Over the summer, the Catholic League started hearing about an upcoming film called “The Golden Compass.” The film was to be based on the first book of a trilogy called His Dark Materials written by British children’s author Philip Pullman. Though we were not familiar with the trilogy, we heard whispers in the blogosphere that the books were decidedly anti-Catholic.

We read the books ourselves, and were astonished at the extent to which the series is an assault on the Catholic Church, and religious faith in general. When we examined the press coverage of the books (mostly from the United Kingdom), we learned that Pullman himself had been speaking openly about his anti-Catholic agenda for years. There was simply no question that the goal of the books is to sour kids on the Church while promoting atheism.

Though we read that the anti-Catholic content of the book would be toned-down for the film, which was released by New Line Cinema in cooperation with Scholastic Entertainment on December 7, this did nothing to alleviate our concerns. Indeed, we found this watering-down of the content to be deceitful. We knew that the flick would serve as bait for the books, and unsuspecting parents who took their kids to the theater and were unaware of the books’ content may be impelled to buy the trilogy as a Christmas present. We decided to call for a boycott of the film, and to issuing a consumers alert. To that end, we published a booklet called The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked. The booklet contained background information on the film, quotes from the author, extensive plot summaries and excerpts from the trilogy.

We made sure that every bishop, Catholic schools superintendent and director of religious education in the country received a copy. We also mailed copies to approximately 500 members of the press, and made them available to the public, both in printed and electronic additions. We sold over 25,000 copies. American parents were eager to educate themselves on what Hollywood was trying to feed their kids. However, the media, by and large, were not: the Catholic League was subjected to a torrent of criticism just for telling the truth about Philip Pullman and his agenda.

What follows is a summary of some of the busy events surrounding the theatrical release of “The Golden Compass,” which proved to be a box-office disaster in the U.S.

DISHONESTY ABOUNDS

As dishonest as New Line Cinema toning down Pullman’s anti-Christianity for the film was the role of Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Entertainment, the media arm of Scholastic Corporation. She was associated with the film from the get-go, acting as producer for New Line Cinema. But unlike her work in producing “The Indian in the Cupboard,” a film that had several Indian advisers on set from two different tribes, or her more recent brainchild, “Maya and Miguel,” an animated television series which accessed the advice of Latino consultants, no religious leaders were asked for their input in the production of “The Golden Compass.”

Scholastic Corporation is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. In making the movie, the mega-corporation expressly violated the tenets of its own Credo, one part of which says, “To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation.” Astonishingly, Scholastic also professes a belief in “High moral and spiritual values,” and says its stands square against “discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, or national origin.” They didn’t stand by this Credo, however, when it came to Christians.

Just as with Pullman (who promoted the film by claiming his real problem was not with the Catholic Church but with “the literalist, fundamentalist nature of absolute power, whether it’s manifested in the religious police state of Saudi Arabia or the atheist police state of Soviet Russia”) the rank hypocrisy of Scholastic was made worse by its glaring deceitfulness. On its website, it featured a short review of each of the three books that comprise His Dark Materials, a short biography of the author and a two-plus page interview with Pullman. Not surprisingly, there was not a single hint of Pullman’s in-your-face atheism. In short, it amounted to a sanitized cover-up.

Bill Donohue wrote to Scholastic’s CEO, Richard Robinson, on November 13. Donohue asked him to pledge that in the event that the other two volumes of Pullman’s trilogy come to the big screen, Scholastic will have nothing to do with them. Robinson did not respond.

PULLMAN’S PREVIOUS COMMENTARY

How New Line and Scholastic could get behind making The Golden Compass into a film, in light of comments Philip Pullman made for years, was never something addressed by the movie moguls. Choosing instead to spin the story as a family-friendly adventure picture teaching the values of honesty and courage, they refused to acknowledge the blatant anti-Catholicism in Pullman’s books. However, a short sample of what Pullman himself has said about his work reveals, without a doubt, his atheist agenda:

· “I am all for the death of God.” (“Philip Pullman,”www.books.guardian.co.uk)

· “My books are about killing God.” (Tony Watkins, Dark Matter, pp. 21 and 152)

· “The trouble is that all too often in human history, churches and priesthoods have set themselves up to rule people’s lives in the name of some invisible god (and they’re all invisible, because they don’t exist)—and done terrible damage. In the name of their god, they have burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated, and enslaved millions of their fellow-creatures, and done so with the happy conviction that they were doing the will of God, and they would go to Heaven for it.” (“Religion,” www.philip-pullman.com)

· “Give them [the Catholic Church] half a chance and they would be burning the heretics.” (“Profile: Philip Pullman: He’s Killed God, Now He’s Off to the Theatre,” The Sunday Times, November 23, 2003)

