From the time we learned that Dawn Johnsen was chosen to head the Office of Legal Counsel, we have been on a relentless PR campaign alerting the public, and U.S. senators, to her anti-Catholic record. On April 9, our wish came true: she withdrew her name from nomination.
“The Catholic League is delighted that Catholics will not have to contend with Dawn Johnsen running an influential office in the Obama administration,” Bill Donohue told the press. “As we said many times,” he continued, “in the late 1980s, Johnsen worked on a case that sought to strip the Church of its tax-exempt status, simply because the Church is opposed to abortion.”
There is no end to the number of religions that support abortion rights, though no one in the pro-life community has ever sought to deny these religions their tax-exempt status. That ignoble prize goes to the pro-abortion crowd.
What makes this victory so sweet is that President Obama renominated her this year after her nomination failed to reach the senate last year. It does not speak well for the president that he was so determined to put an anti-Catholic in his administration. We simply can’t imagine him appointing a racist, so why the exception for us?
On March 4, Donohue wrote to every member of the senate, asking just one question: “Are you aware that Dawn Johnsen, who will soon be voted upon by the full Senate, sought to strip the Roman Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status in 1988?” Looks like the letter was not in vain.
