at a church picnic by a man who was not a priest

• After a New York man read about the death of a priest whom he knew, he claimed he was abused by him in the 1960s

• A California priest living in a retirement home and who had never been charged with anything, was accused of abusing someone in the 1960s

• After one Ohio woman came forward claiming she was groped in the 1960s, four other women in the area claimed victim status

• A man from Pennsylvania said he was touched inappropriately in the 1970s, and even though he never contacted the police, the accused priest was permanently removed from ministry and had his job terminated at the diocese

June 15
The recently deceased Rev. Charles Murphy was the subject of a Boston Globe column by Brian McGrory. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian sued the priest twice. In both instances, Father Murphy was exonerated after an archdiocesan review board examined the charges. McGrory wrote that what Garabedian did to Father Murphy was “a disgrace.” Twice falsely accused, Father Murphy died a broken man. After The National Survivor Advocates Coalition criticized McGrory for pointing out what a travesty the Murphy case was, it concluded, “Perhaps Rev. Murphy was an innocent man, poorly treated.” Bill Donohue responded to this injustice by calling Garabedian at his office. Donohue simply asked him if he had any regrets for pressing charges against Father Murphy. The attorney responded by screaming at the top of his lungs. Indeed, he went ballistic, bellowing how he lost his case because of the archdiocese’s “kangaroo court.” Donohue asked him several times to calm down and to speak rationally, but instead he engaged in more boilerplate, making sweeping condemnations of Boston priests.

June 15
Activist attorney Michael Newdow said he would not give up in his attempt to excise “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. A judge denied Newdow’s appeal on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The words that offended Newdow were described by the judge as a “patriotic exercise, not an endorsement of religion.”

June 16
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops passed a statement on physician-assisted suicide, prompting condemnation from its opponents. For example, President of Compassion and Choices, Barbara Coombs Lee, said it “alarms us” to see the bishops “use their standing” to work against her agenda. Thus did she call into question the first amendment right of the bishops to address this issue.

June 13-17
BishopAccountability, SNAP and the National Survivor Advocates Coalition, demonstrated the extent to which their agenda threatens the constitutional rights of accused priests.

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz expressed his concerns that unscrupulous lawyers may try to plunder the bishops’ conference for making commitments on how best to handle accused priests. For merely raising this concern, SNAP urged Catholics in his diocese to stop making contributions. In May, when a case against the Louisville diocese was thrown out, SNAP lashed out at the judge for dismissing it on the basis of a technicality that happened to be nothing less than the First Amendment. BishopAccountability said that priests should be removed from ministry before an accusation is investigated. Similarly, SNAP said, “We strongly and repeatedly beg people to call authorities—police and prosecutors—with any information or suspicions no matter how small or seemingly insufficient.” 

June 22
New York City Atheists protested a newly minted street name called, “Seven in Heaven Way,” officially dedicated in Brooklyn, New York. The group said that since they believe there is no heaven or hell, the street sign offended them.

Bill Donohue responded by calling this reaction a phobia of Christianity as well as a visceral hatred of religion in general and Christianity in particular.

June 30
Founder and president of Secular Coalition for America Herb Silverman wrote an article for the Washington Post “On Faith” blog comparing Christian teachings to Islamic Sharia law. He said, “I want to keep my country secular and certainly wouldn’t want to live under any form of religious law. Surprisingly, some irrational Christians fear that unless we have actual laws opposing Sharia law we will be forced to live under it. This is far less likely than that we will be forced to live under some form of Christian law.” For anyone to compare Sharia Law to Christian tenets is scurrilous.

July 6
Santa Rosa County, FL – After much intense litigation in an ACLU suit to obtain a consent decree that would end school-sponsored religious activities, the Liberty Counsel won back constitutional freedoms for teachers, staff, students and community members. The rights re-affirmed for students included voluntary prayer, religious answers for homework, and participation in private, after-school religious programs. Among the liberties that teachers regained were the freedom to pray in school during break and during school events, to have a Bible on their desk, to wear religious jewelry, and to assign readings from the Bible when relevant. People were again free to say “God bless.”

July 8-10
SNAP held a conference in Washington, D.C. in July that was open to the public. Trusted sources of the Catholic League were there, and their findings were the basis of a report that Bill Donohue wrote, SNAP EXPOSED: Unmasking the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

This report put an end to the debate over the real motives of those involved in the victims’ lobby. SNAP, along with BishopAccountability and the lawyers they work with, are an agenda-driven movement that uses victims, real and alleged, to smear and sunder the best interests of the Catholic Church.

July 20
The Vermont chapter of the ACLU filed a lawsuit against a Vermont inn whose Catholic owners refused to host a same-sex wedding. The owners said that they do not discriminate against gays or lesbians, whom they host as well as employ. However, the owners declined to host a same-sex marriage based on their religious beliefs.

July 25
American Atheists protested the decision to move the World Trade Center cross (two steel beams that were found in the shape of a cross when the Twin Towers were leveled) from St. Peter’s Catholic Church in lower Manhattan to its new site at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. President of American Atheists David Silverman, said, “No other religions or philosophies will be honored.” He also blamed Jesus for 9/11: The Christian God “couldn’t be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name.”

July 29
A federal court in Texas dismissed the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s lawsuit claiming that Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Christian prayer rally violated the First Amendment. Judge Gray H. Miller of the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Texas said that those who disagreed with the rally did not have to attend.

July 29
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) issued a complaint about Wisconsin’s state website linking to Care Net, a faith-based group that caters to pregnant women. FFRF decried the lack of “information on abortion” and claimed that linking to a group with religious ties constituted an endorsement of religion.

July 29
BishopAccountability sent a letter to Regis College professor and Boston Review Board Chairperson Dr. Mary Jane Doherty asking her to disclose the names of priests accused in the archdiocese, all of whom were reportedly dead. On the face of it, the missive smacked of bigotry and showed nothing but contempt for the rights of accused priests.

August 4
SNAP falsely accused New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan of covering up alleged sexual misconduct. A 16-year-old girl working in a Bronx parish claimed she was inappropriately touched by an 87-year-old priest. Dolan knew nothing about it. Moreover, when Dolan did learn of the arrest, he immediately informed the cleric that he cannot function as a priest and must leave the parish until the matter is settled.

SNAP also accused Archbishop Dolan of “acting secretively” in a previous case involving Msgr. Wallace Harris. This was libelous: Dolan was the Archbishop of Milwaukee when Harris was suspended. When Cardinal Edward Egan, Dolan’s predecessor, learned of the alleged misconduct by Harris, which supposedly happened 30 years earlier, he notified the D.A.’s office.

According to SNAP, these cases also show the Church’s tolerance of pedophilia. But neither of the two cases involved pedophilia: in both instances, the alleged victims were teenagers.

August 5
The U.S. Air Force suspended a class at Vandenberg Air Force Base after complaints that it violated separation of church and state. Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Gen. Edward A. Rice, Jr., the Commander of Air Education and Training, imploring him not to yield to the grossly unfair demands of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Donohue maintained that there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution of the United States that disqualifies a presentation of St. Augustine’s “just war theory,” and related biblical references. In fact, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, as well as religious liberty. “Just war theory,” Donohue said, “is taught at state institutions all across the nation—explicitly citing Augustine’s contribution—and never has it been an issue. Moreover, biblical passages are often cited when referencing the work of Rev. Martin Luther King. Should we similarly censor them?”

Donohue concluded: “I have read the materials used in the class, and can assure you that no one—save for an anti-religious zealot—would find fault with them. I therefore urge you to stand fast against these bullies and do what is academically right and constitutionally protected: reinstate the class.”

August 18
The Vatican released documents showing that the Holy See never had any knowledge that a priest allegedly molested a young man in Oregon in 1965. The case, Doe v. Holy See, involved the late Rev. Andrew Ronan, a Servite priest, who was moved from Ireland to Chicago to Portland, Oregon; the specific lawsuit related to what allegedly happened in Portland.

Jeffrey Anderson’s 2002 lawsuit claimed that Ronan was an employee of the Vatican and that the Holy See is guilty of negligence for allowing the transfers. But the documents show that the Holy See never knew of this case until 1966 when Ronan asked to be laicized; his petition was quickly granted.

Bill Donohue responded by saying, “Anderson knew all along that this lawsuit, like so many others he has filed, would never win in court. But to him, winning is not defined by a judge; rather, it is defined in the court of public opinion. That is why he continues to cast aspersions on the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, throwing up as much mud as he can muster, hoping some will stick.”

August 24
The Charity Give Back Group (CGBG), formerly known as the Christian Values Network, is an online service that partners with more than 170,000 charities, religious and secular, enabling users to support their favorite charities when they shop on the web. Because some of the charities embrace the traditional Christian understanding of marriage, some activist organizations sought to pressure retailers not to associate with CGBG.

Bill Donohue confronted the request, promoted by gay marriage proponents, that retailers withdraw their association. He also condemned the false accusation that some of the recipients connected with CGBG were Christian “hate groups.”

September 8
Americans United for Separation of Church and State was outraged that religious groups were upset at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to ban clergy from speaking at the 9/11 tenth anniversary ceremony. The group claimed that since people of many faiths were killed on that day, it would be improper to respond with a Christian message.

We responded that a priest, rabbi, minister and imam should all have been represented at the commemoration ceremony. This would have been a positive route, but the anti-religion community did not see it that way.

September 13
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a student and the student’s parent against the Giles County, Virginia school board for “endorsing religion” by displaying the Ten Commandments. The fight for displaying the Ten Commandments in Giles County is one that has been going on since December 2010, when the FFRF first complained of the display.

September 13
SNAP, assisted by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), petitioned the International Criminal Court to prosecute Pope Benedict XVI for allegedly covering up “crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world.” CCR attorney Pam Spees claimed that “Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican.” The Catholic League responded with a letter of its own to The Hague. The letter made the point that the major goal of SNAP is to attack the Catholic Church using methods that are as unethical as they are political.

September 20
David Clohessy of SNAP gave an interview with Time magazine, in which he revealed SNAP’s goal to jail the pope: “We’re not naïve. We don’t think the Pope will be hauled off in handcuffs next week or next month. But by the same token, our long-term chances are excellent.”

September 28
Several organizations, led by Catholics for Choice, sent a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, regarding the coverage of contraception and sterilization under Obamacare.

Catholics for Choice teamed up with other anti-Catholics—many of whom have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church—to assail the bishops. What was exercising them was the determination of the bishops to denounce the anti-Catholic provisions of the Obamacare legislation: the Church leadership objected to the proposed mandate that Catholic healthcare providers offer contraceptive and sterilization services (the opt-out stipulations are functionally non-existent).

The letter was published in the National Catholic Reporter. The headline was also revealing: “What the Bishops Won’t Tell You.” In other words, the bishops were lying to Catholics.

 September 30
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference released a joint statement addressing a faux Catholic group:

“A group calling itself ‘Catholics for Marriage Equality MN’ seeks to confuse Catholics and the public about authentic Church teaching related to matters of marriage and sexuality. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) wish to make it known that this group does not speak for the Catholic Church, is not an agent or entity of the Archdiocese, MCC, or the universal Church, and has no authority to determine what does and does not constitute Christian doctrine and morality.”

As everyone knows, the term “marriage equality” is code for homosexual marriage. The Church, no surprise, is opposed to treating marriage as an alternative lifestyle. It follows, then, that a group which calls itself “Catholics for Marriage Equality” is a fraud.

It is false for same-sex marriage supporters to declare that Catholicism is somehow agnostic on this issue. It is not. There is only one teaching body in the Church, the Magisterium, and it neither recognizes nor sanctions social arrangements that compete with marriage.

October 23
The Freedom From Religion Foundation pushed the Forest Service in Montana to remove a Jesus statue from its hillside perch in the trees. The local Knights of Columbus erected the statue in the 1950s after some of its members were inspired by religious monuments during World War II while fighting in the mountains of Europe. They have maintained the statue ever since and have never been charged for public use of the land.

November 28
Catholics for Choice placed an advertisement on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Ironically, the advertisement focused exclusively on limiting the choices of Catholics: It asked President Obama to stand against the U.S. bishops by denying Catholic institutions the right to a religious exemption from healthcare services they cannot in good conscience countenance.

January
Panel discussions were held in several American cities and in Europe discussing the 2010 decision of the Smithsonian to remove a vile video from the National Portrait Gallery that the Catholic League had objected to; we did not call for it to be removed, but we did ask the Congress to reconsider funding the Smithsonian given the musuem’s sponsorship of hate speech directed at Christians. At none of these panels did anyone even mention why Christians were offended by David Wojnarowicz’s video, “A Fire in My Belly.”

At a Los Angeles town hall meeting, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough also declined to address the concerns of Christians. Instead he defended the video as a “work of art.”

At the end of January, Smithsonian officials met and discussed the fallout over the video. “Culturally sensitive exhibitions should be previewed from a diverse set of perspectives,” said the Regents Advisory Panel. In response, we pointedly asked, “If a swastika is painted on a synagogue, should those who find it endearing be consulted?”

The Smithsonian’s John W. McCarter Jr. defended the hate speech, saying of the artist, “I believe, in his mind, that [the video] was not sacrilegious.” McCarter also asked us to consider the possibility that the video “might have been very deeply religious.”

But McCarter’s subjectivism was wholly unwarranted. Wojnarowicz once branded the Catholic Church a “house of walking swastikas,” so there is no doubt about the artist’s intentions: his work was meant to offend.

January 13
New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) proudly acquired the Wojnarowicz video, “A Fire in My Belly.” While there were a number of smaller museums and galleries that featured the vile video since it appeared at the Smithsonian in 2010, none was as prominent as MoMA. 

February 26 – May 29
Oakland, CA – The Oakland Museum of Art featured an exhibit called “Contemporary Coda” that explored the Spanish conquest of California. The piece by artist Alma Lopez, “Our Lady,” showed a woman dressed in a floral bikini in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her creation was standing on a black crescent moon held up by a bare breasted female butterfly angel.

Lopez first displayed “Our Lady” in February 2001, and came under fire at the time from the Catholic League and Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe when it was shown at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

March 17 – April 17
Pawtucket, RI – The play “Paul,” based on the life of St. Paul, ran at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre. The play called into question the origins of Christianity and suggested that it was founded on a myth. The writer of the play, Howard Brenton, described it as “flawed but provocative.” It was certainly flawed.

