MEDIA

Media Response to John Jay Report

On May 18, we addressed what the media said about the 2011 John Jay Report on the “Causes and Context” of clergy abuse. Bill Donohue’s analysis of the report is at the end of the annual report.

After the New York Times criticized the study as the “blame Woodstock” report, many others in the media echoed the same criticism. The Times, and those who took their talking points from the newspaper, unfairly criticized the authors of the report for attempting to deflect culpability on the part of the bishops for the scandal by instead blaming the culture of the 1960s. But the charge was unfounded: all the professors did was to put the scandal in social context—it did not occur in a vacuum. This is what we would expect from social scientists. Interestingly, the Times always cites “root causes” when it comes to understanding the violence that accompanied the civil rights movement. Evidently, “root cause” analysis should not apply to understanding any wrongdoing on the part of the clergy.

Here are some examples of how “independent-minded” the pundits were:

• Tony Auth of the Philadelphia Inquirer labeled his cartoon “It Was The Sixties, Man

• Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe titled her piece, “Blame it on the ‘60s, Man”

• Columnist Jon Carroll branded his article, “The ‘60s Made Them Do It”

• A Canadian writer said, “Church Study Blames Swinging Sixties”

• A ReligionDispatches article indicted the Church for “Blame the Sixties” rationale

• Church-basher Marci Hamilton said the Church is guilty of “blaming the Sixties”

• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach said the Church blames “the 1960s”

• Professor Mark Silk said the Church invoked the “Woodstock” excuse

• Sally Quinn’s brother, Wilson, slammed the Church for “Blame the Hippies” excuse

• Kevin Osborne of Cincinnati’s Citybeat.com said the Church blames “dirty hippies”

• New Haven writer Doug Daniels said the Church blamed “hippies”

• A Minnesota writer says the Church blamed Jefferson Airplane while a Florida writer argued the Church blamed Janis Joplin

Top honors went to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for falsely claiming, “In page after page, the report also accuses the news media of misrepresenting the crisis.” This was nonsense. Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star also showed her brilliance by criticizing the study for not finding a “single cause.” None of these critics is a social scientist, and few, if any, gave evidence of actually having read the report.

Internet

March 6
On The Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan bashed the Catholic Church for what he called its “homophobic doctrine” and for operating “one of the biggest pedophile conspiracies in the world for decades if not centuries.” He concluded his rant by saying, “Since the church even now seems incapable of treating child abuse as seriously as the rest of society, it seems to me that increased police involvement is necessary.”

 June 8
Phyllis Zagano wrote an article on the website of the National Catholic Reporter unfairly attacking Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City. She railed against him for “not reading” a memo about “weird behavior” by one of his priests, grouping him with what she called were “over-sexed men.” She compared Bishop Finn to such luminaries as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Dominique Strauss-Khan, and Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar. Lashing out at Finn by comparing him to sexual deviants in public life was reprehensible.

 August 8
Bill Saporito, assistant managing editor at Time, took an unfair shot at the Catholic Church in his Curious Capitalist blog. The entry, “Why Congress and S&P Deserve Each Other,” opened with this sentence: “Having Standard & Poor’s downgrade the creditworthiness of the U.S., and warn the country about further downgrades, is a little like having the Catholic Church lecture Scout leaders on the proper behavior toward boys.” We immediately called for an apology for this gratuitous attack, but never received one.

Magazines

February
It was brought to our attention in 2011 that the National Underwriter magazine’s “2010 Year in Review” featured a picture of the pope with a statement suggesting that he played a part in covering up the sex abuse scandal by transferring known abusing priests. Bill Donohue wrote to the Editor-in-Chief, Bill Coffin, explaining why this portrayal of the pope was grossly unfair. Just as important, Donohue wanted to know why this cheap shot appeared in a publication that has nothing to do with religion.

February
The Philadelphia Trumpet published an editorial comparing the Catholic Church to the beast of Revelation 17. Some of the more egregious statements were:

• “Throughout history this woman, or church, has made the whole world drunk on her doctrines!”

• “This beast has seven heads, or seven distinct resurrections. If you study European history, you will easily see six times when the Catholic Church has guided European empires, such as Charlemagne, Napoleon and Nazi Germany.”

• “The church leading the Holy Roman Empire is not God’s true Church. But God does allow this church to gain control of this German-led European beast power. Expect the Catholic Church to become more vocal and for this church-state axis to become more evident.”

February
We were notified that DC Comics published a series, Azrael, based on a character who was supposedly a descendent of Jesus. Anti-Catholic elements could be found throughout the series, including the portrayal of the Vatican as a dark and ominous institution out to hide the truth that Jesus had not, in fact, died on the Cross and had never resurrected.

We wrote to Diane Nelson at DC Comics asking where they intended to take this character, and informed her that we would continue to monitor the series.

February 11
The front page of Esquire magazine’s website featured an article entitled “Investigate the Vatican” by executive editor Mark Warren.

He began by applauding the New Yorker for a critical piece on Scientology, but was angry nonetheless: “Wouldn’t the resources and time of journalists be better directed at the finances, earthly corruption, and raw power of the Catholic Church, an institution that wields influence incalculably greater that L. Ron Hubbard’s itty-bitty religion?”

He continued his anti-Catholic rhetoric: “I mean, I grew up believing that every breath I drew sent a god-made-man named Jesus Christ writhing on the cross to which he had been nailed…so that he might die for my sins so that I might live. And yet, I was born not innocent but complicit in this lynching, incomprehensibly having to apologize and atone for this barbarism for all my days and feel terrible about myself and all mankind.” He then laced into the pope, blaming him for the homosexual scandal.

March 17
Vanity Fair writer Brett Berk apologized for using the term “fags” in his online review of an episode of the TV show, “Glee”; he used the term to describe two homosexual characters. Vanity Fair’s new ethics policy was adopted after being criticized by GLAAD, a homosexual activist group.

All of this was of interest to us because Vanity Fair has a history of Catholic bashing. It has proudly published malicious diatribes by anti-Catholics like John Cornwell and Christopher Hitchens, so for it to claim that it does not want to feed bigotry was a bit of a joke. Maybe someday they will think of Catholics the way they do homosexuals, then all will be right by us.

September 15
Rolling Stone published an article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely titled, “The Catholic Church’s Secret Sex-Crime Files.” The article was an attack on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia based on the 2011 grand jury report regarding sex abuse. The article was full of factual errors, stereotypes, grand omissions, and melodramatic language. Below find Bill Donohue’s lengthy rebuttal, detailing her prejudices and falsehoods.

Movies

November 4
The movie, “A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas,” opened in theaters. It contained several scenes taking shots at Catholic sensibilities:

• One of the lead actors punches a bishop

• Naked nuns are shown caressing each other in a shower

• Real life homosexual Neil Patrick Harris (playing himself) recounts going to heaven (portrayed as a nightclub) where he sits with two topless women who fondle him

• Jesus sees this and calls his “daddy” to get Harris kicked out of the club

• Harris then spews an obscenity at Jesus, calling him a “c**kblock”

• Three priests have a pillow fight with a young boy in a dark place known as the altar boy room and are shown racing after him

• The Virgin Mary is trashed

Music

April 15
Lady Gaga released her song “Judas” prompting us to call the song a stunt. This was the latest in a long line of attempts by Lady Gaga to shock Catholics and Christians in general. The song was released right around Easter demonstrating Gaga’s insensitivity to Christianity.

A few weeks later, on May 5, she released the video to “Judas” which took liberties with religious iconography. In the video Gaga writhed and danced seductively with two men portrayed as Jesus and Judas.

January 26
A front-page article in the New York Times Arts Section featured an image from the video that was pulled by the Smithsonian after a Catholic League protest in 2010. By publishing the image from the ants-on-the-crucifix video, the Times ironically helped to make our point that the protest was justified.

Times critic Michael Kimmelman accused Bill Donohue of embarking on an “awfully well-choreographed pas de deux to rekindle the culture wars.” In support of his claim alleging a conspiracy choreographed by Donohue, Kimmelman mentioned that Rep. John Boehner, now the Speaker of the House, and Rep. Eric Cantor, “capitalized on Mr. Donohue’s protest” by registering their own complaints.

Kimmelman described the artist, David Wojnarowicz, as a man who wielded a cudgel to “fight bigots.” We wondered whether the artist was also “fighting” bigotry when he made a video showing Jesus’ head exploding. Was the artist also championing tolerance when he called John Cardinal O’Connor a “fat cannibal,” or when he labeled the Church a “house of walking swastikas”?

Newspapers

February
Philadelphia, PA – The District Attorney’s office released a grand jury report accusing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for sheltering priests accused of sexual abuse. This report followed a grand jury investigation in 2005 which also went after the archdiocese, but came up empty. No other institution was targeted by either grand jury; they simply were focused on the Catholic Church.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial singling out the archdiocese to make public its files on priests accused of sex abuse and called upon lawmakers to make it easier for past alleged victims to sue. What it failed to mention was that nowhere is there less of a problem of sex abuse than in the Catholic Church. Its dishonesty was remarkable. It never called for any other institution to open its files on accused employees.

After a few weeks, there was still the impression that the archdiocese was guilty of sheltering abusive priests which led to outrageous comments by agenda-driven lawyers, professional victims’ groups and pundits. After looking at the facts, it was clear that the Catholic Church never had a monopoly on this problem. We looked at the numbers and it became clear that the problem in Philadelphia was being overstated.

Beginning in 2003, 61 cases of priestly misconduct were examined by the archdiocese. Twenty-four were dismissed because the accusations could not be substantiated. Of the 37 remaining cases, three priests were suspended immediately following the 2011 grand jury report and then 21 additional priests were suspended. As for the rest, eight were found not to have a credible accusation made against them; one had been on leave for some time; two were incapacitated and no longer in ministry; and two more were members of religious orders outside the archdiocese.

This meant the majority of the priests didn’t have a single credible accusation made against them. Moreover, none of the 24 who were suspended were found guilty of anything. To top things off, the charges against them include such matters as “boundary issues” and “inappropriate behavior,” terms so elastic as to indict almost anyone.

Just as it was important not to understate the problem, it was important not to overstate it. Neither the archdiocese, nor the media, was particularly clear about offering a concise, disaggregated tally. The confusion was complicated because the public assumed that not only were all of these priests guilty, but that they were all guilty of a serious offense.

What got lost in the discussion were the constitutionally protected due process rights of accused priests. The rush to judgment was especially despicable in a day and age when accused Muslim terrorists are more likely to be presumed innocent than accused Catholic priests.

February 1
The New York Daily News ran the front page headline, “THE LYIN’ ‘NUN,’” with the words “Spins rape tale, recants,” below it, giving the impression that a Catholic nun lied about being raped. The entire headline was not true. Only upon reading the article did it become apparent that the woman was a nun in a “fringe Christian sect” that was founded by a “defrocked Catholic priest who ordained himself Pope.” The people in question were not Catholics, but the Daily News deceitfully sold the story as if they were.

We demanded an apology and got one a few days later from Editor-in-chief Kevin Convey.

February 4
In a New York Times article called “Islamist Group is Poised to Be a Power in Egypt, but Its Intentions are Unclear,” the following statement appeared: “As the Roman Catholic Church includes both those who practice leftist liberation theology and conservative anti-abortion advocates, so the [Muslim] Brotherhood includes both practical reformers and firebrand ideologues.” The Times drew a false equivalence between disagreements among Roman Catholics and disagreements among members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Though the headline correctly used the term, “Islamist,” a term that describes Muslims who blend Islam with extremist politics, the Times could not ascertain the Brotherhood’s intentions.

The Brotherhood was founded with the motto “Jihad is our way” and nothing has changed. Their leaders believed it important to “Kill Jews—to the very last one.” One said Egyptians “should prepare for war against Israel.” Even the Times admitted that “its leaders have endorsed acts of terrorism against Israel and against American troops in Iraq.” Another leader said that any government which takes over should withdraw from the peace treaty with Israel. An Al Queda-run website, Muslim.Net, said, “We call upon the Islamists to support the Muslim Brotherhood,” a clear indication that whatever differences the two groups have previously had, it’s more important that all terrorists unite.

Despite this, the Times equated the differences in Catholics with the differences of the Brotherhood.

February 7
Alberto Cutie, the former Catholic priest best known for breaking his priestly vows, quitting the Catholic Church, running off with his lover, and becoming an Episcopal priest, wrote an article that appeared in the Huffington Post claiming that some Catholics rival Muslim radicals.

Though Cutie’s article was allegedly about priestly celibacy, he launched into an invidious analogy. “All this has led me to confirm that religious extremists are not only a small group of people associated to [sic] Islam. Instead, intolerant views and verbal threats by some Roman Catholic extremists that I have received rival any monopoly by Muslim radicals.”

In the past, Cutie has floated the myth that 100,000 catholic priests left to marry (the real figure is considerably lower), but this time he really crossed the line. There is a profound difference between catcalls and calls for jihad.

February 8
An application for the iPhone called “Confession: A Roman Catholic App,” was developed by Little iApps and intended to prepare Catholics for Confession. A series of Internet sites misrepresented the Confession App by falsely claiming that one could confess directly into the phone. Among the misleading headlines were:

• “Can’t Make It To Confession? There’s An App For That”

• “Catholic Church Approves Confession By iPhone”

• “Bless Me iPhone For I Have Sinned”

• “Catholic Church Endorses App For Sinning iPhone Users”

• “Forgiveness Via iPhone: Church Approves Confession App”

• “New, Church-Approved iPhone App Offers Confessions On the Go”

• “Confess Your Sins To Your Phone In Catholic-Church Endorsed App”

• “US Bishop Sanctions Cell Phone In Confession”

• “Catholics Can Now Confess Using iPhone App”

• “Catholic Church Approves Online Confession”

February 17
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial calling for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to “make public its files on sexual abuse to better inform parishioners.” It also called for a law that provides “a two-year window for victims to file civil claims,” and to “abolish the statute of limitations for all criminal sexual offenses against minors.” In both instances, it singled out the Catholic Church. The Catholic League sent its response to over 200 pastors in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. We counseled, “The Archdiocese should cooperate in publishing the names of accused priests if all other private and public institutions agree to do likewise.”

Also in response, Bill Donohue wrote a Letter to the Editor making it clear that justice dictates that if the archdiocese makes public its files on accused priests, every other organization should do the same with regard to its employees.

February 23
In an article about a group of homosexual Polish soccer fans demanding separate seating at the 2012 European Soccer Championship in Poland, the Associated Press took an unwarranted shot at the Catholic Church. In the story, the AP wrote: “Homophobia also remains deeply embedded in Poland because of the legacy of communism which treated homosexuality as a taboo and the teachings of the church in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.”

February 25
Providence, RI — Robert J. Healey Jr., former candidate for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, was the mystery guest at the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies (a show where politicians try their hand as comedians). In a skit intended to announce his retirement from politics, Healey offended Christian sensibilities. He dressed as Jesus Christ, donning long hair, a beard, a robe, and a crown of thorns. He made comments such as he’s tired of “Losing” and he’s tired of mayoral candidate Chris Young bringing “a statue of his mother [Mary] to all his campaign appearances.”

February – March
After old cases of sex abuse surfaced in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, we noted that rarely do journalists and commentators offer more graphic details of sex abuse than when the alleged abuser is a priest.

Among the most offensive chroniclers was psychologist Mary Gail Frawley O’Dea wrote a piece called “Where is Catholicism’s Tahrir Square?” in the National Catholic Reporter that was impossible to top. She wrote, “It means an adult man’s erect penis tearing anal tissue; it means a child’s small mouth forced around an engorged and pushing penis; it means a man’s hand — one that the day before may have transformed wine into blood — probing a little girl’s vagina or pulling at the penis of a pre-pubescent boy.”

In February, the Philadelphia Daily News went tabloid with its “made for Hustler” contribution by discussing the oral and anal rape of the alleged victim.

Maureen Dowd’s affection for lurid accounts was on display in the New York Times by describing some of the graphic details found in the grand jury report. It so impressed Christopher Matthews that he read a selection from it on the air.

March 1
The New York Times ran two editorials that demonstrated its bias. “A Right Without a Remedy” was a strong plea for the U.S. government to respect the constitutional rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The other editorial, “Acts of Contrition,” took the Catholic Church in Ireland to task for cases of priestly sexual abuse. The former editorial said nothing about why suspected Muslim terrorists are being held in custody. The latter editorial said nothing about the rights of accused priests.

The Times said the Church in Ireland “has a long way to go to cleaning house,” insisting that “reforms are lagging” and “some predator priests are still in ministry.” It was thrice wrong.

In 2005, the Irish Bishops’ Conference issued a comprehensive report on reforms underway, “Our Children, Our Church: Child Protection Policies and Procedures for the Catholic Church in Ireland.” In 2008, another report was released, “Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland.” In 2010, the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland published its 2009 Annual Report.

The latter document showed that 42 percent of the new allegations made in 2009 were about deceased priests. “None of the allegations reported to the National Office originated from children or young people. Some went back to events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s.” Not a single priest who had an accusation made against him is in full ministry, and those who are in limited ministry are there despite the fact that “the allegation that caused the removal from full ministry has not been confirmed through any civil or canonical court process.”

March 8
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen objected to congressional hearings held by Rep. Peter King on terrorism, arguing that if it is okay to probe Muslims for terrorism, it should be okay to probe priests for sexual abuse. Cohen cited BishopAccountability as his source for priestly abuse statistics in the Church; however his figures were grossly inaccurate.

He cited BishopAccountability for his figure of 100,00 children that might have been abused by Catholic priests. This figure, however, referred to accusations taken from an article written by Andrew Greeley in 1993 that was based purely on conjecture.

The real figures were made available by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice: an estimated 4 percent of priests had accusations made against them since 1950, and the majority, 56 percent, were alleged to have abused one victim. The total number of alleged victims at the hands of 4,392 priests is roughly between 10,000 and 12,000.

April
Although the worldwide reaction to the beatification of John Paul II was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, two days before the event in April, the New York Times reported that it “has become intensely polarizing.” With good reason, it offered no survey data: polls showed 90 percent of Catholics approved and so did most non-Catholics.

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wasn’t much better. As evidence to support the “ambivalence” thesis, he cited an angry ex-nun.

Among the others who objected to the beatification were the leftist Nation magazine, the near-defunct Time magazine and the ever-critical Huffington Post. There was also the usual stable of carping Catholics: Maureen Dowd, James Carroll and Rev. Richard McBrien (the pope had “a terrible record”).

April
The Fairfax Chronicle ran a cartoon by Jim McCloskey depicting a bishop labeled “Roman Catholic Church” and an altar boy. The cartoon asked, “Guess who lobbied the general assembly against extending the deadline that sexual abuse victims can sue their attackers?” The altar boy counters, “If you aren’t guilty…why would it matter?”

