January

A Catholic high school student applied for the Jefferson Scholars Program at the University of Virginia. He was asked the following questions about his religion during the course of an interview: “What is your relationship with God?”; “Do you believe in the infallibility of the Pope?”; “What if the Pope said something completely ridiculous, would you follow him anyway?”; and “What are your feelings on women priests?” The league protested this line of inquiry as being inappropriate and intrusive, especially for a state school.

March

Oxford, OH – Miami University of Ohio showed the movie Priest, despite condemnation of it by the Student Senate as anti-Catholic.

April

Luis Obispo, CA –  A columnist and a cartoonist mocked Catholicism and attacked the pope in the Mustang Daily.

Amherst, MA – In a column in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the newspaper of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, columnist Erin Barnes wrote that “it seems as though some members of the [Catholic] church are so tightly wound that they snap, causing them to perform such unthinkable acts as child molestation and murder at abortion clinics.”

Kentucky – The Art Department at Northern Kentucky University announced that it would present an art exhibit entitled, “Immaculate Misconceptions.” The exhibit was to feature artists who had all been raised as Roman Catholics and wanted to display work inspired by the misconceptions they had while learning the faith. In the proposal it said “Works will serve as an exorcism of sort in an effort to free the artist from misguided fears created by stringent dogmatic concepts that were learned and misconceived.” On April 17, the league sent a letter to the president of the university demanding that both the title and the exhibit be withdrawn. Less than two weeks after receiving the league’s letter, the school decided to drop the entire exhibit, title and all.

May

In a satirical piece in Brow Beat, the Broward Mensa Journal, an “obituary” was featured about a man named Profaccio Unscrupulata. In addition to every Italian stereotype, including giving names such as “Retardo, Cretino, and Imbecilio” to some of the children, the writer took aim at Catholicism as well. “The Rev. Celibato Unfortunato of the Saint Bastardo Roman Catholic Church will offer a Solemn High Requiem Bingo Game….”

Minneapolis, MN – In a column in The Minnesota Daily disagreeing with cafeteria Catholicism, columnist Charles A. Foster, self-identified as non-Catholic, wrote: “I can imagine what would happen if I tried to take communion. The priest would give me a swig from the chalice and then remind me, quoting Christ, ‘This is my blood.’ My eyes would bug out and I would involuntarily spit, spraying the priest with a pink mist.”

June

Baltimore, MD – Christopher Hitchens introduced a screening of his film, Hell’s Angel: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a diatribe against Mother Teresa. The film was part of a series on religious fundamentalism which was sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. Based on Hitchens’ book, The Missionary Position, the film, like the book, is replete with reckless charges, none of which is documented with evidence.

Fall

The play Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You was performed at Fort Hays State University.

The play Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You was performed at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The school had a particularly vile advertisement for the play.

September

Louisville, KY – The Jefferson Community College Chapel hosted the multi-media production of Pope-Joan: the Hiss of the Snake, produced by Artswatch. The play contends that a certain Pope John was really “Pope Joan,” a legend refuted by the Catholic Church. The play portrayed the church as being led by men who are obsessed with sex, and even Pope Joan ultimately takes on a lover. Latin phrases were mocked throughout the play (amen was rendered “all-men”). Audience members were given Oreos during a “communion service” and holy cards were treated as sports trading cards.

October

Yonkers, NY – In the summer of 1996, Yonkers school board voted to cut funds to support the busing of Catholic school students due to the city’s financial troubles. The Archdiocese of New York announced that it would fight this battle in court. In October, the league sent an overnight copy of its news release to the home of every school board member, pledging to sue the school board. Yonkers then decided that funding would be provided for the entire school year.

Middletown Township, NJ – Teachers at a Board of Education meeting distributed an article entitled Speaking Frankly which is a publication of the Middletown Township Education Association. By reaching back to the 15th century to make some connection with the political climate in a 20th Century New Jersey municipality, the author bared his bias against Catholicism by misinterpreting Church practices during the Middle Ages.

October

A University student publication, The Onion, contained a mock interview of the Pope entitled “Pope Admits: ‘God Ain’t Said Shit to Me’.” In the interview, the Pope is quoted as saying the following: “Seventy-six years I’m bustin’ my hump for this mysterious Divine One, and still it’s like, ‘John Paul who?’ Christ.” “Just last week,” the Pope continued, “I underwent a difficult appendectomy. You’d certainly think the Lord would call to wish me well, right? He didn’t so much as send a card. What a d___.” The Pope further states that he is “suppose[d] to be reflecting and shit…on how f______ awesome my life is.”