· In a letter to the British Humanist Association: “I am happy to support you and argue for your aims, and pour ridicule on faith schools.” (See the British Humanist Association, “Philip Pullman CBE,” www.humanism.org.uk)

· “Many religious leaders are men who, it’s obvious to anyone but their deranged followers, are willing to sanction vicious cruelty in the service of their faith.” (John Bambenek, “The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins,” www.blogcritics.org)

· “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.” (Alona Wartofsky, “The Last Word; Philip Pullman’s Trilogy for Young Adults Ends With God’s Death, and Remarkably Few Critics,”Washington Post, February 19, 2001)

PULLMAN’S FANS UNWITTINGLY PROVE US RIGHT

While New Line Cinema and Pullman himself were claiming his stories weren’t about attacking the Catholic Church, Pullman’s long-time fans were alternatively looking forward to the flick and expressing disappointment because the bigotry they’d come to know and love from the books wouldn’t be portrayed on the big screen. The Catholic League credited the enthusiasts for anti-Catholicism, such as those listed below, for their honesty.

Ellen Johnson, president, American Atheists: “I think that the movies are about questioning authority and I think that’s a good thing… I think that if more children were taught to question authority maybe a lot fewer of them would have been sexually molested by priests.” (CBS, “The Early Show,” November 28)

According to a USA Today article written before the film’s release, Johnson was troubled “over rumors that the film has been ‘watered down’ and is not anti-God, anti-Church enough.” (November 29)

Movie Reviewer Josh Tyler: Though he admitted the books are “pretty heavily anti-religion” and “strewn with god-hating elements,” Tyler wrote that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” that the film was set to “be Hollywoodized to remove any controversial material.” (“Anti-God Elements Yanked From His Dark Materials,” www.cinemablend.com)

Bridgetothestars.net, Pullman’s fan site: “The removal of the religious motivations makes the institution [the Catholic Church] incredibly bland, a mere band of thugs with a domineering power for no apparent reason.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford: Morford agreed that the books are “aggressively anti-Christian” and “ultimately describe, as their grand finale, nothing less than the death of God.” However, he expressed disappointment that the same themes would not be as strong in the film, writing “Fans were, appropriately, outraged [by this]. It remains to be seen how much of those vital themes Weitz left intact, but you could argue that the Bible-thumpers have already taken their sad toll…”

Morford did hold out some hope for the movie, however, and suggested, “if ‘The Golden Compass’ turns out to be even half as wondrous as the book, it will hopefully fuel a massive surge in sales of the HDM trilogy in America.” (“Jesus loves ‘His Dark Materials,’” November 30)

Terry Sanders, president, National Secularist Society (UK): “We knew from the beginning that the producers of this film intended to leave out the anti-religious references. We think this is a great shame.” (“Golden Compass author hits back,” BBC News online, November 29)

PUNDITS GET IT WRONG ON BOYCOTT

Most pundits predicted that the Catholic League boycott of “The Golden Compass” would backfire and actually entice more people to see the film. The movie, which was supposed to be the new “Lord of the Rings” or “Chronicles of Narnia,” made a mere $25.8 million its opening weekend and an even paltrier $9 million the following weekend. Although the film was number one at the box office that first weekend, it brought in less money than the Disney film “Enchanted”($34 Million) did its opening weekend (November 21), and was destroyed at the box office by “I Am Legend” ($77.2 million) and “Alvin and the Chipmunks”($45 million), which opened up the weekend of December 14.

In fact, film critic Roger Ebert, who loved the film, said “the box office was wounded by attacks of religious groups.” He added, “The criticism was led by the Catholic League and its talkative president William Donohue.” He concluded, “Any bad buzz on a family film can be mortal, and that seems to have been the case this time.” The buzz was so bad that Hollywood reporters suggested there will not be film versions of Pullman’s second and third books.

Here are some other examples:

· Chris Weitz charged that people were attacking “a film they haven’t seen, often based on a book that they haven’t read” (Knoxville News-Sentinel, December 7). Though he also charged, “the people who have been organizing this boycott type activity are getting it wrong,” he welcomed the attention saying that the boycott would make “more people see the film” (Fresno Bee, December 7 and WENN Entertainment Newswire Service, November 5).