May 1
Boston Globe reporter Kevin Cullen said that Pope John Paul II “presided over a church that was guilty of one of the biggest institutional cover-ups of criminal activity in history.” He also gave credence to the charge that “Priests were raping children all over the world with impunity.” There were four errors in these two sentences.

• The John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on this issue shows very clearly that the period when most of the incidents occurred was 1960-1985. Since John Paul II was not elected until 1978, it is factually wrong to suggest that the scandal took place mostly on his watch.

• It was factually wrong to say that most of those abused by priests were raped: the most common infraction was “inappropriate touching.”

• Most of those abused by priests were not children—they were post-pubescent males. The John Jay report found that “81 percent [of the victims] were male,” and that “more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.” Amazingly, Cullen wrote this in 2004, so even he knows that the problem is homosexuality.

May 13
The New York Daily News conducted a poll on its website asking readers whether St. Anthony’s High School on Long Island had the right to bar a female student from bringing her ex-girlfriend to the prom. Readers were asked the following: “Should the Catholic school have the right to bar same-sex couples at the prom?” The Daily News’ answers were: 1) Yes, it’s a private institution and homosexuality goes against church teaching; 2) No, we’re talking about a prom, not marriage, the school shouldn’t exclude anyone; 3) I don’t know. By posing the question in terms of rights—instead of asking whether readers agree with the decision—the Daily News made this issue into a matter of church and state, implying that it is a rebuttal assumption on the part of St. Anthony’s that it has the right to determine its own rules.

May 20
A cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer depicted a bishop smoking from a hookah, holding a book with the title “Catholic Bishops’ Study on Abuse and Cover-Up,” and a caption that read, “It was the sixties, man….” This cartoon perpetuated the myth that the John Jay Study blamed the abuse scandal on the 60s.

May 25
The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists posted a cartoon by Paul Berge of Q Syndicate, which provides content to “LGBT” media. Pope Benedict XVI is caricatured to have a vicious, vaguely canine appearance and flanked by two cardinals. One holds a book called “Homines tam canes sunt,” referring to men as dogs. This cardinal says, “Your Holiness, our investigation has found that sex abuse by priests in the 1960’s and ‘70’s was not due to homosexuality or to celibacy rules.” The pope asks, “Then what was the cause?” The second cardinal answers, “We’ve narrowed it down to either rock and roll or fluoridation.”

May 31
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a turtle hiding in its shell. The cartoon reads: “Q. Does the Catholic Church have a position on pedophilia? A. Yes.” It suggested that the Church does not face claims of sexual abuse. This cartoon also ran in the Huntsville Item on June 1.

June 14
A Boston Globe editorial lectured the Archdiocese of Boston about a Mass at St. Cecilia’s celebrating Gay Pride Month. The Globe pretended that “No one would have had the misimpression that the church was endorsing gay sex” by allowing the Mass to be said. Globe columnist Kevin Cullen also wondered why anyone would think that such a Mass might turn the church “into an outpost of Sodom.” And the Globe’s front-page news story maintained that the Boston archdiocese “gave the impression that St. Cecilia’s supported the annual Gay Pride Celebration.” The priest behind the Mass feigned ignorance of the Gay Pride agenda saying, “I don’t know what that is.”

Each of these statements contradicted the facts. The June 5 weekly bulletin of St. Cecilia’s stated, “The Rainbow Ministry of Saint Cecilia Parish invites all friends and supporters of the LGBT community to a Mass in celebration of Boston’s Pride Month.” (Italics added.)

June 19
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd targeted New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan for opposing gay marriage. She said it was hypocritical of the Church to accept homosexual priests while finding fault with homosexuality. However, she neglected the fact that celibacy cuts equally for straights and gays.

Dowd said the report on the causes of the sexual abuse scandal was “put out” by Dolan and the bishops, and that it advanced a “blame Woodstock” explanation. She was twice wrong: (a) the report was the work of social scientists from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and (b) the timeline of the problem—mid-1960s to mid-1980s—coincided exactly with the period of the sexual revolution, so to cite it was important.

Finally, Dowd found fault with the John Jay study for not listing homosexuality as a cause. Her complaint was accurate, which made unintelligible her reference to “pedophile priests.”

July 1
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing what appears to be the pope caricatured as a hunched dimwit and out of touch with reality. The cartoon reads: “Q. Why is the religion that still conducts exorcisms, views women as second-class citizens and birth control as unnecessary, having its leader tweet? A. It likes to keep up with the times.” This cartoon also ran in the Salinas Californian on July 5.

July 4
The Kansas City Star ran a Pat Oliphant cartoon showing a towering, wrathful Roman Catholic bishop with smoke coming out of his ears. The priest tells the two men before him, “The bishop however is not feeling entirely gay about your marriage plans.” In the corner of the cartoon, one of three very small figures says, “Compliment him on his dress.” The cartoon was syndicated and originally released on June 28.

July 26
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a minister saying from the pulpit, “We need to follow God’s laws!” and holding a sign saying “N.Y. allows gay marriage.” In the next bubble, there is the subtitle, “But not all of them [i.e., the laws],” with two stone tablets in the background. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” is written on the tablets. This cartoon implied that those who objected to homosexual marriage due to their religious beliefs were hypocrites.

October 10
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a drawing by Paul Lachine to accompany an article by SNAP Executive Director David Clohessy called “Accountability for sex abuse at the church’s highest levels.” The drawing depicts a Roman Catholic pontiff with blinders attached to his miter, implying narrowness of mind.

October 18
The Kansas City Star ran a Lee Judge cartoon showing a bishop walking across a dotted line from a region marked “moral failure” into a region marked “criminal indictment.” The title at the bottom reads, “The Catholic Church makes progress.” This cartoon saw the indictment of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn as progress.

November 15
The Lexington Herald-Leader ran a Joel Pett cartoon showing three bishops talking at the bishops’ conference. One says, “Oh, nothing much…oppressing the sisterhood…railing against gay rights…tipped over a news van at the Paterno rally…what’s new with you?”

November 17
The Courier Journal ran a Marc Murphy cartoon called “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In a shower room, two older men are shown naked with their backs to the viewer. One man is called “Catholic Church.” The other man is called “Penn State.” A little boy also in the shower room, “You have no clothes. Help!” The “Penn State” man says, “Keep your voice down for the sake of the institutions.”

November 23
The San Jose Mercury News ran a Vic Lee cartoon showing a Catholic priest next to a man about to be guillotined. The priest says, “This cracks me up every time.” From the depiction, it was an obvious reference to the French Revolution with no bearing on current events. That is why it was a clear shot at Catholics.

November 30
Gustavo Arellano, a writer for OC Weekly, was appointed editor of the “alternative” weekly publication. Of his promotion he said: “I want to thank all the skinheads, pedophile priests, Know Nothings, and battleship tacos that made this day possible.”

Arellano is perpetually exercised about allegations of priestly sexual abuse, but it is not the issue that interests him, just the offenders: he has never published a piece on the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy of any other religion.

Television

January 16
Comedy Central aired “Denis Leary & Friends Present Douchebags & Donuts.” Later in the week Comedy Central Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment released the DVD nationwide. The opening segment of the video showed a clip of Pope Benedict XVI talking to a crowd with a dubbed voice-over that made it seem like he is discussing priestly sexual abuse. Leary appears on stage extending his middle finger, an illuminated Cross in the background, and a trio of women dressed as nuns in habit wearing short skirts.

In the clip of the pope, the pope yells, “Heil Hitler,” proclaiming, “Oh yeah, I’m the f***ing pope, for Christ’s sake, the god**** Fuehrer.” The pope then introduces Leary as Father Denis Leary, who enters the stage singing a song. Below are some of his lines:

• “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned—yeah, pull down my pants and put your penis in.”

• “Thou shalt not kill and Thou shalt not lie, and don’t drop the soap when the pope is nearby. Cause they may hate gays but they do love the guys.”

• “Well, the nuns are goin’ down on other nuns, and the priests are chasin’ after altar boy buns, and the pope will move you when the damage is done.”

• “Jesus, Mary and Josephine, well this church is full of some giant queens, so break out the candles and the Vaseline.”

In response to the release of this hate-filled video, we contacted Bushmills, a prominent sponsor of Leary’s, asking them to reconsider their sponsorship.

February 4
Jay Leno made the following joke about homosexuality and priestly sexual abuse on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”: “A Palm Beach priest has admitted to a violation of chastity with an adult woman. When the Vatican heard about this, they said, ‘A woman? Thank God.’” The implication, of course, was that most priestly predators have been homosexuals, which is true.

February 7
TBS aired a re-run episode of “Family Guy” in which Stewie, the family baby, makes comments painting all priests as molesters. In the episode, Stewie travels back in time to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish family-friend) from the Nazis invading Poland. They disguise him as a Catholic priest to sneak him out of the country, but are questioned by a Nazi officer. When asked if Mort is a real priest, Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.” The original episode aired October 19, 2008 on Fox.

February 9
Jay Leno made the following joke about the new Confession application for the iPhone on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”:

“Well, the Catholic Church has come out with a new app for the iPhone. This is real. You can confess right on the phone. How perfect is that? You can now cheat and atone for your sins all on the same device. Perfect for Bret Favre. Fantastic. You know what the name of the app is? I’m not making it up. It’s called ‘Priest in Your Pocket.’ Really. Is that the best name they could come up with?”

Not only did he deliberately mislead the public—the app was simply designed to help Catholics prepare for Confession—he took a below the belt shot at priests. The name of the app is called, “Confession: A Roman Catholic app,” not “Priest in Your Pocket.”

February 16
On an episode of the E! program “Chelsea Lately,” a panel discussed the Confession app. While the app was presented correctly, comedian Natasha Leggero took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the Catholic Church over the sex abuse scandal. She said, “And also the point of confession is you go into a booth, say your sins and get molested by a priest. You’re supposed to do it all there.”

February 23
On ABC’s “The View,” the hosts made ignorant comments about the Catholic Church in regard to Governor Andrew Cuomo receiving communion with the woman he was living with. In criticizing the canon law advisor who called his receiving communion “objectively sacrilegious,” Whoopi Goldberg asked, “What would Jesus do?” Co-host Sherri Shepherd went on: “How many people in that church that take that wine and eat those crackers are doing something at home that we don’t know about?”

We responded by saying that since all of the panelists have either left Catholicism, or never were a member of the Church to begin with, it should not matter to them what Catholicism teaches about anything.

March 11
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher featured an ad mocking the “Catholics Come Home” campaign. The ad claimed there had been sex abuse in the Catholic Church from its inception and said that now there is “significantly lower chances that he or she (children) will be inappropriately touched—particularly she,” implying that gay priests are doing most of the molesting. After the ad aired, he made comments about the Philadelphia archdiocese and said that every city is affected by the abuse crisis and that people have just gotten used to it.

March 17
Bravo aired a special called “Kathy Griffin: 50 & Not Pregnant.” During the show, Griffin took an unwarranted shot at all priests, calling them “kid f**kers.” After she delivered the line, she was wildly cheered by her largely homosexual audience.

March 22

On TBS, an episode of “Lopez Tonight” featured a skit about a priest who ran a religious-themed strip club called “Bad Habits.” The dancers included two nuns in full habit (one gave a member of the audience a lap dance) and a stripping altar boy. While watching the nuns dance, the priest announced to the audience that he was reconsidering his vow of celibacy.

That a rabbi was featured as one of the dancers mattered not. He was sandwiched between two stripping nuns and an altar boy at a club run by a priest. It was clear who Lopez was gunning for.

March 31
On E!’s “Chelsea Lately,” comedian Joe Matarese mentioned Michael Jackson and his Neverland Ranch, saying, “I’m like, didn’t he maybe molest a couple of kids?” He then berated the audience for forgetting about what Jackson did, offering as a parting thought, “you know, maybe if a Catholic priest could moonwalk better….” Matarese was implying that what has been clear for some time: If abusing priests were entertainers, they would be treated as heroes.

April 6
In an episode of the Comedy Central program “Tosh.0”, comedian Daniel Tosh took a shot at the Catholic Church implying that its clergy is full of molesters. He said that if the pope were an attractive young man maybe the altar boys would “quit complaining.”

April 20
Comedy Central re-aired an episode of “South Park” called “Medicinal Fried Chicken” in which character Eric Cart manmade three separate jokes about Pope Benedict XVI and the sexual abuse scandal.

The offensive comments were:

• “Do I want to do it? Does the pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes?”

• “Is that something I’d want to do? Is the pope Catholic and making the world safe for pedophiles?”

• “Does a bear crap in the woods? And does the pope crap on the broken lives and dreams of 200 deaf boys?”

April 29
NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” exhibited yet another assault on priests. In a skit about the Royal Wedding, Dame Edna played a British correspondent. She was shown taking secret footage of the event while Leno pretended to be speaking with her live.

Dame Edna approached a vendor selling cheese called “Stinking Bishop.” Upon hearing the name, she said, “Stinking Bishop? My son toyed with the priesthood. Or perhaps it was the other way around.”

What made this skit so invidious was its wholly gratuitous nature: there is no relationship between the Royal Wedding and Catholic priests.

May 20
On HBO’s program “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher and his panel of guests discussed the release of the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church. Maher branded all priests as abusers and falsely claimed that the report blamed the 60s for the abuse scandal.

Maher said, “Here is what they found: Not as bad as you think; it magically solved itself one day in 1985…. And the Church isn’t the problem, celibacy isn’t the problem, repressed homosexuality isn’t the problem; you know what the problem was? The 60s… I’m not kidding, they said it was the permissive attitude of the 60s.”

June 7
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” host Jon Stewart joked about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal with correspondent John Oliver. During their skit, Stewart ridiculed Weiner by sipping frantically on a Margarita, imitating the way Weiner sipped from a water bottle at his press conference.

Stewart then accidentally broke his glass. Oliver, seeing Stewart’s hand bleeding, joked, “Don’t be so Jewish about it. You’re fine, you’re absolutely fine.”

On Yahoo! News, in both the video clip and the news story, this is where the skit ended. But on the show, it continued with Stewart replying, “I should be Catholic.” Next, referring to his blood, he offered, “I should turn this into a drink.”

Weiner sent porn pictures to strangers and Stewart laughed it off. But, Stewart’s impulsive lashing out at the heart of Catholicism when discussing a subject that has nothing to do with it revealed a side to him that was troubling.

Yahoo! News was dishonest in the way it tried to paper over Stewart’s insulting remark: it deliberately cut his offensive quip, knowing it would have put the skit in a totally different light.

June 14
On CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” the host said he was “stunned” and “fascinated” by Anthony Weiner’s predicament, saying: “Honest to God, is this the kind of behavior you’d expect from a congressman! No. In simple terms, no. It is not the kind of behavior you’d expect from a congressman. It is the kind of behavior you’d expect from a priest.” Letterman decided to attack all priests, when there was no shortage of politicians with the baggage of a sex scandal.

June 21
On Current TV’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the host claimed that Galileo was punished by the Catholic Church for “his belief that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around.” He also said that “the Church acknowledged errors had been committed in assessing Galileo’s scientific beliefs. They did that in 1992.” Besides being factually wrong, the tone of Olbermann’s comments made it clear that his remarks were meant to insult.

The fact is that the belief that the earth revolves around the sun was first broached by Copernicus—a priest—in 1543, long before Galileo. Moreover, when Galileo first floated Copernicus’ idea, he was bestowed with medals and gifts by Pope Urban VIII. What got him censured was his arrogance: Galileo argued that his hypothesis was a scientific fact, something which even the scientific community of his day scoffed at.

It was also false to say that in 1992 the Catholic Church acknowledged errors in dealing with Galileo. That happened in 1741 when Pope Benedict XIV granted an imprimatur to the first edition of the completed works of Galileo. What happened in 1992 was the release of a Pontifical Academy report on the controversy.

July 29
Comedy Central re-aired “Comedy Central Presents Ted Alexandro,” which originally aired in 2006. In the program, Alexandro attacked the Pope and the Church, referring to Catholic Church as the “Microsoft of pedophilia.”

September 28
When the Parents Television Council called for the cancellation of the NBC series, “The Playboy Club,” series actor David Krumholtz responded on Twitter by saying that Mormons and Catholics have “a long history of degrading women.” When asked to clarify his statement about Catholics, Krumholtz said, “My bad. I should have said little children instead of women.”

October 12
An episode of the NBC show, “Harry’s Law,” concerned a young girl who had been bullied due to her homosexuality and committed suicide after she was outed. It was suggested that the girl’s Catholic faith was in part responsible for her suicide because she could not tell clergy about her homosexuality since “Being raised Catholic she’d be damned for eternity.”

October 20
On the CBS sitcom “Big Bang Theory,” the mother of one of the main characters came to visit him. She is portrayed as a southern mother who makes racist and generally inappropriate comments, some of which were offensive to Catholic sensibilities. She referred to Catholics as “Rosary Rattlers”; she said Jesus was “the last Jew who did sit-ups…and look where it got him.”

December 11
An episode of “American Dad” called “Season’s Beatings” made grotesque disparagements of Jesus, Christianity, and Christmas. Stan Smith, the main character, hopes to play Jesus Christ on the Cross in an upcoming Christmas play. He says, “When it comes to Christianity, that’s the money shot.

ROLLING STONE GETS UGLY: VILE HIT ON PHILLY ARCHDIOCESE




ATTACK ON BISHOP FINN

Beginning late October, we rallied behind Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn with vigor: we saturated the community with an ad that the Kansas City Star rejected for political reasons. Indeed, we hit virtually every Catholic church, school and lay organization in the area, along with other religious organizations, public and private schools and colleges, government officials, businesses and civic associations. We even contacted local bars, barber shops and beauty parlors. Here’s what happened. 

Last December, a police officer and an attorney were contacted by diocesan officials after a technician found photos of young girls on Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer. While none of the pictures were pornographic, they were nonetheless disturbing.

Following the discovery of his fetish, Ratigan attempted suicide. He was then sent for psychiatric analysis: he was said to be suffering from depression, but was not diagnosed as a pedophile. After he violated strictures regarding his movement last May, the diocese contacted the authorities, even though it had no legal mandate to do so. It was then that even more disturbing photos were found.

In other words, Bishop Finn did what no other leader of any religious, or secular, organization has done: he put all the cards on the table and brought in the police in a case where there was no complainant. More than that, he asked for an independent investigation by a former U.S. attorney, Todd P. Graves.

Graves and a team of attorneys, former prosecutors and FBI officials issued a report concluding that while some matters may have been handled better, Bishop Finn was guilty of no criminal wrongdoing (he had almost no role in this case). But that was not enough for the likes of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and their lawyers. They drove public opinion on this issue, resulting in an unprecedented indictment of a bishop—on a misdemeanor, no less. Subsequently, they have been on a rampage finding new “victims” to sue.

