The BBC has admitted that it was wrong to accuse Pope Pius XII of remaining “silent” during the Holocaust. The British media giant pivoted as a result of an internal probe of the pope’s role.

The revised position came in response to strong criticism of a BBC report last July that accused the pope of doing nothing while Jews were being murdered by Hitler. Two prominent men, Lord Alton and Father Leo Chamber-lain, registered an official complaint; it was the visit by Pope Francis to Auschwitz that occasioned the negative story.

The BBC’s editorial complaint unit examined the response by Pope Pius XII to Nazi aggression and concluded that the July story “did not give due weight to public statements by successive popes or the efforts made on instructions of Pius XII to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution, and perpetuated a view which is at odds with the balance of evidence.”

In 1999, a British author, John Cornwell, went beyond the myth that Pius XII was inactive during the Holocaust: he branded him “Hitler’s Pope.” The book was seriously flawed, though it was received with much fanfare. Years later, Cornwell admitted that he was wrong in his assessment, but, predictably, it was never trumpeted by historians and the media the way his initial conclusion was.

Kudos to the BBC for admitting it was wrong about Pope Pius XII. Many others, both at home and abroad, need to follow suit.

When Bill Donohue filed a complaint with the authorities against Anthony Weiner over the summer, he had no idea it would prove to be so historic. Following the election, Hillary Clinton blamed this FBI probe for her loss to Donald Trump.

On August 31, Donohue asked for an investigation of Weiner on suspicion of sexually abusing his four-year-old child, Jordan. He did so because of a front-page story in the New York Post showing Weiner using his son as a “chick magnet” to lure sexual relations. (Two days earlier the paper ran a story on Weiner “sexting” a middle-age woman.)

Donohue immediately filed a complaint with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the New York City branch of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. His initiative was cited by the New York Post and the British Daily Mail Online.

On September 26, Donohue received a phone call from ACS. He was told that his complaint had been accepted and that Weiner was under investigation by the New York Police Department. The next day, the same ACS official called to question him further. A week later, on October 3, FBI agents seized Weiner’s laptop, phone, and tablet.

On October 28, the FBI announced that it had found emails on Weiner’s  computer from his wife, Huma Abedin, sent to Hillary Clinton on her private server. It quickly examined them, concluding a week later that no law had been broken.

Donohue triggered the investigation because of media bias: it continues to blame priests for sexually abusing minors. He also cited the “emotional and physical well being” of Jordan.

Had Donohue not filed a formal complaint, the NYPD would not have launched a probe looking for child porn on Weiner’s computer. The NYPD, in turn, would not have contacted the FBI had it not found emails between Abedin and Hillary that were on her private server.

On November 12, Hillary held a conference call with her trusted aides. She contended that FBI director James Comey was responsible for turning public opinion against her. She argued that his public statement on October 28 announcing the probe cost her the election.

What Hillary did not say is that in July, after Comey completed his first investigation of her emails, he pledged to alert the Congress if there were any other developments. She and her staff never complained then.

As Donohue sees it, the political fallout must be laid squarely at the doorstep of Hillary Clinton. Had she not had her own server, the FBI would have had nothing to investigate.

At the last meeting of the board of directors, Dr. Walter Knysz was chosen to succeed Fr. Philip Eichner as the new chairman of the board.

Walt holds a Doctorate of Dental Surgery from the Univer-sity of Detroit. What makes him unique is his entrepreneurial background: he has founded several dental business companies.

One of his achievements is the establishment of a global provider of dental insurance; another is his founding of a dental practice management company. More recently, he launched a franchise agreement with independent dental practitioners, providing an array of services.

Walt is past chairman of the Leading the Way Campaign, and has been active for years serving on the board of Ave Maria University. He has also been pivotal serving the Thomas More Law Center.

Walt and Bill Donohue first met at a national Legatus conference where Bill was scheduled to speak. Bill knew immediately that he had met someone special. He remembers the occasion well.

