Father Alberto Cutié, the Catholic priest who was having an affair with a Florida woman, has decided to jump ship and join the Episcopal Church; he plans on joining their clergy, as well.

The real story here is the subtext: the only reason this man is a media sensation is because those who have been agitating for women priests in the Catholic Church know that they must first get the Church to lift the mandatory celibacy rule if they are to have a realistic shot at winning. So that is why they are using Cutié as a useful prop to bash celibacy.

What they don’t get is that celibacy is a discipline that could be lifted, but the Church’s teaching on a male priesthood is a firmly grounded doctrinal matter that Pope John Paul II ruled was a closed issue.

The New York Times’ recent profile of Bill Donohue contained errors and the newspaper has issued the following correction:

An article on Friday about William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, erroneously attributed a comment about the movie “Angels and Demons.” It was the Rev. James Martin, the culture editor of America, a liberal-leaning Jesuit magazine — not Mr. Donohue — who said: “They even have a scene where rats eat a bunch of cardinals. Can you imagine any other religion where this would not be viewed as rank religious bias?”

There were a few lines in a news story in the May 16 edition of the New York Times on Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Israel that caught our eye. Speaking of the Holy Father, the story said “he did not seek forgiveness for Germans or for the Roman Catholic Church during World War II. He laid the blame squarely on the Nazi regime….”

We have news for the New York Times: Nazis, not the Catholic Church, were responsible for the Holocaust. Ergo, the burden is not ours. Indeed, the mere suggestion that Catholics caused the Holocaust is obscene. Indeed, millions of Catholics were murdered in the Holocaust as well. So who is going to apologize to them?

Admittedly, a sex story about a good-looking celebrity priest hitting on a divorcee is newsworthy, but it doesn’t explain the legs (of the story, that is). No, the reason why the media can’t get enough of this is due to Catholicism’s culturally incorrect vow of celibacy. How can it be, the media savants ask, that an otherwise normal man would volunteer to join an organization that proscribes sex? Can’t be the money. Could it be that he’s offering it up for a cause greater than sex? And what could that be?

Louis Armstrong was once asked, “How would you define jazz?” His answer was classic, and it applies like a glove to the question, “And what could that be?” Louis answered, “If you gotta ask, then you just don’t know.”

Please click here to read Bill Donohue’s comments on “Angels & Demons” to Irish Central.com.

Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of the Diocese of Greensburg, PA, has issued a statement on the University of Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama to deliver this year’s commencement address. Please click here to read his statement.

Please click here to watch a video, which addresses the two bills that seek to amend the statute of limitations for civil cases involving child sexual abuse in New York State.

A Pew Research survey shows Catholics approve of the decision by Notre Dame to invite President Obama to give the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree by a decisive margin, 50-28. But the difference between practicing and non-practicing Catholics is profound. Practicing Catholics disapprove by a margin of 45-37 while non-practicing Catholics approve 56-23.

None of this is surprising. Practicing Catholics voted narrowly for McCain over Obama while non-practicing Catholics went big time for Obama. Those who don’t go to church too often tend to be pro-abortion and those who go to church on a regular basis tend to be pro-life.

Practicing Catholics, of course, are the ones who pay the bills. By definition, those who rarely go contribute little. Moreover, as Arthur C. Brooks has shown, the data clearly demonstrate that the most generous Americans are the most conservative and the most religious; the stingiest are the most liberal and the most secular. Meaning that even when non-practicing Catholics do go to church, they are not likely to give much.

Perhaps it’s time pollsters stopped counting non-practicing Catholics as Catholics. After all, those who rarely attend AA meetings aren’t a true reflection of the utility of AA programs. And vegetarians who regularly eat meat—save for occasions when they dine with practicing vegetarians—aren’t a true reflection of vegetarian sentiment on any given issue. In other words, non-practicing Catholics are not a true representation of Catholic opinion.

In the April edition of Men’s Health, Allan from San Antonio asked  advice columnist Nicole Beland the following question: “My sexually repressed wife can’t even say ‘sex’ without whispering. How can I help her open up?”

Here’s how Beland started her response: “It’s not easy to undo damage caused by years of exposure to Catholic-school nuns or overly conservative parents.”

It would never occur to Beland that a woman who is sexually repressed might have been molested by her stepfather growing up. No, for Beland it is empirically obvious that Sister Mary Alice did it. Either that or the Fox News Network.

Imagine some poor soul asking about his sexually promiscuous wife. Imagine Beland answering, “It’s not easy to undo damage caused by years of exposure to Jewish school teachers or overly liberal parents.” Yeah, keep imagining.

This wouldn’t matter if the magazine had a low circulation. But it pulls in big numbers—over 1.8 million per issue. Contact the executive editor of Men’s Health, Bill Phillips atBill.phillips@rodale.com

Please click here to read the top story on Yahoo about the feud between Ron Howard and Bill Donohue over “Angels & Demons.”