March 25
We issued a press release based highlighting the critics’ reviews of the Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon.” The musical was written by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Below is a samplimg of the critics’ adoration of the musical:

• The New York Daily News and the New York Post both liked the part where “a giant middle finger to God” appeared.

• The Los Angeles Times chuckled over a scene featuring genital mutilation of African women, boasting the musical had “good intentions.”

• The Associated Press called the show a “pro-religion musical” and loved the “running joke” about a man who has “maggots in his scrotum.”

• Andrew Sullivan got a kick out of the part where they twisted a Mormon teaching to read, “F**k You God in The C**t” and praised the musical for its “humaneness.” He also justified the Mormon bashing by saying we should judge “Mormonism by Mormons.”

• Newsday wrote that the show “seems smitten” to “do good.”

• Ben Brantley of the New York Times was hot over the scene where there were a “few choice words for the God who let them [AIDS victims] wind up this way.”

April 1-2
Torrance, CA – The Annie Hendy play “The Catholic Girl’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity” was performed at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, a publicly-funded establishment. 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.

April 21
When “Sister Act” opened on Broadway, Charles Isherwood of the New York Times took a gratuitous shot at Catholicism, noting that “this sentimental story of a bad girl showing the good sisters how to get down has all the depth of a communion wafer, and possibly a little less bite.” This demonstrates that even when a play about nuns does not offend—we have never registered a complaint about “Sister Act”— there is no guarantee that some critics won’t find an opportunity to bash us.

April 28
New York, NY – A play at La MaMa Experimental Theater hosted the play “Holy Crap!” The play, which had been banned in Madrid, was about a man who was trying to explore “religious indoctrination, sexuality, mysticism, and pedophilia in the Church.”

May 27
Memphis, TN – Artist Jason Miller displayed his exhibit, “Corporatism: The New Religion,” at Playhouse on the Square. His work hijacked Catholic imagery, including the compositional structure of the altar and steeple. Most offensive, he misappropriated the Eucharist to make a political statement.

June 17– July 10
San Antonio, TX – The Terrence McNally play, “Corpus Christi,” which depicts Christ having sex with the apostles, was performed at the San Pedro Playhouse, a publicly-funded establishment.

On February 22, Bill Donohue wrote to Julián Castro, mayor of San Antonio, about the play, but never heard back; he also sent a copy to Felix Padron, executive director of the Office of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Antonio, and to Ricardo Briones, chairman of the City’s Cultural Arts Board.

Donohue provided these three public officials with information about the play, including a reference of Christ as the “King of the Queers”; it also portrays Jesus saying to the apostles, “F*** your mother, F*** your father, F*** God”; and it shows Philip asking Jesus to perform oral sex on him. Moreover, the script is replete with sexual and scatological comments.

July 9
Orange County, CA – The anti-Catholic play, “Jerry Springer: The Opera,” was played at the Chance Theater. The play mocks the crucifixion, trashes the Eucharist and presents the Blessed Virgin as a woman who was “raped by an angel.”

November
Brooklyn, NY – The Brooklyn Museum of Art began hosting the exhibit “Hide/Seek” that included the anti-Christian video “A Fire in My Belly.”

The anti-Catholic exhibit was sponsored by the most anti-Catholic foundation in the United States, the Ford Foundation, and was being shown in New York’s most anti-Catholic museum.

The Brooklyn Museum of Art was home to the “Sensation” exhibit in 1999 that featured elephant dung and pictures of female genitalia inserted on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother; at that time we led a demonstration in front of the Museum.

For two reasons, we did not stage a demonstration outside the Museum this time: a) we won the big prize in 2010 when Smithsonian officials voluntarily bowed to public pressure and withdrew the vile video, and b) the video has been shown many times since at other venues across the nation (we do not chase dog and pony shows).

For his part Museum director Arnold Lehman attempted to spin the “Ants on the Crucifix” video. He said he found nothing anti-Catholic in the “Sensation” exhibition, and that “A Fire in My Belly” was actually a statement about “human suffering and death.”

Better yet was John Tamagni, the chairman of the Museum’s board. In response to a letter by Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who properly asked for the video to be pulled, Tamagni said, “nothing in the exhibition was meant to be offensive.” This would include such spectacular fare as full frontal male nudity; scenes of naked men kissing; sado-masochistic images; and photos of AIDS-ravaged corpses.

February 22
Hilliard, OH – A statue of the Virgin Mary that had been kept in front of a resident’s condo for ten years was ordered to be removed by The Hilliard Village Association. It claimed the presence of the statue was against the Association’s rules and had to go. Moreover, one resident said that lawn statues in front of his condo didn’t seem to pose a problem, but his Christmas lights were ordered to be taken down.

March 24
Apple caved to pressure from gay activist organizations to pull an app that it had once given a high rating. The app, created by the Christian group Exodus International, was intended to educate those who had questions about homosexuality. Gay groups objected and Apple dutifully caved.

April
New York, NY – Showtime began airing a series, “The Borgias,” on April 3 about a corrupt Spanish family, one of whose members became pope. Everyone, including devout Catholics, agree that this was a sordid story in Catholic history. That Macy’s chose to celebrate this ugly chapter was another matter altogether.

On the 7th Avenue side of the Macy’s Herald Square store, there was a large window display of manikins dressed as the pope, bishops, et al. In plain letters it said, “The Borgias: The Original Crime Family”; it advertised the season premiere, with the Showtime logo off to the side.

After receiving complaints from our members, Catholic League vice president Bernadette Brady called one of Macy’s media managers, Alyssa Bendetson, registering our concerns, but the manager was nonplussed.

October 4 – December 4
When word got out that the NFL was weighing a decision to invite pop singer Madonna to perform at the 2012 Super Bowl, we pressed officials to drop the idea.

We wrote to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell explaining why the NFL should reconsider its invitation. For decades, Madonna has blatantly offended Christians, especially Catholics. The offensive lyrics, lewd behavior and misappropriation of sacred symbols were reason enough not to have her perform. Worse, she has repeatedly mocked the heart and soul of Christianity: Jesus, Our Blessed Mother, the Eucharist and the Crucifixion.

On December 4, it was announced by the NFL and NBC that Madonna was indeed chosen to perform at the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show.

November 16
Paris, France – Benetton unveiled its “UNHATE” campaign that digitally altered photos of world leaders to make it appear that they are kissing. After the Vatican disapproved of the one featuring an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing an Egyptian imam, the ad was pulled. But, the damage that Benetton did was done—the offensive photo of the Holy Father and the imam was posted on the Internet.

Benetton deserved no credit for withdrawing the pope-imam ad. It knew what it was doing, and we know what its intent was. What was particularly striking about all this is that the ad campaign was launched to promote tolerance.

February 17
Davis, CA – The University of California at Davis decided to back away from a school policy that would identify religious discrimination as “The loss of power and privilege to those who do not practice the dominant culture’s religion. In the United States, this is institutionalized oppressions toward those who are not Christian.” After a large number of Christian students filed a complaint, the university decided not to include this in “The Principles of Community” policy document.

April
Newark, DW – “O Beautiful,” a play that had been awarded a $50,000 commission from the University of Delaware, featured a Jesus character who was sympathetic to abortion rights; he is shown saying he never condemned abortion. The Jesus-character concludes, “Honestly, I — I don’t really have an issue with it.”

May 17
Gainesville, FL – The Florida Alligator, an independent student newspaper at the University of Florida, condemned the Catholic Church in an editorial after the Vatican issued new guidelines for handling instances of sexual abuse. The newspaper called the guidelines “complete, beatified bulls***.”

September 30
Washington, D.C. – Actor Michael Moore lectured at Georgetown University about his latest book, Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life. During his speech he made a gratuitous joke implying that Jesus was homosexual: “You know those 12 men Jesus was always hanging out with? Mhm.” The audience laughed. 

October
Washington, D.C. – Catholic University of America was sued by a George Washington University professor, John Banzhaf, claiming that the Catholic institution does not accommodate Muslim religious practices. Interestingly, there were no complainants: not a single Muslim at Catholic University ever complained about seeing pictures of the pope or the display of crucifixes in campus buildings. The impression was left by the media that Muslim students are behind this assault on the First Amendment. Banzhaf’s lawsuit was later dismissed by a judge who slammed the professor for filing it in the first place.

November 18
Jacksonville, FL – Patrick Capriola, the assistant principal at the Bannerman Learning Center, sued the principal, Linda Turner, and the Clay County school district, claiming that Turner had violated his constitutional rights by sending e-mails of a partisan political and religious nature. He maintained that by doing so she subjected him and other employees to her proselytizing efforts.

Among the allegedly offending e-mails was the following: Turner told the faculty to “enjoy God at work at the North Pole”; she requested that they pray for rain in Texas; and she said her faith “may move mountains.”

February 23
Washington, D.C. – Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to members of Congress announcing President Obama’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, stating that it was unconstitutional. The president, of course, is constitutionally bound to enforce federal legislation, and it is up to the courts, not the executive, to determine whether a law is constitutional or not. For us, the biggest problem with Obama’s decision was his failure to support the institution of marriage as it has been understood from time immemorial.

February 25
New York, NY – A pro-life billboard reading, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb,” was taken down in New York City after pro-abortion government officials objected.

The organization responsible for the billboard, Life Always, which is run by an African American, sought to draw attention during Black History Month to the genocidal impact abortion is having in the black community. In New York City, 60 percent of black babies are killed in the womb; nationwide, more than a third of black babies are aborted.

The same censors in the New York City Council were also taking up a measure to punish crisis pregnancy centers for offering alternatives to abortion alleging that the advertising was deceptive. Bill Donohue wrote to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn asking her to consider legislation that would “require Planned Parenthood to advertise that they are primarily an abortion provider, and not an adoption-referral organization,” pointing out that it performed 324,008 abortions in 2008 as opposed to only 2,405 adoption referrals. She did not reply.

Calls for censoring the free speech of a private company were issued by agents of the state (e.g., New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio called for the billboard to be removed). Moreover, waiters and waitresses who worked in a restaurant where the billboard was posted were harassed, as if they had anything to do with it. Concerns that violence might ensue—as admitted by an official for the ad company—forced the decision to take down the billboard.

April
Concord, NH – New Hampshire House Majority Leader David J. Bettencourt venomously libeled Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack as a “pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a raincoat over his head” because the bishop gave a speech at a rally criticizing a state budget proposal. We addressed the situation by contacting every member of the New Hampshire House calling for a Resolution of Censure. As a result of our campaign, Bettencourt apologized for his assault

April 29
The National Review Board was established by the bishops’ conference to monitor priestly sexual abuse. Former interim chairwoman Judge Anne Burke engaged in gross distortions about the Philadelphia Archdiocese, giving fodder to anti-Catholics.

In mentioning 24 accused priests, she omitted one crucial fact: Most of them were previously investigated and allowed to stay in ministry precisely because the charges were unsubstantiated. The only reason they were reinvestigated was because the archdiocese decided this was the proper response to resurrected accusations made in a grand jury report published in 2011.

Burke made it sound as if the Archdiocese was comfortable with allowing molesters to walk the streets of Philadelphia and gave the impression that all of these priests are guilty of some serious crime. In fact, none were found guilty of anything.

Burke went so far as to indict every bishop in the nation: “This makes me wonder what kind of people we are dealing with when we engage the bishops?” She also asked, “Are they ever to be trusted?”

These comments are on par with her 2006 statement justifying the removal priests from ministry on the basis of one unsubstantiated accusation: “We understand that it is a violation of the priest’s due process—you’re innocent until proven guilty—but we’re talking about the most vulnerable people in our society and those are children.” In other words, she cannot tolerate the idea that a priest is entitled to a fair trial.

May 14
Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota State Legislator Joe Mullery introduced a bill on “Catholic governance” which sought to give parishioners the right to vote on decisions that involved their parish. The Minnesota Catholic Conference condemned the bill, saying it “represents a gross intrusion of the state into the affairs and governance of a church. The bishop is responsible for the governance of his particular diocese. It violates that very core principle of Catholic doctrine and Catholic life and practice.”

June 9
A United Nations panel, the Committee against Torture, asked the Irish government to investigate allegations of mistreatment of young women who used to work in Catholic laundries. The panel said that the alleged abuses in the so-called Magdalene Laundries, workhouses run by nuns from the 1920s to the mid-1990s, should be investigated with an eye toward prosecuting the guilty parties.

The Irish government correctly noted that it could not “rewrite its history or right the wrongs that were done.” Our objection was based on the highly political nature of the U.N. panel’s request, and the fact that no other nation was subjected to such a revisionist policy.

June 28
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoted saying that the State Department was “instrumental in sealing the deal” for Lady Gaga to appear at the June 11 Euro Pride concert—a homosexual event—in Rome. The fact that Lady Gaga, who has demonstrated anti-Catholic behavior, performed near the Vatican was apparently not a problem for the State Department.

June 19 – November 14
Catholic Charities branches in three different Illinois dioceses filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois in order to continue providing foster care and adoption services to heterosexual, married couples, in accordance to Catholic teaching. The Illinois government ceased funding to the Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Springfield, Peoria, and Joliet because they would not grant adoption to same-sex or heterosexual unmarried couples. Thus did the government show contempt for the religious prerogatives of the Catholic Church, as well as a profound disrespect for the First Amendment provision on religious liberty.

With the counsel of the Thomas More Society, the three dioceses fought to prove that the premise of their policies on these issues are in accordance with Illinois law and should not be changed. After months of fighting, the Thomas More Society announced that it sought to dismiss the lawsuit because “the actions of the State have prevented the Charities from being able to obtain relief from the Illinois court system.”

July 20
Before homosexuals were given the right to marry in New York, the religious rights of those who conscientiously objected were being threatened by two New York public officials, both self-identified Catholics: Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

When Cuomo was asked about the right of clerks, invoking their religious rights, not to issue marriage licenses to homosexuals, he said, “The law is the law. You enforce the law as is; you don’t get to pick and choose those laws.” Thus did he show no respect for the First Amendment rights of those who objected for religious reasons.

Rice went further by putting clerks on notice. In a letter she wrote to municipal clerks, she warned that not complying “may constitute official misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor.”

August 1
The Obama administration mandated that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women. The exemption it afforded was meaningless, and was nothing but a Hobson’s choice for the Catholic Church: either stop serving and hiring non-Catholics or abide by the new rules. Of course, asking the Catholic Church to limit its medical and educational services to Catholics only was an insult. In short, the religious “exemption” was a fiction.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston said this meant that “our institutions would be free to act in accord with Catholic teaching on life and procreation only if they were to stop hiring and serving non-Catholics.” He was right: Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies have a long and distinguished record of serving everyone, regardless of religious affiliation; most even employ non-Catholics.

