Bill In The News (Owen Sound Sun Times):

Seth Meyers has incurred the wrath of the leading officials at the Catholic League after joking about a bizarre attack at a Brooklyn church.

The joke enraged Catholic League president Bill Donohue, who compared the 12 January attack to recent antisemitic ones in the area, saying “no one” made light of these. READ MORE HERE

Bill In The News (Deseret News):

This week the Catholic League came out strongly against proposed legislation in Utah aiming to eliminate an exemption for clergy when it comes to reporting confidential confessions detailing abuse.

As others have argued, the push to eliminate the clergy-penitent privilege raises First Amendment red flags. READ MORE HERE

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the Utah legislator who is at war with Catholics:

Earlier this week, we contacted the Speaker of the House in the Utah legislature, Rep. Brad R. Wilson, expressing our outrage over a bill sponsored by his Democratic colleague, Rep. Angela Romero, that would vitiate the seal of Confession. The pretext of her legislation is knowledge of the sexual abuse of minors learned in the confessional.

We are very pleased with the response by Speaker Wilson: he is opposed to the Romero bill. Rep. Romero is now doubling down, saying she is going forward with her bill, accusing me of making a “soft threat.”

Romero is obviously referring to the following concluding portion of my letter of January 10 to her. “You are treading on dangerous territory. When the government seeks to police the sacraments of the Catholic Church—or encroach on the tenets and practices of any world religion—it is gearing up for a court fight. The First Amendment secures religious liberty, and that entails separation of church and state.”

I stand by that statement. Regarding her remark, I would never accuse her of making a “soft threat.” She moved well beyond the “threat” stage when she introduced a bill that attacks a sacrament of the Catholic Church—and there is nothing “soft” about that. Now she is claiming victim status because of a pushback by Catholics. What did she expect? That Catholics would allow an agent of the state to trample on their constitutionally protected rights?

Here is what Romero told the media. “Am I against organized religion? No. I’m Catholic. Maybe this is a little more personal for me. I’ve had victims here in Utah, people who have experienced and sexual abuse and child abuse. Their perpetrators were protected by a religious institutions. I have a problem with that.” [This is exactly the way she was quoted.]

I have a problem with so-called Catholics telling me they are not against the Catholic Church when they seek to destroy one of their sacraments. That gets real personal. As for the perpetrators, there is no evidence—I have asked her to give it to me—showing that breaking the seal of Confession would result in prosecuting molesters.

It is a red herring, a contrived pretext that would allow the government to effectively cause the Sacrament of Reconciliation to implode. No practicing Catholic would ever sponsor such a bill, nor would a member of the faithful from any another religion.

Does Romero really think that if she succeeded that priests would cooperate? They would go to jail before putting themselves at risk of being excommunicated.

It would be too kind to say that she has embarked on a fool’s errand: she will never succeed in getting what she wants, and what she wants is much more than foolish—it is obscene.

Contact: angelaromero@le.utah.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on remarks made last night by Seth Meyers on his NBC show:

Brooklyn has been hit with a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, and no one uses this as a pretext to make light of them. A Catholic church in Brooklyn was vandalized on January 12—a man interrupted Mass and desecrated the altar with red juice—and Seth Meyers took the occasion to make fun of it.

“A Brooklyn man was arrested at a Catholic church on Sunday for allegedly pouring juice on the altar and splashing it at the priest. Wow, that’s crazy, a crime in a Catholic church that led to an arrest. We will tolerate a lot of stuff here, but you can’t splash the juice. That’s where we draw the line.”

The Nazis used to bust into houses of worship in Germany, and now we have people like Seth Meyers thinking it is cute when neo-Nazis bust into Catholic churches in America. No, Catholics are not fearing pogroms, but it is alarming nonetheless to think that public personalities think it is cute to disrupt a religious service and vandalize a church. The man is sick.

Meyers crossed the line this time. We are going right to the top executives at NBC about this one.

Contact Lauren Manasevit, senior press manager, NBC Entertainment Publicity: lauren.manasevit@nbcuni.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Religious Freedom Day, comparing the record of President Trump to that of President Obama on this issue:

The Catholic League’s interest in the public policy arena is first and foremost religious liberty. That is why we were delighted when two years ago President Donald Trump proclaimed January 16 as Religious Freedom Day. He did so in tribute to the work of Thomas Jefferson: On January 16, 1786, Jefferson’s bill, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, was passed by the Virginia General Assembly.

