William A. Donohue Last fall when the Catholic League protested the "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, we were accused of censorship. Leading the way was Joan E. Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. In the fall of 1998, Bertin got so uptight with us for protesting the Terrence McNally play, [...]
William A. Donohue George W. Bush set off a firestorm when he decided to kick off his South Carolina campaign by going to Bob Jones University. It is a school that to this day regards Catholicism as "a satanic counterfeit" and the "Mother of Harlots." If you are in doubt, check out their website. Why Bob [...]
William A. Donohue Most of us can easily identify prejudicial statements when sweeping generalizations of a negative kind are made. But prejudice has many faces, and not all of them are readily apparent. Take the "Dateline" example that is mentioned in this issue of Catalyst. Does the Catholic Church have dirty laundry? Of course. What institution or [...]
William A. Donohue The new millennium actually doesn’t begin until the year 2001, but I don’t want to quibble with conventional wisdom, so I’ll pretend that we are now finishing the 20th century. The serious question that needs to be addressed is, "What is the state of anti-Catholicism at the end of the century"? There are two [...]
William A. Donohue Myth: In an unprecedented move, the Catholic League sought to censor an art exhibit. Fact: The Catholic League never sought to censor anything and its protest of an art exhibit was hardly unprecedented. We made it clear that Charles Saatchi, the collector of the paintings, could always find some "fat cat bigot" to foot the [...]
William A. Donohue William Bentley Ball, perhaps this century’s leading Catholic constitutional lawyer, frequently took note of the anti-Catholic animus that has pervaded our judicial system. No doubt he looked down with disgust when he learned of the recent ruling in Federal District Court in Ohio that blocked Cleveland’s voucher program. The decision was vintage anti-Catholicism. [...]
William A. Donohue Six years ago, on July 1, 1993, I took over as president of the Catholic League. When I began, I routinely had to explain to reporters who we were. Now we get calls, on a daily basis, from Los Angeles to London, asking for an interview. And when I read the Los Angeles Times, I [...]
William A. Donohue African-Americans have the NAACP, Jews have the ADL and feminists have NOW. Hispanics, Asians and Muslims are organized, as are many other segments of society, including homosexuals (gays have GLAAD). Catholics, of course, have the Catholic League. In each case, these groups have found it necessary to combat bigotry by establishing a civil [...]
William A. Donohue Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, made quite a splash in February when he announced that our culture was irretrievably lost. "The culture we are living in," wrote Weyrich, "becomes an ever-wider sewer." With certainty, he wrote that "we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportion," and that [...]
William A. Donohue It is always risky to speak of the mind-set of collectivities, whether it be that of a race, ethnic or religious group, but sociologically such a concept is definable. Just as every individual possesses a conscience, every group possesses a cast-of-mind, or vision of the world; it is one that reflects its collective [...]
