It is becoming ever more clear that those who run the American Psychological Association (APA) are suffering from a mental breakdown. It is now promoting “relationship anarchy,” as well as other dysfunctional behaviors. To the APA, about the only deviant sexual behavior that is left in American society is what most of us would call normal heterosexual monogamous unions.

Its descent is traceable to 1975 when it decided to support the position of the American Psychiatric Association declaring that homosexuality was not a mental illness. That determination, which was reached in 1973, was not based on any new scientific empirical evidence; rather, it was made following years of bullying by radical gay activists.

The APA is on a tear. Earlier this year it made a strong political statement attacking men [read: heterosexual men]. It opined that a pernicious “masculine ideology” has overtaken society and must be rooted out. What are the contents of this ideology? “Anti-femininity,” which is to say the normal male tendency not to identify with effeminate men. It also includes such dangerous attributes as “achievement.” Evidently, it does not see the sexism in this statement (it implies that women are not achievement oriented).

The latest APA endorsement of polygamy and swinging (and my favorite, the all-inclusive “relationship anarchy”) was announced recently as part of the APA’s “Non-Monogamy Task Force” program; it says it is promoting “inclusivity.” It has not yet endorsed bestiality (which is no doubt a tribute to the animal rights folks), but who knows what lies beyond the bend? That may be next. Isn’t that what “inclusivity” is all about?

Ten years ago a book was released by three psychologists, Nicholas Cummings, William O’Donohue, and Janet Cummings, titled Psychology’s War on Religion. Bill Donohue contributed the chapter, “The War on Catholicism.”

Donohue quoted Freud as saying “my real enemy” is “the Roman Catholic Church.” He also detailed Jung’s pathological hatred of the Catholic Church. Many other wizards in the field who shared the same bias were discussed as well. Make no mistake about it, there is a direct line between this kind of thinking and the APA’s embrace of “relationship anarchy.”

Let’s face it, the APA leadership is actively pushing the radical gay agenda, the goal of which is to eradicate the cultural basis of Western civilization, namely the Judeo-Christian ethos. Their ideology is so entrenched that they are unable to see the psychological and social damage that is done to everyone, especially women and children, when a sexual ethic based on restraint is destroyed. And have they not learned of the body count attributed to lethal sex practices?

The APA is not a scientific body—it is an activist organization in service to sexual libertinism.

Judy Keane is the director of public affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). She was put on leave for a week after she tweeted some pro-Trump statements; she noted in her tweets that the opinions expressed were her own. This would be of no interest to the Catholic League were it not for the attack on her by John Gehring. [By the way, Bill Donohue has never met or corresponded with Keane.]

Gehring notes that some of Keane’s positions, such as her advocacy of a wall to stop people from illegally crashing our borders, is at odds with the position of the USCCB. That may be but that is not Gehring’s business.

Gehring once worked at the USCCB in a junior position, and he now heads a militant secularist organization—it is really nothing but a letterhead—Faith in Public Life, funded by George Soros, an atheist billionaire and notorious anti-Catholic.

In 2012, Donohue received a tip from a journalist that Gehring was trying to sabotage the bishops by briefing reporters on the kinds of questions they should ask: He wanted the reporters to nail the bishops to the wall. This was his way of undermining the bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom event, an ongoing religious liberty project. Gehring advised the reporters not to buy the argument that religious liberty was under attack. He was blasted by the USCCB for doing so. To this day, Donohue is proud of making this tip public.

Since that time Gehring has been involved in the same kinds of anti-religious liberty campaigns that his Soros-funded dummy Catholic organizations have been. In 2016, it was revealed, via the Wikileaks emails, that Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United were set up by Hillary Clinton operative John Podesta to create a “revolution” in the Catholic Church. Gehring’s efforts continue to serve that cause today.

Gehring has no moral leg to stand on by criticizing Judy Keane. His hatred of the USCCB, as well as Church teachings on moral issues—to say nothing of his alliance with George Soros—automatically disqualifies him.

On August 14, 2018 Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report on six of the eight Catholic dioceses in the state. News reports said he found evidence of 301 priests who abused more than 1,000 children over a period of 70 years.

As Bill Donohue said at the time, and will say so again, those reports were thrice false: a) not all the alleged offenders were priests b) most of the alleged victims were not children (they were adolescents) and c) the report was not evidentiary—it was investigative—meaning that the accused priests were not given an opportunity to rebut the charges.

