William A. Donohue The coronavirus pandemic led to thousands of deaths, overrun mortuaries, untold suffering, burnt-out hospital staff, economic hardship, and psychological distress. It also gave millions a time to renew their faith, or come back to it. But is prayer a reliable tonic? Yes. Is there scientific data to back it up? Yes. One leading [...]
Animals have no rights—they cannot be held morally responsible for their behavior—but they certainly deserve our respect. Indeed, those who abuse them should be punished: animal cruelty should never be tolerated. It should be axiomatic that human beings, at all stages of development, are also entitled to great respect, including those not sentient enough to make [...]
What separates whites and blacks the most these days is not race or class, it's religion. But don't expect to hear this from commentators or scholars. That's because most of them are well-educated white people, and they are the most likely to be non-religious. Blacks, on the other hand, are much more religious than whites. Christianity [...]
A recent NBC poll of Catholics who work for the Church found that 64 percent do not believe the media have been fair in their coverage of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. If you want to know why, just read this issue of Catalyst. There are still good reporters and editors, but unfortunately there are too [...]
William A. Donohue In November, a report was released based on the proceedings of a Georgetown University event that took place in June. Titled, "National Convening on Lay Leadership for a Wounded Church and Divided Nation," it was organized by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, headed by John Carr and Kim Daniels. [...]
William A. Donohue In early October, within a period of 24 hours, two prominent secular media outlets, and one prominent religious media outlet, ran stories on the Catholic Church that were classic examples of journalistic malpractice. Motive is hard to determine: Were the reporters incompetent or malicious? Maybe both. From what we learned from two of [...]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has issued a 185-page report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church committed by priests, deacons, seminarians, and nuns. The Attorney General's office reviewed more than 2,000 files on priests who worked in Missouri since 1945. It also read the files of more than 300 deacons, seminarians, and nuns. News reports [...]
When the two mass shootings took place in August, it was distressing to listen to all the chatter about Republicans and Democrats being blamed for what happened. Most of the talk is pure bunk. At the heart of the problem are what I call the three "B's": beliefs, bonds, and boundaries (see my book The Catholic [...]
William A. Donohue The Pew Research Center released the findings of a new survey recently on Catholic clergy sexual abuse. Most were predictable, but some were not. The survey found that 8 in 10 Americans say that Catholic clergy sexual abuse is an "ongoing problem," while only 12% say that these problems "happened in the past [...]
Many Democrats running for president endorse reparations to African Americans because their ancestors were enslaved. Before we go any further, I want to know how much I owe Oprah. The idea of reparations for African Americans is seriously flawed. Some argue that if the Japanese received reparations, why shouldn't blacks? It is true that in 1988 [...]