At the end of October, Bill Donohue submitted a full-page ad (costing $25,000) to be placed in the Kansas City Star exposing the shenanigans: it was turned down without explanation, even though the newspaper is in financial straits! The Star-SNAP alliance was indisputably cemented.

On November 15, Bishop Finn agreed to meet on a monthly basis with the Clay County prosecutor about any suspicious behavior of those in his employ; in return, charges have been dropped. Still to be settled are similar charges made by the Jackson County prosecutor.

Listed below in chronological order is our response to the attacks on Bishop Robert Finn:

October 21: BISHOP FINN DESERVES BETTER

We will have a lot to say about Bishop Finn and his accusers, but for now, we want to make it clear that we stand by him without reservation. Why? Not because he is a bishop, but because nothing he did deserves the kind of reaction against him that is emanating from many quarters. Shortly, we will lay out the details of our support for him. Keep in mind the following:

Many strange photos (crotch-focused) of young girls, fully clothed, were found on the laptop of a priest last December; one showed a girl naked. Though Bishop Finn never saw it, he was told of it. The result? The picture was described to a police officer the next day, and an attorney for the Diocese was shown the photo. It was determined that the photo, while disturbing, did not constitute child pornography. The priest learns that they’re on to him; he attempts suicide; he almost dies; he recovers; he is sent for treatment; he is not considered to be a pedophile, but is said to be suffering from depression; he is then placed in a spot away from children; he is subjected to restrictions. After violating the restrictions, the cops are called; more damaging photos are then found.

This account is quite different from what is being said in the media. To take one example, an editorial in the New York Times said that Finn “knew of the photos last December but did not turn them over to the police until May.” This makes it sound as if Finn knew about hundreds of photos of child pornography and did nothing about it. In fact, there was one photo, that was not sexual in nature, that was initially found. Moreover, a police officer and an attorney were notified immediately. Later, after the priest proved to be recalcitrant, the police were contacted.

October 31: KANSAS CITY STAR vs. CATHOLIC CHURCH

We recently contacted the Kansas City Star about running a full-page ad on October 30. The ad is a critical statement about the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and their attorney friend, Rebecca Randles. The ad was written because we strongly defend Bishop Finn against the politically motivated attacks on him.

Everything looked good to go: on October 25, we submitted the ad and gave them our credit card information to pay the $25,000 fee. On October 26, we received an e-mail saying, “The Publisher has respectfully declined and did not share the details as to why.”

We have done newspaper ads for decades, especially for the New York Times. It is common practice to fact-check an ad, asking for documentation to substantiate something in it, but never have we been turned down, much less without explanation.

We know what’s going on. The Kansas City Star has long been in bed with SNAP, just as SNAP is in bed with attorneys like Randles and her mentor, Jeffrey Anderson. All are decidedly anti-Catholic. To wit: on September 25, the Star ran a 2223-word front-page Sunday news story on SNAP. To say it was a puff piece would be an understatement. The Church has never been treated with such kid gloves.

We’ll start blanketing the Kansas City, Missouri area with copies of the ad that the Kansas City Star doesn’t want readers to see; no secular or religious organization will escape us. They can impose a gag rule on us in their newspaper, but they cannot control us. Our campaign against the Star and SNAP will be on-going.

November 1: SUICIDE OF THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Our news release on the decision by the Kansas City Star to reject the ad exposing the phony victims’ group, SNAP, and its attack on Bishop Finn, reached approximately 200 employees of the Star and about 300 media outlets in the Kansas City, Missouri area; another 1500 media outlets around the nation received it. All will continue to receive our releases on this subject.

Much of the chatter has focused on the wisdom of turning down $25,000. Consider the following: In June 2008: 10 percent of the Star’s workforce is cut; Sept. 2008: 65 employees accept buyouts or are laid off; Nov. 2008: 50 employees are let go; March 2009: 15 percent of the workforce is cut; Aug. 2009: More buyouts are offered; one-week unpaid furlough is instituted; Jan. 2010: another dozen are terminated; May 2010: another dozen get their pink slips; Sept. 2010: another dozen are booted; Jan. 2011: 20 others are shown the door.

Ten years ago, there were 1,869 employees at the Star; today there are 840. Given these data, turning down $25K must mean the Star is more concerned about getting Bishop Finn than it is the welfare of its own workers. Looks like the Star is suicidal.

The McClatchy Company owns the Star, and its advertising revenue is down 10 percent between the third quarter 2010 and the third quarter 2011. The Board of Directors will receive this release, as will the three major investors: John Paulson, Stephen C. Mildenhall and Andrew Feldstein. They are not going to be happy.

On October 18, the Kansas City Star ran this Lee Judge cartoon expressing the “progressive” hope for Bishop Finn’s indictment, thus adding a local spin to a staple of anti-Catholic bigotry.

November 2: KANSAS CITY STAR AND ANTI-CATHOLICISM

The SNAP-Star alliance against Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn is a natural: both are anti-Catholic. As evidence of SNAP’s bigotry, see our report on its July conference. As for the Star, consider its infamous 1999 “survey” of priests.

Twelve years ago, the Star did a survey of priests across the nation. They were asked such things as: identify your sexual orientation; discuss whether you have HIV or AIDS; assess how the Church is handling this issue; and explain whether the Church should change its teachings on celibacy and homosexuality. No other religious or secular institution was surveyed. In response, we sent our own survey to a random sample of Star employees, asking questions about their sexual orientation and disease status. At least we admitted that our “survey” was a joke—the Star actually thought itself serious.

The purpose of the Star’s survey was to report that HIV or AIDS was rampant among priests and that the Church’s response was heartless. Expecting that most would disagree with celibacy and the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, the end game would then be realized: this is how the Star expected to manipulate public opinion, putting pressure on the Church to change its teachings.

What a disappointment. Almost 100 percent (99.1) said they either did not have HIV or AIDS, or did not think they had it. Two-thirds said the Church was “caring and compassionate” about priests with HIV or AIDS, and only four percent were critical. Yet virtually all the remarks printed in the Star came from priests who were critical of the Church! Angered by the results, the Star showed even more contempt for privacy rights by combing the death certificates of deceased priests looking for dirt.

By any measure, the Star showed its bias, as well as its necromania.

November 3: KANSAS CITY STAR-SNAP ALLIANCE

Respectable newspapers are expected to be objective, and not become the voice box of activist organizations. This is not true of the Kansas City Star; its relationship with SNAP is incestuous.

To take the latest example, on November 1, Judge James Dale Youngs of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, dismissed a case brought by SNAP lawyer Rebecca Randles against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph; Randles never even bothered to respond to the motion to dismiss. But the real story here is why senior Star reporter Judy L. Thomas, who wrote about the initial lawsuit, never told readers about this development.

When this suit was initially filed on March 8, the Star ran a story by Thomas about it on p. 7. And guess who announced it? SNAP. So now that Randles and SNAP look foolish, or worse, why wasn’t this reported? By the way, Thomas made reference to this case several times in the intervening months. Moreover, in the past three months, Thomas cited SNAP ten times in her stories. So why the cover-up about the motion to dismiss the lawsuit?

The editorial board of the Star has similarly been compromised. On May 21, its editorial on the Fr. Shawn Ratigan case cited SNAP’s criticisms of the diocese. Ten days later, in another editorial, it once again favorably quoted SNAP. Perhaps most interesting was the editorial of June 4 that called for Bishop Robert Finn to resign: one day before, in a news story which named SNAP, it just happened to say that “Some Catholics will gather today and call for the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn….” How cute. First have some local “Catholics” call for the bishop to resign, and then let the brave souls at the newspaper follow suit.

The Star is nothing more than an echo chamber for SNAP.

November 3: KANSAS CITY STAR IS IMPLODING

The Star is in free fall: for the first time since before World War II, its daily circulation has fallen below 200,000 (the Sunday circulation is only about 300,000). Circulation numbers are of particular concern to newspaper advertisers—it determines the rates they are charged.

Because we believe in transparency, and because the Star purports to believe in truth in advertising, we are writing to the CEO’s of the Star’s biggest advertisers letting them know they may be paying too much for their ads. Those advertisers are: Target; Kohl’s; Best Buy; Macy’s; Dick’s Sporting Goods; Dillard’s; Wal-Mart; Cabela’s; Sears; Verizon; and Sprint.

We will also let the big advertisers know that the data will only get worse. To be specific, between the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, there are approximately 1.5 million Catholics in the Star’s immediate readership area. Once they learn that the Star refused to run our ad blowing the whistle on the enemies of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn, more will bail.

We are sharing the ad we wrote with all the CEO’s. After all, they need to know why the Star is imploding so they can make an informed decision on where to park their advertising dollars. And since the holiday season is fast approaching, what better time to reconsider their contract with the Star. Social justice demands no less.

November 4: MEET THE CHURCH-SUING LAWYERS

SNAP announces a lawsuit against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The diocese, headed by Bishop Finn, knows nothing about it. But attorney Rebecca Randles does: she coordinated the attack with SNAP. Virtually all the cases date back decades, and no one from the Kansas City Star questions any of it. This isn’t an anomaly—it’s the norm.

Randles got her start with Jeffrey Anderson, the most successful Church-shakedown lawyer in the nation. On June 2, they (and another attorney) sued Bishop Finn about a matter he had nothing to do with. Since then, Randles has been finding new “victims” at a record pace.

Randles and Anderson came together 20 years ago to represent David Clohessy (now SNAP’s director). After watching the movie “Nuts” in 1988 he suddenly “remembered” being molested by a priest decades ago. The lawsuit failed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Randles then made history when she was the first attorney to file suit against a priest in Missouri. It was another “repressed memory” suit where the accuser suddenly recalls being molested decades ago. After first winning, an appeals court threw it out—the clock had run out on such claims. She vowed to push for a new strategy: she argued that the “trigger” for such claims should start when alleged victims “remember” when they were abused. In 2006, her dream came true: the Missouri Supreme Court said that a guy who suddenly remembered being molested 30 years prior could sue. Ever since, the suits against the diocese have never stopped.

Both Anderson and Randles give generously to SNAP, and indeed Randles has been known to pressure her clients to fork over some of their settlement money to her friends. The Star knows all of this, yet it continues the cover-up.

November 7: KANSAS CITY STAR COVERS FOR SNAP

Recently, news broke that a former Penn State football coach, serving under head coach Joe Paterno, was allegedly sexually abusing young boys. Although Paterno immediately notified the Athletic Director, he did not call the cops. David Clohessy, SNAP’s director, is now calling for Paterno to be investigated. Yet when Clohessy learned in the 1990s that his brother Kevin, a priest, was a child molester, he covered it up.

The Kansas City Star is working with SNAP, and its lawyers, against Bishop Robert Finn. Only once, in a brief story in 2003, did it mention that Clohessy’s brother was charged with molestation; even then it never reported that he refused to call the cops. And in a big puff piece on him in September, it never mentioned this story. The cover up is sickening.

Nor does the Star ever bother to question the spurious lawsuits that SNAP lawyers have been bringing. Isn’t it more than just a little curious that the Catholic Church is being singled out for hundreds of “repressed memory” lawsuits? A Nexis search connecting “repressed memory” with “minister” yields 551 stories; “rabbi” yields 71; and though the nation’s teachers vastly outnumber priests, there were 1208 stories on “teachers” and 1855 on “priests.”

Between 2009 and 2010, there was a 42 percent increase in false accusations against priests. The data didn’t come as a surprise to California attorney Donald H. Steier. Last year, he testified that “One retired F.B.I. agent who worked with me to investigate many claims in the Clergy Cases told me, in his opinion, about ONE-HALF of the claims made in Clergy Cases were either entirely false or so greatly exaggerated that the truth would not have supported a prosecutable claim for childhood sexual abuse.” An independent newspaper would report such stories. The Star is not one of them—it’s in bed with SNAP. 

November 7: KC STAR OMITS STORY ON TOP EPISCOPAL BISHOP

On November 7, SNAP held a press conference in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to bring attention to a case involving an Episcopal priest, Bede Parry, who is being charged with molesting young boys while he was studying to be a Catholic priest. Parry was thrown out of the Benedictines of Conception Abbey in Missouri back in 1990; then he left for Las Vegas; eventually he became an Episcopal priest there. The person who knew about his record of abuse and still allowed him to join the clergy of the Episcopal Church was the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori; today she is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S., located in New York City.

On November 8, the Kansas City Star, which has been relentless in its pursuit of clergy abuse by Catholic priests, said nothing about this case. Is this because it involves another religion? Or is it because it implicates a woman clergyperson, thus getting in the way of the narrative that Catholic bishops have some kind of special “old boy” network that inhibits them from being forthcoming? No matter, to think that the person who is the head of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is named in a cover-up involving the sexual abuse of minors—and isn’t even mentioned in the Star—speaks volumes about its politically driven agenda against Bishop Finn.

It is important to note that at no time was Bede Parry a priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Nor is it true that the Diocese is named in the lawsuit.

November 10: KANSAS CITY PRESS CONFERENCE

The Catholic League press conference was held outside the Kansas City Star. Without solicitation—simply by word of mouth—a sizable crowd of local Catholics joined Bill Donohue, Vice President Bernadette Brady and staff members Alex Mejia and Don Lauer. All were there in support of Bishop Robert Finn and against the Star-SNAP alliance.  [Click here] to see photos.

October 25: TAKING AIM AT BISHOP FINN

This ad, written by Bill Donohue, was rejected by the Kansas City Star, without explanation. The close relationship between the newspaper and SNAP is disturbing, but to turn down $25,000 is still surprising. The Star can impose a gag rule on us, but it cannot control us. Indeed, this ad was printed in the Northeast News, a weekly suburban newspaper. We intend to let everyone in Kansas City, Missouri know about this matter. 

There is nothing wrong with asking legitimate questions about the way Bishop Robert Finn handled the Fr. Shawn Ratigan matter. But there is something wrong about not asking legitimate questions about the politics of those out to sink him. First, let’s recap what actually happened.

Last December, crotch-shot pictures of young girls, fully clothed, were found on Fr. Ratigan’s computer; there was one photo of a naked girl. The very next day, the Diocese contacted a police officer and described the naked picture; a Diocesan attorney was shown it. Because the photo was not sexual in nature, it was determined that it did not constitute child pornography. This explains why the Independent Review Board was not contacted—there was no specific allegation of child abuse.

When Fr. Ratigan discovered that the Diocese had learned of his fetish, he attempted suicide. When he recovered, he was immediately sent for psychiatric evaluation. It is important to note that Bishop Finn, who never saw any of the photos, did this precisely because he was considering the possibility of removing Fr. Ratigan from ministry. After evaluation (the priest was diagnosed as suffering from depression, but was not judged to be a pedophile), Fr. Ratigan was placed in a spot away from children and subjected to various restrictions. After he violated them, the Diocese called the cops. That’s when more disturbing photos were found. At the same time, Bishop Finn contacted an attorney to do an independent investigation into this matter.

Fair-minded persons may question whether the Diocese was too lenient, but unless there is reason to believe that a crime has been committed, there is no cause for contacting the authorities. Yet the Diocese—unlike the officials of other organizations faced with the same situation—contacted a police officer and a lawyer immediately. [Note: in 2007, a huge investigation by the Associated Press of teacher sexual misconduct revealed that Missouri school districts were guilty of “backroom deals” that allowed molesting teachers to “quietly move on.” So where is the dust-up about this? Where are the calls for grand jury probes?] Why, then, the attempt to get Bishop Finn?

What’s driving the anti-Finn campaign is politics. The major players are the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and attorneys Rebecca Randles and Jeffrey Anderson. Their goal is not justice. Nor is it child welfare. Their goal is to sabotage the Catholic Church.

Here’s how it works. Anderson, who is worth hundreds of millions, helps to fund SNAP. SNAP works with Randles, a protégé of Anderson, and together they find new “victims”—adults who just now seem to remember being groped decades ago. Indeed, upwards of 20 new lawsuits have been filed since Ratigan was nailed in May. SNAP, ever coy, then holds a press conference, making wild accusations. Importantly, no one in Finn’s office is prepared to comment because Randles has yet to file suit. In other words, SNAP and Randles ambush the Diocese, garnering a high media profile, and then press the authorities to indict Bishop Finn.

What is SNAP? It sells itself as a victims’ advocacy organization that represents those who have been abused by any authority. This is a lie. It concentrates almost exclusively on the Catholic Church. How do I know? For one, just check its website. More revealing, last July I asked trusted sources to register at a SNAP conference outside of Washington, D.C. The entire event was dedicated to discussing ways to undermine what they called the “evil institution,” namely the Catholic Church. No one from SNAP has contested a single comment attributed to the speakers as described in my report, “SNAP Exposed.”

Here’s how SNAP manipulates the media. At the meeting, attendees were instructed how to hold a press conference: “Display holy childhood photos”; Use “feeling words”; Say, “I was scared” or “I was suicidal”; “Be sad, not mad”; “If you don’t have compelling holy childhood photos, we can provide you with photos of other kids that can be held up for the cameras.” The unmistakable goal is to feign sorrow and stage the event.

SNAP’s director, David Clohessy, began his activist career by working for ACORN, the now discredited far-left wing organization. In 1988, while watching the movie, “Nuts,” he had a revelation: his memory exploded with tales of being molested by a priest 20 years earlier. Three years later, his attorney, Jeffrey Anderson, sued the local diocese; working with Anderson for the first time was Rebecca Randles. The time gap in both instances is striking.

Clohessy wants Bishop Finn behind bars for not moving fast enough on this matter. But when Clohessy was working for SNAP in the 1990s, he refused to contact the authorities when he learned of a man who was sexually abusing young men. That man was his brother, Kevin, a Catholic priest. Feeling conflicted, David wondered, “he’s my brother; he’s an abuser. Do I treat him like my brother? Do I treat him like an abuser?” He chose the former. “He [Kevin] told me he was getting help, getting treatment.” This is understandable. What is not understandable is his outrage at bishops when they voice the same sentiment about their brother priests. The duplicity is sickening.

Is SNAP really upset about child porn, or just when a priest is involved? Dr. Steve Taylor is a psychiatrist who is in prison for downloading child porn on his computer. He is not just an ordinary shrink with a sick appetite—he worked for SNAP for years. Before his conviction, Barbara Blaine, the founder of SNAP, intervened on his behalf and wrote to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners asking them to give consideration to Taylor’s alleged humanitarian work—she didn’t want him to lose his license. Had Taylor been a priest, her reaction would have been vengeful.

At the July SNAP conference, Blaine spoke about priests who believe they have been mistreated by the authorities and want to countersue. She said they may have “a legal right,” but they “don’t have a moral right to do so.” This is what SNAP means by justice. When lawsuits were flying in 2002, after revelations about the Boston scandal, many priests who claimed innocence decided to countersue. SNAP actually declared such lawsuits “brutal” and “un-Christian.”