The timing is right to compare the religious-liberty record of President Donald Trump to that of his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Both men are the source of much commendation and condemnation—on many issues—and their admirers and detractors are united only in the conviction that their man has not been treated fairly. They may both be right.

To read our summary of how Trump and Obama match up on the issue of religious liberty, click here.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the response of the Utah House Speaker to yesterday’s news release:

Yesterday, we asked those who receive our emails to contact the Utah Speaker of the House, Rep. Brad Wilson. We need his help in opposing a bill by his Democrat colleague, Rep. Angela Romero, who would gut the confidentiality of the Confessional seal. Here is how he responded:

 “I have serious concerns about this bill and the effects it could have on religious leaders as well as their ability to counsel members of their congregation. I do not support this bill in its current form and—unless significant changes are made to ensure the protection of religious liberties—I will be voting against this bill.” (His emphasis.)

Many thanks to all of you who answered our call. Once again, your input has made a difference. We need everyone to get involved—that’s how we can change the culture.

Bill In The News (KUTV, Utah):

An organization dedicated to defending and protecting the Catholic Church is speaking out against a new bill that is set to be discussed in Utah’s 2020 Legislative session.

President of the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue Ph.D., wrote a letter to Rep. Angela Romero, the sponsor of H.B. 90, to express his concern. READ MORE HERE

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the HBO film, “The New Pope,” which starts tonight:

HBO previously treated us to “The Young Pope,” and tonight it is ready to roll out its new mini-series, “The New Pope.”

We have been tracking what the New York Times and the Washington Post have been saying about the Catholic Church for decades, and it will shock no one to learn that they are not exactly our biggest fans. More proof was offered today with the reviews of the first episode of “The New Pope.” What they said tells us as much about them as it does HBO, another media outlet that likes to stick it to the Church.

Here are some excerpts from Mike Hale’s review in the New York Times:

• “The initial series ended with Pius XIII, the beautiful young pope [Jude] Law embodies, collapsing just as he appeared to find his faith.”
• “‘The New Pope’ begins nine months later with Pius in a coma….Our first sight is a naked Pius receiving a sponge bath from a trembling young nun. She gazes at the small cloth covering the papal package, then lies down while the camera pulls in on her Vermeer-like visage.”
• The film deals with “the real-world issues that dog the church—pedophilia scandals, retrograde attitudes toward homosexuality, lousy treatment of women.”
• “Opening credits play over recurring scenes of cloistered nuns shrugging off their shapeless smocks and dancing before a towering neon cross.”
• “[Cécile] De France, as the church’s image director, and [Ludivine] Sagnier, as a woman closely connected to Pius, are consigned to subsidiary and often half-clothed roles. In a particularly risible conjuration of the virgin-whore paradigm, Sagnier’s Esther slides into prostitution to the sound of ‘Ave Maria.'”
• “Among the men, Law’s Pius is a silent presence through much of the season and [John] Malkovich’s John Paul is mostly sad-eyed and mopey. Malkovich makes the ennui pretty consistently amusing, especially in a scene in which a star-struck John Paul gets to meet Sharon Stone (playing herself), complete with sophomoric ‘Basic Instinct’ joke.”
• “And the real theme of ‘The New Pope,’ as it tracks the machinations of the small circle of cardinals and laypeople who operate behind the papal skirts, is not philosophy or God but the exercise of power. It has strong elements of workplace sitcom, but it even more closely resembles another venerable genre: the Mafia movie.”