In other words, the Obama administration was playing Catch-22 with religious employers.

August 31
We addressed the controversy surrounding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s denial of allowing religious speakers at the 10th anniversary ceremony of the 9/11 attacks. We noted that in 2010, Mayor Bloomberg sought to justify his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero by recalling the bravery of the firefighters on that fateful day. “In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, ‘What God do you pray to?’” He added, “We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting.”

Thus, Bloomberg invoked the importance of defending religious liberty to justify his support for the mosque. Yet, he paid no homage whatsoever to the religion of those who perished defending such “constitutional rights” when he honored those same crucial First Responders on 9/11 in 2011. The first of the First Responders to die was Father Mychal Judge, and the vast majority of First Responders who died were Roman Catholic. Yet both First Responders and the clergy were censored from the events.

The clergy gag rule was instituted to avoid “disagreements over which religious leaders participate.” But since when had that been an issue? Plenty of clergy, including an imam, spoke at an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium after the attacks, and they managed to pull it off without a problem.

“This cannot be political,” Bloomberg intoned, yet it was the politicians—not the First Responders or the clergy—whom he invited to speak. Also, if President Obama attended an interfaith prayer service at Washington National Cathedral on the evening of the 9/11 anniversary, why couldn’t Bloomberg allow a spot for a prayer?

Bloomberg said he didn’t want to “take away from the solemnity, if that’s the right word, of the occasion.” That was the right word; it means “having a religious character.”

September – December
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ended funding to a program operated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that assists victims of human trafficking. Their decision followed a lawsuit by the ACLU contesting the right of the USCCB not to refer trafficking victims to abortion and contraceptive services. The USCCB maintained that this evinced an anti-Catholic bias. Many HHS career staffers recommended that the USCCB program be funded; they cited scores by an independent review board. But in a highly politicized ruling, Obama appointees rejected the advice of these veteran civil servants.

In November, 27 U.S. senators sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking for a “full explanation” of the grant denial: the letter asked if the “position regarding abortion referrals was a factor in your department’s decision making.”

On December 1, the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform held a hearing titled, “HHS and the Catholic Church: Examining the Politicization of Grants” to discuss this decision. Many Catholics, including the Catholic League, believed that the politicized nature of the decision to defund the program demanded the hearing.

The USCCB grant proposal was awarded a score of 89, yet it was denied the grant. Two other organizations, with scores of 74 and 69, were given a grant. The hearing sought to determine whether the USCCB’s opposition to abortion referral killed its chances.

In his opening statement, George Sheldon, Acting Assistant HHS Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, said that “HHS did not establish a preference for grantees that would require each individual subgrantees to provide referrals for family planning and the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.”

The following exchange between Sheldon and Rep. Trey Gowdy called into question Sheldon’s veracity:

Rep. Trey Gowdy: “The truth be told, if the Catholic bishops had scored a 100, you still wouldn’t have picked them.”

George Sheldon: “That’s not necessarily accurate.”

Gowdy: “Well, would you have—if they scored a 100? Is an 89 not enough?”

Sheldon: “Well, I’m dealing with the facts in front of me.”

Gowdy: “Assume this fact then: If they scored a 95, would that have been high enough?”

Sheldon: “I cannot without looking at the facts, the other applicants—I cannot respond to….”

Although the issue of abortion referral was on the table, the real issue was something more sinister: the pro-abortion community has its real sights set on mandated abortion coverage.

September 27
When we found out about the “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” we immediately issued a press release. Our release stated that the bill seeks to deny federal funds to any adoption agency that “discriminates” against prospective adoptive or foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation.

The proponents of the bill manifestly do not believe that every child deserves a family: only those lucky enough to make it to term qualify. Indeed, of the 69 cosponsors of the bill, 96 percent are pro-abortion. In other words, they deceitfully played the “pro-child” card while disguising their real agenda, which was to stick it to the Catholic Church.

Of all religions, the Catholic Church has the greatest network of adoptive and foster parent agencies. Like almost all other religions, the Church believes that marriage should be the reserve of a man and a woman, the only two people capable of creating a family. This bill, however, did not recognize the legitimacy of this ancient verity. Worse, it sought to punish those who did not accept, as a matter of conscience, homosexuals as adoptive or foster parents.

October 3
The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, announced in October the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; Bridgeport Bishop William Lori was named chair of the committee. The committee was established to defend the Church against the threats on religious liberty.

Besides the Department of Health and Human Services seeking to force private healthcare providers to carry contraceptive and sterilization services; it also wanted to force the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services to provide “the full range of reproductive services.” In addition, the federal government sought to force international relief programs to offer reproductive health services.

To show the seriousness of this issue, 20 national Catholic organizations signed a letter protesting the “preventive services” mandate that would force Catholic employers to pay for sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that induce abortion. “As of now,” the statement said, “a narrowly-written religious exemption to the rule would apply only to church institutions that hire and serve mostly Catholics.”

At issue was the right of religions to practice their beliefs freely, without government coercion. That we had to even have to fight to exercise our First Amendment rights was dismaying. Fortunately, those who belong to other religions began to realize what is at stake, and joined with us to fend off these threats.

October 5
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a case that involves the “ministerial exception,” a provision that bars the government from making employment decisions regarding a church’s ministers. The position articulated by Leondra R. Kruger, who represented the Obama administration, was the subject of a revealing series of exchanges with the Justices.

After Kruger dodged a question by Chief Justice John Roberts on the specific religious nature of the case, Justice Antonin Scalia pressed her even further: “That’s extraordinary. That’s extraordinary. We are talking here about the Free Exercise Clause and about the Establishment Clause, and you say they have no special application?”

Later, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan asked Kruger about this same issue. When Kruger indicated that the “ministerial exception” was not grounded in the First Amendment, Kagan, citing Scalia’s concern, said “I too find that amazing, that you think that the Free—neither the Free Exercise Clause nor the Establishment Clause has anything to say about a church’s relationship with its own employees.”

The Catholic Church selects only males to be its priests and no one had ever questioned this First Amendment right. At stake was the Church’s right to control the priesthood.

On January 11, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of “ministerial exception,” thus marking a major win for religious liberty.

October 8
Prior to his speech at the Values Voter Summit, Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry was introduced by Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor. Following the event, Jeffress made anti-Mormon comments. It was later revealed that he had previously made anti-Catholic remarks.

In 2010, Jeffress said the Catholic Church was the outgrowth of a “corruption” called the “Babylonian mystery.” He continued, “Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like pagan religion. Isn’t that the genius of Satan?”

Perry quickly distanced himself from Jeffress for his anti-Mormon remarks, but we said it would be wise to break all ties with him.

Following the intervention of Catholic activist Deal Hudson, Perry called Bill Donohue at home. They spoke candidly about the Jeffress incident, and related matters. Perry was sincere: nothing that the pastor said about Catholicism represents his views.

The next day, Donohue released a statement saying, “I very much appreciate Gov. Perry’s interest in getting this issue behind him in a responsible manner. He succeeded. Case closed.”

November 25 – January 4, 2012
Minneapolis, MN – A legal memorandum, filed by lawyer Rebekah Nett in a bankruptcy case with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota, contained bigoted comments against Catholics.

Nett was counsel to Naomi Isaacson, who wrote the memo that was filed. It called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “a Catholic Knight Witch Hunter” and also spoke of the “ignoramus bigoted Catholic beasts that carry the sword of the church.” One bankruptcy trustee was called “a priest’s boy,” another was branded a “Jesuitess.”

Not only did Nett enter into record the reprehensible comments of her client, she made her own sordid contribution in court. For her part, Nett called Dreher and other court personnel “dirty Catholics,” adding that “Catholic deeds throughout the [sic] history have been bloody and murderous.”

After we filed a formal complaint with the proper legal authorities in both Wisconsin and Minnesota against attorney Rebekah Nett, her client, Isaacson—herself and attorney—continued the anti-Catholic rhetoric in a filing of her own.

Isaacson’s filing contained many anti-Catholic slurs, a sampling of which follows below:

• She called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “Popess Dreher” and “a secret Catholic Knight Witch Hunter.”

• She called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis O’Brien a “dastardly Jesuit.”

• She called the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee a “mindless numbnut [who] would follow church orders with a vengeance.”

• She accused judges and trustees of conspiring to liquidate the company’s assets “for pennies,” saying the proceeds will go “to members of the Catholic Church.”

• She referred to a contempt-of-court order by Judge Dreher saying, “We may as well flush her papal bull order down the toilet.”

• She said the court “is an arm of the church to force the minority to be converted or face the consequences just like during the Dark and Middle Ages.”

• She called one trustee “Grand Inquisitor.”

• She called the attorney representing the U.S. Trustee Program a “Papal Drummer.”

• She said Judge O’Brien converted the case to Chapter 7 “on papal orders.”

• She accused the Church of bringing illegal immigrants to America “so their population can outrun that of the Protestants and they can turn the country into another Spain.”

• She said: “The Catholic Church has millions of Jesuits working undercover around the country to fulfill the church’s agenda. They give orders, pull the strings, and their puppets like Nancy Dreher jump like zombies.”

Isaacson even berated the media. When interviewed by the Pioneer Press, she lashed out at the newspaper and the Catholic Church. She asked if the paper was “owned by the Catholic Church or just a majority stockholder.” She described the Church as “dirty, filthy, and the most dangerous death cult in human history.”

On December 15, the Catholic League filed a complaint against Isaacson with the professional ethics board for attorneys in Minnesota.

Subsequently, the judge ordered Isaacson to pay $5,000 in penalties. When Isaacson failed to show up for a hearing [on January 3, 2012], Judge Dreher ordered her arrest for contempt of court. The judge did not order the arrest of Nett.

December
Salt Lake City, UT – Three state agencies asked the Utah Highway Patrol Association (UHPA) to remove all memorial crosses on public land. There are 14 crosses, 10 of which are on state land. UHPA erected the white 12-foot-tall crosses bearing the UHPA logo to commemorate troopers killed in the line of duty.

Media Response to John Jay Report

On May 18, we addressed what the media said about the 2011 John Jay Report on the “Causes and Context” of clergy abuse. Bill Donohue’s analysis of the report is at the end of the annual report.

After the New York Times criticized the study as the “blame Woodstock” report, many others in the media echoed the same criticism. The Times, and those who took their talking points from the newspaper, unfairly criticized the authors of the report for attempting to deflect culpability on the part of the bishops for the scandal by instead blaming the culture of the 1960s. But the charge was unfounded: all the professors did was to put the scandal in social context—it did not occur in a vacuum. This is what we would expect from social scientists. Interestingly, the Times always cites “root causes” when it comes to understanding the violence that accompanied the civil rights movement. Evidently, “root cause” analysis should not apply to understanding any wrongdoing on the part of the clergy.

Here are some examples of how “independent-minded” the pundits were:

• Tony Auth of the Philadelphia Inquirer labeled his cartoon “It Was The Sixties, Man

• Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe titled her piece, “Blame it on the ‘60s, Man”

• Columnist Jon Carroll branded his article, “The ‘60s Made Them Do It”

• A Canadian writer said, “Church Study Blames Swinging Sixties”

• A ReligionDispatches article indicted the Church for “Blame the Sixties” rationale

• Church-basher Marci Hamilton said the Church is guilty of “blaming the Sixties”

• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach said the Church blames “the 1960s”

• Professor Mark Silk said the Church invoked the “Woodstock” excuse

• Sally Quinn’s brother, Wilson, slammed the Church for “Blame the Hippies” excuse

• Kevin Osborne of Cincinnati’s Citybeat.com said the Church blames “dirty hippies”

• New Haven writer Doug Daniels said the Church blamed “hippies”

• A Minnesota writer says the Church blamed Jefferson Airplane while a Florida writer argued the Church blamed Janis Joplin

Top honors went to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for falsely claiming, “In page after page, the report also accuses the news media of misrepresenting the crisis.” This was nonsense. Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star also showed her brilliance by criticizing the study for not finding a “single cause.” None of these critics is a social scientist, and few, if any, gave evidence of actually having read the report.

Internet

March 6
On The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan bashed the Catholic Church for what he called its “homophobic doctrine” and for operating “one of the biggest pedophile conspiracies in the world for decades if not centuries.” He concluded his rant by saying, “Since the church even now seems incapable of treating child abuse as seriously as the rest of society, it seems to me that increased police involvement is necessary.”

 June 8
Phyllis Zagano wrote an article on the website of the National Catholic Reporter unfairly attacking Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City. She railed against him for “not reading” a memo about “weird behavior” by one of his priests, grouping him with what she called were “over-sexed men.” She compared Bishop Finn to such luminaries as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Dominique Strauss-Khan, and Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar. Lashing out at Finn by comparing him to sexual deviants in public life was reprehensible.

 August 8
Bill Saporito, assistant managing editor at Time, took an unfair shot at the Catholic Church in his Curious Capitalist blog. The entry, “Why Congress and S&P Deserve Each Other,” opened with this sentence: “Having Standard & Poor’s downgrade the creditworthiness of the U.S., and warn the country about further downgrades, is a little like having the Catholic Church lecture Scout leaders on the proper behavior toward boys.” We immediately called for an apology for this gratuitous attack, but never received one.

Magazines

February
It was brought to our attention in 2011 that the National Underwriter magazine’s “2010 Year in Review” featured a picture of the pope with a statement suggesting that he played a part in covering up the sex abuse scandal by transferring known abusing priests. Bill Donohue wrote to the Editor-in-Chief, Bill Coffin, explaining why this portrayal of the pope was grossly unfair. Just as important, Donohue wanted to know why this cheap shot appeared in a publication that has nothing to do with religion.

February
The Philadelphia Trumpet published an editorial comparing the Catholic Church to the beast of Revelation 17. Some of the more egregious statements were:

• “Throughout history this woman, or church, has made the whole world drunk on her doctrines!”

• “This beast has seven heads, or seven distinct resurrections. If you study European history, you will easily see six times when the Catholic Church has guided European empires, such as Charlemagne, Napoleon and Nazi Germany.”

• “The church leading the Holy Roman Empire is not God’s true Church. But God does allow this church to gain control of this German-led European beast power. Expect the Catholic Church to become more vocal and for this church-state axis to become more evident.”

February
We were notified that DC Comics published a series, Azrael, based on a character who was supposedly a descendent of Jesus. Anti-Catholic elements could be found throughout the series, including the portrayal of the Vatican as a dark and ominous institution out to hide the truth that Jesus had not, in fact, died on the Cross and had never resurrected.