This one-way street favored by SNAP also manifests itself in other ways. While it always protects the names of its accusers, it demands that we know the names of accused priests, including those who are dead. Moreover, it will not release the names of its donors. Yet they condemn the Catholic Church for lacking transparency.

In August, SNAP accused New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan of covering up an alleged incident involving a teenage girl who said she was “inappropriately touched” by an 87-year-old priest. Dolan knew nothing about it until the cops were called. SNAP has yet to apologize. It also accused Dolan of “acting secretively” about a previous case where a priest was suspended. But Dolan was not in New York at the time—he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee. Moreover, at the SNAP conference, Dolan was accused of shielding 55 molesting priests. This is libelous. But it is what we have come to expect from these people—a SNAP official once spat in the Archbishop’s face.

SNAP is so anti-priest that its Kentucky chapter leader once lobbied state authorities to warn residents when Catholic priests who have been accused, but not convicted, of sexual abuse move into their neighborhood. Just priests. A few years ago, in California, a boy’s father alleged that his son had been abused by a priest in the 1990s. The case was dismissed. The alleged victim, now a grown man, said it never happened. When SNAP then learned that this innocent priest was appointed to a sex abuse panel, it went ballistic. In SNAP’s mind, once a priest is charged, he’s guilty, no matter what the verdict says.

The reason why SNAP wants to bring down Bishop Finn is because it always shoots for the top. In September, Clohessy admitted that his goal is to bring down the pope. “We’re not naïve,” he said. “We don’t think the pope will be hauled off in handcuffs next week or month. But by the same token, our long-term chances are excellent.” This kind of thinking explains why SNAP recently blasted the Vatican’s new guidelines on sex abuse the day before they were released.

SNAP is so hateful that it even endorses Gestapo-like tactics used against the Catholic Church. Last year, the world was stunned to learn of a Belgium police raid on Church facilities, looking for evidence of wrongdoing. The bishop was detained for over nine hours; the police even went so far as to drill into the tombs of two deceased cardinals looking for documents. And what did Barbara Blaine say? “If children are to be protected, the actions of Belgian law enforcement must become the norm, not the aberration.”

While fascistic means are acceptable to SNAP, it knows it can’t get away with that in the U.S. So it elects to work with those who are flooding the Diocese with lawsuits. This way it can drain its resources, tie up the courts and seek to turn the public against the Catholic Church.

Randles was one of the lawyers who was behind the bundled lawsuits that led to a 2008 settlement with the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Those lawsuits included claims dating back to just after World War II. Now she’s back, representing clients who just now seem to recall being abused many moons ago. The timing couldn’t be more convenient. The SNAP-led crowd is now claiming that the settlement, which held that the Diocese had to take steps to curb abuse, was violated. Their proposed remedy represents the fulfillment of their dreams: they want the Diocese to cede control of its operations.

Between 2009-2010 (the latest years for which data are available), there was a 42 percent increase in false allegations against priests. So-called repressed memory figures prominently in these bogus charges. A few years ago, researchers at Harvard Medical School studied this phenomenon and concluded that it has no scientific basis—it is purely a cultural invention. Harvard psychology professor Richard J. McNally also studied this subject. “The notion that the mind protects itself by banishing the most disturbing, terrifying events is psychiatric folklore.” He added, “The more traumatic and stressful something is, the less likely someone is to forget it.”

Randles is now charging that not only did the Diocese know what was happening, and did nothing about it, those in charge actually encouraged it. Here are some examples, all filed recently. In the case of Fr. Stephen Wise, the suit charges that “The Diocese ratified Wise’s sexual abuse of the plaintiff by encouraging him to commit the abuse and encouraging him to continue committing the abuse.” In the Fr. Michael Tierney case, the suit claims, “the sexual abuse of minors became a collective objective of the Diocese.” And in the Fr. Mark Honhart case, the suit also claims, “the sexual abuse of minors became a collective objective of the Diocese.”

In one sense, this kind of language is useful: it is positive proof of the anti-Catholic mindset. In their vision, the Catholic Church is the font of all evil, with the pope at command central. All of this might have been believable if it had been said by nativists 150 years ago, or by those in the asylum today, but to think that such malicious fiction is being trumpeted in 2011—by lawyers no less—is mind-boggling.

Clohessy recently wrote to the prosecutors of Clay County and Jackson County. “Jailing Finn, once his guilt has been determined or admitted, would be an unprecedented and effective step toward preventing future clergy sex crimes and cover ups, in Kansas City and elsewhere.” So Bishop Finn either admits his guilt or is found guilty. There is no other option. That’s exactly the way they think.

It is incorrect to assume that Randles and company are motivated mostly by money. No, their real goal is control—the control of the Catholic Church. Randles wants the Diocese to accept third-party supervision of these matters. She is asking for “continuing supervision,” explaining that she is “looking for a mechanism to enforce the provisions of the settlement agreement from this day forward, so that there is some form of continuing watch-dogging.” It doesn’t get much plainer than this.




WAR ON CHRISTMAS

WAR ON CHRISTMAS

November
Bellevue, WA – Shortly after Thanksgiving, Bob McLean, a United States Postal Service letter carrier, was taken off his route by his supervisor because someone complained about his Santa Clause uniform. “The government is shutting me down because it’s a non-postal regulation uniform,” said McLean, a USPS employee since 1971. In past years, he had donned the uniform for a few days while delivering mail during the Christmas season. His, a source of local Christmas cheer, had been tolerated for over a decade.

November
Springhill, LA – The Springhill Branch Library banned a living nativity scene that was to be portrayed by a First Assembly of God youth group because library officials disallowed anything with “religious tones” on library grounds. As a result, the living nativity scene was moved to elsewhere in town.

November-December
Freedom From Religion Foundation sought to counter the display of a nativity scene in Athens, Texas with one of its mocking statements.. Similarly, hundreds of residents in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania turned out to rally in support of their crèche.

The bottom line was unmistakable. In every instance when the people got mobilized, they did so in support of Christmas. There was not a single example to the contrary: the anti-Christmas folks amount to nothing more than a few atheist organizations and their lawyers.

The Catholic League Nativity scene in Central Park. 

November 3
The Air Force apologized after being accused of religious intolerance by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for promoting Operation Christmas Child. Sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian group, it sends Christmas gifts to impoverished children worldwide.

November 30
In Wisconsin, for the first time in years, they reverted back to calling the Capitol Rotunda Christmas tree a Christmas tree: it was called a Christmas tree for 70 years until it was renamed a Holiday tree in the mid-1980s.

In Rhode Island, Governor Lincoln Chafee decided to continue the politics of intolerance by calling the Capitol Rotunda Christmas tree a Holiday tree

Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation explained why the Christmas tree in Wisconsin was rebranded the Holiday tree: “Calling it a Holiday tree was meant to be inclusive.” Ironically, it has proven to be divisive—the uproar was in Rhode Island, not Wisconsin.

According to the Providence Journal, 87 percent of the people in Rhode Island prefer to call the Christmas tree a Christmas tree; only 8 percent think it should be called a Holiday tree. In Wisconsin, there was no discord: calling the Christmas tree a Christmas tree has brought people together. This is why Rhode Island should learn a lesson in civility and community by calling its Christmas tree a Christmas tree.

We asked: By the way, what holiday does the Holiday tree represent?

December
Newburyport, MA – Principal Lorene Marx banned fourth and fifth graders at Edward G. Molin Upper Elementary School from participating in “Secret Santa.” Parents were upset the tradition was being banned. Marx said her decision was based on the fact that not every student celebrates Christmas and that some might not be able to afford to take part. Marx commented, “No student needs to feel they need to give a certain amount, to feel left out or to feel unable to participate. This also ties in with the district’s inclusionary practices.” Superintendent Marc Kerble said, “Everybody has good intentions, and I think that in the spirit of giving, we need to move forward and do what’s best for the community.”

December
Fairfield, CA – The Military Religious Foundation wrote to authorities at Travis Air Force Base asking that the Nativity scene and menorah in the base’s holiday display be moved to a chapel nearby. The group claimed that the displays constituted an endorsement of religions by the military. Lawyers for the base determined that the symbols do not violate religious freedom of the troops. The Air Force judge decided that the displays at the base were part of a more general, secular holiday display, which includes images of Santa Claus, airplanes, and Christmas trees.

December
Lincoln, NE – A flashing message reminding passersby to “Remember the Reason for the Season” was removed from the electronic sign at Lincoln Southeast High School. Principal Patrick Hunter-Pirtle commented: “It shouldn’t have been up there. That phrase is associated with Christianity. We have Jewish students here, and we have Muslim students here. I don’t want anybody to feel like we’re favoring a religion. I don’t want to exclude anyone, and we work hard at that.” Hunter-Pirtle had not noticed the message until receiving a phone call from the ACLU-Nebraska Executive Director Laurel Marsh.

 December
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) launched its atheistic billboard campaign against the Christmas season. The billboards read “Imagine No Religion” and “Reason’s Greetings.” For the first time, billboards went up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brookville, Indiana also saw atheist billboards in response to a crèche controversy from the preceding year, in which FFRF disputed the placement of a Nativity scene on public property.. This year, the Nativity was displayed again on courthouse grounds, but in a different location by the street. New York City was also included in the billboard campaign.

In Warren, Michigan “”FFRF tried to put up a “Winter Solstice” sign next to a crèche inside Warren City Hall. The sign was to include the statement that religion is a “myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.” Warren Mayor James Fouts responded against the sign with a letter to FFRF in which he wrote, “I cannot and will not sanction the desecration of religion in the Warren City Hall atrium.”“” On December 23, FFRF sued the Warren mayor for “government censorship of nonreligious views and unlawful endorsement of religion.”

December
Portland, Ore. – A former church, now a small arts venue, displayed a local artist’s take on the nativity scene. It was called “alien nativity.” The exhibit, entailed 3D special effects, included four extraterrestrial magi as well as a portrayal of Santa Claus as shaman bedecked with an antlered deer’s skull.

December 4
Leesburg, VA – A life-size crucified skeleton wearing a Santa Clause outfit appeared on the grounds of the Loudon County courthouse. According to the application for the display, the skeleton Santa was meant “to depict society’s materialistic obsessions and addictions and it is killing the peace, love, joy and kindness that is supposed to prevalent during the holiday season.”

December 8
We launched our “Adopt an Atheist” campaign in response to David Silverman’s remarks: “We want people to realize that there may be atheists in their family,” he told the New York Times, “even if those atheists don’t even know they are atheists.”Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knew this to be true, which is why he was frantically trying to inflate his base.

We thought that there was some merit in Silverman’s idea, even if he had things backwards, as usual. So, in response to him, we launched our “Adopt an Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which was, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”

Here is what our campaign entailed. We asked everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area, letting them know of his interest in “adopting” one of them. We asked our members to let the atheists know of their sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. We said that the atheists may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.

Bill Donohue discussed the urgency of this campaign, “If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who ‘believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.’”

December 12-30
“The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever!” made its premier on the West Coast at the Avery Schreiber Theatre in North Hollywood, California and ran through December 30. On the East Coast, the play was a success off-Broadway in New York and ran from November 14 through December 31.

Director Paul Storiale said, “We have lots of different characters. There’s a narcoleptic with Tourette’s, over-the-top gay, over-the-top black, a gay Mexican Jesus. This show is filled with every stereotype; no group goes untouched.”

Music director Geo Santini described the character of Jesus as “silly” and “deviant.”

An actress played a lesbian angel in bow tie and suspenders, “butching up” the Nativity. She said: “The underlying message is one of visibility, and those of us who are gay and lesbian struggle with that. The hope is that some day [this play] won’t be a big deal because it’s gay. It will just be another Christmas pageant people will want to see because it’s well-written and because it’s funny.”

December 13
The following are some of the positive and negative stoires that cross our desk leading up to Christmas.

On the positive front, the residents of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania turned out by the hundreds on December 2 to rally in support of their nativity scene. There is a live nativity scene on city property in Minden, Louisiana, and after some initial resistance, a church hand bell group will soon take command of the Springhill library’s courtyard. After a nativity scene was banned for years on the grounds of the Muskingum County Courthouse in Zanesville, Ohio, the county commissioners voted unanimously to put it back. Similarly, Wisconsin reverted back to its display of a Christmas tree at the state capitol. “Keep Christ in Christmas” was the banner that stretched across the street in Pitman, New Jersey, and attempts by atheists to censor it have failed. And, in Athens, Texas, 5,000 people took to the streets in support of the crèche on the grounds of the Henderson County Courthouse after the Freedom From Religion Foundation called for its removal.

On the negative front, a school counselor at an Arkansas elementary school was told that she must remove her posting of a nativity scene on her billboard; her decoration was permitted for more than 20 years. Tulsa, Oklahoma long had a Christmas parade, but in recent years it was renamed the Holiday parade.

But just as the people in Rhode Island sang Christmas songs at their secularized “Holiday” event, the people in Tulsa countered with their own Christmas parade.

Indeed, we saw more examples of the pro-Christmas side not settling for a secular outcome than its obverse. More important, when the anti-Christmas side pushed back, those doing it were activist atheists. When the pro-Christmas side pushed back, it was a grassroots effort. In short, “Power to the People” never sounded so good.

December 15
We issued a press release on the anti-Christian tactics of atheist groups.

“If we can’t censor, then compete.” That’s the preferred modus operandi of many atheists out to smash Christmas. Their first instinct is to ban nativity scenes wherever they can. If that doesn’t work, then they lay claim to the same spot seeking to display their anti-Christmas message.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) was the most active atheist group using this two-prong strategy in 2011. In the Mississippi State Capitol, FFRF displayed a sign mocking religion; it did the same in the Wisconsin State Capitol. It also waged war in small towns such as Athens, Texas and Prineville, Oregon.

Sometimes the efforts of radical atheists yield really ugly fruit: in Santa Monica, city officials used a lottery system to sort out all the requests for display on public property, the result being that atheists won most of the spots.

Unfortunately, some government officials took the easy way out by electing to ban all displays. For example, in 2010 the Catholic League protested the display of the menorah, a religious symbol, and the banning of a nativity scene, also a religious symbol, at the St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal and in Boca Raton, Florida. This year the courageous souls who run things in both places chose to ban all displays. 

December 19
We issued a press release addressing intolerance at Christmastime at home and abroad.

North Korea is putting South Korea on notice, warning of “unexpected consequences” if Seoul displays Christmas lights near the border. In China last week, government officials and the police smashed the sound equipment of Christians who were about to celebrate Christmas in a village outside Beijing.

In a South Carolina cancer center, a 67-year-old volunteer Santa was evicted because of the “different cultures and beliefs of the patients we care for”; it later reversed its decision. In an elementary school in Stockton, California, poinsettias were banned but somehow snowmen were permitted; they justified their censorship by saying there was a Sikh temple in the city (note: there is no evidence that Sikhs are offended by poinsettias.)

A homosexual group on the campus of Washington and Jefferson College succeeded in getting the Dean to approve a condom-decorated Christmas tree.

Most atheists are not intolerant, but rare is the atheist qua activist who is not. Unfortunately, we don’t have to look overseas to Communist nations to witness this verity. That they show up at Christmastime, as well as at Easter, is proof that their real hatred is of all things Christian.

December 21
Holyoke, MA – Parts of the Nativity from the closed Mater Dolorosa church were moved to the Holy Cross Church. This sparked outrage from protesters occupying the closed church. They claim they set up the manger scene to set up the Christmas holiday. However, a diocesan spokesman said workers went to retrieve the Nativity for a nearby open parish and found that the protestors had set it up without permission.

December 23
Tarrytown, NY – A Christmas tree was veiled with a black curtain in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel Tarrytown at the request of Jewish guests who were scheduled to stay at the hotel for a Hanukkah celebration, occupying 180 of the hotel’s 250 rooms. The general manager said guests were concerned that the tree would be a safety hazard to the large number of children in the hotel: “We did it more to protect a lot of children…from a safety perspective.”

The only report on this incident in the Journal News did not mention how the manager justified his claim that a tree with a curtain would be less of a safety hazard to children than a tree without a curtain or why the curtain, itself was not a safety hazard.

One Roman Catholic patron staying at the hotel said, “I think it’s a slap in the face. The whole purpose of the holiday season, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukah, is everybody celebrating their beliefs. If I went in and put a cover on a menorah, I’d probably have lawyers calling me.” He may no longer give his business to the hotel, saying: “Why should I have to go in there and look at a black curtain instead of a Christmas tree?”

Christmas Vandalism

During each Christmas season, our desks are loaded with stories on Christmas vandalism. This year was no different. Here is a list of incidents that came to our attention:

November
St. Paul, MN – Copper thieves cut and stole heavy and light duty electric cords from lighted Christmas displays in Phalen Park.

November 11
Indiana, PA – A 4-foot Christmas tree decorated with multicolored lights was uprooted and stolen from the backyard of the rectory of St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church, home to priests at the parish serving Catholic students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

November 22
Moreno Valley, CA – A family had its outdoor Christmas decorations stolen after just setting them up. The thieves took most of the expensive decorations. The stolen items were worth $1600.

November 28
Antioch, IL – Toys, coats, and other items intended for Open Arms Mission Charities were stolen from St. Stephen Lutheran Church. The stolen items were worth $700.

December
Philadelphia, PA – The Salvation Army had three of its red kettles stolen from bell ringers at two grocery stores in the Northeast part of the city.

December
Golf Hammock, FL – Inflatable lawn decorations, including a Frosty the Snowman display as well as two Santa displays, were destroyed by vandals in a rash of incidents. One resident claimed that she knew of five vandalized inflatable decorations and that four homes were hit.

December
Lonaconing, MD – Christmas decorations were damaged throughout the town, resulting in up to $800 in costs to replace damaged or stolen displays.

December
Meridian and Lauderdale Counties, MS – In a series of incidents, decorations were stolen or vandalized within the span of a few weeks. Some had their decorations vandalized multiple times. One citizen remarked, “But I honestly believe that is more a breaking down of society. I think that we don’t value things like we used to and we don’t value hard work like we used to.”

December
Ramsey, NJ – Presents, toys, and gift cards for the needy, valued at $3,000, were stolen from St. Paul Roman Catholic Church.

December 3
Sacramento, CA – A family’s Christmas decorations were a neighborhood staple until this year, when vandals slashed an inflatable Santa, ripped off Rudolph the reindeer’s head, and made off with an oversize Grinch figure.

December 10
Milton, GA – In the Gates Mill subdivision, residents were hit with a rash of vandalism hitting up to five homes. The damage included: a baby Jesus figure tossed from its Nativity scene, knocked over reindeer lights, a deflated Santa Claus, a Santa Claus lawn decoration hanging from a tree. According to authorities, yards were strewn with broken, bent, and beheaded Christmas decorations.