What has happened since the report was released? Of the 301 persons named, two wound up facing criminal charges and were sent to prison. Most of the offenders either had already been thrown out of the priesthood or were dead. Shapiro knew this going into his probe, yet he spent a colossal amount of the taxpayers’ money on this gambit, simply to make a name for himself. In doing so he followed in the footsteps of others.

From the beginning, the investigations of the Catholic Church were classic cases of religious profiling. To be exact, never once did Shapiro, or any of his predecessors, conduct an investigation into any other institution, religious or secular. Nor has Shapiro done so in the past year. It is only the Catholic Church these top cops like to pursue.

The first investigation into the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church that was conducted by a Pennsylvania executive occurred in 2001. It was also the start of the religious profiling probes. Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham was given a specific charge “to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by individuals associated with religious organizations and denominations.” She never did. She chose only the Catholic Church: Jews, Muslims, and Protestants were all given a pass. And, of course, the public schools were never of any interest to her.

In 2005, Abraham gave up: not a single priest was prosecuted. That’s because she could not prosecute old cases, something she knew from the get-go. In other words, she ripped off the taxpayers, making them pay for her wild goose chase.

In 2011, Abraham’s successor, Seth Williams, tried to outdo her. He wanted to bring down the archbishop of Philadelphia, but that didn’t work out too well for him. Instead, he brought down himself. In 2017, he was sentenced to five years in prison on multiple counts of bribery, extortion and fraud. He even robbed money set aside to pay for his own mother’s nursing home care, using it to fund his lavish lifestyle. He was taken out of court in handcuffs.

Next up was the beginning of the state efforts to get the Catholic Church. In 2014, a grand jury was seated by Attorney General Kathleen Kane. She wanted to bring down the Catholic hierarchy as well. But like Williams, that didn’t work out too well for her. Instead, she brought down herself. In 2016, she was sentenced to 10-23 months in prison for committing multiple felonies: she leaked sealed, confidential grand jury documents to the media and then lied under oath. She was taken out of court in handcuffs.

Kane had no legitimate reason to start her probe. Ironically, it all began when a bishop contacted the local authorities about offenses that came to his attention committed by someone under his watch. Had he said nothing, there would have been no grand jury investigation by either Kane or Shapiro. Instead of commending the bishop, Kane took advantage of his honesty to go after the Catholic Church throughout the state.

In November 2011, Bishop Mark Bartchak, who headed the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, learned of offenses committed by Brother Stephen Baker in the 1990s at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown. He immediately notified the authorities. The police never contacted Cambria County District Attorney Kathleen Callihan; once she learned of this case, she decided not to start a grand jury probe. Instead, she asked for a state investigation, handing the matter over to Attorney General Kane.

Now imagine for a moment if a public school superintendent in central Pennsylvania were to turn in a teacher believed to have sexually abused a student. Imagine further that the local district attorney decides to contact the state’s attorney general—instead of conducting his own probe—and this leads to an investigation of every school district in the state. And that, in turn, triggers state investigations of the public schools throughout the nation.

This would never happen, not in a million years. To this day, the public school industry is protected in Pennsylvania, even though the Associated Press reported five years ago that the Keystone State ranked No. 2 in teacher sex crimes in the nation. It is also protected in every other state, shielded by the teachers’ unions and the politicians they fund.

The politics of sexual abuse is almost as disgusting as sexual abuse. We’ve been played. This is not about justice—it’s about selectively choosing one class of offenders to prosecute. It’s called religious profiling. It ought to be as invidious as racial profiling, but obviously it is not.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops latest findings on clergy sexual abuse continue to show how this problem has largely been checked.

The 2018 Annual Report, “Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” covers the period from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.

During this period, there were 26 new allegations involving current minors. But only three were substantiated (all three men were removed from ministry). Seven were unsubstantiated; three were unable to be proven; two were referred to a religious order; two were reported as unknown; and three were boundary violations, not instances of sexual abuse.

If we consider the three cases that were substantiated, this means that only .006 percent of the 50,648 members of the clergy had a substantiated accusation made against him in that one-year period. Everyone will agree that ideally the figure should be .000, but fair-minded people will conclude that .006 percent is a negligible amount.