We wrote to Diane Nelson at DC Comics asking where they intended to take this character, and informed her that we would continue to monitor the series.

February 11
The front page of Esquire magazine’s website featured an article entitled “Investigate the Vatican” by executive editor Mark Warren.

He began by applauding the New Yorker for a critical piece on Scientology, but was angry nonetheless: “Wouldn’t the resources and time of journalists be better directed at the finances, earthly corruption, and raw power of the Catholic Church, an institution that wields influence incalculably greater that L. Ron Hubbard’s itty-bitty religion?”

He continued his anti-Catholic rhetoric: “I mean, I grew up believing that every breath I drew sent a god-made-man named Jesus Christ writhing on the cross to which he had been nailed…so that he might die for my sins so that I might live. And yet, I was born not innocent but complicit in this lynching, incomprehensibly having to apologize and atone for this barbarism for all my days and feel terrible about myself and all mankind.” He then laced into the pope, blaming him for the homosexual scandal.

March 17
Vanity Fair writer Brett Berk apologized for using the term “fags” in his online review of an episode of the TV show, “Glee”; he used the term to describe two homosexual characters. Vanity Fair’s new ethics policy was adopted after being criticized by GLAAD, a homosexual activist group.

All of this was of interest to us because Vanity Fair has a history of Catholic bashing. It has proudly published malicious diatribes by anti-Catholics like John Cornwell and Christopher Hitchens, so for it to claim that it does not want to feed bigotry was a bit of a joke. Maybe someday they will think of Catholics the way they do homosexuals, then all will be right by us.

September 15
Rolling Stone published an article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely titled, “The Catholic Church’s Secret Sex-Crime Files.” The article was an attack on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia based on the 2011 grand jury report regarding sex abuse. The article was full of factual errors, stereotypes, grand omissions, and melodramatic language. Below find Bill Donohue’s lengthy rebuttal, detailing her prejudices and falsehoods.

Movies

November 4
The movie, “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas,” opened in theaters. It contained several scenes taking shots at Catholic sensibilities:

• One of the lead actors punches a bishop

• Naked nuns are shown caressing each other in a shower

• Real life homosexual Neil Patrick Harris (playing himself) recounts going to heaven (portrayed as a nightclub) where he sits with two topless women who fondle him

• Jesus sees this and calls his “daddy” to get Harris kicked out of the club

• Harris then spews an obscenity at Jesus, calling him a “c**kblock”

• Three priests have a pillow fight with a young boy in a dark place known as the altar boy room and are shown racing after him

• The Virgin Mary is trashed

Music

April 15
Lady Gaga released her song “Judas” prompting us to call the song a stunt. This was the latest in a long line of attempts by Lady Gaga to shock Catholics and Christians in general. The song was released right around Easter demonstrating Gaga’s insensitivity to Christianity.

A few weeks later, on May 5, she released the video to “Judas” which took liberties with religious iconography. In the video Gaga writhed and danced seductively with two men portrayed as Jesus and Judas.

January 26
A front-page article in the New York Times Arts Section featured an image from the video that was pulled by the Smithsonian after a Catholic League protest in 2010. By publishing the image from the ants-on-the-crucifix video, the Times ironically helped to make our point that the protest was justified.

Times critic Michael Kimmelman accused Bill Donohue of embarking on an “awfully well-choreographed pas de deux to rekindle the culture wars.” In support of his claim alleging a conspiracy choreographed by Donohue, Kimmelman mentioned that Rep. John Boehner, now the Speaker of the House, and Rep. Eric Cantor, “capitalized on Mr. Donohue’s protest” by registering their own complaints.

Kimmelman described the artist, David Wojnarowicz, as a man who wielded a cudgel to “fight bigots.” We wondered whether the artist was also “fighting” bigotry when he made a video showing Jesus’ head exploding. Was the artist also championing tolerance when he called John Cardinal O’Connor a “fat cannibal,” or when he labeled the Church a “house of walking swastikas”?

Newspapers

February
Philadelphia, PA – The District Attorney’s office released a grand jury report accusing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for sheltering priests accused of sexual abuse. This report followed a grand jury investigation in 2005 which also went after the archdiocese, but came up empty. No other institution was targeted by either grand jury; they simply were focused on the Catholic Church.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial singling out the archdiocese to make public its files on priests accused of sex abuse and called upon lawmakers to make it easier for past alleged victims to sue. What it failed to mention was that nowhere is there less of a problem of sex abuse than in the Catholic Church. Its dishonesty was remarkable. It never called for any other institution to open its files on accused employees.

After a few weeks, there was still the impression that the archdiocese was guilty of sheltering abusive priests which led to outrageous comments by agenda-driven lawyers, professional victims’ groups and pundits. After looking at the facts, it was clear that the Catholic Church never had a monopoly on this problem. We looked at the numbers and it became clear that the problem in Philadelphia was being overstated.

Beginning in 2003, 61 cases of priestly misconduct were examined by the archdiocese. Twenty-four were dismissed because the accusations could not be substantiated. Of the 37 remaining cases, three priests were suspended immediately following the 2011 grand jury report and then 21 additional priests were suspended. As for the rest, eight were found not to have a credible accusation made against them; one had been on leave for some time; two were incapacitated and no longer in ministry; and two more were members of religious orders outside the archdiocese.

This meant the majority of the priests didn’t have a single credible accusation made against them. Moreover, none of the 24 who were suspended were found guilty of anything. To top things off, the charges against them include such matters as “boundary issues” and “inappropriate behavior,” terms so elastic as to indict almost anyone.

Just as it was important not to understate the problem, it was important not to overstate it. Neither the archdiocese, nor the media, was particularly clear about offering a concise, disaggregated tally. The confusion was complicated because the public assumed that not only were all of these priests guilty, but that they were all guilty of a serious offense.

What got lost in the discussion were the constitutionally protected due process rights of accused priests. The rush to judgment was especially despicable in a day and age when accused Muslim terrorists are more likely to be presumed innocent than accused Catholic priests.

February 1
The New York Daily News ran the front page headline, “THE LYIN’ ‘NUN,’” with the words “Spins rape tale, recants,” below it, giving the impression that a Catholic nun lied about being raped. The entire headline was not true. Only upon reading the article did it become apparent that the woman was a nun in a “fringe Christian sect” that was founded by a “defrocked Catholic priest who ordained himself Pope.” The people in question were not Catholics, but the Daily News deceitfully sold the story as if they were.

We demanded an apology and got one a few days later from Editor-in-chief Kevin Convey.

February 4
In a New York Times article called “Islamist Group is Poised to Be a Power in Egypt, but Its Intentions are Unclear,” the following statement appeared: “As the Roman Catholic Church includes both those who practice leftist liberation theology and conservative anti-abortion advocates, so the [Muslim] Brotherhood includes both practical reformers and firebrand ideologues.” The Times drew a false equivalence between disagreements among Roman Catholics and disagreements among members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Though the headline correctly used the term, “Islamist,” a term that describes Muslims who blend Islam with extremist politics, the Times could not ascertain the Brotherhood’s intentions.

The Brotherhood was founded with the motto “Jihad is our way” and nothing has changed. Their leaders believed it important to “Kill Jews—to the very last one.” One said Egyptians “should prepare for war against Israel.” Even the Times admitted that “its leaders have endorsed acts of terrorism against Israel and against American troops in Iraq.” Another leader said that any government which takes over should withdraw from the peace treaty with Israel. An Al Queda-run website, Muslim.Net, said, “We call upon the Islamists to support the Muslim Brotherhood,” a clear indication that whatever differences the two groups have previously had, it’s more important that all terrorists unite.

Despite this, the Times equated the differences in Catholics with the differences of the Brotherhood.

February 7
Alberto Cutie, the former Catholic priest best known for breaking his priestly vows, quitting the Catholic Church, running off with his lover, and becoming an Episcopal priest, wrote an article that appeared in the Huffington Post claiming that some Catholics rival Muslim radicals.

Though Cutie’s article was allegedly about priestly celibacy, he launched into an invidious analogy. “All this has led me to confirm that religious extremists are not only a small group of people associated to [sic] Islam. Instead, intolerant views and verbal threats by some Roman Catholic extremists that I have received rival any monopoly by Muslim radicals.”

In the past, Cutie has floated the myth that 100,000 catholic priests left to marry (the real figure is considerably lower), but this time he really crossed the line. There is a profound difference between catcalls and calls for jihad.

February 8
An application for the iPhone called “Confession: A Roman Catholic App,” was developed by Little iApps and intended to prepare Catholics for Confession. A series of Internet sites misrepresented the Confession App by falsely claiming that one could confess directly into the phone. Among the misleading headlines were:

• “Can’t Make It To Confession? There’s An App For That”

• “Catholic Church Approves Confession By iPhone”

• “Bless Me iPhone For I Have Sinned”

• “Catholic Church Endorses App For Sinning iPhone Users”

• “Forgiveness Via iPhone: Church Approves Confession App”

• “New, Church-Approved iPhone App Offers Confessions On the Go”

• “Confess Your Sins To Your Phone In Catholic-Church Endorsed App”

• “US Bishop Sanctions Cell Phone In Confession”

• “Catholics Can Now Confess Using iPhone App”

• “Catholic Church Approves Online Confession”

February 17
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial calling for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to “make public its files on sexual abuse to better inform parishioners.” It also called for a law that provides “a two-year window for victims to file civil claims,” and to “abolish the statute of limitations for all criminal sexual offenses against minors.” In both instances, it singled out the Catholic Church. The Catholic League sent its response to over 200 pastors in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. We counseled, “The Archdiocese should cooperate in publishing the names of accused priests if all other private and public institutions agree to do likewise.”

Also in response, Bill Donohue wrote a Letter to the Editor making it clear that justice dictates that if the archdiocese makes public its files on accused priests, every other organization should do the same with regard to its employees.

February 23
In an article about a group of homosexual Polish soccer fans demanding separate seating at the 2012 European Soccer Championship in Poland, the Associated Press took an unwarranted shot at the Catholic Church. In the story, the AP wrote: “Homophobia also remains deeply embedded in Poland because of the legacy of communism which treated homosexuality as a taboo and the teachings of the church in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.”

February 25
Providence, RI — Robert J. Healey Jr., former candidate for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, was the mystery guest at the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies (a show where politicians try their hand as comedians). In a skit intended to announce his retirement from politics, Healey offended Christian sensibilities. He dressed as Jesus Christ, donning long hair, a beard, a robe, and a crown of thorns. He made comments such as he’s tired of “Losing” and he’s tired of mayoral candidate Chris Young bringing “a statue of his mother [Mary] to all his campaign appearances.”

February – March
After old cases of sex abuse surfaced in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, we noted that rarely do journalists and commentators offer more graphic details of sex abuse than when the alleged abuser is a priest.

Among the most offensive chroniclers was psychologist Mary Gail Frawley O’Dea wrote a piece called “Where is Catholicism’s Tahrir Square?” in the National Catholic Reporter that was impossible to top. She wrote, “It means an adult man’s erect penis tearing anal tissue; it means a child’s small mouth forced around an engorged and pushing penis; it means a man’s hand — one that the day before may have transformed wine into blood — probing a little girl’s vagina or pulling at the penis of a pre-pubescent boy.”

In February, the Philadelphia Daily News went tabloid with its “made for Hustler” contribution by discussing the oral and anal rape of the alleged victim.

Maureen Dowd’s affection for lurid accounts was on display in the New York Times by describing some of the graphic details found in the grand jury report. It so impressed Christopher Matthews that he read a selection from it on the air.

March 1
The New York Times ran two editorials that demonstrated its bias. “A Right Without a Remedy” was a strong plea for the U.S. government to respect the constitutional rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The other editorial, “Acts of Contrition,” took the Catholic Church in Ireland to task for cases of priestly sexual abuse. The former editorial said nothing about why suspected Muslim terrorists are being held in custody. The latter editorial said nothing about the rights of accused priests.

The Times said the Church in Ireland “has a long way to go to cleaning house,” insisting that “reforms are lagging” and “some predator priests are still in ministry.” It was thrice wrong.

In 2005, the Irish Bishops’ Conference issued a comprehensive report on reforms underway, “Our Children, Our Church: Child Protection Policies and Procedures for the Catholic Church in Ireland.” In 2008, another report was released, “Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland.” In 2010, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland published its 2009 Annual Report.

The latter document showed that 42 percent of the new allegations made in 2009 were about deceased priests. “None of the allegations reported to the National Office originated from children or young people. Some went back to events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s.” Not a single priest who had an accusation made against him is in full ministry, and those who are in limited ministry are there despite the fact that “the allegation that caused the removal from full ministry has not been confirmed through any civil or canonical court process.”

March 8
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen objected to congressional hearings held by Rep. Peter King on terrorism, arguing that if it is okay to probe Muslims for terrorism, it should be okay to probe priests for sexual abuse. Cohen cited BishopAccountability as his source for priestly abuse statistics in the Church; however his figures were grossly inaccurate.

He cited BishopAccountability for his figure of 100,00 children that might have been abused by Catholic priests. This figure, however, referred to accusations taken from an article written by Andrew Greeley in 1993 that was based purely on conjecture.

The real figures were made available by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice: an estimated 4 percent of priests had accusations made against them since 1950, and the majority, 56 percent, were alleged to have abused one victim. The total number of alleged victims at the hands of 4,392 priests is roughly between 10,000 and 12,000.

April
Although the worldwide reaction to the beatification of John Paul II was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, two days before the event in April, the New York Times reported that it “has become intensely polarizing.” With good reason, it offered no survey data: polls showed 90 percent of Catholics approved and so did most non-Catholics.

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wasn’t much better. As evidence to support the “ambivalence” thesis, he cited an angry ex-nun.

Among the others who objected to the beatification were the leftist Nation magazine, the near-defunct Time magazine and the ever-critical Huffington Post. There was also the usual stable of carping Catholics: Maureen Dowd, James Carroll and Rev. Richard McBrien (the pope had “a terrible record”).

April
The Fairfax Chronicle ran a cartoon by Jim McCloskey depicting a bishop labeled “Roman Catholic Church” and an altar boy. The cartoon asked, “Guess who lobbied the general assembly against extending the deadline that sexual abuse victims can sue their attackers?” The altar boy counters, “If you aren’t guilty…why would it matter?”