December 17-18
Yonkers, NY – Religious statues at six homes and two churches—one Episcopal, the other Catholic—were desecrated by vandals. Statues of the Virgin Mary were spray-painted black and some stolen.

December 19
Fairhaven, MA – According to police, a pickup vehicle deliberately crashed head-on through a Nativity scene in Benoit Square, dragging wreckage including the infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The crèche was repaired by volunteers from the North Fairhaven Improvement Association, which maintains and decorates the square for the season.

December 20
Oildale, CA – A were defaced by vandals with spray-paint who drew an upside-down cross and the numbers 666. Among the decorations defaced were a Nativity scene, a Bible verse and a sign that said “Happy Birthday Jesus.”

November-December
Figures of the Baby Jesus were stolen from homes, businesses or churches in the following locations: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Monmouth, Illinois; Worcester, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Macon County, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Pearl River, New York; Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Port Angeles, Washington

January 2

Bangor, PA – Towards the end of the Christmas season, this defaced baby Jesus (see above) was found hanging in a tree outside of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Baby Jesus was part of its outdoor crèche before it was stolen.

The front side of the figure was marked with the message, “I am the Antichrist,” on the loincloth, an anarchy sign on the chest, horns on the forehead, and stigmatic dots on the hands and feet.

The back of the figure was marked with the number “666” down the spine as well as the message, “Demonization is religious oppression.”

Bangor Borough Council authorized an award of up to $500 for information leading to the apprehension of the perpetrators.

January 14
Quinter, KSTwo Baby Jesus figures were stolen from a United Methodist Church as well as a painting of Jesus. One of the figures was hand-crafted by church members.




MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

January 20
The president of Al-Azhar, an Egyptian university, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, along with the leading members of the Islamic Research Academy, announced they were breaking off dialogue with the Vatican in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s criticism of Muslim violence against Christians. After he denounced the suicide bombing of a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria that killed 23 Christians, the pope called attention to “non-Muslims being oppressed by Muslim states in the Middle East.” For that he was accused of interfering with internal affairs and a boycott was announced for future Muslim-Catholic dialogue.

February 7
Thibodaux, LA – A landmark Catholic cemetery was vandalized, knocking bricks out of a 100 year old tomb, creating health and safety issues on the premises.

February 17
Hattisburg, MS – A breakin at Sacred Heart Catholic Church’s elementary school caused approximately $30,000 in damage. An antique statue of Jesus Christ was destroyed during the break-in.

February 18
Toledo, OH – Beverly Elementary School came under fire for a portion of its architecture; a feature on the side of the building, which the architect saw as a “plus sign,” appeared to be a Christian cross to others. After complaints about the building, school officials decided to revise the façade’s design.
Catholic League president, Bill Donohue, found it striking that this was even an issue at all—the fact that the school demanded a “fix” is proof of sanitizing faux religious symbols.

March 19
Baltimore, MD – Two Baltimore Catholic churches had statues vandalized. One was pushed off its pedestal and another had its based chipped.

April 3
Sterling, VA – A life-size statue of Our Blessed Mother was stolen from a Catholic church in Northern Virginia. The estimated cost to replace the statue is $1,000.

April 21
We issued a press release calling out attacks on the Church leading up to Easter:

• British comedian Ricky Gervais felt the need to offer a very public “Holiday Message,” notifying the world that though he is not a Christian, he is a very Christ-like person. In the message, he is wearing a crown of thorns and has a microphone strapped to his back, mimicking a cross.

• Lady Gaga released her single, “Judas,.” It begins with the words: “I’m in love with Judas.”

• Third graders at a Seattle school were told they must call Easter Eggs “Spring Spheres,” though the kids refused to cooperate.

• Adults in Munson Township, Ohio were ordered to remove the word “Easter” from “Easter Egg Hunt” and simply call it the “Egg Hunt.”

• Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, who in 2007 entertained the public with the hoax about Jesus’ tomb, was back again, this time claiming he found two nails used to crucify Jesus.

• Evangelist Rob Bell made the cover of Time because of his light approach to Christianity: sin and evil don’t exist.

• On Good Friday, James Frey—whom Oprah sized up as a fraud—introduced his book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. The book portrays Jesus as an alcoholic who lives in a filthy Bronx apartment, smokes dope, kisses men and impregnates prostitutes.

April 22
Brighton, MA – Vandals broke into a Catholic elementary school searching for valuables on Good Friday. A statue of St. Joseph was damaged in the robbery.

April 24
Wyandotte, MI – A man walked into Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday and stole a bag containing thousands of dollars from the church collection.

April 24
Roswell, GA – Vandals desecrated a statue of Jesus at St. Peter Chanel Catholic Church. When parishioners arrived for mass Easter Sunday, they saw the face and hands of the statue covered in red paint.

May 21
St. Paul, MN – Five upside-down crosses were spray-painted on the front of the Cathedral of St. Paul.

May 24
St. Paul, MN – Vandals spray painted upside-down crosses on the front entrance of the Cathedral of St. Paul.

June 15
Los Angeles, CA – A 780 year old relic was stolen from St. Anthony of. It was returned just days after its disappearance.

June 24
North East, MD – A tabernacle was stolen from St. Jude Mission Church. The vandals made off with a brass tabernacle worth $2,000, and caused an additional $8,000 in damages.

July 18
Cherry Hill, NJ – Statues from six churches were vandalized in Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and detectives called it a “hate crime.” There was an estimated $30,000 worth of damage done.

July 29
Deland, FL – A painting was stolen from the sacristy of St. Peter’s Catholic Church. The painting, called “Divine Mercy,” was a gift from the church pastor Tom Connery.

September 13
Cheektowaga, NY­ –St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church was vandalized by a homeless man. The man broke the face off of two statues by using a hammer, and knocked a third statute from its pedestal causing it to shatter. The estimated damage is $21,000. The man was charged with felony criminal mischief.

September 16
Antioch, CA – Thieves stole approximately 500 yards of copper wiring from St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church. This was part of a string of thefts that included security cameras and air conditioning units being stolen.

October 15 or 16
Sag Harbor, New YorkAt the Bay Street Theater, actress Susan Sarandon recently discussed her 1995 movie, “Dead Man Walking”; the film was based on a book by Sister Helen Prejean that condemns the death penalty. During the discussion, Sarandon said she sent a copy of the book to the pope, saying, “The last one, not this Nazi one we have now.” After she received such a positive response from the crowd, Sarandon referred to the pope again as a Nazi.

November 14
Stanley and Anson Counties, NC – Several churches were vandalized with spray-painted hate messages. Some churches read “God is the devil” and “Go back to Africa.” In other places, racial slurs, swastikas and male genitalia defaced the walls. The worst instance of vandalism was at Cedar Hill AME Zion Church in Ansonville, where vandals broke into the church to destroy its interior. Every stained glass window in the church was smashed. Tables were overturned. A fire extinguisher was sprayed within the sanctuary. A small wooden cross was taken down from the wall and partially burned. A child’s tombstone had been removed from the historic slave cemetery and was thrown through a window.

December

Pittsburgh, PA – A homeowners’ association confiscated a 150-pound cement Virgin Mary statue belonging to a family who displayed it in front of their condominium. “”The homeowners’ association justified the removal of statue by saying that homeowners were banned by law from displaying anything on “common ground.” The family was fined for every month that the statue was displayed, and its right to park on its own property was suspended. The homeowners ‘association stated that it will keep the statue until the fine is paid.

December 6
Chicago, IL – Two men broke into the rectory at St. Margaret of Scotland Church and found 80-year-old Father Dan Mallette Sleeping. They demanded money, threatened to kill him, and beat him severely. Father Mallette sustained broken ribs and facial injuries. Police say the robbers got away with some money.

On July 4, the Kansas City Star ran this Pat Oliphant cartoon; the syndicated cartoon, originally released on June 28, was published elsewhere.  It implies that the pope is a homosexual and a hypocrite.




Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Anyone who seeks to have an impact on the culture is bound to be controversial: it comes with the territory. Moreover, this is not a job for wimps. Judging from the reactions that were garnered in 2010, it is safe to say we made our mark. To be exact, we ignited more than one firestorm, drawing much praise and much criticism along the way. The following is a summary of the highlights of the year.

After a fairly routine first couple of months, we were provoked into action following several weeks of stories in the New York Times that attempted to blame Pope Benedict XVI for the sexual abuse scandal. Though it did not succeed in bringing him down, the timing and the coordination of effort that was evident suggested that more was in play than mere reporting.

Lest anyone have any doubts about where I stand on the matter of priestly sexual abuse, I staked out a position early on when news of the scandal first hit the front pages of the Boston Globe in 2002. At that time, I was accurately quoted in the New York Times saying, “I will not defend the indefensible.” Nothing has changed since. Never will the Catholic League defend a priest who is guilty of wrongdoing, sexual or otherwise. But I hasten to add that we will always defend those who are unfairly charged with misconduct. Indeed, we will always defend the rights of priests when they are accused.

There were several reasons why we reacted favorably to the media in 2002, and unfavorably in 2010: in 2002, news stories about priestly sexual abuse were largely fair in their coverage; in 2010, we were treated not to new cases of abuse—the problem is nearly non-existent these days—we were bombarded with stories about decades-old cases. More than that, many of them were unfair in their accusations, never mind the invidious innuendos that colored much of the coverage. What bothered us immensely was that no other institution, secular or religious, was put under the microscope about cases of alleged wrongdoing that took place over a half-century ago.

The timing of the New York Times stories was also suspect: it came right after the health care debate that had absorbed the media for several months came to an end. Was this just an accident? No, they were ready to fire as soon as the coast was clear. Who are the “they”? Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times was fed much of her story by Jeffrey Anderson, the most notorious steeple-chasing attorney in the U.S.

The tens of millions Anderson has made shaking down the Catholic Church have largely come from obtaining priest personnel files from decades ago. Anderson is also a donor to SNAP, the professional victims’ group; he writes them a check, and they generate publicity. In this instance, SNAP officials just happened to be in Rome right after President Barack Obama signed the health care bill; they were ready to be shown on TV once Goodstein pulled the trigger with the latest files obtained by Anderson. Just like a well-oiled machine, out came old dirt about the Church.

We decided to do something about this outrageously orchestrated news story. What motivated us to take out an op-ed page ad in the New York Times was the extent to which the newspaper tried to trace old cases of alleged abuse to the Vatican. Before Joseph Ratzinger became pope, he had almost nothing to do with policing instances of sexual abuse, yet the Times tried to convince readers that in his role as the theological right-hand man to Pope John Paul II, he was somehow responsible for what happened. Not until the last few years of John Paul’s tenure did Cardinal Ratzinger have any say over these matters, and the record shows that he acted with dispatch once given the reins.

Our summer was particularly hot in New York in 2010, and not just in terms of the heat index. Things reached the boiling point when we staged a huge street demonstration against Anthony Malkin, owner of the Empire State Building, for disrespecting Mother Teresa. Over 3,000 Catholics turned out to protest Malkin’s decision not to afford the saintly nun the same kind of honor he has bestowed on everyone from the Ninja Turtles to the Communist Chinese government. All we petitioned him to do was to light the towers in blue and white on the night of her centenary, August 26. We did everything right by the numbers, but he decided not to give her the respect she richly deserved.

It was a great night. The speakers represented the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu communities, drawing on Irish, Italian, African American, Latino and Albanian backgrounds, as well as representatives from other ethnic groups. Not in attendance, but who were surely with us in spirit, were the millions of people all over the world who sang the praises of Mother Teresa on her special day. The words of encouragement we received, from cardinals and bishops in the U.S., as well as in India, meant a lot to us. Many of them also wrote to Malkin, expressing their displeasure with his obstinacy. At the end of the day, Mother Teresa was honored, if not by the Empire State Building, then just about everywhere else. Malkin was the big loser.

We just didn’t complain and stage a protest—we helped to raise money for the Missionaries of Charity. Moreover, we also drew attention to the many causes Mother Teresa championed. Furthermore, we won the plaudits of politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Just as impressive, we inspired many public figures around the nation to light their municipal buildings in blue and white; the lighting ceremonies extended to Europe.

Would Mother Teresa have wanted all this attention? No. But then again, she never sought the limelight in the first place. However, the mission of the Catholic League—to stand up for the rights of Catholics—argues persuasively for a more public response.

Right after Thanksgiving, we braced ourselves for another round of the Christmas wars. Fortunately, we were ready. What we didn’t expect was that the atheist community would hit as hard as it did, and in so many cities. When American Atheists paid for a huge billboard on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel saying Christmas is a myth, it struck many New Yorkers as obscene. One of the aggrieved, an elderly gentleman from Manhattan, came to us pledging to underwrite an appropriate response. I came up with an idea—to emphasize the reality of Jesus—and we arranged to have a huge billboard displayed on the New York side of the Lincoln Tunnel. Checkmate!

We also did something never done before: we sent, free of charge, a beautiful manger scene to every governor, asking that it be placed in a suitable public place. Many complied, thus triggering another round of hate mail from the so-called “freethinkers.” We paid for it because we didn’t want to give anyone an excuse not to display a crèche on public property at Christmastime. In addition, the Catholic League erected its own nativity scene, a life-size one, in Central Park; this year’s crèche was brand new.

What we didn’t expect to happen immediately after Thanksgiving was a collision between the Catholic League and the Smithsonian. After Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center exposed that the storied Washington museum was housing an exhibition featuring ants crawling all over Jesus on the Cross, we issued a news release announcing we were contacting every member of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asking them to review the propriety of using federal funds to pay for the Smithsonian. The result: within hours of our news release, Smithsonian officials pulled the video from the exhibition, sending shock waves through the artistic community.

Though we never demanded the video be pulled, we were accused of censorship anyway. Besides, even if we wanted it censored, we don’t have censorial powers: that belongs to government. Yes, Rep. John Boehner and Rep. Eric Cantor spoke up saying they would look into this matter, but no one asked, or in any way threatened, to close down the gay-themed exhibition, much less shut down the museum.

Our position was quite simple: if it is wrong for the government to fund religious expression, it should be equally wrong for the government to fund anti-religious expression. In a nation that is 80 percent Christian, it is obscene, to say the least, to ask the taxpayers to fund a museum that features anti-Christian fare while receiving 70 percent of its money from the public.

The attacks we received for standing up to the Smithsonian were among the most voluminous, and vicious, that we have received in some time. Evidently, many artists have no religious affiliation, save for a dogmatic attachment to their work; they cannot countenance criticism from religious-minded persons. Their arrogance is appalling: they are the only segment of American society that believes it has an absolute lien on the public purse, yet rejects even the notion of public accountability. Well, they lost this round.

It wasn’t just in Washington where we did battle with the art mavens—we were busy in the fall drawing attention to the scurrilous “artwork” of Stanford professor Enrique Chagoya that was on display at the Loveland Museum in Loveland, Colorado. It showed a man performing oral sex on Jesus. After we gave this anti-Catholic exhibition national attention, a female truck driver from Montana ended the controversy by taking a crowbar to the Plexiglas case that housed it. No matter, as usual, the artistic community feigned victim status, never once even hinting at the fact that what they were defending was hate speech. Their narcissism is incredible.

Fighting with our cultural adversaries is nothing new, but when we lock horns with government officials, that is something more troubling. Government is not supposed to be hostile to religion, but often is. And because it holds the ultimate authority, infringements on religious liberty by its agents are all the more disconcerting.

There was a time not long ago when the term “health care bill” meant legislation designed to save lives. Today, it may also mean death. To wit: the health care bill that President Barack Obama ultimately signed contained provisions that allow for federal funding of abortion.

The Catholic League was proud to stand with the bishops. Our bishops, led by Francis Cardinal George, with the assistance of Justin Cardinal Rigali and Bishop William Murphy, did everything they could to delete the abortion-funding provisions from the bill, and they may have succeeded had Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association not undercut them by publicly proclaiming that the bill was just fine. By claiming that the bill did not fund abortions, she gave cover to a piece of legislation that even some of its supporters admitted otherwise.

The bishops were also rightfully concerned that conscience clause protections might be jeopardized under all the health care changes that were proposed. The fact that at this late date in American history we have to worry about this fundamental religious liberty—not to be forced by the government to participate in acts that violate our conscience on matters of life and death—is a sad commentary on the state of our First Amendment rights. In the end, our side prevailed.

One of the reasons why the Catholic hierarchy had just concerns about religious liberty issues had to do with the nominations and appointments made by the president. One in particular proved to be critical: the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. After her nomination went nowhere in Obama’s first year, it was reintroduced in 2010. This immediately set off the alarms at the Catholic League. Why? Because in the late 1980s, Johnsen worked on a brief that sought to deny the Catholic Church its tax-exempt status. Given her cast of mind, we felt it only right to alert every Senator of her track record. On April 9, having run up against a brick wall, she withdrew her name.

The firing of a Catholic professor from a state university for the crime of explaining the Catholic perspective on sexuality, after being asked to do so, was one of the more Orwellian events of the year. The fact that the professor, Ken Howell, succeeded in getting his part-time job back from the University of Illinois (following a lengthy investigation), is cause for rejoice, but the fact that he had to fight this battle at all is distressing. While the Catholic League did not represent him, we alerted him to several pro-bono lawyers and helped to generate much publicity about his plight.

Celebrities are good at Catholic bashing, and 2010 saw no shortage of them. Sarah Silverman, Lindsay Lohan, Elton John, Jay Leno, Lady Gaga, Louis C.K., Matt Damon and Joy Behar topped the list; Leno and Behar being serial offenders. While we have no problem with many Catholic jokes, we do take exception when celebrities cross the line and/or hurl invectives with a palpable meanness. We are also struck by the duplicity of giving some groups a pass, e.g., Muslims, while relentlessly dumping on Catholics.

Talking about Muslims, we couldn’t help but notice the rank hypocrisy of the Washington Post. It refused to run a cartoon that might offend Muslims. Did the cartoon make a mess out of Muhammad? No. It never even depicted him. The cartoon showed children and animals roving about, and at the bottom it questioned, “Where’s Muhammad?” The Post, which had just recently published a clearly anti-Catholic cartoon, had the audacity to say that it didn’t want to provoke anyone by running the cartoon. Not only that, the same newspaper accused the Catholic League of censorship for simply exercising our First Amendment right to free speech by protesting the Smithsonian video.

There is obviously a double standard, something we have pointed out over and over again. But in addition to African Americans, homosexuals, Jews, Latinos and others, we can add Muslims to the protected classes. Indeed, they have now vaulted right to the top of the list.