“When I first met Walt, I was impressed by his enthusiasm, great sense of humor, and strong interest in helping the Catholic League,” Donohue said. “He soon joined the board of directors and I am delighted now that he is chairman. A better man for the job would be hard to find.”

Donohue added, “The Catholic League is in good hands with Dr. Walter Knysz at the helm. He and his wife, Jan, make for a splendid Christmas gift!”

In October, a batch of emails released by Wikileaks implicated Hillary Clinton in a serious anti-Catholic campaign conducted by her top aides. Bill Donohue seized on this issue, taking advantage of many national media opportunities.

Two related stories surfaced: the one from 2011 involves Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director; the one from 2012 involves her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The latter is the more serious of the two.

Palmieri was engaged in an email exchange with a left-wing activist, John Halpin, over the decision by two prominent media executives to raise their children Catholic. They spoke with derision about News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson.

Palmieri ridiculed the men for choosing Catholicism, saying, “Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.” Halpin went further: “Friggin’ Murdoch baptized his kids in Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. It’s an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.” Podesta was part of this email chain and never disagreed.

Worse was Podesta’s exchange with Sandy Newman, a Jewish left-wing friend. Newman asked Podesta for advice on how best to “plant the seeds of the revolution” [within the Catholic Church]. Podesta boasted that he was on it. He admitted to creating two groups to sabotage the Church: Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United.

Both of these entities are front-groups, dummy Catholic organizations designed to sow division in the Church. They are funded by George Soros, the atheist self-hating Jewish billionaire. Catholics United was the force behind an IRS probe of the Catholic League in 2008.

When the Palmieri Catholic-bashing story hit, Donohue said Clinton needed to employ sanctions against her and Podesta, though he stressed that she was not responsible. When the Podesta “revolution” story broke, he called for Podesta to be fired. When she refused, he said, “Hillary is now the issue.”

As it turns out, Podesta was just doing Hillary’s bidding. Last year, speaking about abortion, she said, “political will and deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed.” (Our emphasis.) Thus, Podesta’s phony Catholic groups simply accomplished her goal: they made the pro-abortion agenda a cause that Catholics could legitimately rally to, securing the goal of a “revolution” within.

By attempting to crash the Catholic Church, these Clinton operatives crossed ethical boundaries.

Father Philip Eichner has resigned as chairman of the board of the Catholic League. A new chairman will be chosen shortly.

Fr. Eichner held this position since 1992 and was largely responsible for hiring Bill Donohue the next year as president and CEO. Donohue worked closely with him, and offered the following statement regarding his resignation.

“When I took over in 1993, the league had several financial and organizational problems. I had the good fortune of relying on Fr. Eichner for counsel on many issues. His advice proved to be unfailingly accurate.

“He knew how to run an organization: he had commanded Chaminade High School, the most prestigious Catholic secondary school in the New York metropolitan area, and he also founded—against all odds—Kellenberg Memorial High School. He remains president of Kellenberg.

“To the public, I am the face of the Catholic League. But to those who know the organization, Fr. Eichner has been its guiding hand. When conflicts arose, he never shied away, offering his usual wise perspective.

“To cite one example, in 1999-2000, when some evangelicals in Washington sought to block the appointment of the first priest to become House Chaplain, Fr. Eichner encouraged me not to fold. It led to some ugly exchanges with the opposition, but in the end justice was done and the priest got the job.

“Fr. Eichner served with distinction and it has been my good fortune to have worked with him.”

Two related anti-Catholic incidents took place over Labor Day weekend involving a high school football game in Scottsdale, Arizona. After parents complained, and the Catholic League contacted school officials, an investigation was launched. We were pleased with the response.

Our cause for concern was twofold: prior to a football game between Notre Dame Prep and Desert Mountain High School, a statue of Our Blessed Mother was vandalized on the campus of the Catholic school; during the game at Desert Mountain, a student dressed as Jesus paraded up and down the sidelines, mocking Catholics.