May 1
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Cullen said that Pope John Paul II “presided over a church that was guilty of one of the biggest institutional cover-ups of criminal activity in history.” He also gave credence to the charge that “Priests were raping children all over the world with impunity.” There were four errors in these two sentences.

• The John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on this issue shows very clearly that the period when most of the incidents occurred was 1960-1985. Since John Paul II was not elected until 1978, it is factually wrong to suggest that the scandal took place mostly on his watch.

• It was factually wrong to say that most of those abused by priests were raped: the most common infraction was “inappropriate touching.”

• Most of those abused by priests were not children—they were post-pubescent males. The John Jay report found that “81 percent [of the victims] were male,” and that “more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.” Amazingly, Cullen wrote this in 2004, so even he knows that the problem is homosexuality.

May 13
The New York Daily News conducted a poll on its website asking readers whether St. Anthony’s High School on Long Island had the right to bar a female student from bringing her ex-girlfriend to the prom. Readers were asked the following: “Should the Catholic school have the right to bar same-sex couples at the prom?” The Daily News’ answers were: 1) Yes, it’s a private institution and homosexuality goes against church teaching; 2) No, we’re talking about a prom, not marriage, the school shouldn’t exclude anyone; 3) I don’t know. By posing the question in terms of rights—instead of asking whether readers agree with the decision—the Daily News made this issue into a matter of church and state, implying that it is a rebuttal assumption on the part of St. Anthony’s that it has the right to determine its own rules.

May 20
A cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer depicted a bishop smoking from a hookah, holding a book with the title “Catholic Bishops’ Study on Abuse and Cover-Up,” and a caption that read, “It was the sixties, man….” This cartoon perpetuated the myth that the John Jay Study blamed the abuse scandal on the 60s.

May 25
The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists posted a cartoon by Paul Berge of Q Syndicate, which provides content to “LGBT” media. Pope Benedict XVI is caricatured to have a vicious, vaguely canine appearance and flanked by two cardinals. One holds a book called “Homines tam canes sunt,” referring to men as dogs. This cardinal says, “Your Holiness, our investigation has found that sex abuse by priests in the 1960’s and ‘70’s was not due to homosexuality or to celibacy rules.” The pope asks, “Then what was the cause?” The second cardinal answers, “We’ve narrowed it down to either rock and roll or fluoridation.”

May 31
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a turtle hiding in its shell. The cartoon reads: “Q. Does the Catholic Church have a position on pedophilia? A. Yes.” It suggested that the Church does not face claims of sexual abuse. This cartoon also ran in the Huntsville Item on June 1.

June 14
A Boston Globe editorial lectured the Archdiocese of Boston about a Mass at St. Cecilia’s celebrating Gay Pride Month. The Globe pretended that “No one would have had the misimpression that the church was endorsing gay sex” by allowing the Mass to be said. Globe columnist Kevin Cullen also wondered why anyone would think that such a Mass might turn the church “into an outpost of Sodom.” And the Globe’s front-page news story maintained that the Boston archdiocese “gave the impression that St. Cecilia’s supported the annual Gay Pride Celebration.” The priest behind the Mass feigned ignorance of the Gay Pride agenda saying, “I don’t know what that is.”

Each of these statements contradicted the facts. The June 5 weekly bulletin of St. Cecilia’s stated, “The Rainbow Ministry of Saint Cecilia Parish invites all friends and supporters of the LGBT community to a Mass in celebration of Boston’s Pride Month.” (Italics added.)

June 19
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd targeted New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan for opposing gay marriage. She said it was hypocritical of the Church to accept homosexual priests while finding fault with homosexuality. However, she neglected the fact that celibacy cuts equally for straights and gays.

Dowd said the report on the causes of the sexual abuse scandal was “put out” by Dolan and the bishops, and that it advanced a “blame Woodstock” explanation. She was twice wrong: (a) the report was the work of social scientists from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and (b) the timeline of the problem—mid-1960s to mid-1980s—coincided exactly with the period of the sexual revolution, so to cite it was important.

Finally, Dowd found fault with the John Jay study for not listing homosexuality as a cause. Her complaint was accurate, which made unintelligible her reference to “pedophile priests.”

July 1
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing what appears to be the pope caricatured as a hunched dimwit and out of touch with reality. The cartoon reads: “Q. Why is the religion that still conducts exorcisms, views women as second-class citizens and birth control as unnecessary, having its leader tweet? A. It likes to keep up with the times.” This cartoon also ran in the Salinas Californian on July 5.

July 4
The Kansas City Star ran a Pat Oliphant cartoon showing a towering, wrathful Roman Catholic bishop with smoke coming out of his ears. The priest tells the two men before him, “The bishop however is not feeling entirely gay about your marriage plans.” In the corner of the cartoon, one of three very small figures says, “Compliment him on his dress.” The cartoon was syndicated and originally released on June 28.

July 26
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a minister saying from the pulpit, “We need to follow God’s laws!” and holding a sign saying “N.Y. allows gay marriage.” In the next bubble, there is the subtitle, “But not all of them [i.e., the laws],” with two stone tablets in the background. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” is written on the tablets. This cartoon implied that those who objected to homosexual marriage due to their religious beliefs were hypocrites.

October 10
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a drawing by Paul Lachine to accompany an article by SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy called “Accountability for sex abuse at the church’s highest levels.” The drawing depicts a Roman Catholic pontiff with blinders attached to his miter, implying narrowness of mind.

October 18
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a bishop walking across a dotted line from a region marked “moral failure” into a region marked “criminal indictment.” The title at the bottom reads, “The Catholic Church makes progress.” This cartoon saw the indictment of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn as progress.

November 15
The Lexington Herald-Leader ran a Joel Pett cartoon showing three bishops talking at the bishops’ conference. One says, “Oh, nothing much…oppressing the sisterhood…railing against gay rights…tipped over a news van at the Paterno rally…what’s new with you?”

November 17
The Courier Journal ran a Marc Murphy cartoon called “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In a shower room, two older men are shown naked with their backs to the viewer. One man is called “Catholic Church.” The other man is called “Penn State.” A little boy also in the shower room, “You have no clothes. Help!” The “Penn State” man says, “Keep your voice down for the sake of the institutions.”

November 23
The San Jose Mercury News ran a Vic Lee cartoon showing a Catholic priest next to a man about to be guillotined. The priest says, “This cracks me up every time.” From the depiction, it was an obvious reference to the French Revolution with no bearing on current events. That is why it was a clear shot at Catholics.

November 30
Gustavo Arellano, a writer for OC Weekly, was appointed editor of the “alternative” weekly publication. Of his promotion he said: “I want to thank all the skinheads, pedophile priests, Know Nothings, and battleship tacos that made this day possible.”

Arellano is perpetually exercised about allegations of priestly sexual abuse, but it is not the issue that interests him, just the offenders: he has never published a piece on the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy of any other religion.

Television

January 16
Comedy Central aired “Denis Leary & Friends Present Douchebags & Donuts.” Later in the week Comedy Central Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment released the DVD nationwide. The opening segment of the video showed a clip of Pope Benedict XVI talking to a crowd with a dubbed voice-over that made it seem like he is discussing priestly sexual abuse. Leary appears on stage extending his middle finger, an illuminated Cross in the background, and a trio of women dressed as nuns in habit wearing short skirts.

In the clip of the pope, the pope yells, “Heil Hitler,” proclaiming, “Oh yeah, I’m the f***ing pope, for Christ’s sake, the god**** Fuehrer.” The pope then introduces Leary as Father Denis Leary, who enters the stage singing a song. Below are some of his lines:

• “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned—yeah, pull down my pants and put your penis in.”

• “Thou shalt not kill and Thou shalt not lie, and don’t drop the soap when the pope is nearby. Cause they may hate gays but they do love the guys.”

• “Well, the nuns are goin’ down on other nuns, and the priests are chasin’ after altar boy buns, and the pope will move you when the damage is done.”

• “Jesus, Mary and Josephine, well this church is full of some giant queens, so break out the candles and the Vaseline.”

In response to the release of this hate-filled video, we contacted Bushmills, a prominent sponsor of Leary’s, asking them to reconsider their sponsorship.

February 4
Jay Leno made the following joke about homosexuality and priestly sexual abuse on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”: “A Palm Beach priest has admitted to a violation of chastity with an adult woman. When the Vatican heard about this, they said, ‘A woman? Thank God.’” The implication, of course, was that most priestly predators have been homosexuals, which is true.

February 7
TBS aired a re-run episode of “Family Guy” in which Stewie, the family baby, makes comments painting all priests as molesters. In the episode, Stewie travels back in time to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish family-friend) from the Nazis invading Poland. They disguise him as a Catholic priest to sneak him out of the country, but are questioned by a Nazi officer. When asked if Mort is a real priest, Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.” The original episode aired October 19, 2008 on Fox.

February 9
Jay Leno made the following joke about the new Confession application for the iPhone on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”:

“Well, the Catholic Church has come out with a new app for the iPhone. This is real. You can confess right on the phone. How perfect is that? You can now cheat and atone for your sins all on the same device. Perfect for Bret Favre. Fantastic. You know what the name of the app is? I’m not making it up. It’s called ‘Priest in Your Pocket.’ Really. Is that the best name they could come up with?”

Not only did he deliberately mislead the public—the app was simply designed to help Catholics prepare for Confession—he took a below the belt shot at priests. The name of the app is called, “Confession: A Roman Catholic app,” not “Priest in Your Pocket.”

February 16
On an episode of the E! program “Chelsea Lately,” a panel discussed the Confession app. While the app was presented correctly, comedian Natasha Leggero took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the Catholic Church over the sex abuse scandal. She said, “And also the point of confession is you go into a booth, say your sins and get molested by a priest. You’re supposed to do it all there.”

February 23
On ABC’s “The View,” the hosts made ignorant comments about the Catholic Church in regard to Governor Andrew Cuomo receiving communion with the woman he was living with. In criticizing the canon law advisor who called his receiving communion “objectively sacrilegious,” Whoopi Goldberg asked, “What would Jesus do?” Co-host Sherri Shepherd went on: “How many people in that church that take that wine and eat those crackers are doing something at home that we don’t know about?”

We responded by saying that since all of the panelists have either left Catholicism, or never were a member of the Church to begin with, it should not matter to them what Catholicism teaches about anything.

March 11
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher featured an ad mocking the “Catholics Come Home” campaign. The ad claimed there had been sex abuse in the Catholic Church from its inception and said that now there is “significantly lower chances that he or she (children) will be inappropriately touched—particularly she,” implying that gay priests are doing most of the molesting. After the ad aired, he made comments about the Philadelphia archdiocese and said that every city is affected by the abuse crisis and that people have just gotten used to it.

March 17
Bravo aired a special called “Kathy Griffin: 50 & Not Pregnant.” During the show, Griffin took an unwarranted shot at all priests, calling them “kid f**kers.” After she delivered the line, she was wildly cheered by her largely homosexual audience.

March 22

On TBS, an episode of “Lopez Tonight” featured a skit about a priest who ran a religious-themed strip club called “Bad Habits.” The dancers included two nuns in full habit (one gave a member of the audience a lap dance) and a stripping altar boy. While watching the nuns dance, the priest announced to the audience that he was reconsidering his vow of celibacy.

That a rabbi was featured as one of the dancers mattered not. He was sandwiched between two stripping nuns and an altar boy at a club run by a priest. It was clear who Lopez was gunning for.

March 31
On E!’s “Chelsea Lately,” comedian Joe Matarese mentioned Michael Jackson and his Neverland Ranch, saying, “I’m like, didn’t he maybe molest a couple of kids?” He then berated the audience for forgetting about what Jackson did, offering as a parting thought, “you know, maybe if a Catholic priest could moonwalk better….” Matarese was implying that what has been clear for some time: If abusing priests were entertainers, they would be treated as heroes.

April 6
In an episode of the Comedy Central program “Tosh.0”, comedian Daniel Tosh took a shot at the Catholic Church implying that its clergy is full of molesters. He said that if the pope were an attractive young man maybe the altar boys would “quit complaining.”

April 20
Comedy Central re-aired an episode of “South Park” called “Medicinal Fried Chicken” in which character Eric Cart manmade three separate jokes about Pope Benedict XVI and the sexual abuse scandal.

The offensive comments were:

• “Do I want to do it? Does the pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes?”

• “Is that something I’d want to do? Is the pope Catholic and making the world safe for pedophiles?”

• “Does a bear crap in the woods? And does the pope crap on the broken lives and dreams of 200 deaf boys?”

April 29
NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” exhibited yet another assault on priests. In a skit about the Royal Wedding, Dame Edna played a British correspondent. She was shown taking secret footage of the event while Leno pretended to be speaking with her live.

Dame Edna approached a vendor selling cheese called “Stinking Bishop.” Upon hearing the name, she said, “Stinking Bishop? My son toyed with the priesthood. Or perhaps it was the other way around.”

What made this skit so invidious was its wholly gratuitous nature: there is no relationship between the Royal Wedding and Catholic priests.

May 20
On HBO’s program “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher and his panel of guests discussed the release of the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church. Maher branded all priests as abusers and falsely claimed that the report blamed the 60s for the abuse scandal.

Maher said, “Here is what they found: Not as bad as you think; it magically solved itself one day in 1985…. And the Church isn’t the problem, celibacy isn’t the problem, repressed homosexuality isn’t the problem; you know what the problem was? The 60s… I’m not kidding, they said it was the permissive attitude of the 60s.”

June 7
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” host Jon Stewart joked about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal with correspondent John Oliver. During their skit, Stewart ridiculed Weiner by sipping frantically on a Margarita, imitating the way Weiner sipped from a water bottle at his press conference.

Stewart then accidentally broke his glass. Oliver, seeing Stewart’s hand bleeding, joked, “Don’t be so Jewish about it. You’re fine, you’re absolutely fine.”

On Yahoo! News, in both the video clip and the news story, this is where the skit ended. But on the show, it continued with Stewart replying, “I should be Catholic.” Next, referring to his blood, he offered, “I should turn this into a drink.”

Weiner sent porn pictures to strangers and Stewart laughed it off. But, Stewart’s impulsive lashing out at the heart of Catholicism when discussing a subject that has nothing to do with it revealed a side to him that was troubling.

Yahoo! News was dishonest in the way it tried to paper over Stewart’s insulting remark: it deliberately cut his offensive quip, knowing it would have put the skit in a totally different light.