We wish there were signs that our culture were turning around, but we don’t see any. Assaults on Catholicism, if not Catholics, are running at a fever pitch. It is our job to confront those responsible. We do so by putting the media spotlight on them, protesting in the streets, alerting our membership base, etc. While dialogue is not to be discouraged, anyone who thinks that talk alone can resolve issues grounded in deep-seated hostilities is delusional. Sometimes it takes a confrontation.

William Donohue, Ph.D.
President




Activist Organizations

Activist Organizations

January 12
In an article posted on TheWeek.com, Democratic consultant Bob Shrum took a shot at Catholic bishops for their opposition to abortion in the proposed health care bill: “Having abetted thousands of priests in molesting children, they’re now set on abusing health reform.”

We called for an apology. Shrum couldn’t fight the bishops on the merits of the issue, so he resorted to mud throwing to silence them.

January 20
The Freedom From Religion Foundation called for a boycott of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) stamp commemorating the centenary of Mother Teresa. Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the group, led the campaign against the stamp citing that the USPS should not honor a religious figure. The USPS replied that Mother Teresa was selected because of her humanitarian work.

When asked about a previous stamp honoring Malcolm X, a leader of the Nation of Islam, Gaylor said, “Malcolm X was not primarily known for being a religious figure.” She followed this statement by dressing-down Rev. Martin Luther King saying he “just happened to be a minister.”

What really drove her hatred of Mother Teresa, besides her virulent anti-Catholicism, was the nun’s opposition to abortion. Gaylor accused the nun of making an “anti-abortion rant” during her Nobel Prize acceptance speech. In fact, the “rant” amounted to her saying that “abortion was the greatest destroyer of peace in the world.”

February 7
Eugene, OR
 – A coalition of religious freedom advocates called on Oregon lawmakers to repeal a ban on religious attire for teachers in public schools. This group, which included the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, was opposed by the Oregon ACLU which argued that allowing teachers to wear religious garb could lead to the indoctrination of children.

February 9
We commented on a report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) on sex education. IPPF used the terms young people, youth and adolescents interchangeably to refer to people who are between the ages of 10 and 24. In other words, 5th graders should be treated the same way graduate students are when it comes to their “sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

The entire program was based on a faulty assumption. IPPF stated, “The taboo on youth sexuality is one of the key forces driving the AIDS epidemic and high rates of teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality.” In the 1950s, there was no sex education in the schools, the pill was not commercially available and AIDS didn’t exist. Yet the out-of-wedlock birth rate was comparatively miniscule and sexually transmitted diseases were relatively rare. All because of taboos.

According to IPPF, “Fundamentalist and other religious groups—the Catholic Church and madrasas (Islamic schools) for example—have imposed tremendous barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction.”

February 16
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the federal government claiming that the housing exemption given to churches is unfair because they can compensate their leaders with tax-free housing.

March
Knoxville, TN
 – The anti-Catholic tract The Death Cookie by Chick Publications was distributed by members of the Conner Heights Baptist Church. The tract claims that the Church was founded by the devil and that Catholics worship a “wafer god.” After a protest by Knoxville Bishop Richard F. Stika, the pastor ended the distribution and admitted that he was “obviously not schooled in the Catholic religion.”

March
San Antonio, TX
 – A college atheist organization at the University of Texas-San Antonio launched a campaign, “Smut for Smut,” in which one could exchange a Bible for pornography.

March 10
Heflin, AL
 – A Christian radio station, Rejoice 89.1, left voice messages promoting a radio program “preaching against the Roman Catholic Church and telling people who the Roman Catholic Church really is,” and that “She [the Church] has killed more people than any other organization that has ever existed among mankind.”

March 11
San Francisco, CA
 – The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency. Michael Newdow, a prominent atheist, challenged these phrases stating that they are unconstitutional and infringe upon his religious beliefs.

March 30
Madison, WI
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation asked that state officials remove references to Good Friday as an official state holiday.

April 27
Charleston, SC
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the City of Charleston demanding that it remove a cross from the entrance of Charleston Fire Station No. 12. This was done after the FFRF issued a complaint in December 2009 that the same fire station displayed a nativity scene.

April 30
Colorado Springs, CO
 – The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) asked that the U.S. Army change the motto on the emblem of Evans Army Community Hospital; the motto reads, in Latin, “For God and humanity.” Mikey Weinstein, president of MRFF, said that the motto is a reference to the Crusades and could embolden U.S. enemies who want to portray the war on terror as a war between Christians and Muslims.

May 6
The Freedom From Religion Foundation ran a full-page ad in the New York Timesclaiming the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. The title of the ad was “God & Government: A Dangerous Mix.”

May 11
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, along with other secular groups, signed a letter protesting the oath taken by workers of the U.S. Census Bureau because it ends in “so help me God.” The letter contended that the oath leads employees to believe that there is a religious test for this office and is a violation of the Constitution. The letter also said that “the oath has the effect of stigmatizing non-monotheists as outsiders.”
Along with the FFRF, the letter was signed by American Atheists, American Ethical Union, American Humanist Association, Atheist Alliance International, Camp Quest, Council for Secular Humanism, Institute for Humanist Studies, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, Secular Coalition for America, Secular Student Alliance, Society for Humanistic Judaism, United Coalition of Reason.

May 11
The 7-foot high Mojave Desert Cross, that was erected to honor American soldiers who died in war, was stolen less than two weeks after a controversial court decision allowing the cross to remain on federal land. The National Park Service claimed it wasn’t sure if the act was the work of scrap metal scavengers or those “with an interest in the case.”

May 19
The National Organization for Women called on authorities to investigate sexual abuse in the “male-dominated Catholic Church,” claiming that “girls as much as boys” are victims. Indeed, the latest data show that the more priests have access to girl altar servers, the more the offending priests abuse males.

June 15
American Atheists president Ed Buckner said that “religious conservatives like the Catholic League are behaving like Islamist fundamentalists” for opposing the proposed Comedy Central show, “J.C.,” that promised to mock Jesus.

June 24
Louisville, KY
 – Attorney William McMurry filed a lawsuit against the Vatican seeking to depose Pope Benedict XVI. McMurry contended that officials of the Catholic Church in Rome, including the Holy Father, knew about cases of priestly sexual abuse and then covered them up.

It is, of course, a staple of anti-Catholic thinking that every priest on the face of the earth follows lockstep with the orders from the pope. It is also the calling card of anti-Catholic thought that every instance of priestly wrongdoing is known to the Holy Father and his inner circle.

“I have yet to meet a Catholic, expert or otherwise,” McMurry said, “who does not believe that the Holy See has the absolute right to control the day-to-day activities of a bishop’s work.” Yet when even parents cannot possibly control the day-to-day activities of their children, only someone who is hopelessly naïve—or malicious—would contend that the pope is keeping tabs on them all day long.

Of McMurry’s three clients: one said he “thinks” the local bishop knew of his alleged abuse; another maintained that he was molested over three decades ago; and the third contended that a priest touched him through his pants pocket in 1928.

June 29
Washington, D.C.
 – The U.S. Supreme Court left standing a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that allowed an Oregon man to try to hold the Vatican financially culpable for a case of priestly sexual abuse that occurred in the 1960s. Though the priest was laicized in 1966, the plaintiff, who says he was abused, was pursuing the case because he wanted the Holy See to admit that the priest was an employee of the Vatican.

It should be noted that a month before this decision, the Obama administration sided with the Vatican holding that the Ninth Circuit erred in its ruling. We commended the Obama administration for being on the right side of the issue.

July 14
Chicago, IL
 – The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, released an article that justified the Gestapo-like tactics of the Belgian police’s raid of the Vatican. They defended the police claiming that the Belgian law enforcement team “cared more about vulnerable kids and wounded adults than protecting ecclesial authorities.” SNAP ended the article by saying that “History, psychology and common sense all strongly suggest that the official church bureaucracy played, and still plays, an enormous role in hiding child-molesting clerics.”

July 15
Washington, D.C.
 – The Women’s Ordination Conference’s executive director, Erin Saiz Hanna, issued a statement in response to the Vatican’s position on female ordination. She said, “The Vatican’s decision to list women’s ordination in the same category as pedophiles and rapists is appalling, offensive, and a wake-up call for all Catholics around the world.” She claimed that the Vatican is fearful of the organization’s growing numbers. This was a flagrantly inaccurate rendering of what happened. Just because this issue appeared in a statement that addressed sexual abusers in no way means that the Vatican was equating the two matters.

July 16
The Freedom From Religion Foundation released an article on the Vatican’s position on female ordination. It asked, “Why would any one wish to be on the side of a church which has institutionalized child abuse and its cover-up, and now compounds its injury to women by the insult of declaring that their inclusion in the priesthood would be just as bad as a priest raping a 12 year old?” The article went on to say “The reason the Catholic Church attracts (and apparently is run by) so many perverts is because it perverts human nature by devaluing women.”

July 22
Cranston, RI
 – The ACLU asked a public high school to remove a banner that had been hanging in its auditorium since 1958. The phrase on the banner, which begins, “Our Heavenly Father,” and ends with, “Amen,” was considered a prayer by the ACLU and some parents who complained. The ACLU claimed that the banner “violates the constitutional separation of church and state.”

July 23
Rogersville, TN
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation complained about a display called “Foundations of American Law and Government” in the county’s Justice Center. FFRF claimed that the County Commission’s Building Committee approved a display that was “heavily weighted with religious elements.” Among the religious elements were the Ten Commandments, a “historically inaccurate” painting of George Washington in prayer at Valley Forge, part of George Washington’s inaugural address that had “religious content,” a plaque with the words “Under God,” a plaque with the words “In God We Trust,” and two state resolutions that cited God.

According to the FFRF attorney, the basis for their complaint was, “The Ten Commandments have no relation to the ‘civic heritage’ of the United States. Our entirely secular Constitution makes no reference to them. Our leaders wisely shaped U.S. laws on fundamental principles of democracy and not on religious dogma.”

July 27
Dearborn, MI
 – Members of the Christian group, Acts 17 Apologetics, were arrested for proselytizing at an Arab cultural festival.

August 11
Tampa Bay, FL
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation displayed billboards around the Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg areas in Florida that sported the slogan “In Reason We Trust.” The group’s co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor’s reason for putting up the signs was, “We are offended to be left out of our national motto,” referring to “In God We Trust.” Gaylor said the phrase “excludes those who doubt or deny the existence of God, as well as those who believe in more than one God.”

September 9
Atlanta, GA
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation announced its plans to place 50 billboards advocating the separation of church and state in Atlanta. The billboards, paid for by the organization’s members, featured slogans such as “Imagine No Religion” and “Sleep In On Sundays.”

October 21
Chattanooga, TN
 – After a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a public high school in Tennessee was no longer allowed to announce a prayer over the loudspeaker before football games.

October 29
Denver, CO
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a complaint, claiming that Governor Bill Ritter’s proclamations recognizing the National Day of Prayer are a state endorsement of religion, a violation of the Colorado Constitution’s religious freedom clause. However, these arguments were dismissed after District Judge R. Michael Mullins ruled that it was perfectly constitutional for Ritter to recognize the National Day of Prayer.

November 16
Hanover, NH
 – A federal appeals court found that it was not unconstitutional to require schools to schedule voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and that it doesn’t force religion on students. This ruling came in a lawsuit brought on by a couple who claimed their children’s rights were violated by being forced to recite the pledge of allegiance because it says “under God.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation joined the couple to sue the local school districts and federal government, challenging the constitutionality of the New Hampshire School Patriot Act.

December 6
PETA exploited Pope Benedict XVI in an ad encouraging people to spay and neuter their pets. “Pope Condom” was the caption on the ad, with a doctored image of the pope holding a condom.

December 9
Georgia
 – Americans United for Separation of Church and State looked into how prominent the religious iconography is in New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb County and Turner Chapel AME Church in Cobb County. Local school districts in those counties used them for graduations and Americans United made the claim that the prominence of the iconography violates the rights of students who are not Christian.

December 17
Phoenix, AZ
 – Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted stripped St. Joseph’s Hospital of its Catholic affiliation for performing an abortion. In its push to coerce the Obama administration to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, the ACLU referenced this case as further proof as to why abortions are “needed” and condemned Olmsted’s decision.

December 21
Church Hill, TN
 – The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to library officials in Hawkins County about the display of a cross that sat atop a Christmas tree. They said it violates the establishment clause of the Constitution.

COALITION BUILDING

In 2010 we were asked to join several efforts covering a wide range of issues: Joining a rally to end Muslim violence against Christians in Nigeria; Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons; Iran being elected to serve on the U.N.’s panel on women’s rights; organ harvesting in New York State; and we joined with friends to protest a proposed Comedy Central show.

Bill Donohue spoke at a rally in front of the Nigerian embassy condemning the actions of violent Muslim mobs that killed Christians in the streets of Jos, Nigeria. Donohue cited an incident in which an innocent woman was murdered by a mob of angry Muslims. Her offense? Crossing the street during Friday prayers.

The Catholic League joined a coalition of activists, led by Newt Gingrich, to protest Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Bill Donohue wrote an op-ed about this issue in the Washington Times, and we registered our support for the U.N. action against Iran. It is important to note that Iran is a nation which continually gets cited by the U.S. State Department for its horrendous record on religious liberty. The persecution of Christians and Jews, and the putting to death of anyone who converts from Islam, is bad enough. But when it is being done by a nation seeking weapons of mass destruction, it is cause for alarm.

Bernadette Brady, the league’s vice president, signed a statement denouncing the election of Iran to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; it was signed by international human rights activists and women’s rights leaders. The open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the appointment of Iran to this body “shocks the conscience of civilized societies.” There is something very sick about inviting a nation that oppresses women to serve on a U.N. commission on women’s rights.

We also joined with New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind and other Jewish organizations in defeating a bill that would have presumed consent of organ donation.

Finally, we enlisted in a coalition to protest a show that Comedy Central was considering, an animated production mocking Jesus.




The Arts

February 11 – 28
Tampa, FL – The Shimberg Playhouse hosted “Agnes of God,” a play based on the notoriously anti-Catholic movie by the same name. In the play, a novice nun gives birth in a convent and claims that the baby, who is murdered, was the result of a virgin conception.
August 14
Hammonton, NJ – The musical “Bare” ran at the Eagle Theater. The musical, set in a Catholic boarding school, is about two young gay lovers that the Church “fails to understand.” Variety magazine called the story a “tragedy that cannot be prevented by the sympathetic but theologically narrow-minded counsel of the school’s priest.”
September 11 – October 6
Loveland, CO – The Loveland Museum, a publically funded establishment, held an exhibit called “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals” which featured a lithograph containing an image of Jesus having oral sex performed on him by a man. We contacted Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and the state legislature, asking them why tax payer monies funded anti-Christian art. During this time, a woman smashed the Plexiglas case with a crowbar and ripped up the artwork. Susan Ison, Loveland’s director of Cultural Services, said that she was “appalled by the violence,” while Bud Shark, the organizer of the display, denied that the work was offensive to Christians and was upset by its protest.
September 12
New York, NY – The SoHo Playhouse ran “The Divine Sister,” a play about a Mother Superior (played by a homosexual man) who is caught in a mix of anxieties, some of which include: sexual hysteria among her nuns, a postulant experiencing “visions,” and an old lover who is trying to pull her away from her vows. The New York Timescalled the play “aggressively family-oriented” while others remarked that it had a “convoluted plot” and was “an excuse for shameless puns.”
September 30 – October 19
New York, NY – Sotheby’s auction house hosted an exhibit, “Divine Comedy,” featuring 80 different works revolving around Dante’s Inferno. Most prominently among the artwork of the exhibit was the work of Martin Kippenberger, “Zuerst die Fuesse” (Feet First), which shows a frog in place of Jesus on the crucifix, sporting a mug of beer in one hand and an egg in the other. We responded to the offensive artwork by contacting  a Sotheby’s media official and asked her to explain why they featured Kippenberger’s assault on Christian sensibilities.
October 15 – November 13
Washington, D.C. – Matthew Black documented the activist group The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in an exhibition called “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: Identity Writ Large” at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery. The exhibit featured homosexual men from the anti-Catholic group dressed as nuns. The mission of the exhibit was to “use the art of drag to raise awareness for the LGBT community, educate about safe sex and AIDS, raise money for local non-profits and advocate for human rights.”
October 18
Los Angeles, CA – Chadmichael Morrisette and Mito Aviles decorated their home for Halloween with an anti-Catholic theme. Morrisette said, “This year, like all the years before, we typically put imagery and iconic things that are scary to use. So this year, the Catholic Church and the Pope are going to be represented on the roof of the house.” He included that “There’s going to be tormented souls around the Pope, young and old souls all displayed through mannequins.” To those who objected to the display he said, “They have [the] right to say we don’t like it as much [as we have] a right to put it on our roof. It’s all done in a respectful adult way, no one is mean and aggressive.”
December 11
New York, NY – “A Very Merry Christmas 2 You, Too” showed for one night only at the Laurie Beechman Theater. The show featured the Blessed Mother in drag who allegedly “sets the record straight” about the birth and life of Jesus Christ. The New York Observer was quoted as saying, “You could go to Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ or the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, but then how could you look at yourself in the mirror the next morning? Instead, try the holiday show that dares to dress our Holy Mother in drag.”
SMITHSONIAN CONTROVERSY
November 30
Washington, D.C. – The Smithsonian Institution hosted an exhibit that featured a video that showed ants crawling over Jesus on the Cross. After complaints from the Catholic League, the video was pulled. The ensuing uproar was worldwide: the artistic community exploded in anger at both the Smithsonian and the Catholic League for objecting to the video.
The video was part of an exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” that featured totally nude men kissing, men masturbating, sadomasochistic depictions and more. When the Catholic League wrote to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asking them to “reconsider federal financing” of the Smithsonian, we were called censors and subjected to an onslaught of the most outrageously abusive speech, even receiving threatening letters from across the Atlantic, all through December.
December 3
Washington, D.C. – The Washington Post backed its critic’s interpretation of the offensive video by saying that ants on a crucifix “could be understood as an expression of the ‘hideous, heartrending loss of a loved one…’” Bill Donohue responded by informing them that it can also be interpreted as hate speech. He also pointed out that in October, the Post censored a cartoon because they said it “might offend and provoke some Post readers, especially Muslims.” The cartoon showed kids and animals frolicking in a park with the words “Where’s Muhammad?” The hypocrisy was sickening.
December 16
New York, NY  New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote an article on his blog following the barrage of criticism targeted at the Catholic League for protesting the Smithsonian’s ants-on-Jesus video. His support was much appreciated and his kind words were respected. He said, “No one should doubt the high value and necessity of [Donohue’s] efforts, or dismiss him in crude terms. Even the recent high-volume critiques of his stand on this controversy exhibit nasty anti-Catholic canards. Keep at it, Bill! We need you!”
SMITHSONIAN MADNESS
Bill Donohue wrote the following piece for the January-February 2011 Catalystcommenting on  the Smithsonian controversy: 
By now, everyone knows that we objected to the video that showed large ants crawling all over Jesus on the Cross, but what is less well known is that this “contribution” to art was just one piece of a gay and lesbian exhibition. For the record, I did not know that gays were associated with this venture when I complained to a reporter, and even if I did, it matters not a whit whether the offensive video was part of an exhibition created by heterosexuals or homosexuals. But, of course, I was branded anti-gay anyway.
Andrew Sullivan, a gay writer, wrote, “Maybe what is truly offensive to Donohue is the notion that gay men might actually seek refuge in Jesus’ similar experience of marginalized, stigmatized agony.” That would not be easy to do considering I did not know this was the work of gays. Christopher Knight, the art critic for the Los Angeles Times, said criticism of the Smithsonian exhibition amounted to “anti-gay bullying,” noting that the criticism was coming on the heels of gay teens who committed suicide! Frank Rich of the New York Times said my “religious” objections (his quote marks) were nothing more than “a perfunctory cover for the homophobia” that drove my complaint. Don’t you just love the Freudian analysis?
It’s time these men grew up. Not everything is about them. So wrapped up in the issue of gay rights that they cannot fathom how anyone could object to irreligious art that is part of a larger gay exhibit without being anti-gay. They need to step back and take a deep breath. It is precisely the narcissism of people like Sullivan, Knight and Rich that allows them to see the world through one set of lenses, tightly fitted, condemning anyone who doesn’t share their view.
The gay art themes that I did not comment on, but which my critics adored, were nicely captured by Michael Medved, an Orthodox Jew and an astute student of American culture. The Smithsonian exhibition, he wrote, featured such lovely fare as “transvestitism, fetishism, sado-masochism, photographs of AIDS-ravaged corpses, full frontal male nudity,” and the like. All funded by you.
The complaint that I lodged—simply asking members of Congress to “reconsider federal funding” of the Smithsonian—led to forums organized to denounce the Catholic League in places like London, Los Angeles and New York. There were street demonstrations in New York and Washington, and many cities hosted the vile video in local art galleries. To these people, art is more than an expression—it functions as an ersatz religion.
Some liberal Catholics rushed to defend the exhibition. U.S. Catholic magazine said plainly that the ants-on-Jesus video was “not an assault on religion.” Catholics United, a radical left-wing group, accused me of “manufacturing” the entire controversy for my “end-of-the-year fundraising efforts.” When someone made a similar charge on radio, I responded by saying, “Not only did I arrange this whole thing, those are my ants.” Catholics for Choice, which specializes in Catholic bashing, weighed in against me and in favor of the video. And the National Catholic Reportersided with Frank Rich against me, asking its readers to “pray for the conversion of our brother William.” Sounds very fundamentalist to me.
Of all the issues involved in this controversy, the two that strike me as the most salient are the incredible insouciance shown to Christians offended by the art, and the equally incredible arrogance evinced by those who insist that their interpretation is the only correct one. Over and over again, we looked for just one of these art mavens to give us a genuflection, a quick recognition that Christians might justly feel abused by the ant crawlers. But, no, we were told we are too ignorant to catch its true meaning.
Stephen Prothero teaches courses on religion at Boston University, and he found the ant crawlers “deeply theological,” asking those who were offended whether they would be offended if the ants crawled on Christopher Hitchens. Yes, he actually said this. Another savant told us that the ants are “a metaphor for society because the social structure of the ant world is parallel to ours.” Now how about them apples! Charles Haynes of the Religious Freedom Education Project said that Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik got it right when he said that the artist who created it intended to speak for his friend who died of AIDS. That went right over our heads as well. And an editorial in the Sacramento Bee said the art “could be seen as a modern take on the theme of divine suffering that has been the subject of Christian art for centuries.” Sure. And it could also be seen as hate speech.
Though I would prefer to go to a pub than a museum, and I strongly believe that the working class should not have to fund the leisure of the rich (they’re the typical museum-goers), at the end of the day I have more respect for what art is supposed to be than any of these charlatans. Indeed, their defense of the ant crawlers undermines their credibility. This Smithsonian madness proves it.
WASHINGTON POST CHAT
 