We would go further: Show us a demographic group, or an institution, secular or religious, where adults intermingle with minors on a regular basis, which has a better record than this. As we have said many times before, Catholics are being played by those—many of whom are Catholic—who do not want the scandal to go away. That way they can push for their reforms. This includes those on the right as well as the left.
As usual, most of the alleged victims were male (82 percent). Only about a fifth were prepubescent, meaning that once again it is obvious we are dealing with homosexual predators, though, as always, the annual report refuses to so say.

This report broke new ground in one way: it sought to measure the diagnosis of some alleged offenders. We say “some” because the questionnaire only applied to religious institutes. Moreover, the survey did not seek a diagnosis of the most common abuser—the homosexual clergyman. It only applied to pedophiles. This decision is never explained in the report.

The findings revealed that 57 percent of the pedophiles were deemed “situational offenders,” meaning they did not have a preference for prepubescent children; 43 percent were diagnosed as “preferential offenders,” meaning they sought out prepubescent children.

The latter category is easy to understand: they are true pedophiles. What about the former? What kind of man abuses a child simply because it is convenient for him to do so? It suggests that such a man would have hit on an adolescent if the situation were ripe, and since most of the victims are male, the problem circles back to homosexuality.

The good news is that the problem of clergy sexual abuse is being checked. The bad news is that those who do these reports refuse to ask some of the really hard questions.

This news release by Bill Donohue was printed as an op-ed column by the Indianapolis Star on June 23rd.

On June 20, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson revoked the Catholic status of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. He did so because the school rejected his request not to renew the contract of a teacher who said he was married to his boyfriend. The archbishop came under fire for doing so.

Two years ago, the teacher’s gay marriage became known on social media. It was therefore no longer a private matter. It is important to note that the archbishop did not demand that the teacher be fired, though he could have: the teacher violated his contract. Thompson simply asked that his contract not be renewed.

To understand this issue better, consider the following analogy.

In the business community, a franchise is allowed certain leeway in making decisions, but it is also expected to abide by the core strictures of the parent company. If it violates them, it cannot reasonably expect to be treated as if it were in good standing. It would have to go its own way.

The same is true of religious orders in their relationship to the local diocese: they are allowed a degree of autonomy but they are expected to follow the house rules, and when they don’t, they effectively break the trust and forfeit a right to claim association with the diocese.

Fr. Brian Paulson, S.J., the head of the Jesuits’ Midwest Province, defended the teacher, saying he “respects the primacy of an informed conscience of members of its community when making moral decisions.”

Really? What would he do to a teacher who said he felt morally obliged to join a white supremacy organization—on his own time—and insisted that he would not let it interfere with his job. Wouldn’t he fire him?

Those who defend the school argue that lots of teachers in Catholic schools violate Church teachings, yet they are not treated the way those who are in same-sex marriages are. That’s a lame defense.

The difference is that in most cases Church officials would have to monitor the private lives of every teacher, often violating their privacy rights, or subject them to an inquisition. In the instance of the teacher in the gay marriage—and this is typical of such cases—the contractual violation was made public, thus inviting a showdown.

Archbishop Thompson acted wisely and with great restraint.

There are two hosts on TV today who would be fired if they said about other demographic groups and institutions what they say about Catholics and the Catholic Church: Bill Maher and Trevor Noah. It is Noah who recently commanded our interest.

On June 11, Noah went on an obscene rant about Catholics and the Catholic Church that was so bad that we cannot reproduce everything he said. He took aim at the Vatican document on gender ideology that was released recently, lying about its contents and then using it as a platform to attack.

He went on and on—the man is fixated on filth—so we won’t even attempt to cite most of what he said. “I mean we all know the Church thinks if you’re a girl,” he said, “you’re a girl forever, and if you’re a boy, they’re going to f*** you.” He then offered several “pedophile jokes” targeting homosexual priests. The crowd loved it.

Noah’s show appears on Comedy Central and the network is owned by Viacom. There are 22 top executives at Viacom, and on June 13 we hand-delivered each of them (Viacom’s headquarters is 10 blocks from our New York City office) a copy of Noah’s remarks about Catholicism from March 26, April 22, May 29, and June 11. Surely there are some executives who will agree that what Noah is saying cannot be justified. They need to sit him down or fire him.