June 14
On CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said he was “stunned” and “fascinated” by Anthony Weiner’s predicament, saying: “Honest to God, is this the kind of behavior you’d expect from a congressman! No. In simple terms, no. It is not the kind of behavior you’d expect from a congressman. It is the kind of behavior you’d expect from a priest.” Letterman decided to attack all priests, when there was no shortage of politicians with the baggage of a sex scandal.

June 21
On Current TV’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the host claimed that Galileo was punished by the Catholic Church for “his belief that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around.” He also said that “the Church acknowledged errors had been committed in assessing Galileo’s scientific beliefs. They did that in 1992.” Besides being factually wrong, the tone of Olbermann’s comments made it clear that his remarks were meant to insult.

The fact is that the belief that the earth revolves around the sun was first broached by Copernicus—a priest—in 1543, long before Galileo. Moreover, when Galileo first floated Copernicus’ idea, he was bestowed with medals and gifts by Pope Urban VIII. What got him censured was his arrogance: Galileo argued that his hypothesis was a scientific fact, something which even the scientific community of his day scoffed at.

It was also false to say that in 1992 the Catholic Church acknowledged errors in dealing with Galileo. That happened in 1741 when Pope Benedict XIV granted an imprimatur to the first edition of the completed works of Galileo. What happened in 1992 was the release of a Pontifical Academy report on the controversy.

July 29
Comedy Central re-aired “Comedy Central Presents Ted Alexandro,” which originally aired in 2006. In the program, Alexandro attacked the Pope and the Church, referring to Catholic Church as the “Microsoft of pedophilia.”

September 28
When the Parents Television Council called for the cancellation of the NBC series, “The Playboy Club,” series actor David Krumholtz responded on Twitter by saying that Mormons and Catholics have “a long history of degrading women.” When asked to clarify his statement about Catholics, Krumholtz said, “My bad. I should have said little children instead of women.”

October 12
An episode of the NBC show, “Harry’s Law,” concerned a young girl who had been bullied due to her homosexuality and committed suicide after she was outed. It was suggested that the girl’s Catholic faith was in part responsible for her suicide because she could not tell clergy about her homosexuality since “Being raised Catholic she’d be damned for eternity.”

October 20
On the CBS sitcom “Big Bang Theory,” the mother of one of the main characters came to visit him. She is portrayed as a southern mother who makes racist and generally inappropriate comments, some of which were offensive to Catholic sensibilities. She referred to Catholics as “Rosary Rattlers”; she said Jesus was “the last Jew who did sit-ups…and look where it got him.”

December 11
An episode of “American Dad” called “Season’s Beatings” made grotesque disparagements of Jesus, Christianity, and Christmas. Stan Smith, the main character, hopes to play Jesus Christ on the Cross in an upcoming Christmas play. He says, “When it comes to Christianity, that’s the money shot.

“ROLLING STONE GETS UGLY: VILE HIT ON PHILLY ARCHDIOCESE“

Beginning late October, we rallied behind Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn with vigor: we saturated the community with an ad that the Kansas City Star rejected for political reasons. Indeed, we hit virtually every Catholic church, school and lay organization in the area, along with other religious organizations, public and private schools and colleges, government officials, businesses and civic associations. We even contacted local bars, barber shops and beauty parlors. Here’s what happened. 

Last December, a police officer and an attorney were contacted by diocesan officials after a technician found photos of young girls on Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer. While none of the pictures were pornographic, they were nonetheless disturbing.

Following the discovery of his fetish, Ratigan attempted suicide. He was then sent for psychiatric analysis: he was said to be suffering from depression, but was not diagnosed as a pedophile. After he violated strictures regarding his movement last May, the diocese contacted the authorities, even though it had no legal mandate to do so. It was then that even more disturbing photos were found.

In other words, Bishop Finn did what no other leader of any religious, or secular, organization has done: he put all the cards on the table and brought in the police in a case where there was no complainant. More than that, he asked for an independent investigation by a former U.S. attorney, Todd P. Graves.

Graves and a team of attorneys, former prosecutors and FBI officials issued a report concluding that while some matters may have been handled better, Bishop Finn was guilty of no criminal wrongdoing (he had almost no role in this case). But that was not enough for the likes of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and their lawyers. They drove public opinion on this issue, resulting in an unprecedented indictment of a bishop—on a misdemeanor, no less. Subsequently, they have been on a rampage finding new “victims” to sue.

At the end of October, Bill Donohue submitted a full-page ad (costing $25,000) to be placed in the Kansas City Star exposing the shenanigans: it was turned down without explanation, even though the newspaper is in financial straits! The Star-SNAP alliance was indisputably cemented.

On November 15, Bishop Finn agreed to meet on a monthly basis with the Clay County prosecutor about any suspicious behavior of those in his employ; in return, charges have been dropped. Still to be settled are similar charges made by the Jackson County prosecutor.

Listed below in chronological order is our response to the attacks on Bishop Robert Finn:

October 21: BISHOP FINN DESERVES BETTER

We will have a lot to say about Bishop Finn and his accusers, but for now, we want to make it clear that we stand by him without reservation. Why? Not because he is a bishop, but because nothing he did deserves the kind of reaction against him that is emanating from many quarters. Shortly, we will lay out the details of our support for him. Keep in mind the following:

Many strange photos (crotch-focused) of young girls, fully clothed, were found on the laptop of a priest last December; one showed a girl naked. Though Bishop Finn never saw it, he was told of it. The result? The picture was described to a police officer the next day, and an attorney for the Diocese was shown the photo. It was determined that the photo, while disturbing, did not constitute child pornography. The priest learns that they’re on to him; he attempts suicide; he almost dies; he recovers; he is sent for treatment; he is not considered to be a pedophile, but is said to be suffering from depression; he is then placed in a spot away from children; he is subjected to restrictions. After violating the restrictions, the cops are called; more damaging photos are then found.

This account is quite different from what is being said in the media. To take one example, an editorial in the New York Times said that Finn “knew of the photos last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.” This makes it sound as if Finn knew about hundreds of photos of child pornography and did nothing about it. In fact, there was one photo, that was not sexual in nature, that was initially found. Moreover, a police officer and an attorney were notified immediately. Later, after the priest proved to be recalcitrant, the police were contacted.

October 31: KANSAS CITY STAR vs. CATHOLIC CHURCH

We recently contacted the Kansas City Star about running a full-page ad on October 30. The ad is a critical statement about the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and their attorney friend, Rebecca Randles. The ad was written because we strongly defend Bishop Finn against the politically motivated attacks on him.

Everything looked good to go: on October 25, we submitted the ad and gave them our credit card information to pay the $25,000 fee. On October 26, we received an e-mail saying, “The Publisher has respectfully declined and did not share the details as to why.”

We have done newspaper ads for decades, especially for the New York Times. It is common practice to fact-check an ad, asking for documentation to substantiate something in it, but never have we been turned down, much less without explanation.

We know what’s going on. The Kansas City Star has long been in bed with SNAP, just as SNAP is in bed with attorneys like Randles and her mentor, Jeffrey Anderson. All are decidedly anti-Catholic. To wit: on September 25, the Star ran a 2223-word front-page Sunday news story on SNAP. To say it was a puff piece would be an understatement. The Church has never been treated with such kid gloves.

We’ll start blanketing the Kansas City, Missouri area with copies of the ad that the Kansas City Star doesn’t want readers to see; no secular or religious organization will escape us. They can impose a gag rule on us in their newspaper, but they cannot control us. Our campaign against the Star and SNAP will be on-going.

November 1: SUICIDE OF THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Our news release on the decision by the Kansas City Star to reject the ad exposing the phony victims’ group, SNAP, and its attack on Bishop Finn, reached approximately 200 employees of the Star and about 300 media outlets in the Kansas City, Missouri area; another 1500 media outlets around the nation received it. All will continue to receive our releases on this subject.

Much of the chatter has focused on the wisdom of turning down $25,000. Consider the following: In June 2008: 10 percent of the Star’s workforce is cut; Sept. 2008: 65 employees accept buyouts or are laid off; Nov. 2008: 50 employees are let go; March 2009: 15 percent of the workforce is cut; Aug. 2009: More buyouts are offered; one-week unpaid furlough is instituted; Jan. 2010: another dozen are terminated; May 2010: another dozen get their pink slips; Sept. 2010: another dozen are booted; Jan. 2011: 20 others are shown the door.

Ten years ago, there were 1,869 employees at the Star; today there are 840. Given these data, turning down $25K must mean the Star is more concerned about getting Bishop Finn than it is the welfare of its own workers. Looks like the Star is suicidal.

The McClatchy Company owns the Star, and its advertising revenue is down 10 percent between the third quarter 2010 and the third quarter 2011. The Board of Directors will receive this release, as will the three major investors: John Paulson, Stephen C. Mildenhall and Andrew Feldstein. They are not going to be happy.

On October 18, the Kansas City Star ran this Lee Judge cartoon expressing the “progressive” hope for Bishop Finn’s indictment, thus adding a local spin to a staple of anti-Catholic bigotry.

November 2: KANSAS CITY STAR AND ANTI-CATHOLICISM

The SNAP-Star alliance against Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn is a natural: both are anti-Catholic. As evidence of SNAP’s bigotry, see our report on its July conference. As for the Star, consider its infamous 1999 “survey” of priests.

Twelve years ago, the Star did a survey of priests across the nation. They were asked such things as: identify your sexual orientation; discuss whether you have HIV or AIDS; assess how the Church is handling this issue; and explain whether the Church should change its teachings on celibacy and homosexuality. No other religious or secular institution was surveyed. In response, we sent our own survey to a random sample of Star employees, asking questions about their sexual orientation and disease status. At least we admitted that our “survey” was a joke—the Star actually thought itself serious.

The purpose of the Star’s survey was to report that HIV or AIDS was rampant among priests and that the Church’s response was heartless. Expecting that most would disagree with celibacy and the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, the end game would then be realized: this is how the Star expected to manipulate public opinion, putting pressure on the Church to change its teachings.

What a disappointment. Almost 100 percent (99.1) said they either did not have HIV or AIDS, or did not think they had it. Two-thirds said the Church was “caring and compassionate” about priests with HIV or AIDS, and only four percent were critical. Yet virtually all the remarks printed in the Star came from priests who were critical of the Church! Angered by the results, the Star showed even more contempt for privacy rights by combing the death certificates of deceased priests looking for dirt.

By any measure, the Star showed its bias, as well as its necromania.

November 3: KANSAS CITY STAR-SNAP ALLIANCE

Respectable newspapers are expected to be objective, and not become the voice box of activist organizations. This is not true of the Kansas City Star; its relationship with SNAP is incestuous.

To take the latest example, on November 1, Judge James Dale Youngs of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, dismissed a case brought by SNAP lawyer Rebecca Randles against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph; Randles never even bothered to respond to the motion to dismiss. But the real story here is why senior Star reporter Judy L. Thomas, who wrote about the initial lawsuit, never told readers about this development.

When this suit was initially filed on March 8, the Star ran a story by Thomas about it on p. 7. And guess who announced it? SNAP. So now that Randles and SNAP look foolish, or worse, why wasn’t this reported? By the way, Thomas made reference to this case several times in the intervening months. Moreover, in the past three months, Thomas cited SNAP ten times in her stories. So why the cover-up about the motion to dismiss the lawsuit?

The editorial board of the Star has similarly been compromised. On May 21, its editorial on the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case cited SNAP’s criticisms of the diocese. Ten days later, in another editorial, it once again favorably quoted SNAP. Perhaps most interesting was the editorial of June 4 that called for Bishop Robert Finn to resign: one day before, in a news story which named SNAP, it just happened to say that “Some Catholics will gather today and call for the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn….” How cute. First have some local “Catholics” call for the bishop to resign, and then let the brave souls at the newspaper follow suit.

The Star is nothing more than an echo chamber for SNAP.

November 3: KANSAS CITY STAR IS IMPLODING

The Star is in free fall: for the first time since before World War II, its daily circulation has fallen below 200,000 (the Sunday circulation is only about 300,000). Circulation numbers are of particular concern to newspaper advertisers—it determines the rates they are charged.

Because we believe in transparency, and because the Star purports to believe in truth in advertising, we are writing to the CEO’s of the Star’s biggest advertisers letting them know they may be paying too much for their ads. Those advertisers are: Target; Kohl’s; Best Buy; Macy’s; Dick’s Sporting Goods; Dillard’s; Wal-Mart; Cabela’s; Sears; Verizon; and Sprint.

We will also let the big advertisers know that the data will only get worse. To be specific, between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, there are approximately 1.5 million Catholics in the Star’s immediate readership area. Once they learn that the Star refused to run our ad blowing the whistle on the enemies of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn, more will bail.

We are sharing the ad we wrote with all the CEO’s. After all, they need to know why the Star is imploding so they can make an informed decision on where to park their advertising dollars. And since the holiday season is fast approaching, what better time to reconsider their contract with the Star. Social justice demands no less.

November 4: MEET THE CHURCH-SUING LAWYERS

SNAP announces a lawsuit against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The diocese, headed by Bishop Finn, knows nothing about it. But attorney Rebecca Randles does: she coordinated the attack with SNAP. Virtually all the cases date back decades, and no one from the Kansas City Star questions any of it. This isn’t an anomaly—it’s the norm.

Randles got her start with Jeffrey Anderson, the most successful Church-shakedown lawyer in the nation. On June 2, they (and another attorney) sued Bishop Finn about a matter he had nothing to do with. Since then, Randles has been finding new “victims” at a record pace.

Randles and Anderson came together 20 years ago to represent David Clohessy (now SNAP’s director). After watching the movie “Nuts” in 1988 he suddenly “remembered” being molested by a priest decades ago. The lawsuit failed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Randles then made history when she was the first attorney to file suit against a priest in Missouri. It was another “repressed memory” suit where the accuser suddenly recalls being molested decades ago. After first winning, an appeals court threw it out—the clock had run out on such claims. She vowed to push for a new strategy: she argued that the “trigger” for such claims should start when alleged victims “remember” when they were abused. In 2006, her dream came true: the Missouri Supreme Court said that a guy who suddenly remembered being molested 30 years prior could sue. Ever since, the suits against the diocese have never stopped.

Both Anderson and Randles give generously to SNAP, and indeed Randles has been known to pressure her clients to fork over some of their settlement money to her friends. The Star knows all of this, yet it continues the cover-up.

