Bill In The News (CBS New York):

New York has passed a new law that supporters say reaffirms women’s reproductive rights.

Critics say the law goes too far.

The law also expands who can perform procedures from beyond physicians to physicians’ assistants. Nurse practitioners and midwives can do non-surgical procedures, if they are acting in the scope of their practice. But critics say the law is just designed to expand abortion.

“When you use the term ‘health of the woman,’ that’s very elastic. That has been defined as mental health, she’s depressed she doesn’t feel good that day. We know what’s going on here. This is abortion through term,” said Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. READ MORE HERE

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attack on the Catholic Church:

Following passage of the Child Victims Act yesterday, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s enthusiastic embrace of it, there is a full-page ad in today’s New York Post by Jeffrey Anderson that proves what the Catholic League has been saying all along. It’s all about us.

The ad shows a picture of a man dressed in priestly garb and a white collar (his face is blacked out), with the inscription, “ABUSED by CLERGY in NEW YORK?”, inscribed at the top. At the bottom is Anderson’s New York City number, 718-473-0264. His ad is consistent with his pledge, namely, to “sue the s*** out of the Catholic Church.”

Anderson is a reformed alcoholic whose first case involved his defense of a man who had been arrested for indecent exposure in a church basement. He went on to make over $100 million suing the Catholic Church, always having his many cases suing the Vatican thrown out. The liberal Minneapolis/St. Paul publication, Citypages, once referred to him as a “wisecracking ambulance chaser with a reputation for hunting priests and an advanced degree in self-promotion.”

The Child Victims Act allows alleged victims of sexual abuse a one-year opportunity to file a claim for offenses that took place at any time in the past. Unlike most previous versions of this bill, it applies equally to the public sector.

In other words, Anderson could have run an ad saying he is willing to represent those who were victimized by anyone—priest, rabbi, minister, public school teacher, guidance counselor, camp counselor—but he chose to focus exclusively on those abused by Catholic priests. That’s what he does.

On a more positive note, I fielded a phone call from Ibrahim Khan, the chief of staff to New York Attorney General Letitia James. He called in reference to the news release I issued yesterday, “NYS To Pass Child Victims Act,” wherein I complained that on the website of the Attorney General there was a “Catholic Clergy Abuse” hotline. I asked why Catholics were being singled out; his email contact information was given and that is why he called.

Khan made it clear that his team has been in place for just a few weeks (James was elected Attorney General in November and didn’t start work until a few weeks ago), and that the hotline was set up by James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood. Fair enough.

I spoke to him again, telling him about the Anderson ad, asking if they would now change the hotline to reflect every New Yorker, and he said they would.

Then I received a call from Attorney General James. She was cordial and very professional, acknowledging that it is wrong to single out Catholic victims of abuse. She said she would make the hotline change and let me know if there will be a new phone number.

In stark contrast to Attorney General Letitia James is Gov. Andrew Cuomo. His office got bombarded with emails yesterday as well, but no one from his office is reaching out to me.

Cuomo has made up his mind—he doesn’t care what Catholics think about his lust for abortion (which now includes infanticide) or his previous attempts to go after the Catholic schools while giving the public schools a pass.

Cuomo and James may be from the same party (I am an independent having previously been a Democrat and a Republican), but they are hardly cut from the same cloth. James must be given a chance to prove herself. Cuomo already has.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attacks on the Catholic Church made by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo:

Celebrating the imminent passage of the Child Victims Act, Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at the Catholic Church again today.

Cuomo lamented the repeated failure of the bill to get past the New York Senate, until today. He said, “we were foiled by the conservatives in the Senate.” Then he took it back. “I don’t even believe it was the moderates in the Senate. I believe it was the conservatives in the Senate who were threatened by the Catholic Church. And this went on for years.”