New York, NY – The University of Texas displayed the controversial art of artist Manual Ocampo. Ocampo uses religious symbols and images together with objects of disgust and disdain to create his “art.” One of Ocampo’s paintings exhibited at UT is entitledVirgin Destroyer. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary as a cockroach draped in pearls wielding a large knife and liquor bottle.

Milwaukee, WI – A painting depicting a large rat sucking at the breast of the Virgin Mary was displayed at Madison High School for several weeks. Pressure from local residents and a Catholic group finally made the principal decide to remove the painting.

October – November

Fairfax, VA – An exhibit entitled Catholic Girls opened at the George Mason University. The exhibit was a compilation of the work of seven female artists who were raised “under the influence of Catholicism.” The curator of the exhibit stated that the artwork expressed “rebellion against the contradictions embodied in the Catholic faith, and the repression of women in particular.” Some of the artwork was entitled as follows: “Pizza Pope,” “Holy Cow,” “Pizza Devil,” and “The Relics of Joan of Arc’s Part-Time Job.”

November

Wichita, KS – A painting by artist Nancy Schwan entitled “Our Lady of the Immaculate Martini” was on exhibit at Friends University. The painting depicted the Virgin Mary wearing a sleeveless tank dress and holding a bottle of liquor. A martini glass rested next to her on a serving tray.

Greensboro, NC – The novel The Old Gringo, was assigned to students at Grimsley High School. The book treats Catholicism in a despicable fashion. After being contacted by the league, the school board voted 6-5 to keep the book. However, before the Catholic League protested, there was not one school board member who found the book offensive.

December

University Park, PA – A female student at Penn State crafted a huge vagina – in a grotto-like shape – complete with human hair, and placed a statute of Our Blessed Mother within it; it was displayed on the campus lawn in full view of the students, faculty and administrators. Done as a project for an art class, it was removed by school officials after complaints from resident Catholics. The student said that her “work” was a statement about oppression of women in the Catholic Church.

Erie, PA – Millcreek Township School District in Erie, Pennsylvania barred students from creating artwork that depicted a nativity scene for the annual “Holiday Card Contest.” After the league threatened a lawsuit, corrective action was immediately taken.

Long Island, NY – 7th grade students enrolled in chorus at Wisdom Lane School were forced to choose between attending the Winter Concert on a night that regularly scheduled religious instruction at a nearby Catholic school and missing their religion class. After being contacted by the league, the superintendent of schools stated that the incident was an isolated one, and that it did not reflect district policy and would not happen again.

Long Island, NY – Hofstra University released a student publication, Nonsense, that was not only virulently anti-Catholic, it even boasted of its animus. The editor-in-chief, Francis Rizzo, wrote that he was first attracted to writing for Nonsense because it was “Short, funny, and not too hard to understand. Oh, yeah, and slightly insulting to Catholics, too.”

Brooklyn, NY – A holiday celebration held at Packer Collegiate Institute, a private school, gave due recognition to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, but made no reference to Christmas. The school altered the lyrics of a well-known holiday melody in order to replace all references to Christmas with the words, “the End of the Year.” Children and audience members were encouraged to celebrate “the End of the Year” and to wish each other a “Happy End of the Year.” After a protest by the league, remedial action was taken and a pledge to treat Christmas fairly in 1997 was made.

Manhattan Beach, CA – A public school removed a Christmas tree from school property after a rabbi objected that the tree was a religious symbol. Not only is the tree not a religious symbol, no nativity scene was allowed in the school, yet a Star of David was displayed. The league registered its objections on the CNN program, Crossfire.

Sacramento, CA – In a public school a ban was placed on celebrating Christmas because school officials held that Christianity “was not a world religion.”

The Packer Collegiate Institute, a prep school in Brooklyn, revised its “Holiday” program after a protest by the Catholic League.

In December, the school held a holiday celebration that recognized Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, but not Christmas. Students in the middle-school grades sang songs celebrating the Jewish and African-American holidays, but when it came to Christmas, they sang a song with altered lyrics, lyrics that deleted any reference to Christmas. Students were then encouraged to wish each other “Happy End of the Year,” an obvious way of avoiding the dreaded salutation, “Merry Christmas.”

After a league member contacted the national office, the league sent a letter protesting this action. A phone call from the Packer Collegiate Institute was very encouraging: steps had already been taken to assure that the program for older students gave due recognition of Christmas, and assurances were given that corrective measures had already been instituted so that what happened in 1996 would not happen again in 1997

On November 9, we started a boycott against Wal-Mart, citing discrimination against Christians. On November 10, the world’s largest retailer refused to give in to our demands. On November 11, Wal-Mart folded, yielding on all counts. Ergo, we called off our boycott.