Below is the memo that Bill Donohue sent to the top brass at Viacom.

To: Viacom Top Executives
From: Bill Donohue, President, Catholic League
Date: June 13, 2019
Re: Trevor Noah

“They’re going to try to f*** you.” [Note: Donohue did not use asterisks in his corrrespondence.] That’s what Trevor Noah told his audience on June 11. He was talking about what priests do to boys.

There is something really sick going on. Noah is on a tear, speaking about the pope, priests, and Catholic teachings in the most obscene way possible. If he said this about anyone else—imagine him making these kinds of vicious remarks about gays—he would be fired, and you know it. Yet no one does anything to rein him in, effectively giving him the green light to express his bigotry.

Enclosed are news releases detailing what Noah has been saying about Catholics and the Catholic Church this year. This is indefensible.

There are other actions we can take, and I will not hold back. But I thought I should at least apprise you of this matter now in the hope that we won’t have to pursue other options.

Thank you for your attention to this issue.

John Gehring runs a front group for his senior left-wing patron, atheist billionaire George Soros. Faith In Public Life, it needs to be acknowledged, represents no rank-and-file constituency.

Gehring found a home for his latest assault on Catholicism in a piece distributed by the Religion News Service.

Gehring is upset that two bishops have recently defended the teachings of the Church against those seeking to impose the LGBT agenda on them. He is also mad that a new Vatican document on gender ideology affirmed the Church’s position on this subject. In a pitiful ploy, he tries to rescue his argument by citing the pope.

The Catholic League was proud to defend Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin for admonishing Catholics not to buy into the LGBT agenda by supporting “Pride Month” celebrations. We were also happy to defend Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson for reminding a Jesuit high school that if it is to be identified as a Catholic entity it had better respect the Church’s teachings on marriage. And we were delighted with the Vatican document that showed gender ideology to be intellectually bankrupt.

Gehring is livid at both bishops. His anger is misplaced: He is at war with the Catholic Church, not the hierarchy. Moreover, his attempt to draw the pope to his side is a total bust. Pope Francis has never recognized the fiction of a gay marriage, and he labels gender ideology “demonic.”

George Soros wants to silence the moral voice of the Catholic Church, and he bankrolls Gehring to be his rabbit. Indeed, in the first sentence of Gehring’s article he says “Church leaders should take a year of abstinence from preaching about sex and gender.” What a joke. It will never swap its teachings for the prevailing insanity of the LGBT agenda.

The Congregation for Catholic Education has published the most brilliant and authoritative document on the sexes that is currently available. It literally tears to pieces the fatuous claims of gender ideology. Fortunately, it does not water down its account by trying to appease its critics.

“Male and Female: He Created Them” is not only the title of this work, it accurately conveys reality. God did not create mere human beings. No, he created two very different, yet complementary, sexes.
The document takes aim at gender theory, which, it says, “denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.” Such a vision postulates the absurd notion that “human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.”

The document notes how gender ideology developed in the 20th century. It celebrates the “freedom of the individual,” emphasizing that “the only thing that matters in personal relationships is the affection between the individuals involved, irrespective of sexual difference or procreation which would be seen as irrelevant in the formation of families.” To put it mildly, this position is sociologically illiterate.

This kind of subjectivism allows the gender ideology promoters to separate sex from gender. “This separation is at the root of the distinctions proposed between various ‘sexual orientations’ which are no longer defined by the sexual differences between male and female, and can then assume other forms, determined solely by the individual, who is seen as radically autonomous.” This kind of madness is now being taught in the schools.

The Vatican document rightly notes how gender ideology seeks to separate the body from human will, as if one can will his sex. This nonsense finds expression in the “fictitious construct known as ‘gender neutral’ or ‘third gender,’ which has the effect of obscuring the fact that a person’s sex is a structural determinant of male or female identity.” These theories, which include such wild notions as “intersex” or “transgender,” are, at bottom, attempts to “annihilate the concept of ‘nature.'”

There is so much more to this splendid document. It is written for Catholic educators, but it should be read by everyone. The loss of common sense, as evidenced by many in the humanities and social sciences, is directly challenged in this real-life reading of some eternal truths. [See Bill Donohue’s new book, Common Sense Catholicism: How to Resolve Our Cultural Crisis, especially the chapter titled, “Sex Equality,” for more on this subject.]