Threatened? Which members of the Catholic Church threatened which members of the Senate? We need names. What was the content of the threat? This is serious business. Cuomo did not say that some politicians “felt” they were threatened by Catholics—he said categorically that they “were threatened by the Catholic Church.” (My italic.)

Has Gov. Cuomo ever blamed Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, gays, Jews, Muslims, Protestants, or union leaders for threatening politicians when they lobby for or against a bill? This is more than religious profiling—Cuomo is demonizing the Catholic Church.

“To the Catholic Church, I am, I am sorry about the situation. I’m not sorry about my position. I’m sorry they [the Catholic Church] have taken the position they’ve taken.”

Not sure what is worse—Cuomo’s dishonesty or his demonization. It was Cuomo, up until this month, who repeatedly endorsed legislation that discriminated against Catholics. Almost all previous bills that allowed for the suspension of the statute of limitations for crimes involving the sexual abuse of minors—providing a one-year “lookback” provision for old offenses—did not apply to the public schools.

Cuomo supported those bills but never, until now, has he supported any bill that would have treated Catholic and public schools equally (alleged victims of public school employees had only 90 days to file a claim but for Catholic students there was no time limit).

Perversely, Cuomo is now blaming Catholics who objected to being discriminated against on the basis of their religion for “threatening” politicians whom they contacted.

Cuomo then exploited the pope, misrepresented his position, and lied about the bishops. He said that “I’m with the pope” and that “the bishops may have a different position than the pope.”

Cuomo is not “with the pope” on marriage or on the rights of the unborn, or on a host of other key teachings. Indeed his lust for abortion rights now extends to infanticide: a child born of a botched abortion—and there will be more of them now that he is allowing non-physicians to perform them—is allowed to die on a clinic table, unattended by staff.

Is Cuomo saying the pope is “with him” on this?

Moreover, the pope has never said it is acceptable to discriminate against the Catholic Church. He has never said, nor would he support, holding the Church to one standard and the public sector to another. Only bigots do that.

It is the bishops who stand with the pope—not Cuomo.

If Cuomo is going to stick his middle finger in the face of Catholics, can he at least stop trotting out his alleged Catholic credentials (he did so again today)? My Jewish pro-life friends, who also oppose religious discrimination, are more Catholic than this man has ever been.

Contact Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor: melissa.derosa@exec.ny.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on New York State’s Child Victims Act, which is expected to pass today:

The Catholic League has been fighting the Child Victims Act for many years, primarily because it discriminates against Catholics. Most of these bills, which suspend the statute of limitations for offenses involving the sexual abuse of minors, have never applied to the public sector, thus letting the public schools off the hook. But due in part to our efforts, public and private institutions will now be treated equally.

On April 1, 2016, I criticized New York State Senator Brad Hoylman for sponsoring a bill that would exclude public institutions from legislation eliminating the statute of limitations for these crimes. I was happy to note that he got the message and quickly pivoted. Ten days later I commended him for doing so. The bill failed, as did another version in 2017.

On May 11, 2018, I had a phone conversation with Senator Hoylman saying that Catholic lawmakers were not convinced that the language of the most recent iteration would cover public schools retrospectively. He insisted that the “lookback” provision applied to the public sector. On June 6, he assured Rick Hinshaw, our director of communications, that we had his word that all institutions would be treated equally.

Just this month there were new questions regarding this issue. Would the “lookback” provision—allowing a one-year window for old allegations of abuse to be filed—apply to the public schools? As is often the case with these bills, the language lacked clarity, allowing for different interpretations. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers added some new language that made it clear that the public schools would be covered by the Child Victims Act.

The New York Attorney General, Letitia James, has posted on her website a “Catholic Clergy Abuse” hotline. This is a classic example of religious profiling. Is she not aware of sexual abuse involving minors committed by the clergy of other religions?

What if an Attorney General in some other state were to have an “African-American Drug Abuse” hotline reporting incidents of illegal drug use among blacks, and blacks only? Would not James, an African American, go berserk?