At the height of the controversy over the Smithsonian exhibition, Bill Donohue was invited by the Washington Post to enter an online chat with his critics. They posed the questions, and he chose which ones to answer. Below is a selection of the Q&A:
Washington, D.C.: Mr. Donohue, I can’t begin to say how angry and disappointed this censorship makes me.  My simple question/comment is this: If you don’t want to see this exhibit, don’t go see it. Why do you think that you have the right to keep me from seeing it?
Donohue: Nothing I did constituted censorship, nor did I even ask that the vile video be pulled. Censorship means the government abridges speech—all I am asking is for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to reconsider federal funding of the Smithsonian. My principle is this: if it is wrong for the government to pick the pocket of the public to promote religion, it should be equally wrong to pick its pocket to assault it.
Fairfax, VA: What were the criteria used by you to ask that it be removed?
Donohue: The criteria I used were honesty and common sense. I know, as well as my critics, that if Muhammad were shown with ants eating him, Muslims would never allow the retort that it wasn’t meant to offend. So what was this vile video? A Christmas gift to Christians. It was hate speech, pure and simple, and it should not be funded by the 80 percent of the nation which is Christian.
Washington, D.C.: Will the committees consider withholding funding?
Donohue: I hope they will reconsider funding. After all, why should the working class pay for the leisure, e.g., going to museums, of the upper class? We don’t subsidize professional wrestling, yet the working class has to pay for the leisure of the rich. Not only that, because the elites don’t smoke, they bar the working class from smoking in arenas. This is class discrimination and should be opposed by those committed to social justice.
Philadelphia, PA: Actions like this make people more curious about the work—this spineless action by the Smithsonian will result in more people making an effort to see the work. Is that what you wanted?
Donohue: If someone wants to peddle hate speech disguised as art, let them do it on their own dime. Moreover, when the Chicago City Council ordered the police into a museum in the 1980s to take down a portrait of the black mayor, Mr. Washington (he was shown in his underwear), none of those branding me a censor said a word. I have never called for censorship, but I have asked legitimate questions regarding the propriety of funding hate speech directed at my religion.
Washington, D.C.: Ants crawling on a crucifix is no different than ants crawling on a rock. They’re both inanimate objects. Whether you’re a member of organized religion or not, anyone with an open, intellectual mind is able to understand this.
Donohue: Fine. Then let the ants crawl on an image of Martin Luther King next month when we celebrate his day, and let the taxpayers underwrite it.
Washington, D.C.: David Wojnarowics’s video was set in the days of the AIDS epidemic. He had been thrown out of his home when he came out, and had to survive in the streets. His art was about alienation, despair, rebellion and survival. When placed in context, you can see that this was not an assault on the Christian faith. Why do you deny us the opportunity for a conversation? The whole point of this exhibit was to confront and try to look behind the veil, not to change points of view but show that there are other points of view.
Donohue: Someone should have gotten to him earlier and told him to stop with his self-destructive behavior and to stop blaming the faithful for his maladies.
Contradictions?: You say that the government should not promote or assault religion. So what happens when the National Christmas tree is illuminated?
Donohue: Christmas is a national holiday and the Christmas tree is a secular symbol.
Pittsburgh, PA: How do you define the difference between art and anything that might be deemed offensive? The very nature of art is expression and individuality. How is this different than many other almost macabre images of the crucifixion, Jesus’s suffering, or cruelty of man against man—all depicted in art.
Donohue: People in the asylum are expressive as well, and so are children in nursery schools. Should we subsidize them as well?



Business / Workplace

January 4
Celebrity Cruises announced that it would no longer have priests on board to celebrate daily and Sunday Masses. We immediately followed up by questioning the cruise line about its new policy. Celebrity replied to our inquiry by saying, “Out of respect for our guests of all religious faiths, Celebrity has chosen to align the religious services provided for Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Interdenominational faiths effective January 4, 2010.” It added that religious services would be provided for “the major High Holy Holidays of each respective faith.”
What this statement failed to note was the reason for the new policy. The following is an excerpt from a letter Celebrity sent to Catholic priests affected by the change in policy:
“While we do meet the needs of many guests onboard by supplying a priest, we have recently encountered a great deal of negative feedback pertaining to the ‘selective’ support of one particular religion/faith. After many internal discussions, external research, and marketing investigations, Celebrity Cruises will only place Roman Catholic Priests on sailings that take place over the Easter and Christmas holiday.”
Celebrity spokeswoman Liz Jakeway defended the new policy by distorting the truth of what actually occurred. She said that the new policy is “built around our guests’ feedback and their suggestion that we ‘level the playing field.’” She failed to mention that Celebrity let bigotry—not parity—drive its new policy.
Similarly, one would never have known the truth of what happened by reading Cathy Lynn Grossman’s column in the January 26 USA Today. She made it sound as if Catholics had been cut a deal by Celebrity at the expense of others. She reported that some “were annoyed that Catholic clergy had ever been favored over other faiths that have daily or weekly prayers.” But there was no favoritism: there is a profound difference between non-Catholic clergy not requesting daily religious services and their being denied by Celebrity.
We advised all Catholics to shop around the next time they plan on taking a cruise, and not to waste their time checking out Celebrity Cruises.
January 22
At a fashion show at La Sorbonne in Paris, the clothing line Givenchy introduced some religious-themed items for its Fall/Winter 2010 collection. The male models wore clothes and accessories that were a showcase of Christian symbols. All but one of the items were inoffensive.
Designer Riccardo Tisci crafted “JESUS IS LORD” T-shirts, monastic hoods, clerical shirts, etc. But what crossed the line were his gold-colored crown of thorns necklaces: what was especially disturbing was that they were featured on bare-chested male models.
We asked Givenchy to pull the necklace immediately but received no response.
February
The travel website Kayak began a commercial campaign featuring two attractive nuns seductively looking at each other implicating a lesbian relationship. On February 15, after many complaints, Kayak CEO Robert Birge issued an apology stating that “it was never intended to be disrespectful to the Church.”
March
Showtime launched an ad campaign to promote the new season of its show “Nurse Jackie”; the ads were placed on billboards owned by Clear Channel Outdoors. The ad featured the lead character posed like Jesus with a halo of pills and bottles around her head with the phrase “Holy Shift.”
May 28
Rockford, IL – The Northern Illinois Women’s Center featured a decoration of a nun in a coffin and posters in its front windows taunting the pro-life community. A sign next to an entrance to the facility had a picture of Jesus extending a middle-finger with the phrase “Even Jesus Hates You” accompanying it.
Along with these signs and decorations, someone from the inside of the building displayed a sign as a priest and a seminarian were praying outside the building; the sign read, “F*** Your Perverted Priests.” Another priest had a sign taped to his car that read, “I Rape Children.”
September 9
The Catholic League was informed by a member that the Crow’s Nest Trading Company was selling an item called “Catholic Ring.” The ring was a sterling silver piece of jewelry inscribed with the words “Recovering Catholic.” Bill Donohue wrote to Crow’s Nest President, Douglas Tennis, requesting that the piece be removed from the catalog and website. In a letter of apology, the CEO of Crow’s Nest wrote, “Let me assure you that you have opened our eyes and caused us to look at the offensive merchandise through another perspective, and it has been removed from our line.”
October 30
Branford, CT ­– The Branford Green hosted a “Halloween Pet Parade” for the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter. At the parade there was a costume contest for the animals; the winner was a dog dressed as a nun.
December 2
Apple, Inc. decided to remove an iPhone app called the “Manhattan Declaration” after some  complained that its contents were “anti-gay” and “anti-choice.” The document is an authoritative statement initially signed by 148 signatories—all of them prominent Orthodox Christian, Catholic and Protestant religious leaders—affirming the sanctity of life, religious liberty and marriage (Bill Donohue was one of them). It is free of incendiary language and to label it bigotry is offensive.
December 14
New York, NY – A Catholic woman sued Concepts in Time, a Manhattan business run by an Orthodox Jewish boss, claiming that she had been banned from wearing her crucifix to work. According to her attorney, the woman was told to never wear her cross again, but her Jewish colleagues were free to wear jewelry with the Star of David.
MOTHER TERESA CAMPAIGN
 
In May, the Catholic League began a worldwide campaign protesting a decision by officials from the Empire State Building to deny Mother Teresa the same honor it had extended to virtually every world leader, event or holiday, namely, to shine the colors associated with the honoree from its tower on a designated night.
Early in the year, we found out that on September 5, the U.S. Postal Service would honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa by issuing a stamp with her image. On February 2, Bill Donohue submitted an application to the Empire State Building Lighting Partners requesting that the tower lights feature blue and white, the colors of Mother Teresa’s congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, on August 26. On May 5, the request was denied without explanation.
During her life, Mother Teresa received 124 awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Freedom. She built hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, hospices, health clinics, homeless shelters, youth shelters and soup kitchens all over the world, and is revered in India for her work. She created the first hospice in New York’s Greenwich Village for AIDS patients. Not surprisingly, she was voted the most admired woman in the world three years in a row in the mid-1990s. But she was not good enough to be honored by the Empire State Building.
In the Autumn of 2009, the Empire State Building shone in red and yellow lights to honor the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Communist revolution. Yet under its founder, Mao Zedong, the Communists killed 77 million people. In other words, the greatest mass murderer in history merited the same tribute being denied to Mother Teresa.
We launched a worldwide petition drive protesting this indefensible decision and gathered well over 40,000 signatures. We also petitioned Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, to reverse the decision and urged our members to write to him. But all requests were ignored.
Every reporter who contacted Malkin’s office was hung up on. A PR representative hired from another firm would only say that he had been instructed not to say anything. Furthermore, when reporters from CBS sought access to Malkin on May 14, security guards escorted them out of his building.
Malkin called his decision to deny the lighting “final and irrevocable.” Apropos, we called for a demonstration on August 26 outside of the Empire State Building. A decision that we said was “final and irrevocable.”
While stiffing Mother Teresa drove much of the response, lying and arrogance associated with this event were also important factors. Click here see a copy of the application that we filled out in February; see also a copy of the application that was drawn up after our protest was lodged. In other words, they simply invented a new policy regarding religious figures so as to give themselves cover.
The support we garnered was wide. Media outlets all over the world carried this story, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Liberals, conservatives, moderates—all were on board. So were people of every religious and ethnic affiliation; we were especially pleased by the strong response from Mother Teresa’s own ethnic community, the Albanians. Indeed, Malkin brought people together the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
In fact, few could believe that Malkin dug himself such a hole. While he was paying lawyers and consultants for advice, we reached out to a record number of bishops, priests, religious and lay leaders. Of special note was the warm reception we received from several bishops in India; they all had fond memories of Mother Teresa. We also gained new members at a fast pace.
In addition to holding a rally, we decided to conduct a positive PR campaign via our website: we posted the names and contact information of pro-life organizations in the New York tri-state area, urging people to make a donation in the name of Mother Teresa.
We had a lot of prominent people come to the rally. Moreover, we are pleased to note that not only did many New York buildings shine blue and white that night, but so did buildings in places ranging from Buffalo to Miami to Belfast. We encouraged everyone—no matter where they live—to wear blue and white on August 26.
August 26, 2010 will go down in American history as an important Catholic date. The rally proved to be a success, drawing over 3,000 people filling both sides of 34th street between 5th Avenue and Broadway. Seventeen notables spoke at the rally: politicians from both the Republican and Democratic Parties; celebrities, religious figures and New York icons; there were Albanians, African Americans, Indians, Irish, Italians, Jews, Latinos and others; there were Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Hindus. The diversity of the speakers proved our point: Mother Teresa transcended all demographic boundaries.
MOTHER TERESA PETITION
 
In the June edition of Catalyst, we provided the following petition for our members to sign and send to Anthony Malkin, asking him to reverse the decision of the Empire State Building and to light its towers to honor Mother Teresa:
Dear Mr. Malkin:
As the owner of the Empire State Building, we implore you to reverse the decision made by Empire State Lighting Partners to deny Mother Teresa the honor of having the towers shine in blue and white on August 26. On this day, the U.S. Postal Service will honor her with a stamp, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Mother Teresa received 124 awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Freedom. She built hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, hospices, health clinics, homeless shelters, youth shelters and soup kitchens all over the world, and is revered in India for her work. She created the first hospice in Greenwich Village for AIDS patients. Not surprisingly, she was voted the most admired woman in the world three years in a row in the mid-1990s.
Last year the Empire State Building shone in red and yellow lights to honor the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Revolution. Yet under its founder, Mao Zedong, the Communists killed 77 million people. In other words, the greatest mass murderer in history merited the same tribute being denied to Mother Teresa.
We look forward to your intervention in this matter.



Education

Education

January 17
Colorado Springs, CO
 – A wooden cross was placed at a prayer circle for Wiccans and pagans at the United States Air Force Academy. The reaction of the Academy was boilerplate. Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould said, “We absolutely will not stand for this type of destructive behavior.” He continued, “I consider this no different than someone writing graffiti on the Cadet Chapel.”

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and past graduate of the Academy, said that the cross at the pagan site was tantamount to having a swastika in the Jewish center.

We initially called on Congress to launch a probe given the past problems that the Academy has had with the rights of Catholics on campus. But we called it off once we learned that Gould had a good track record defending religious liberty. Nonetheless, we weren’t happy with his incendiary remark: he unnecessarily threw fuel on the fire. But we decided not to go forward given his past behavior.

February 12
Apex, NC
 – A middle school teacher was suspended for publicly complaining on her Facebook page that Christian students subjected her to a “hate crime” by leaving a Bible on her desk. She was later removed from the classroom and moved to an administrative position. On her Facebook page, the teacher said that she would not let this incident go unpunished.

February 22
North Carolina
 – Officials of the Department of Public Instruction altered a proposed civics and economics curriculum that compared anti-abortion laws to segregation. The proposed curriculum looked at three U.S. Supreme Court cases as examples of how the court upheld rights against oppressive regimes: Brown v. Board of EducationRoe v. WadeKorematsu v. United States. Bishops Michael Burbidge of Raleigh and Peter Jugis of Charlotte led the charge in having the proposed curriculum altered.

March 22
Washington, D.C.
 – The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by a high school student who sought to sue her school for banning the instrumental version of “Ave Maria” at her 2006 graduation. With the Supreme Court’s refusal, the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stands: the court agreed with school officials that the song was religious.

March 24
Stephenville, TX
 – We learned that Tarleton State University was to host a student production of “Corpus Christi” on March 27, the eve of Palm Sunday. Though it was not a university-sponsored production, we called the nature and the timing of the play, hate speech and offensive. The show was subsequently cancelled and the university president labeled the play “crude and irreverent.”