To be specific, a sex toy was attached to the lower half of the statue of Our Blessed Mother, and a Hillary Clinton mask was put over its head. The “dancing Jesus” character who mocked Catholics continued his stunt in the second half of the game, even after parents complained earlier to security guards.

Catholic League director of communications Rick Hinshaw contacted officials at both schools. He emphasized that we did not see these two incidents as harmless school pranks; rather, we saw them as coordinated assaults on our religion. Had it been the sacred icons of other religions that were trashed, calls for a hate crimes investigation would have been made. The initial response from administrators was encouraging.

The next day, a more formal statement was issued that put to rest our fears.

Dr. A. Denise Birdwell, the Scottsdale Unified School District Interim Superintendent, emailed us a letter that was both responsible and pointed. “On behalf of the Scottsdale Unified School District and Desert Mountain High School,” she wrote, “I want to apologize to you and the entire Catholic community.” She emphasized that she found the behavior “disgraceful, disrespectful and unacceptable.”

She also met with leaders from Notre Dame Prep to apologize. “We, as educators,” she said, “have a profound responsibility to coach our young people—first, on how to behave and second, on how to respond to others’ unfortunate behavior.”

An investigation was immediately launched.

Dr. Birdwell also thanked the Catholic League “for the role you play in educating all people to recognize the difference between right and wrong and, above all else, to respect one another.” She added, “We aim to do the same.”

This is a textbook case of the way incidents such as this should be handled by school officials. We commend Dr. Birdwell and all the administrators at Desert Mountain and Notre Dame Prep for their attention to these offensive actions.

Bill Donohue was checking out Internet stories on a Saturday morning when he noticed a prominently posted news story found on Yahoo on August 27:

He found a news story on the homepage of Yahoo that was puzzling. Titled, “Trump Goes to War with the Pope,” it featured a picture of Donald Trump at a podium. The first sentence read, “The pontiff suggests that Trump is not a Christian.” That sounded very familiar.

Didn’t the pope make the same comment last winter? Donohue recalled doing a lot of media on this issue, even to the point of finding it necessary to correct the record: both the pope and Trump were misrepresented. Donohue now wondered whether the two titans really clashed this time? Apparently so.

In fact, they never did. The Politico piece that was posted on August 27 on the front page of Yahoo was marked August 25, but when Donohue clicked on the entire story, he found it was the Politico article from February 18.

Why did Yahoo mislead its readers? How could a mistake of this gravity be made? After all, many people only read the headlines, and in this case they were given the wrong message. If it wasn’t a mistake, then there is something seriously wrong going on.

Yahoo owed its readers an explanation, but none was forthcoming. This is one more example of journalistic malpractice. It is particularly outrageous when it affects coverage of the presidential election.

Macy’s has fired an employee because he is a practicing Catholic. The case is now before the New York State Division of Human Rights. We jumped on this issue immediately, thanks to a tip by the attorney who is handling this case, Raymond Nardo.

In May, Javier Chavez, Senior Store Detective at the Macy’s store in Flushing, New York, received a phone call stating that a male had entered the ladies room with a female companion. A female customer, and her daughter, were afraid to enter because of the male’s presence. A security employee who reports to Chavez advised the man to leave and use the men’s room. He left claiming to be a female. He then complained to store officials that he was asked to leave.

Chavez was subsequently told by an Assistant Store Manager that certain males can use the ladies restroom. This was news to him. A few days later, an Assistant Security Manager told him that transgender persons can use the bathroom of their choice. He said he had just become aware of this policy, stating that it was contrary to his religion and the Bible. But he hastened to say that he would nonetheless enforce Macy’s policy.

Macy’s would not leave this alone, and this is where it crossed the line. Chavez was then summoned to meet with the Human Resources Manager, who suspended him. He was later terminated.

“After my employer learned that I was a practicing Catholic, with religious concerns about this policy,” Chavez says in his formal complaint, “I was terminated because of my religion, in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law.”