Now that the public schools are covered, we need a “Sexual Abuse” hotline, one that is inclusive of all institutions.

Contact Ibrahim Khan, NY Attorney General Chief of Staff: ibrahim.khan@ag.ny.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a segment from “Saturday Night Live”:

Everyone knows that homosexual priests are largely responsible for the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, though in liberal TV land that is rarely acknowledged. But sometimes it is, however unwittingly. That happened on the January 26 edition of “Saturday Night Live.”

“The Vatican has released a new app allowing Catholics to pray with the pope replacing the old app for Catholic prayers, Grindr.”

Grindr, for the uninitiated, is the “largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people.” “SNL” sure wasn’t talking about the laity since most Catholics are not queer. We know what they meant.

Contact Lauren Manasevit, press manager: lauren.manasevit@nbcuni.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s abortion bill:

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream: it was to unite the races. While that dream remains unfulfilled, much progress has been made, thanks largely to him. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also had a dream: to allow children to be killed in their mother’s womb right up until birth by non-physicians. Now his dream has been realized.

It is indisputable that in the third trimester the baby is capable of feeling pain, so when the baby has his head punctured with a blunt instrument—that’s what happens in partial-birth abortions—he feels it.

Cuomo has also sanctioned the killing of infants. Even babies who survive a botched abortion are now allowed to die unattended by staff. Infanticide is usually associated with Hitlerian regimes, not democratic ones.

Cuomo was so ecstatic about winning that he ordered One World Trade Center to light up the sky in pink. Red would have been a more apt choice.

It would be impossible to find any politician in the United States who is more enthusiastic about abortion than Andrew Cuomo. He is literally orgasmic about it. “Because it’s her body, it’s her choice. Because it’s her body, it’s her choice. Because it’s her body, it’s her choice.”

Cuomo’s three-time refrain was voiced in 2013. He failed then, largely because of the Republican controlled Senate. But now that the Democrats own both houses of the legislature, he finally won. Gloria Steinem, who aborted her child when she was 22, was among the first to congratulate him. In his victory speech, the former altar boy ended by saying, “God bless you.”

If this isn’t demonic, the word has no meaning.

There are many parts of Cuomo’s bill that are obscene, but there is one part that deserves special mention. That is the part that allows non-physicians to perform abortions. Not surprisingly, the media downplayed this aspect of the law.

Under the new law, physician assistants, midwives, and nurse practitioners can now perform abortions. This has never been done in New York State. That this is being championed by those who say they are pro-women makes it all the more sickening.

Licensed midwives, for example, are trained in maternity care, pre-conception counseling, routine gynecological care, family planning, and how to administer health screenings and exams. They are not trained to perform an abortion, and they certainly have no competence in how to deal with serious complications arising from an abortion.

Cuomo knows there aren’t enough doctors who will agree to suction a baby out of the mother’s womb at nine months, so he has to allow those who have no training as a physician to do so. By the way, when Planned Parenthood pushed for the same type of legislation in California in 2012, the California Nurses Association fought it.

What will Cuomo do if there aren’t enough non-physicians to do the dirty deed? Permit orderlies to do it?

Here’s a fast quiz. Which women will be the most likely to have a non-physician do their abortion? Rich white women? Or poor blacks and Hispanics?

Doing an abortion successfully (meaning not hurting the woman) takes a lot of experience, so don’t expect the foot doctors to catch on quickly. In 1990, Minnesota abortionist Jane Hodgson received The Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood. Here is what she said.

“When I first started doing abortions, I took my boards in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and therefore I knew I was competent to do it. After I had done my first few hundred I realized how silly I had been. At this point, having done somewhere around 12,000 procedures, I’m beginning to think I am reasonably competent.”

It is not likely that the average nurse practitioner will be able to reach that level of competence about this “procedure” any time soon.