In the play, Jesus is depicted as the “King of the Queers” who says to the apostles, “F— your mother, F— your father, F— God.” The apostle Philip asks the Jesus character to perform oral sex on him, and at the end of the play Jesus condemns a priest for condemning homosexuality.

April 2 – May 28
Greenwood, IN
 – The ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit on behalf of a high school student to stop a student-led prayer at his high school graduation. The Greenwood High School senior class voted on the prayer and most of the students voted in its favor. The school board president stated it would not call off the prayer unless a judge ordered it.

On April 30, a federal judge ruled that the planned student-led prayer violated the establishment clause and that the student vote approving the prayer “trampled” the rights of the minority in the school. Despite the ruling, the class president of the graduating class thanked God during her speech to a thunderous applause.

April 8-10
Washington, D.C.
 – The play “Corpus Christi” was held at Gallaudet University during the school’s “Erase the Hate” event. The playwright, Terrance McNally, appeared a few days before the production and held a discussion about the play.

May 17
Schenectady, NY
 – A 13-year-old boy was sent home and suspended from Oneida Middle School for refusing to remove a rosary that he wore around his neck; the school stated that the rosary violated its dress code as “gang-related symbols.” A few weeks later, a judge issued an order allowing the boy to return to school and wear the rosary.

May 25
Montana 
– The ACLU of Montana asked that the Board of Regents at Montana State University (MSU)-Northern apologize for the prayers that were offered during the school’s graduation ceremony; MSU-Northern is a public university. The ACLU viewed the prayers as a violation of separation of church and state and that by allowing the prayer, MSU-Northern had demonstrated “a lack of respect for its students, faculty and staff.”

June 3
Exeter, CA
 – Exeter Union School District officials buckled to the pressure from outside groups not to allow a student vote on whether or not to have a prayer at graduation. Instead the administrators held a moment of silence. The pressure was applied by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Anti-Defamation League and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

June 8
Enfield, CT
 – Following the ruling of a federal district judge barring Enfield High School from holding its graduation ceremony in a local mega-church, the Enfield Board of Education voted to fight the ruling and appeal to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

June 24
New Haven, CT
 – High school students received their diplomas without the phrase “year of our Lord” on the document. The superintendent said that the phrase was removed so as not to offend anyone. We said, “It is unconscionable. Attempts to scrub clean any reference to our founding is a disservice to the students and their community. And to base this decision, in part, on the need not to ‘offend anyone,’ is disingenuous—it offends beyond belief the vast majority of Americans. This is political correctness gone mad.”

June 28
Washington, D.C.
 – In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the University of California’s law school did not violate the First Amendment by declining recognition of a Christian student group. The school withdrew recognition of the Christian Legal Society because it considered homosexual relations “sexually immoral.” In his dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the decision represented a triumph for the principle that there is “no freedom for expression that offends prevailing standards of political correctness in our country’s institutions of higher learning.”

July
Urbana, IL
 – Ken Howell, an adjunct professor who teaches courses on Catholicism at the University of Illinois, was fired for explaining to a student in an e-mail that homosexuality violates Catholic natural law teachings.

We made sure that Professor Howell had everything he needed to successfully challenge the school. We contacted him with the names of pro-bono lawyers and gave this story much-deserved publicity.

After a lengthy inquiry, Howell was reinstated. Nonetheless, the fact that he had to fight for his rights is a sorry statement on the academic freedom of Catholics in the third millenium.

July 21
Augusta, GA
 – A Christian student at Augusta State University, was told that she could continue her graduate work in student counseling if she agreed to enroll in a “sensitivity” program and reformed her views on homosexuality and didn’t let it interfere with her program of study.

July 26
Ypsilanti, MI
 – An Eastern Michigan University student was told that she could only continue graduate studies in school counseling if she changed her beliefs on homosexuality and agreed to attend “diversity sensitivity training.”

October
San Francisco, CA
 – The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine posted a poem about stem cell research that mocked the Consecration of the Mass. The poem was removed after the Alliance Defense Fund stepped in claiming that it “[mocked] the most sacred of Christian texts.”

October 13
Santa Barbara, CA
 – An elementary school principal filed a lawsuit against Goleta Union School District after being threatened to be fired for being in a video that promoted a prayer breakfast that praised teachers. The district moved to fire the principal on the grounds that his appearance in the video was “an illegal promotion of religion.”

December 2
Howell, MI
 – A junior high school student, Daniel Glowacki, was at the forefront of a national firestorm after defending a fellow student’s free speech rights and defending his Catholic faith.

Daniel’s teacher, Jay McDowell, wore a t-shirt as part of a national campaign against bullying homosexuals. On that same day, McDowell demanded that one of Glowacki’s classmates remove a confederate flag belt she was wearing because it offended him. Glowacki stepped in and defended her free speech rights, calling attention to McDowell’s t-shirt and said some may find its message offensive as well. When McDowell asked Glowacki if he supported a pro-homosexual agenda, the student replied that he was Catholic and did not. For that McDowell threw Glowacki out of the classroom and claimed, “If [Glowacki] was Catholic, he’d be or should be in Catholic school” and called the student a racist.

Glowacki retained counsel with the Thomas More Law Center, who believed that his constitutional rights of freedom of speech were violated.

December 22
Haymarket, VA
 – A group of high school boys who called themselves the “Christmas Sweater Club” who wanted to spread “Christmas cheer,” were punished for distributing candy canes to fellow classmates. They were told by administrators that the candy canes were weapons and one administrator said that “not everyone wants Christmas cheer. [Suicide] rates are up over Christmas, and [they] should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps.”




Government

Government

January-August
San Francisco, CA
 – On January 20, a judge in a San Francisco court allowed attorneys David Boies and Theodore B. Olsen to submit e-mails they obtained between the director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the bishops regarding support of Proposition 8, the 2008 California proposition which affirmed marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Allowing such communication in a trial is unusual enough, but the purpose was even more invidious: to show that Catholics played a major role in passing Prop 8. The lawyers did the same thing to Mormons, offering more e-mail “proof” of their involvement.

Their goal was not to contest the First Amendment rights of Catholics and others—their goal was to put religion on trial. What they said was that religious-based reasons for rejecting gay marriage are irrational, and thus do not meet the test of promoting a legitimate state interest. They trotted out professors Gary Segura of Stanford and George Chauncey of Yale to testify to the irrationality of the pro-Prop 8 side. Chauncey was even given the opportunity to read from a Vatican document that rejects homosexual marriage.

The lawyers for the anti-Prop 8 side touted Segura’s testimony that religious groups which supported Prop 8 constituted 34 percent of the nation’s population, while only 2 percent of religions opposed it. A comment that was grossly misleading.

Far more than 2 percent of religions support gay marriage: Buddhism has no official position but it is well known that Buddhists in California worked against Prop 8; the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America supports gay marriage, just so long as the term “marriage” isn’t used; the Episcopal Church also opposes all state and federal bans on gay marriage, therefore putting it on the side of the anti-Prop 8 forces; Hinduism has no official position on gay marriage, though those who follow Hindu texts like the Kama Sutra are fine with it; Reform and Reconstructionist strands of Judaism support gay marriage; the Presbyterian Church (USA) is similar to the Evangelical Lutherans in supporting gay marriage just so long as “marriage” is not used; Unitarian Universalist Association is pro-gay marriage; the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is pro-gay marriage; the United Church of Christ also supports it.

Second, over 100 faith-based organizations, listed on the website of Vote NO on Prop 8, support gay marriage and worked hard to defeat Prop 8.

Third, though there are many religions opposed to gay marriage, there is nothing analogous to the coordinated effort of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable—it enlists the aid of all the aforementioned religions, and even includes Quakers, Baptists, Eastern Orthodox and Methodist members.

 A few days after Segura’s testimony, Boies pointed out that Catholicism teaches that homosexual acts are a “serious depravity,” and that the Southern Baptist Convention labels them an “abomination.” He was asking the presiding judge to connect the dots between the identification of sinful acts and the sanctioning of incivility against the sinners.

The argument failed miserably. As the Church has long noted, there is a huge difference between condemning sinful behavior and condemning those who engage in it. It is even more preposterous to sanction incivility against sinners by the self-righteous.

On August 4, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Proposition 8, finding that “religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”

January 14
New Bedford, MA
 – When Massachusetts senatorial hopeful Martha Coakley, a Roman Catholic, was asked on WBSM radio whether she supports conscience rights for health care employees she replied, “No.”

Coakley said that if she were asked to consider a bill that would say “if people believe that they don’t want to provide services that are required under the law and under Roe v. Wade, that they can individually decide to not follow the law. The answer is no.” When asked by host Ken Pittman about the rights of Catholics who follow the teachings of the Church, Coakley offered the separation of church and state argument. Pittman then said, “In the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.” Coakley conceded that point but hastened to add, “you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.”

January 20 – April 9
After Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel was sent back to the White House at the end of 2009, President Obama quickly renominated the anti-Catholic lawyer.

Most of Johnsen’s critics focused on her strong pro-abortion record. But we pointed out her anti-Catholic history.

In the late 1980s, she joined a cadre of anti-Catholics to strip the Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status, claiming the Church was guilty of violating IRS strictures because it took a strong pro-life position. The lawsuit failed.

Despite this information on her, the New York Times asserted that the “baseless objections” and “baseless concerns” of Johnsen’s critics should be ignored. We asked if it would it be “baseless” to object to someone who wants to deny Muslims the same tax-exempt status afforded Catholics, Protestants, Jews and others? Would not such a person be branded a bigot who is unfit to serve in any administration, especially in a high post in the Justice Department?

On March 4, we wrote to every member of the U.S. Senate asking the 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?”

On April 9, our letter seemed to have paid off; Johnsen withdrew her name from nomination.

February 2
Washington, D.C.
 – At the National Press Club, Harry Knox, Director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program and member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, stood by his 2009 comments that the pope was “hurting people in the name of Jesus” because he did not promote the use of condoms as an effective means to control the spread of HIV and AIDS. Knox was asked by CNSNews.com if he stood by those comments and he said, “I do.”

February 25
Washington, D.C.
 – Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, was scheduled to speak at a National Prayer Luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base but the invitation was withdrawn by the chaplain’s office because Perkins had spoken out in favor of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy.”

We said that the decision to silence Tony Perkins, an ordained minister and Marine veteran, represented political correctness at a dangerous level. There are legitimate reasons to accept and reject the current policy regarding gays in the military. No one, therefore, should be censored from speaking at any private or public forum—much less a military installation—because of his or her views on this subject.

We contacted Major General Darrell D. Jones, Commander of the Air Force District of Washington, at Andrews Air Force Base asking for a probe into this matter.

February 26
Washington, D.C.
 – Several officials from the Obama administration met with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America giving people of faith a reason to wonder exactly where their interests lie with the Obama administration.

No one opposes men and women who are incidentally agnostic or atheist from expressing their concerns, even to the White House. The problem with this meeting was the profile of the coalition’s members and organizations. On the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America are such activists as Robert Boston, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Susan Jacoby and Michael Newdow. Member organizations include American Atheists, the American Ethical Union and the Council for Secular Humanism. All of these persons and groups have a track record of open hostility to people of faith, and some have been downright bigoted in their assault on Christianity, especially Catholicism.

March 3
Topeka, KS
 – A bill in the Kansas House of Representatives that was initially introduced to repeal the sales tax exemption of all non-profit organizations was amended to target only religious non-profits. The bill would penalize the Catholic Church and organizations like Catholic Charities, as well as other religions and charitable groups. When this bill reached the House floor, it was fixed and the tax exemptions were kept in place.

March 4
Jefferson City, MO
 – State Senator Church Purgason introduced a revised version of a proposed sales tax bill; his original bill would have required private and parochial schools to collect sales tax on school tuition and Catholic Charities would have had to pay a new sales tax. Under his revised legislation, churches, charitable organizations and private and parochial schools were exempt from the proposed sales tax.

March 3 – May 11
Michigan
 – On March 3, the Catholic League filed a formal complaint with the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission regarding anti-Catholic comments made by defense attorney Henry Scharg.

In a Wayne County Circuit Court hearing concerning a woman charged with smothering her newborn daughter to death, her attorney, Henry Scharg, sought repeatedly to malign trial judge Dan Ryan, accusing him of allowing his Catholic religion to color his judgment in the case. Not only did Scharg call into question Ryan’s affiliation with Ave Maria Law School, he sought to remove the judge from the case.

Scharg was angered over the fact that Ryan was taking vacation time to teach at Ave Maria on Mondays (the fact that Ryan rearranged his Monday schedule to accommodate Scharg undercut his complaint). On p. 10 of the transcript from the hearing, Scharg was quoted as saying, “This is the equivalent to an African-American man being on trial and the judge taking Mondays off to attend Klan meetings.”

Bill Donohue issued the following statement to the media: “Scharg has no business representing anyone. To compare an accredited Catholic law school to a racist terrorist organization is more than despicable—it constitutes rank anti-Catholic bigotry. Indeed, this remark is so egregious as to warrant severe punitive sanctions, if not disbarment. We will do what we can to see that justice is done.”

We lodged a complaint with the Attorney Grievance Commission of the State of Michigan. On May 11, we received note that the Commission determined that Scharg’s offense did not constitute professional misconduct. Nonetheless, we are pleased that Scharg was forced to defend himself in writing and that a formal complaint is now in his file.

March 14
Gilbert, AZ
 – The Alliance Defense Fund claimed that a town code barring religious assemblies in private homes is unconstitutional. A Christian church began meeting in a pastor’s home for Bible study and fellowship and were told by a town zoning official that church activities were not allowed in private homes.

March 26 – 29
Davenport, IA
 – The city of Davenport removed “Good Friday” from its municipal calendar and announced that the day would be renamed “Spring Holiday.” After backlash, the idea was overturned and “Good Friday” was put back on the calendar.

April – May 3
Hartford, CT
 – A bill seeking to extend the statute of limitations in sex abuse cases was introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly by Rep. Beth Bye, but never came to a vote, thus securing a victory for Catholics. This victory was in no small part due to our tireless work in educating the public on how HB 5473 was inherently discriminatory towards the Catholic Church.

As it stood, the bill would have done absolutely nothing to bring relief to those who had been abused by a public school employee save for filing a civil suit against the individual.

Contrast that with a child abused by an employee of a Catholic school. Not only would the victim be able to file a suit against the individual, but the victim could then file suit against the diocese thus costing the Church millions of dollars.

As is the case in other states, public entities enjoy sovereign immunity from such claims and cannot be sued for damages unless a bill specifically authorizes it. Accordingly, we called Bye’s bluff: we said to make it inclusive of all institutions, public as well as private, or pull it.

We heard nothing from the teachers’ unions and the other lobbyists for the public schools. They knew that if the statute of limitations was eliminated in cases of childhood sexual abuse that took place in public schools, many former administrators and teachers—to say nothing of current school districts—would be forced to face the fire. We said that justice demands that they suffer the same fate of those in private institutions or they should withdraw the discriminatory bill altogether.

We were pleasantly surprised when we found out that State Senator Andrew McDonald, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, opposed the legislation stressing the importance that statutes of limitations have in the judicial system. We were surprised because it was McDonald, along with Rep. Michael Lawlor, who in 2009 drafted a bill “To revise the corporate governance provisions applicable to the Roman Catholic Church and provide for the investigation of the misappropriation of funds by religious corporations.” (The bill was pulled because the Connecticut bishops, the Catholic League and thousands of Connecticut Catholics fought it.)

Soon after we learned of HB 5473, we spoke to someone at Rep. Bye’s office and were told that this bill did apply to public schools and that there is a difference between state employees and public school employees when it comes to sovereign immunity. After we heard this we said that it was time to end the duplicity and have an equal playing field for everyone regardless if they are employees of private or public institutions. Accordingly, we extended a challenge to Bye: submit a bill that would repeal sovereign immunity for all public employees. Then, and only then, would Connecticut Catholics and Catholic institutions know that they would not be treated in a discriminatory manner in law.

Following our challenge to Bye, Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport sent a letter to Connecticut lawmakers unjustly condemning the bishops for seeking to “mislead, mischaracterize and spin the facts in an effort to preserve their temporal, rather than spiritual authority.” In doing so, the group went way beyond the pale for even a dissident Catholic group—it portrayed an animus so vile as to rival the antics of rank anti-Catholics.

We wrote to the Connecticut Legislature and let them know that the Connecticut bishops speak for the Church in the state, noting that some Catholics were falsely positioning themselves as being legitimate competitors to the voice of the bishops and that Voice of the Faithful were the most irresponsible. We said: “To be sure, lay Catholics have a right to speak to all public policy issues that touch on the affairs of the Catholic Church. But no lay Catholic organization has the right to portray itself as a substitute to the canonical authority of the bishops. That is what Voice of the Faithful has done.”

We respectfully asked the lawmakers to weigh the real-life concerns of the bishops regarding the draconian implications of the bill. We also asked that they not be distracted by those who harbor an agenda of their own.

On May 3 our work paid off: proponents of the bill announced that there were not enough votes in the House or Senate to push the bill forward.

April 14
Harry Knox lashed out at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone for his comments regarding homosexual priests and the sex abuse crisis. Knox said, “As pastor he should be spending night and day seeking to heal the wounds inflicted by the Church on the victims of pedophile priests.” Knox, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, also accused the cardinal of “diverting attention away from decades of Vatican cover-ups of pedophile behavior.” In 2009, we called on Knox to be ousted by the Obama administration for his comments bashing the pope. We did so again.

June
We filed an amicus brief with the Pacific Justice Institute appealing a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that denied standing to the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) in a free speech and association case. At stake was the right of the University of California system to reject high school courses in its admission process which have a religious viewpoint. By filing the brief, we hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear the case and overturn the decision.

The more immediate problem was the right of ACSI to secure standing, or the right to challenge these decisions. We found it important that organizations like the Catholic League know that their members need not personally participate in lawsuits which effect their interests in cases like this one. (The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that ACSI had no right to represent its member schools.)

October 26
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota came under fire for their anti-Catholic mailer that was sent out a week before Election Day. On one side of the mailer was a priest, shown from his Roman collar down, wearing a button that read, “Ignore the Poor.” On the other side of the mailer, there is a statement criticizing Dan Hall, a Protestant minister who was a candidate for the state Senate, saying, “Preacher Dan Hall protects politicians—not the poor.”

Although the DFL released a statement defending the mailer, saying it “explicitly criticized Preacher Hall,” the DFL had deliberately exploited Catholic imagery to make a political point. It was a clear Catholic-baiting stunt.

December 2
Jon Lovett, a White House speechwriter, won the “Funniest Celebrity” award for making a joke about the TSA’s airport pat-downs. Lovett said, “it’s giving a way for, you know, defrocked priests to get their lives back together, giving back to the community, lend a … Well, not lend a hand, but you know.”