Over the past decade, Wal-Mart has been the object of a great deal of criticism. Much of it, we believe, has been patently unfair and politically motivated. But when Wal-Mart began the Christmas season with discriminatory policies—treating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa with respect while showing nothing but disrespect for Christmas—we took off after the behemoth. And we won. (For a detailed account of exactly how this case developed, see p. 5.)

In a nutshell, what happened is that a woman from Allentown, Pennsylvania complained to Wal-Mart about its penchant for calling Christmas the “Holidays.” The response she received from the customer service department was absurd at best, and insulting at worst. She was told by someone named Kirby that in essence Christmas has nothing to do with Christ. She forwarded the incredible e-mail to us.

It was our opinion that this offensive response must have been the product of some underling. After all, the store is gigantic and the top brass probably had nothing to do with it. So we contacted their top public relations officer to see what he might say about Kirby’s comment. To our surprise, he not only agreed, he offered some “words of wisdom” that only angered us further.

Then we checked the Wal-Mart website to see how it was treating the so-called holidays. What we found was discriminatory treatment: the Hanukkah and Kwanzaa sites were easily accessed, and a list of items was presented; Christmas, however, was renamed the “Holiday” site.

That was it. We immediately called for a boycott and contacted 126 religious organizations spanning seven faith communities for assistance (we won before they even received our mailing). But Wal-Mart remained adamant and stuck by its story, essentially parroting the tired diversity/inclusion argument.

What Wal-Mart didn’t count on was our resolve. We don’t know what the word “quit” means at the Catholic League. Indeed, the more stubborn our adversary becomes, the more unyielding we become.

This victory, which took less than 48 hours to achieve, was sweet. What made it so special is the fact that Wal-Mart has a reputation of never giving in to the demands of any protest group.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue announces the Catholic League’s Christmas project for 2010:

The atheists are out in force this year trying to neuter Christmas. While a few of their efforts are benign, e.g., the United Community of Reason’s bus billboards, “Don’t Believe in God? Join the Club”, most are predictably hostile, e.g., the American Atheists’ billboard that features a picture of a nativity scene with the inscription, “You Know it’s a Myth. This Season Celebrate Reason.”

The Catholic League does not have to resort to negative advertising to get its point across, and that is why we raised the money last month to launch a Christmas campaign that almost everyone will like, save for embittered atheists. A week ago, we mailed a Holy Family Nativity Scene [click here] to the nation’s 50 governors; a letter to the governors alerting them that our gift was being sent in care of their chief of staff was first sent. We know they arrived because we already received a kind letter from one governor, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee.

In my letter to the governors, I explained that it was our “sincere hope that it [the crèche] will be displayed in the Capitol Rotunda alongside secular symbols (e.g., a Christmas tree) this coming Christmas season.” I also made clear that this is entirely legal: “We are paying for it because we believe it would be inappropriate to use public monies to pay for religious symbols. But we also believe, consistent with Supreme Court rulings, that there is no constitutional prohibition banning privately-funded crèches from being displayed alongside secular symbols.”

In the December edition of our monthly journal, Catalyst, we are publishing the names of the 50 chiefs of staff [click here]; this way our members can contact them if they do not see a manger scene in the Capitol Rotunda.

So let the militant atheists do their thing, appealing to debased motives. We’re taking the moral high road.

On November 9, we learned that the Obama administration had decided to promote the sale of fresh Christmas trees by imposing a 15-cent tax on them (the tax was being levied to pay for a PR campaign). We immediately put out a sarcastic news release “supporting” the idea. Later that day, the tax plan was revoked.

We maintained that President Barack Obama’s Agriculture Department got it right when it started to explore new ways to prop up the dying fresh Christmas tree industry. “Taxation, of course, is always the hands-down favorite way for the federal government to do business,” said Bill Donohue, “and no president in American history has shown a greater fondness for taxation than Obama.”

Donohue continued, “The Catholic League heartily endorses this tax: the Christmas tree is a secular symbol, and by taxing them, we will have less of them. But our support is qualified. Obama would be wise to support a tax subsidy for nativity scenes. That would spur sales, thus endearing him to Christians who distrust him, while driving secularists over the cliff. Sounds like a win-win.” Donohue closed by saying, “Just think of it as a stimulus for keeping ‘Christ in Christmas.’”