Here are some excerpts of Hank Stuever’s review in the Washington Post:

• The film is “filled with forbidden delights, such as the sight of young nuns disrobing and dancing to this season’s throbbing new theme song (‘Good Time Girl’ by Sofi Tukker featuring Charlie Barker, one of many ace picks on the show’s playlist) as their cloister house pulses with colorful strobes. Their superior—a cigar-chomping little person in full habit—dances her own jig.”
• “The director is similarly committed to conveying church corruption as something one senses rather than reveals, picking up on visual cues that range from the awkward to the sinfully repugnant to outright garnish and menacing, all set against extravagant interiors and exquisite exteriors.”
• “Though [Cardinal Angelo] Voiello aspires to be the next pope, the college of cardinals elects an easily intimidated Franciscan, who names himself Francis II and immediately goes on a power trip, bringing in a troop of enforcer monks to liquidate the Vatican’s wealth and give it all to the poor. Small wonder, then, that he mysteriously drops dead.”
• “John Paul muddles through an agenda that seems primarily focused on meeting his favorite celebrities. These include Marilyn Manson, playing himself, a rock star so out of touch he has no idea who or what the pope is, and Sharon Stone, also appearing in a brief cameo as herself. (Stone tells the pope that it’s time for the church to approve same-sex marriage. ‘Can’t the Bible be upgraded?’ she asks.”)

No one at the Catholic League will be watching. That’s because we’ll be tuned in to the LSU-Clemson game. No doubt the giddy crowd will be watching.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a bill that targets the Confessional seal:

Utah Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat, is sponsoring a bill that would gut the seal of Confession. She maintains that it is necessary because priests learn of the sexual abuse of minors in confession and do not report this to the authorities.

I wrote to Rep. Romero today asking her some pointed questions. To read my letter click here. We are contacting all of her colleagues in the Utah legislature.

It would be great if you contacted the Speaker of the House, Rep. Brad R. Wilson, a Republican, to express your concerns about Romero’s bill. If Romero hears from you, she may not want to tell her colleagues of all the correspondence she is receiving, but if the Speaker hears from you, it is not likely that your voice will be ignored.

Contact: bradwilson@le.utah.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a video that seeks to divide Christians:

George Conway, the man whom no one would know of were it not for his successful wife, hates President Trump. Few care. But we do care when his mania seeks to drive a wedge between Catholics and evangelicals. That is exactly what his latest video attempts to do.

The Lincoln Project, of which Conway is a part, has posted a video online that portrays evangelicals as hypocrites for backing such an un-Christian man like President Trump. There is one part of the video—all the clips are spliced together in classic out-of-context form—that is particularly offensive. It implies that Trump (who was a presidential candidate at the time) called the pope a “pussy.” He never did.

On February 18, 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump said the following about Pope Francis: “I respect the pope, and I love the pope in many ways. I love what he stands for, and I like his attitude. He’s very independent, and he’s very different. He’s sort of a modern day pope if you think about it.”

Later that same day, Pope Francis was interviewed by reporters on the papal plane. A reporter from Reuters misrepresented Trump’s position on immigration, and then asked the pope “if an American Catholic can vote for someone like this.” The pope replied, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.” He added an important caveat, saying, “I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that…and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.” (My italics.)

In the video, it shows Trump’s reply to what the media portrayed as an attack on him by the pope. Here is that part of the video.

Trump: “The pope would have only wished and prayed…”

Rev. Ramiro Peña: “Thank you, sir, for uniting our Nation and
calling us to prayer…”

Trump: “that Donald Trump would have been president…”

Rev. Robert Jeffress: “I think the pope needs to seek Donald
Trump’s forgiveness.”

Trump: “He’s a pussy.”

The video makes it seem as though Trump said this about the pope. He did not. It is a vicious lie. [Note: At the time, I criticized Jeffress for what he said, and I also criticized Sean Hannity for agreeing with Jeffress on his show.]

Here is what Trump said at the time: “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened.”

This is an entirely different understanding of what the two men said. Inexcusably, it has been cruelly manipulated by Conway to slam the president. But if that is all it did, it would not interest the Catholic League. What angers us is the deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between Catholics and evangelicals.

The video suggests that Trump used a vulgar term to describe the pope, which he never did (in point of fact, Trump’s comment was actually a restatement of what a woman said about Sen. Ted Cruz at a rally).

This kind of propaganda—it is vintage Catholic baiting—by George Conway tells us much about the man. He wants Catholics to think that Trump insulted the pope, thus driving them away from the president’s evangelical supporters. The man must be desperate to stoop this low.

Contact Conway at his law firm: GTConway@wlrk.com