So what happens to the women who undergo an abortion and wind up bleeding all over the place? What will the dentist do? We know from the work of emergency room physician Dr. Matt Zban that trained doctors have a difficult time as it is tending to women pushed out of clinics after experiencing severe complications following their abortion. What can we reasonably expect the eye doctors will do?

The family of the first woman to die as a result of an abortion performed by a non-physician should sue New York State.

Rep. Lee Zeldin is an observant Jewish congressman from Long Island. Here is what he said the day Cuomo signed his bill.

“As a parent of identical girls born in their 2nd trimester at less than 1.5 pounds, I’m especially disgusted by the NYS legislature voting today to allow late term, partial birth abortions up to the end of the 3rd trimester & allowing non doctors to perform abortion. So wrong!”

It’s a tragedy that the non-observant Catholic governor of New York can’t see the truth in Zeldin’s observation.

Contact: Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor: melissa.derosa@exec.ny.gov

Bill In The News (Breitbart):

A prominent American rabbi has come out in support of the MAGA boys, a group of Catholic high school students falsely accused of “taunting” and “mocking” a Native American after the March for Life, saying that the media attacks were motivated by the “anti-Christianism” of the left. READ MORE HERE

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on who the guilty parties are in the Covington Catholic controversy:

The Catholic white boys from Covington Catholic High School—hated because they are Catholic, white, male, and Trump supporters (some of them)—have been indicted by lots of pundits, politicians, reporters, and celebrities, both liberal and conservative. Yet the record shows that the students were the only innocent party to this fracas. None of them said or did anything bigoted, but this is not true of the Indians and the black Israelites.

A group of about 20 Indians, led by activist Nathan Phillips, tried to storm a Mass on January 19 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. They were stopped by security who had to lock the doors. This is what the Nazis did to the Jews in Hitler’s Germany—they crashed the synagogues during services.

It is against the law in D.C. to disturb a religious service. Had Phillips succeeded, it would have been a hate crime. If the Catholic students had barged into a crowd of Indians while they were praying, they would be on the front page of every newspaper in the country and it would be the lead story on the broadcast and cable news outlets.

However, this unprovoked attack by Phillips and company—on innocent persons exercising their First Amendment right to religious liberty—was ignored by most of the mainstream media. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, ABC News. CBS News, NBC News, CNN and MSNBC never said a word about it. Only Fox News did.

Phillips also made disparaging remarks about Catholicism, saying the students are not being told the truth about their religion. Yet not one student made a disparaging remark about Indians. But the black thugs did—they called the Indians “savages.” That being the case, why didn’t Phillips and his merry band of church busters confront them? Why did they seek to crash a Mass instead? They are the bigots, not the kids.

The black Israelites bashed white people, black people, Christians (especially Catholics), Puerto Ricans, and homosexuals. Where were the gay rights groups? If the kids called gays “faggots”—which is what these thugs did—the media would have been up in arms. So it is not the content of an insult that matters, it is the identity of who says it.

The mainstream media picked up a few of the anti-Catholic statements by the black activists, but overall they did a lousy job. We watched the video and here are some of the most anti-Catholic statements that were made.