The Obama administration scrapped its Christmas tree tax after it was reported that many critics had “derided” the idea. Count the Catholic League among them. But since the administration said it was only “delaying” the tax, look for it to be back next year.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an article by Deborah Dwork and Eric Greenberg criticizing the Catholic Church for pursuing the cause of sainthood for Pope Pius XII; it is published on the website of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Deborah Dwork is a specialist in Holocaust studies at Clark University, and Rabbi Eric Greenberg is the director of interfaith policy for the ADL. Their credentials are not in question, but their judgment certainly is.

They begin their remarks by saying that “Pius refused even to say the word Jew during his famous Christmas speech of 1942.” Funny how the New York Times was able to figure out who the pope was referring to at the time. “No Christmas sermon reaches a larger congregation than the message Pope Pius XII addresses to a war-torn world at this season. This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.” Nowhere in the Times editorial of December 25, 1942 does it mention the word Jew, but only the delusional would think the editors were praising the pope for speaking out about Puerto Ricans. Indeed, the Times ran an editorial the previous year, also on Christmas day, singling out the pope among world leaders: “The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas.”

The New York Times was not alone in praising the heroics of Pope Pius XII. So was Rabbi Greenberg’s organization: the ADL wrote gloriously of his efforts. So did the World Jewish Congress, Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, Emilio Zolli (the chief rabbi in Rome—he converted to Catholicism after the war, taking Pius’ name as his baptismal name), and many others. Furthermore, Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide credited the pope with saving as many as 860,000 Jewish lives. Today, English historian Sir Martin Gilbert credits the Catholic Church for its yeoman service.

There is always room for just criticism, but for Dwork and Greenberg to conclude that the cause of sainthood for Pope Pius XII is “an act of aggression against the Jewish people” is flat out unseemly. It also ill-serves Catholic-Jewish relations.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue describes the latest war on Christmas:

Michelle Zundel, principal of Bellview Elementary, situated in Oregon’s Ashland School District, says that one family didn’t like the “Giving Tree” displayed in the school lobby, so she had it removed. “The decision to remove the tree was a very difficult one because the important constitutional issues for a school are to maintain neutrality.” According to one news report, Ashland Superintendent Juli Di Chiro says that school officials are working on developing district-wide rules to address such issues.

All of this is based on ignorance: (a) a Christmas tree—never mind a “Giving Tree”—is not a religious symbol (b) there are no constitutional issues involved in displaying secular symbols in the schools, and (c) they have had a policy governing such matters since 1989.

Ashland School District 5 school officials ought to read their own policy, “Teaching about Religion.” Guideline #7 explicitly says: “No public school funds shall be used for an intended devotional display or religious symbols such as a Star of David, cross, crucifix, Christmas nativity scene or a Buddhist statue of sacred monkeys.”

Note that the policy says absolutely nothing about banning secular symbols such as a Christmas tree, never mind some fictional “Giving Tree.” That’s because there are no constitutional issues at stake.

In other words, this mean-spirited attempt to censor Christmas is totally contrived. It’s up to the parents, who will meet tonight, to take their school back.

Contact the Superintendent: [email protected]

An article by Deborah Dwork and Eric Greenberg criticizing the Church for pursuing the cause of sainthood for Pope Pius XII was recently published on the website of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Dwork, a specialist in Holocaust studies at Clark University, and Greenberg, a rabbi and director of interfaith policy for the ADL, have the credentials, but their judgment was questionable.

They began their remarks by saying that “Pius refused even to say the word Jew during his famous Christmas speech of 1942.” But the New York Times knew who the pope was referring to at the time: “No Christmas sermon reaches a larger congregation than the message Pope Pius XII addresses to a war-torn world at this season. This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.” Nowhere in the Times’ editorial of December 25, 1942 did it mention the word Jew, but it’s clear what the editorial was referring to. Indeed, the Times ran an editorial on Christmas day, 1941, singling out the pope among the world leaders: “The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas.”

The New York Times was not alone in praising the heroics of Pius XII. So was Greenberg’s organization: the ADL wrote gloriously of his efforts. So did the World Jewish Congress, Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, Emilio Zolli (the chief rabbi in Rome—he converted to Catholicism after the war, taking Pius’ name as his baptismal name), and many others. Furthermore, Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide credited the pope with saving as many as 860,000 Jewish lives. Today, English historian Sir Martin Gilbert credits the Church for its yeoman service.

There is always room for just criticism, but for Dwork and Greenberg to conclude that the cause for sainthood for Pope Pius XII is “an act of aggression against the Jewish people” is flat out unseemly.