No wonder the gender ideology promoters are furious. This is a cogent take-down of their plainly stupid, indeed pernicious, ideas about man and society. Its timeliness could not be more fortuitous—it is a heady antidote to the many fictions entertained during “Pride” month events.

It cannot be said too emphatically that any Catholic who is at odds with this document is at odds with more than just the Catholic Church. He is at odds with nature, and nature’s God.

Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin has incurred the wrath of homosexuals and their alphabet ilk for tweeting on June 1 that Catholics should not support LGBTQ “Pride Month” events. He tweeted that such celebrations “promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful to children.”

Immediately, the bishop was bombarded with 70,000 comments on Twitter, some calling on him to resign. Tobin responded on June 2 by saying, “I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially in the gay community.” He did not intend to hurt anyone, he said. He also acknowledged the “widespread support I have received on this matter.”

Bishop Tobin was right to call attention to the gay culture and what Pride Month entails. While many of the events are without controversy, some are obnoxious. There are pictures from the 2017 Providence Pride Month that are disgusting.

Unlike virtually every other parade that celebrates the heritage of various racial, ethnic, and religious groups, as well as marches that honor immigrant nations, many of the participants in Pride events have a hard time keeping their pants on. No one has ever explained why this is such a common occurrence.

Pictures from the Providence Pride Month, posted by J.S. Photography, show lesbians wearing t-shirts inscribed with obscenities, as well as bare-breasted women adorned with nipple shields. Lots of men are shown parading atop floats wearing nothing but skin-tight briefs, or less.

This is not exactly what we would expect from any other demographic group. But these homosexuals are different.

Then there are the demonstrations of debauchery. One of the nightlife venues promoted by Pride Month is Mirabar, a gay dance club. But it’s not a normal dance spot. This year it is featuring a “Bare As You Dare” party. Posted online is its dress code: “Bathing Suits or Underwear or Whatever.”

Imagine a Salute to Israel parade, a St. Patrick’s Day parade, or a Puerto Rican Day parade where participants are invited to party in their underwear, or wearing “whatever.” It just wouldn’t happen. But these homosexuals are different.

Bishop Tobin is a man of courage. He is not out to hurt anyone, but he is also committed to speaking the truth, and that makes him a man of principle.

In the last Catalyst, we said progress was being made on the California Confessional bill. Instead of requiring priests to divulge any information on the sexual abuse of a minor learned in the confessional from any source, it was limited to penitents such as a co-worker or a priest. Catholic League members helped drive this progress. Below is the text of a letter by Bill Donohue to Sen. Jerry Hill, the bill’s sponsor, on June 12.

Dear Sen. Hill:

Regarding SB 360, you have been quoted as saying that “the clergy-penitent privilege has been abused on a large scale, resulting in underreported and systemic abuse of thousands of children across multiple denominations and faiths.”

Could you please provide my office with documentation to support that claim? I will not be coy: I don’t believe you can. But go ahead and prove me wrong.

There have been several inaccurate reports in the secular and Catholic media about the number of states that do not honor the clergy-penitent privilege in cases involving the sexual abuse of minors. There are six: New Hampshire, West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas (See “Clergy As Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect,” www.childwelfare.gov).

If you are right, then these states must have a trove of evidence showing how “the systemic abuse of thousands of children” has been uncovered now that the clergy-penitent privilege is no longer operative. I don’t believe you have such data, and that’s because it doesn’t exist.

The sexual abuse of minors is an outrageous crime. It is also outrageous to sponsor a bill that allows the state to encroach on religion while doing nothing to resolve this issue. That’s a lose-lose. That is why I am asking you to withdraw your bill.

On June 25, Donohue wrote the following letter to Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, chairman of the Public Safety Committee in charge of the bill.

Dear Assemblyman Jones-Sawyer:

The California confessional bill has national implications, which is why Catholics across the country are deeply concerned about this legislation. We all agree that those who violate a youngster—in any profession—should have the book thrown at him. But to violate a sacrament of the Catholic Church in the course of doing so is unjust. Please reconsider this bill. It is not only the wrong remedy, it is unenforceable as well. Moreover, it will spur needless lawsuits. Surely there is a more prudent way to address this matter.

Thank you for your consideration.

See the September Catalyst for more on this subject.