• [Black Israelite responding to a question] “You want to see hate in the Bible? Let’s see hate in the Bible. Let’s see what the Christians and the Catholics don’t go into.” [He then reads a verse from Ecclesiastes]
• [Black Israelite pointing out a Catholic priest standing nearby] “And like this, child molesting faggot priest right there… the Catholics are a bunch of child molesters.”
• [Black Israelite speaking to crowd] “You want to talk about R. Kelly. Why we don’t talk about the Catholic Church? Why we don’t talk about the Roman Catholic Church, and especially you so-called Hispanics and Negroes, you got no business calling yourself a Roman Catholic. When’s the last time you’ve been a Roman?”
• [Black Israelite speaking to Covington students] “And Jesus Christ is not a white man. This ain’t Jesus Christ…the truth matters. This is a faggot child molester. This is not Jesus Christ. If you look in the Bible, you will see he is a man of color” [man referring to a Catholic/Christian depiction of Jesus]
• [Black Israelite speaking to a Catholic prayer circle nearby] “The child molesting Catholic Church here. This is what we’ve come to. How long are we going stay in the Catholic Church? How long are we going to continue worshipping idols in the Catholic Church? Where is Hail Mary in the Bible? There’s no Hail Mary in the Bible. You can’t worship Mary. You’re supposed to worship the Lord.”
• [Black Israelite speaking to prayer group] “You have your reward. Your reward is your Catholic Church being tax exempt, being child molesters and getting away with it. You’ve been raping children since 1492 in the Catholic Church. You’ve been raping children in Rome before you got here. “
• [Black Israelite speaking to separate group of students] “When you walk in a Catholic Church, it is filled with idols. When you worship and kiss and bow down to a statue, you’re breaking the commandments of God. So the Catholic Church is totally against God, not even speaking about the child molestation. We’ll leave that one alone. But against God’s laws and commandments, yes. You say ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. You say that prayer. Where is that prayer in the psalms? Where is that prayer in the Bible?”

No white student responded in kind to either the Indian or black activists. They, and they alone, were innocent.

What happened on January 18 has been nicely captured by my good friend, Rabbi Aryeh Spero. Here is what he told me.

“This is a contrived and false episode pounced on by people who hate religious white Catholics and are always on the look-out to demonize Catholics. These people are bigots. It is all part of the anti-Christianism by many segments in today’s leftist America and media collaborators. If they could, they would physically beat up Catholics and take away their jobs and livelihood simply because they are white, conservative, and people of biblical faith. They are consumed by hate. Who taught these people to SO hate white, religious Americans?”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue is calling for sanctions against Rep. Ilhan Omar:

I am contacting House Ethics Committee chairman Rep. Ted Deutch (D) and Ranking Member Rep. Kenny Marchant (R) asking them to lead the way in imposing sanctions on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D).

The Somali freshman congresswoman from Minnesota has violated Rule XXIII, Section 1, of the Code of Official Conduct, which says, “A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.”

Rep. Omar violated this stricture when she tweeted the following unsubstantiated accusation against the Covington Catholic High School students.

“The boys were protesting a woman’s right to choose & yelled ‘it’s not rape if you enjoy it’—They were taunting 5 Black men before they surrounded [Nathan] Phillips and led racist chants—Sandmann’s family hired a right wing PR firm to write his non-apology.”

She has since taken down this vile tweet. The boys from Covington Catholic did not engage in racist rhetoric, never taunted the black activists and, most importantly, did not yell “it’s not rape if you enjoy it.” Rep. Deutch and Rep. Marchant should demand to see Rep. Omar’s evidence. If she had it, she would have released it by now and would not have taken down her lying tweet.

Rep. Omar has libeled these students and in doing so has promoted anti-Catholicism. She is supposed to act “creditably,” and not just in the House chamber, but “at all times.” Thus does she warrant sanctions.

I am not asking for censure. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer rejected a plea last week for censuring Rep. Steve King, fearing an onslaught of complaints that have free speech implications. Instead, he moved it to the Ethics Committee. That being the case, the Ethics Committee should now treat Rep. Omar the way they are Rep. King. The two of them have disgraced the House.

Contact Josh Rogin, chief of staff for Rep. Deutch: joshua.rogin@mail.house.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on critics of the Covington Catholic High School students involved in the fracas on January 18:

Having addressed the events of January 18 (click here), I now want to assess some of the most prominent critics of the Covington Catholic students. That the students were not the guilty party in the dustup is obvious to every fair-minded person who has seen, or learned about, the second video.

I did not issue a statement on this incident before today, and for good reason: the Catholic League defends wrongdoing committed against individual Catholics and the institutional Church; it does not defend wrongdoing done by either.