Bill Donohue responded as follows: “The most basic religious right is the right to believe; if conscience rights can be vitiated, the First Amendment means nothing. Macy’s has no legal, or moral, grounds to stand on. For merely holding beliefs that are contrary to the store’s policy, Chavez was fired. This is what totalitarian regimes do, not American commercial establishments.”

We are conducting a PR campaign alerting the public to Macy’s intolerance. We are focusing on all the other segments of the population that have been mistreated by the mega-department store. And we plan on doing much more.

To register your objections to the Macy’s thought police, please contact Jim Sluzewski, Senior VP, Corporate Communications and External Affairs, Macy’s, 7 W. 7th St., Cincinnati, OH 45202; email him at jim.sluzewski@macys.com; call him at 513-579-7764.

In August, Macy’s announced that it is closing 100 stores. But it has more than bad financial news to deal with—it has to deal with Catholics.

Last month, the Pennsylvania court system tossed out the unjust conviction of Msgr. William Lynn over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against other priests. It was the third time it had done so.

Yet the Philadelphia District Attorney vowed—for the third time—to pursue the discredited case. The judge set a date, May 1, 2017, for another trial, even though Msgr. Lynn has now served all but two months of his minimum three year sentence for a conviction that has been repeatedly reversed.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the trial court “abused its discretion” in allowing evidence unrelated to this case. Pointedly, as Msgr. Lynn’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, put it, it is D.A. Seth Williams who is in a clear abuse of his prosecutorial discretion. Indeed, as Bergstrom said, Williams “is just hell-bent on trying this case.”

Msgr. Lynn has “done 33 months along with 18 months house arrest for something the Superior Court has now ruled was an unfair trial,” Bergstrom noted. Yet, “for some reason” Williams “continues to want to beat up on this guy.”

From the start, this case has been a flagrant anti-Catholic witch-hunt, perpetrated by Williams, his predecessor Lynne Abraham, and others. One would think they would by now be satisfied that they have extracted their pound of flesh from this innocent man.

What is driving this campaign is a maniacal hatred for Msgr. Lynn and the Catholic Church he serves.

The bill was sold as justice for the victims of sexual abuse, when, in fact, it was a sham: the proposed legislation that failed to make it to the floor of the New York State legislature in the wee hours of Saturday, June 18 (the session that began on Friday ended at 5:00 a.m. the next day), was a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.

The principal enemy of the Church, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, was confident that her bill would pass. On May 30, she told her allies at the discredited Daily News—the paper broke every tenet of journalism in its war on Catholicism—that “there is a strong movement in our house to bring [the bill] to a vote in the next few weeks.” On June 5, she told her buddies, “I really think we have a chance of getting this bill passed.”

If the statute of limitations were lifted on offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors, the only winners would be greedy and bigoted lawyers out to line their pockets in a rash of settlements. The big losers would be the poor, about whom the attorneys and activists care little: When money is funneled from parishioners to lawyers, services to the needy suffer.

We put a lot of time and money in fighting this ploy. While similar bills are pending in other parts of the country, it became evident that the professional victims’ lobby was setting its sights on New York this season. A victory there would have given them the momentum to score in other states. Now they have nothing to show.

The Catholic League is proud of its role in this victory. The timeline on this issue can be found on p. 4; it gives a detailed accounting of how events unfolded.

We are especially proud of three accomplishments. First, we succeeded in pressuring lawmakers to amend the bill to include the public sector; initially, the public schools were to be given a pass. Second, the Albany Times Union published a full-page ad that we wrote exposing the agenda of those out “to stick it to Catholics.” Third, we called for the resignation of Markey after she slandered Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. Fourth, we asked that she be investigated for violating the public trust (see p. 5).

This was a big win for our side and an equally big loss for theirs. We are delighted to support the good work of the bishops on this important issue, especially the work of Timothy Cardinal Dolan.