November 7: KANSAS CITY STAR COVERS FOR SNAP

Recently, news broke that a former Penn State football coach, serving under head coach Joe Paterno, was allegedly sexually abusing young boys. Although Paterno immediately notified the Athletic Director, he did not call the cops. David Clohessy, SNAP’s director, is now calling for Paterno to be investigated. Yet when Clohessy learned in the 1990s that his brother Kevin, a priest, was a child molester, he covered it up.

The Kansas City Star is working with SNAP, and its lawyers, against Bishop Robert Finn. Only once, in a brief story in 2003, did it mention that Clohessy’s brother was charged with molestation; even then it never reported that he refused to call the cops. And in a big puff piece on him in September, it never mentioned this story. The cover up is sickening.

Nor does the Star ever bother to question the spurious lawsuits that SNAP lawyers have been bringing. Isn’t it more than just a little curious that the Catholic Church is being singled out for hundreds of “repressed memory” lawsuits? A Nexis search connecting “repressed memory” with “minister” yields 551 stories; “rabbi” yields 71; and though the nation’s teachers vastly outnumber priests, there were 1208 stories on “teachers” and 1855 on “priests.”

Between 2009 and 2010, there was a 42 percent increase in false accusations against priests. The data didn’t come as a surprise to California attorney Donald H. Steier. Last year, he testified that “One retired F.B.I. agent who worked with me to investigate many claims in the Clergy Cases told me, in his opinion, about ONE-HALF of the claims made in Clergy Cases were either entirely false or so greatly exaggerated that the truth would not have supported a prosecutable claim for childhood sexual abuse.” An independent newspaper would report such stories. The Star is not one of them—it’s in bed with SNAP. 

November 7: KC STAR OMITS STORY ON TOP EPISCOPAL BISHOP

On November 7, SNAP held a press conference in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to bring attention to a case involving an Episcopal priest, Bede Parry, who is being charged with molesting young boys while he was studying to be a Catholic priest. Parry was thrown out of the Benedictines of Conception Abbey in Missouri back in 1990; then he left for Las Vegas; eventually he became an Episcopal priest there. The person who knew about his record of abuse and still allowed him to join the clergy of the Episcopal Church was the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori; today she is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S., located in New York City.

On November 8, the Kansas City Star, which has been relentless in its pursuit of clergy abuse by Catholic priests, said nothing about this case. Is this because it involves another religion? Or is it because it implicates a woman clergyperson, thus getting in the way of the narrative that Catholic bishops have some kind of special “old boy” network that inhibits them from being forthcoming? No matter, to think that the person who is the head of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is named in a cover-up involving the sexual abuse of minors—and isn’t even mentioned in the Star—speaks volumes about its politically driven agenda against Bishop Finn.

It is important to note that at no time was Bede Parry a priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Nor is it true that the Diocese is named in the lawsuit.

November 10: KANSAS CITY PRESS CONFERENCE

The Catholic League press conference was held outside the Kansas City Star. Without solicitation—simply by word of mouth—a sizable crowd of local Catholics joined Bill Donohue, Vice President Bernadette Brady and staff members Alex Mejia and Don Lauer. All were there in support of Bishop Robert Finn and against the Star-SNAP alliance.  [Click here] to see photos.

October 25: TAKING AIM AT BISHOP FINN

This ad, written by Bill Donohue, was rejected by the Kansas City Star, without explanation. The close relationship between the newspaper and SNAP is disturbing, but to turn down $25,000 is still surprising. The Star can impose a gag rule on us, but it cannot control us. Indeed, this ad was printed in the Northeast News, a weekly suburban newspaper. We intend to let everyone in Kansas City, Missouri know about this matter. 

There is nothing wrong with asking legitimate questions about the way Bishop Robert Finn handled the Fr. Shawn Ratigan matter. But there is something wrong about not asking legitimate questions about the politics of those out to sink him. First, let’s recap what actually happened.

Last December, crotch-shot pictures of young girls, fully clothed, were found on Fr. Ratigan’s computer; there was one photo of a naked girl. The very next day, the Diocese contacted a police officer and described the naked picture; a Diocesan attorney was shown it. Because the photo was not sexual in nature, it was determined that it did not constitute child pornography. This explains why the Independent Review Board was not contacted—there was no specific allegation of child abuse.

When Fr. Ratigan discovered that the Diocese had learned of his fetish, he attempted suicide. When he recovered, he was immediately sent for psychiatric evaluation. It is important to note that Bishop Finn, who never saw any of the photos, did this precisely because he was considering the possibility of removing Fr. Ratigan from ministry. After evaluation (the priest was diagnosed as suffering from depression, but was not judged to be a pedophile), Fr. Ratigan was placed in a spot away from children and subjected to various restrictions. After he violated them, the Diocese called the cops. That’s when more disturbing photos were found. At the same time, Bishop Finn contacted an attorney to do an independent investigation into this matter.

Fair-minded persons may question whether the Diocese was too lenient, but unless there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed, there is no cause for contacting the authorities. Yet the Diocese—unlike the officials of other organizations faced with the same situation—contacted a police officer and a lawyer immediately. [Note: in 2007, a huge investigation by the Associated Press of teacher sexual misconduct revealed that Missouri school districts were guilty of “backroom deals” that allowed molesting teachers to “quietly move on.” So where is the dust-up about this? Where are the calls for grand jury probes?] Why, then, the attempt to get Bishop Finn?

What’s driving the anti-Finn campaign is politics. The major players are the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and attorneys Rebecca Randles and Jeffrey Anderson. Their goal is not justice. Nor is it child welfare. Their goal is to sabotage the Catholic Church.

Here’s how it works. Anderson, who is worth hundreds of millions, helps to fund SNAP. SNAP works with Randles, a protégé of Anderson, and together they find new “victims”—adults who just now seem to remember being groped decades ago. Indeed, upwards of 20 new lawsuits have been filed since Ratigan was nailed in May. SNAP, ever coy, then holds a press conference, making wild accusations. Importantly, no one in Finn’s office is prepared to comment because Randles has yet to file suit. In other words, SNAP and Randles ambush the Diocese, garnering a high media profile, and then press the authorities to indict Bishop Finn.

What is SNAP? It sells itself as a victims’ advocacy organization that represents those who have been abused by any authority. This is a lie. It concentrates almost exclusively on the Catholic Church. How do I know? For one, just check its website. More revealing, last July I asked trusted sources to register at a SNAP conference outside of Washington, D.C. The entire event was dedicated to discussing ways to undermine what they called the “evil institution,” namely the Catholic Church. No one from SNAP has contested a single comment attributed to the speakers as described in my report, “SNAP Exposed.”

Here’s how SNAP manipulates the media. At the meeting, attendees were instructed how to hold a press conference: “Display holy childhood photos”; Use “feeling words”; Say, “I was scared” or “I was suicidal”; “Be sad, not mad”; “If you don’t have compelling holy childhood photos, we can provide you with photos of other kids that can be held up for the cameras.” The unmistakable goal is to feign sorrow and stage the event.

SNAP’s director, David Clohessy, began his activist career by working for ACORN, the now discredited far-left wing organization. In 1988, while watching the movie, “Nuts,” he had a revelation: his memory exploded with tales of being molested by a priest 20 years earlier. Three years later, his attorney, Jeffrey Anderson, sued the local diocese; working with Anderson for the first time was Rebecca Randles. The time gap in both instances is striking.

Clohessy wants Bishop Finn behind bars for not moving fast enough on this matter. But when Clohessy was working for SNAP in the 1990s, he refused to contact the authorities when he learned of a man who was sexually abusing young men. That man was his brother, Kevin, a Catholic priest. Feeling conflicted, David wondered, “he’s my brother; he’s an abuser. Do I treat him like my brother? Do I treat him like an abuser?” He chose the former. “He [Kevin] told me he was getting help, getting treatment.” This is understandable. What is not understandable is his outrage at bishops when they voice the same sentiment about their brother priests. The duplicity is sickening.

Is SNAP really upset about child porn, or just when a priest is involved? Dr. Steve Taylor is a psychiatrist who is in prison for downloading child porn on his computer. He is not just an ordinary shrink with a sick appetite—he worked for SNAP for years. Before his conviction, Barbara Blaine, the founder of SNAP, intervened on his behalf and wrote to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners asking them to give consideration to Taylor’s alleged humanitarian work—she didn’t want him to lose his license. Had Taylor been a priest, her reaction would have been vengeful.

At the July SNAP conference, Blaine spoke about priests who believe they have been mistreated by the authorities and want to countersue. She said they may have “a legal right,” but they “don’t have a moral right to do so.” This is what SNAP means by justice. When lawsuits were flying in 2002, after revelations about the Boston scandal, many priests who claimed innocence decided to countersue. SNAP actually declared such lawsuits “brutal” and “un-Christian.”

This one-way street favored by SNAP also manifests itself in other ways. While it always protects the names of its accusers, it demands that we know the names of accused priests, including those who are dead. Moreover, it will not release the names of its donors. Yet they condemn the Catholic Church for lacking transparency.

In August, SNAP accused New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan of covering up an alleged incident involving a teenage girl who said she was “inappropriately touched” by an 87-year-old priest. Dolan knew nothing about it until the cops were called. SNAP has yet to apologize. It also accused Dolan of “acting secretively” about a previous case where a priest was suspended. But Dolan was not in New York at the time—he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee. Moreover, at the SNAP conference, Dolan was accused of shielding 55 molesting priests. This is libelous. But it is what we have come to expect from these people—a SNAP official once spat in the Archbishop’s face.

SNAP is so anti-priest that its Kentucky chapter leader once lobbied state authorities to warn residents when Catholic priests who have been accused, but not convicted, of sexual abuse move into their neighborhood. Just priests. A few years ago, in California, a boy’s father alleged that his son had been abused by a priest in the 1990s. The case was dismissed. The alleged victim, now a grown man, said it never happened. When SNAP then learned that this innocent priest was appointed to a sex abuse panel, it went ballistic. In SNAP’s mind, once a priest is charged, he’s guilty, no matter what the verdict says.

The reason why SNAP wants to bring down Bishop Finn is because it always shoots for the top. In September, Clohessy admitted that his goal is to bring down the pope. “We’re not naïve,” he said. “We don’t think the pope will be hauled off in handcuffs next week or month. But by the same token, our long-term chances are excellent.” This kind of thinking explains why SNAP recently blasted the Vatican’s new guidelines on sex abuse the day before they were released.

SNAP is so hateful that it even endorses Gestapo-like tactics used against the Catholic Church. Last year, the world was stunned to learn of a Belgium police raid on Church facilities, looking for evidence of wrongdoing. The bishop was detained for over nine hours; the police even went so far as to drill into the tombs of two deceased cardinals looking for documents. And what did Barbara Blaine say? “If children are to be protected, the actions of Belgian law enforcement must become the norm, not the aberration.”

While fascistic means are acceptable to SNAP, it knows it can’t get away with that in the U.S. So it elects to work with those who are flooding the Diocese with lawsuits. This way it can drain its resources, tie up the courts and seek to turn the public against the Catholic Church.

Randles was one of the lawyers who was behind the bundled lawsuits that led to a 2008 settlement with the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Those lawsuits included claims dating back to just after World War II. Now she’s back, representing clients who just now seem to recall being abused many moons ago. The timing couldn’t be more convenient. The SNAP-led crowd is now claiming that the settlement, which held that the Diocese had to take steps to curb abuse, was violated. Their proposed remedy represents the fulfillment of their dreams: they want the Diocese to cede control of its operations.

Between 2009-2010 (the latest years for which data are available), there was a 42 percent increase in false allegations against priests. So-called repressed memory figures prominently in these bogus charges. A few years ago, researchers at Harvard Medical School studied this phenomenon and concluded that it has no scientific basis—it is purely a cultural invention. Harvard psychology professor Richard J. McNally also studied this subject. “The notion that the mind protects itself by banishing the most disturbing, terrifying events is psychiatric folklore.” He added, “The more traumatic and stressful something is, the less likely someone is to forget it.”

Randles is now charging that not only did the Diocese know what was happening, and did nothing about it, those in charge actually encouraged it. Here are some examples, all filed recently. In the case of Fr. Stephen Wise, the suit charges that “The Diocese ratified Wise’s sexual abuse of the plaintiff by encouraging him to commit the abuse and encouraging him to continue committing the abuse.” In the Fr. Michael Tierney case, the suit claims, “the sexual abuse of minors became a collective objective of the Diocese.” And in the Fr. Mark Honhart case, the suit also claims, “the sexual abuse of minors became a collective objective of the Diocese.”

In one sense, this kind of language is useful: it is positive proof of the anti-Catholic mindset. In their vision, the Catholic Church is the font of all evil, with the pope at command central. All of this might have been believable if it had been said by nativists 150 years ago, or by those in the asylum today, but to think that such malicious fiction is being trumpeted in 2011—by lawyers no less—is mind-boggling.

Clohessy recently wrote to the prosecutors of Clay County and Jackson County. “Jailing Finn, once his guilt has been determined or admitted, would be an unprecedented and effective step toward preventing future clergy sex crimes and cover ups, in Kansas City and elsewhere.” So Bishop Finn either admits his guilt or is found guilty. There is no other option. That’s exactly the way they think.

It is incorrect to assume that Randles and company are motivated mostly by money. No, their real goal is control—the control of the Catholic Church. Randles wants the Diocese to accept third-party supervision of these matters. She is asking for “continuing supervision,” explaining that she is “looking for a mechanism to enforce the provisions of the settlement agreement from this day forward, so that there is some form of continuing watch-dogging.” It doesn’t get much plainer than this.

WAR ON CHRISTMAS

November
Bellevue, WA – Shortly after Thanksgiving, Bob McLean, a United States Postal Service letter carrier, was taken off his route by his supervisor because someone complained about his Santa Clause uniform. “The government is shutting me down because it’s a non-postal regulation uniform,” said McLean, a USPS employee since 1971. In past years, he had donned the uniform for a few days while delivering mail during the Christmas season. His, a source of local Christmas cheer, had been tolerated for over a decade.

November
Springhill, LA – The Springhill Branch Library banned a living nativity scene that was to be portrayed by a First Assembly of God youth group because library officials disallowed anything with “religious tones” on library grounds. As a result, the living nativity scene was moved to elsewhere in town.

November-December
Freedom From Religion Foundation sought to counter the display of a nativity scene in Athens, Texas with one of its mocking statements.. Similarly, hundreds of residents in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania turned out to rally in support of their crèche.

The bottom line was unmistakable. In every instance when the people got mobilized, they did so in support of Christmas. There was not a single example to the contrary: the anti-Christmas folks amount to nothing more than a few atheist organizations and their lawyers.