Those who weighed in on this story include some members of the Catholic clergy, Catholic lay leaders, and non-Catholics. Some were temperate in their remarks and some were vicious. Some have issued a full-throated apology, while others have offered less than a complete apology. Others are sticking to their guns. Two persons went off the cliff.

Erik Abriss was fired after he wished the students and their parents were dead. “I just want these people to die. Simple as that. And their parents.” The freelance writer for Vulture was terminated by INE Entertainment, a digital company. Comedian Kathy Griffin took second prize. She wants the students hunted down. “Names please. And stories from people who can identify them and vouch for their identity.” No wonder the students have received death threats.

It does not please me to say that the most irresponsible voices in this controversy have come from the Catholic clergy.

On the day of the incident, the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School issued a joint statement saying, “We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general….We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect for the human person.” They promised to “take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.”

What should be condemned is what the Diocese and the school said on January 22. It said that a “third-party investigation” is planned regarding what happened between “Covington Catholic students, Elder Nathan Phillips and Black Hebrew Israelites.” What part of the second video does it not find persuasive?

After condemning the students without knowing their side—they did not call for an investigation on Friday—they are now going to probe this “very serious matter that has already permanently altered the lives of many people.” It sure has—the students have been damaged. Sadly, the Diocese and the school have played a major part in this tragedy.

Three of the most pro-LGBT priests in the nation slammed the students. Father James Martin ripped the students for “sham[ing] and disrespect[ing] a man at the Indigenous People’s March,” saying that what they did was “not Catholic, not Christian and not acceptable.”

Martin later said, “I would like to apologize to them for my judgment of them.” He elaborates by saying that “we may never know what was going on inside the hearts of the students.” We certainly don’t know what they were thinking, and that is because the student at the center of the standoff, Nick Sandmann, never opened his mouth. Phillips was the one who walked over to the student and taunted him with his drum.

It is important to note that we have a very clear understanding of what was on the minds of the black Israelites—they bashed whites, blacks, Hispanics, and gays. One might have thought that the gay bashing would have gotten Martin’s back up, but apparently he was unfazed by it. He did not help himself by saying, “despite repeated viewings of all the videos, and reading all the participants’ statements, these actions remain unclear.” He does not disclose the source of his confusion.

Father Dan Horan, a Franciscan, went off the deep end. “I’m so deeply appalled and disgusted by the racist, shameful, disrespectful behavior of the Catholic high school students wearing MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) hats and harassing a Native American elder and Vietnam Vet. I’m so angry and yet not at all surprised at pervasive white supremacy exhibited.”

I am appalled and disgusted that a priest would make such a totally unfounded condemnation of these Catholic students. He even admits in a later tweet that “even if a third party provoked, it doesn’t justify their behavior.” There it is. Even if the students didn’t provoke anything—and we know they did not—they are still guilty.

Father Edward Beck is a Passionist priest with a passion for liberal-left causes. The second video had zero effect on him. He said his “feelings” are “unchanged,” saying the “boys should not have been permitted to wear MAGA hats if they were representing the school.” Would Beck have objected if the students were wearing a pro-Hillary hat? Not on your life.

Among Catholic laypersons, no one did a better job of apologizing, without qualification, than Princeton’s Robert George and First Thing’s Matthew Schmitz. Robbie said, “I apologize to the Covington Catholic boys.” He added, “I jumped the gun and that was stupid and unjust. It is I, not the boys, who needs to take a lesson from this.” Hard to beat that.

Matt Schmitz was also excellent. “It’s easy to find fault in others, difficult to admit our own. For what it’s worth, I believe that the boys acted in a more moral and Christian manner than those who condemned them and then refused to admit the error.” Honest and thoughtful.

Sobrab Ahmari, a convert to Catholicism and op-ed editor of the New York Post, made a commendable statement to the students. “I also failed you. I rebuked you, though more mildly than others did, because I too can sometimes be credulous in the face of a media consensus; lesson learned.” Well said.

Jeannie Mancini, who leads the March for Life, dived into this mess with both feet by condemning the students for their “reprehensible behavior.” Now that she has had time to reconsider her remarks, she refuses to do so. But she did find time to delete her accusatory tweet.

Talking-head Hugh Hewitt has also taken down his offensive tweet about the students. He lectured the students on their need for “respect, forgiveness, courtesy.” It is he who needs to do so, beginning with an apology to the students whom he has maligned.

CNN’s Kirsten Powers is looking more foolish by the minute indicting the students for their “white privilege,” a subject that she should know very well. She owns it.

Among non-Catholics, Rod Dreher began walking back two of his harsh tweets, though without offering an apology. But he mostly took the side of the students, noting how irresponsible the media have been. He took them to task for “conveniently ignor[ing] the provocative, racist, foul-mouthed attacks on the boys by one of Phillips’s Native American companions.” Exactly.

National Review has been on both sides of this issue. Rich Lowry criticized the boys but then took down his tweet. He also took down the incendiary tweet by his colleague, Nick Frankovich. “The Covington Students Might as Well Have Just Spit on the Cross. They mock a serious frail-looking older man and gloat in their momentary role as Roman soldiers to his Christ.”

With a comment like that, it is clear that Lowry has a loose cannon on his hands. A more recent article by Kyle Smith, which was quite good, was posted on the website of the magazine, suggesting that Lowry got the message.

New York Times columnist David Brooks has a mostly fair take on the controversy in the paper’s January 22 edition, but it is marred by one key omission. He admits that “The Covington case was such a blatant rush to judgment—it was powered by crude prejudice and social stereotyping—I’m hoping it will be an important pivot point.” It would have been helpful had he said that it was Catholic males who were the victims of prejudice and stereotyping. It would have been even better had he told the readers that his first statement on this issue was to criticize the boys.

Author Reza Aslan seemed to invite violence against Sandmann by saying he never saw a more “punchable face” than his. Aslan has taken down his vile tweet though he leaves up some despicable comments he found worthy of retweeting.

Bill Kristol, who has finally found a home with the Never Trumpers at CNN, blasted the students and then took down his tweets. What a class act. He offered no apology.

Howard Dean said he wants the school to close because it is a “hate factory.” He has offered no retraction or an apology for his jackass remarks.

The Catholic League fights anti-Catholicism and, like every organization, we make mistakes as well. But when we do we own up, which is why I am not at the least bit bothered by those who have apologized to the students. For them, it’s over, at least as far as I am concerned.

Why did some really good people make a mistake? I contacted Robbie George about this, and he was frank as always. When he saw the first video clip, it looked like the students were taunting the Native American man. A staunch pro-life intellectual, he said, “I was extremely concerned about how such behavior could give our great movement a bad name. So, much too hastily I issued a condemnation. When I saw the full video the next day, I realized I had been misled by the short clip. I immediately apologized, no ifs, ands, or buts.”

Robbie did exactly that and his reasoning was sound.

What accounts for the most hateful comments? As someone who fights anti-Catholicism, it would be tempting to conclude that it is old-fashioned anti-Catholic bigotry. This is certainly true of the Indians—they tried to crash a Mass on Saturday—and of the black thugs who attacked virtually everyone, but it does not explain everything.

Surely the Diocese of Covington and the school are not driven by bigotry, so what explains their lame response? Their statement focuses much on Native Americans. It is sad but true that there are some in the Catholic Church today who are more sensitive to the rights of minorities than they are their own people. This is Exhibit A.

What else is in play? Politics. The politics of hate, made manifest in the delirious hatred of President Trump. It is the pro-Trump hat—cited by many—that drove them over the top. They need help.

Will anything be learned from this? For some, the answer is yes, but regrettably such persons are likely to be in a minority.