The Catholic League Nativity scene in Central Park. 

November 3
The Air Force apologized after being accused of religious intolerance by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for promoting Operation Christmas Child. Sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian group, it sends Christmas gifts to impoverished children worldwide.

November 30
In Wisconsin, for the first time in years, they reverted back to calling the Capitol Rotunda Christmas tree a Christmas tree: it was called a Christmas tree for 70 years until it was renamed a Holiday tree in the mid-1980s.

In Rhode Island, Governor Lincoln Chafee decided to continue the politics of intolerance by calling the Capitol Rotunda Christmas tree a Holiday tree

Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation explained why the Christmas tree in Wisconsin was rebranded the Holiday tree: “Calling it a Holiday tree was meant to be inclusive.” Ironically, it has proven to be divisive—the uproar was in Rhode Island, not Wisconsin.

According to the Providence Journal, 87 percent of the people in Rhode Island prefer to call the Christmas tree a Christmas tree; only 8 percent think it should be called a Holiday tree. In Wisconsin, there was no discord: calling the Christmas tree a Christmas tree has brought people together. This is why Rhode Island should learn a lesson in civility and community by calling its Christmas tree a Christmas tree.

We asked: By the way, what holiday does the Holiday tree represent?

December
Newburyport, MA – Principal Lorene Marx banned fourth and fifth graders at Edward G. Molin Upper Elementary School from participating in “Secret Santa.” Parents were upset the tradition was being banned. Marx said her decision was based on the fact that not every student celebrates Christmas and that some might not be able to afford to take part. Marx commented, “No student needs to feel they need to give a certain amount, to feel left out or to feel unable to participate. This also ties in with the district’s inclusionary practices.” Superintendent Marc Kerble said, “Everybody has good intentions, and I think that in the spirit of giving, we need to move forward and do what’s best for the community.”

December
Fairfield, CA – The Military Religious Foundation wrote to authorities at Travis Air Force Base asking that the Nativity scene and menorah in the base’s holiday display be moved to a chapel nearby. The group claimed that the displays constituted an endorsement of religions by the military. Lawyers for the base determined that the symbols do not violate religious freedom of the troops. The Air Force judge decided that the displays at the base were part of a more general, secular holiday display, which includes images of Santa Claus, airplanes, and Christmas trees.

December
Lincoln, NE – A flashing message reminding passersby to “Remember the Reason for the Season” was removed from the electronic sign at Lincoln Southeast High School. Principal Patrick Hunter-Pirtle commented: “It shouldn’t have been up there. That phrase is associated with Christianity. We have Jewish students here, and we have Muslim students here. I don’t want anybody to feel like we’re favoring a religion. I don’t want to exclude anyone, and we work hard at that.” Hunter-Pirtle had not noticed the message until receiving a phone call from the ACLU-Nebraska Executive Director Laurel Marsh.

 December
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) launched its atheistic billboard campaign against the Christmas season. The billboards read “Imagine No Religion” and “Reason’s Greetings.” For the first time, billboards went up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brookville, Indiana also saw atheist billboards in response to a crèche controversy from the preceding year, in which FFRF disputed the placement of a Nativity scene on public property.. This year, the Nativity was displayed again on courthouse grounds, but in a different location by the street. New York City was also included in the billboard campaign.

In Warren, Michigan “”FFRF tried to put up a “Winter Solstice” sign next to a crèche inside Warren City Hall. The sign was to include the statement that religion is a “myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.” Warren Mayor James Fouts responded against the sign with a letter to FFRF in which he wrote, “I cannot and will not sanction the desecration of religion in the Warren City Hall atrium.”“” On December 23, FFRF sued the Warren mayor for “government censorship of nonreligious views and unlawful endorsement of religion.”

December
Portland, Ore. – A former church, now a small arts venue, displayed a local artist’s take on the nativity scene. It was called “alien nativity.” The exhibit, entailed 3D special effects, included four extraterrestrial magi as well as a portrayal of Santa Claus as shaman bedecked with an antlered deer’s skull.

December 4
Leesburg, VA – A life-size crucified skeleton wearing a Santa Clause outfit appeared on the grounds of the Loudon County courthouse. According to the application for the display, the skeleton Santa was meant “to depict society’s materialistic obsessions and addictions and it is killing the peace, love, joy and kindness that is supposed to prevalent during the holiday season.”

December 8
We launched our “Adopt an Atheist” campaign in response to David Silverman’s remarks: “We want people to realize that there may be atheists in their family,” he told the New York Times, “even if those atheists don’t even know they are atheists.”Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knew this to be true, which is why he was frantically trying to inflate his base.

We thought that there was some merit in Silverman’s idea, even if he had things backwards, as usual. So, in response to him, we launched our “Adopt an Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which was, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”

Here is what our campaign entailed. We asked everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area, letting them know of his interest in “adopting” one of them. We asked our members to let the atheists know of their sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. We said that the atheists may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.

Bill Donohue discussed the urgency of this campaign, “If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who ‘believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.’”

December 12-30
“The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever!” made its premier on the West Coast at the Avery Schreiber Theatre in North Hollywood, California and ran through December 30. On the East Coast, the play was a success off-Broadway in New York and ran from November 14 through December 31.

Director Paul Storiale said, “We have lots of different characters. There’s a narcoleptic with Tourette’s, over-the-top gay, over-the-top black, a gay Mexican Jesus. This show is filled with every stereotype; no group goes untouched.”

Music director Geo Santini described the character of Jesus as “silly” and “deviant.”

An actress played a lesbian angel in bow tie and suspenders, “butching up” the Nativity. She said: “The underlying message is one of visibility, and those of us who are gay and lesbian struggle with that. The hope is that some day [this play] won’t be a big deal because it’s gay. It will just be another Christmas pageant people will want to see because it’s well-written and because it’s funny.”

December 13
The following are some of the positive and negative stoires that cross our desk leading up to Christmas.

On the positive front, the residents of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania turned out by the hundreds on December 2 to rally in support of their nativity scene. There is a live nativity scene on city property in Minden, Louisiana, and after some initial resistance, a church hand bell group will soon take command of the Springhill library’s courtyard. After a nativity scene was banned for years on the grounds of the Muskingum County Courthouse in Zanesville, Ohio, the county commissioners voted unanimously to put it back. Similarly, Wisconsin reverted back to its display of a Christmas tree at the state capitol. “Keep Christ in Christmas” was the banner that stretched across the street in Pitman, New Jersey, and attempts by atheists to censor it have failed. And, in Athens, Texas, 5,000 people took to the streets in support of the crèche on the grounds of the Henderson County Courthouse after the Freedom From Religion Foundation called for its removal.

On the negative front, a school counselor at an Arkansas elementary school was told that she must remove her posting of a nativity scene on her billboard; her decoration was permitted for more than 20 years. Tulsa, Oklahoma long had a Christmas parade, but in recent years it was renamed the Holiday parade.

But just as the people in Rhode Island sang Christmas songs at their secularized “Holiday” event, the people in Tulsa countered with their own Christmas parade.

Indeed, we saw more examples of the pro-Christmas side not settling for a secular outcome than its obverse. More important, when the anti-Christmas side pushed back, those doing it were activist atheists. When the pro-Christmas side pushed back, it was a grassroots effort. In short, “Power to the People” never sounded so good.

December 15
We issued a press release on the anti-Christian tactics of atheist groups.

“If we can’t censor, then compete.” That’s the preferred modus operandi of many atheists out to smash Christmas. Their first instinct is to ban nativity scenes wherever they can. If that doesn’t work, then they lay claim to the same spot seeking to display their anti-Christmas message.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) was the most active atheist group using this two-prong strategy in 2011. In the Mississippi State Capitol, FFRF displayed a sign mocking religion; it did the same in the Wisconsin State Capitol. It also waged war in small towns such as Athens, Texas and Prineville, Oregon.

Sometimes the efforts of radical atheists yield really ugly fruit: in Santa Monica, city officials used a lottery system to sort out all the requests for display on public property, the result being that atheists won most of the spots.

Unfortunately, some government officials took the easy way out by electing to ban all displays. For example, in 2010 the Catholic League protested the display of the menorah, a religious symbol, and the banning of a nativity scene, also a religious symbol, at the St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal and in Boca Raton, Florida. This year the courageous souls who run things in both places chose to ban all displays. 

December 19
We issued a press release addressing intolerance at Christmastime at home and abroad.

North Korea is putting South Korea on notice, warning of “unexpected consequences” if Seoul displays Christmas lights near the border. In China last week, government officials and the police smashed the sound equipment of Christians who were about to celebrate Christmas in a village outside Beijing.

In a South Carolina cancer center, a 67-year-old volunteer Santa was evicted because of the “different cultures and beliefs of the patients we care for”; it later reversed its decision. In an elementary school in Stockton, California, poinsettias were banned but somehow snowmen were permitted; they justified their censorship by saying there was a Sikh temple in the city (note: there is no evidence that Sikhs are offended by poinsettias.)

A homosexual group on the campus of Washington and Jefferson College succeeded in getting the Dean to approve a condom-decorated Christmas tree.

Most atheists are not intolerant, but rare is the atheist qua activist who is not. Unfortunately, we don’t have to look overseas to Communist nations to witness this verity. That they show up at Christmastime, as well as at Easter, is proof that their real hatred is of all things Christian.

December 21
Holyoke, MA – Parts of the Nativity from the closed Mater Dolorosa church were moved to the Holy Cross Church. This sparked outrage from protesters occupying the closed church. They claim they set up the manger scene to set up the Christmas holiday. However, a diocesan spokesman said workers went to retrieve the Nativity for a nearby open parish and found that the protestors had set it up without permission.

December 23
Tarrytown, NY – A Christmas tree was veiled with a black curtain in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel Tarrytown at the request of Jewish guests who were scheduled to stay at the hotel for a Hanukkah celebration, occupying 180 of the hotel’s 250 rooms. The general manager said guests were concerned that the tree would be a safety hazard to the large number of children in the hotel: “We did it more to protect a lot of children…from a safety perspective.”

The only report on this incident in the Journal News did not mention how the manager justified his claim that a tree with a curtain would be less of a safety hazard to children than a tree without a curtain or why the curtain, itself was not a safety hazard.

One Roman Catholic patron staying at the hotel said, “I think it’s a slap in the face. The whole purpose of the holiday season, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukah, is everybody celebrating their beliefs. If I went in and put a cover on a menorah, I’d probably have lawyers calling me.” He may no longer give his business to the hotel, saying: “Why should I have to go in there and look at a black curtain instead of a Christmas tree?”

Christmas Vandalism

During each Christmas season, our desks are loaded with stories on Christmas vandalism. This year was no different. Here is a list of incidents that came to our attention:

November
St. Paul, MN – Copper thieves cut and stole heavy and light duty electric cords from lighted Christmas displays in Phalen Park.

November 11
Indiana, PA – A 4-foot Christmas tree decorated with multicolored lights was uprooted and stolen from the backyard of the rectory of St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church, home to priests at the parish serving Catholic students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

November 22
Moreno Valley, CA – A family had its outdoor Christmas decorations stolen after just setting them up. The thieves took most of the expensive decorations. The stolen items were worth $1600.

November 28
Antioch, IL – Toys, coats, and other items intended for Open Arms Mission Charities were stolen from St. Stephen Lutheran Church. The stolen items were worth $700.

December
Philadelphia, PA – The Salvation Army had three of its red kettles stolen from bell ringers at two grocery stores in the Northeast part of the city.

December
Golf Hammock, FL – Inflatable lawn decorations, including a Frosty the Snowman display as well as two Santa displays, were destroyed by vandals in a rash of incidents. One resident claimed that she knew of five vandalized inflatable decorations and that four homes were hit.

December
Lonaconing, MD – Christmas decorations were damaged throughout the town, resulting in up to $800 in costs to replace damaged or stolen displays.

December
Meridian and Lauderdale Counties, MS – In a series of incidents, decorations were stolen or vandalized within the span of a few weeks. Some had their decorations vandalized multiple times. One citizen remarked, “But I honestly believe that is more a breaking down of society. I think that we don’t value things like we used to and we don’t value hard work like we used to.”

December
Ramsey, NJ – Presents, toys, and gift cards for the needy, valued at $3,000, were stolen from St. Paul Roman Catholic Church.

December 3
Sacramento, CA – A family’s Christmas decorations were a neighborhood staple until this year, when vandals slashed an inflatable Santa, ripped off Rudolph the reindeer’s head, and made off with an oversize Grinch figure.

December 10
Milton, GA – In the Gates Mill subdivision, residents were hit with a rash of vandalism hitting up to five homes. The damage included: a baby Jesus figure tossed from its Nativity scene, knocked over reindeer lights, a deflated Santa Claus, a Santa Claus lawn decoration hanging from a tree. According to authorities, yards were strewn with broken, bent, and beheaded Christmas decorations.

December 17-18
Yonkers, NY – Religious statues at six homes and two churches—one Episcopal, the other Catholic—were desecrated by vandals. Statues of the Virgin Mary were spray-painted black and some stolen.

December 19
Fairhaven, MA – According to police, a pickup vehicle deliberately crashed head-on through a Nativity scene in Benoit Square, dragging wreckage including the infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The crèche was repaired by volunteers from the North Fairhaven Improvement Association, which maintains and decorates the square for the season.

December 20
Oildale, CA – A were defaced by vandals with spray-paint who drew an upside-down cross and the numbers 666. Among the decorations defaced were a Nativity scene, a Bible verse and a sign that said “Happy Birthday Jesus.”

November-December
Figures of the Baby Jesus were stolen from homes, businesses or churches in the following locations: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Monmouth, Illinois; Worcester, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Macon County, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Pearl River, New York; Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Port Angeles, Washington

January 2

Bangor, PA – Towards the end of the Christmas season, this defaced baby Jesus (see above) was found hanging in a tree outside of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Baby Jesus was part of its outdoor crèche before it was stolen.

The front side of the figure was marked with the message, “I am the Antichrist,” on the loincloth, an anarchy sign on the chest, horns on the forehead, and stigmatic dots on the hands and feet.

The back of the figure was marked with the number “666” down the spine as well as the message, “Demonization is religious oppression.”

Bangor Borough Council authorized an award of up to $500 for information leading to the apprehension of the perpetrators.

January 14
Quinter, KS – Two Baby Jesus figures were stolen from a United Methodist Church as well as a painting of Jesus. One of the figures was hand-crafted by church members.