· Pullman wrote an article in the Sunday Times of London in which he questioned the purpose of the Catholic League and downplayed the effect that the boycott would have. In the piece he called the Catholic League a small American group “which seems to be an organization mainly devoted to the self-promotion of its president.” A few sentences later Pullman echoes Weitz’s sentiments, writing, “The league’s activities are having the usual effect, which is that far more people are now going to see the film and read the book than would otherwise have done.” (December 2)

· Jeff Mahoney, a columnist for Ontario’s Hamilton Spectator, assumed that the Catholic League was working in cahoots with New Line Cinema “as part of the carefully machined prerelease publicity.” He attributed the large budget of the film to the boycott because “getting groups to boycott your film doesn’t come cheap, but it can sure pay off.” He likened the public backlash of “The Golden Compass” to that of “The Passion of the Christ” and suggested that the negative publicity drove “Passion’s” success. (November 27)

· Melanie McDonagh of The Times of London wrote in reference to the Catholic League’s boycott, “Christmas has come early for Chris Weitz.” McDonagh also stated, “if Mr. Weitz is really lucky, Santa may deliver what every director prays for…a condemnation from the Vatican.” In the same article she called Catholic League president Bill Donohue a “Vatican frontman” and said the controversy surrounding the film is what “every film distributor longs for.” (November 28)

· In the Daily Titan, from the campus of Cal State-Fullerton, an editorial stated that, “The strength of Hollywood’s advertising intertwined with a tasty controversy only makes us more curious,” and, “Sometimes, a boycott is just the right marketing tool that studios or publishers need.” The editorial added, “Tell us not to see something, and…there’s a good chance we are going to see it.” (December 6)

· Harvard University’s Harvard Crimson ran an article that called the Catholic League out of touch with reality and the boycott “pointless.” The reporter questioned the faith of the league saying it “should realize it would take more than three fantasy novels to dissuade anyone, even children, from participation in the Church.” (December 6)

USCCB WITHDRAWS POSITIVE REVIEW

Despite the overwhelming evidence of Pullman’s anti-Christian agenda, the Office of Film and Broadcasting, a division of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), released a positive review of the film on November 29. The review, written by layman Harry Forbes (the Office of Film and Broadcasting’s chief) called it “an exciting adventure story” that “rates as intelligent and well-crafted entertainment.” Forbes’s piece sidestepped the anti-Catholic nature of the books upon which the movie was based.

Forbes dismissed Philip Pullman’s use of the term Magisterium for the evil entity as “a bit unfortunate.” At one point, Forbes congratulated the movie’s producers for promoting Catholic values. “To the extent, moreover, that Lyra [the protagonist] and her allies are taking a stand on behalf of free will in opposition to the coercive force of the Magisterium, they are of course acting entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.”

To complicate matters, Forbes—and by extension the USCCB—was used by New Line Cinema: the studio posted an exploitative advertisement on the website of Beliefnet. It deliberately, and unethically, juxtaposed two unconnected remarks from the review, leading the reader to conclude that the bishops’ conference had ruled that the movie was “entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.”

In fairness to Forbes, he never said any such thing. He qualified his remarks about the so-called “free will” components, saying they were “entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.” He never said that the storyitself was emblematic of Catholic teaching.

It didn’t take long before many bishops weighed in on this issue. Not one sided with Forbes. Every one of them who spoke out was unqualified in his denunciation of the movie. The bishops quickly killed the Forbes review, removing it from their website on December 10.

What follows is a selection of what Church leaders themselves had to say about the film.

Bishop Gregory Aymond, Diocese of Austin: “Catholic schools and religious education programs should not encourage children to read any of these books and they should not be held in their libraries. ‘The Golden Compass’ attempts to devalue religion, especially Christianity. Our children deserve better education than what is in these books and movie.” (in his Nov. 9 Friday commentary).

Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans: The archbishop circulated a memo to his parochial schools highlighting the problems with the books and movie. He also preached on the topic at St. Louis Cathedral and wrote a column for the diocesan newspaper warning that Pullman’s books “surreptitiously lead children to atheism and pose a special threat to Christianity.” (Clarion Herald, November 24)

Website of the Archdiocese of Chicago: Francis Cardinal George’s archdiocese carried a note on its homepage declaring, “Both the movie and the books contain aspects that are deeply troubling to those who profess the Catholic faith.” (December)

Andrew Walton, spokesman for Bishop Joseph Galante’s Diocese of Camden: “If a Catholic parent’s responsibility is to do their best to bring their children up in the faith, then they will not likely want to make this material available to their children…The public should know that the movie is based on the first book of a trilogy—a trilogy that gets particularly anti-Christian and particularly anti-Catholic.” (The Press of Atlantic City, December 7)

Monsignor Paul Showalter, vicar general of the Diocese of Peoria:“As shepherds of the faithful, it is our moral duty to inform parishioners regarding any forms of media that seriously attack our Catholic faith…The books portray the Catholic Church as evil and urges children to join fallen angels in a rebellion against God…Please caution your parents against this movie, and also regarding purchase of the books. We promised at our baptism to reject Satan and all of his evil. May we remain vigilant over the innocence of our children’s souls, and diligently protect them from desensitization to evil. Let’s continue to promote edifying films and books, and use this premier as a teaching moment for the truths of our Holy Church and the beauty of serving our Loving Redeemer.” (in a letter to pastors of his diocese, December 7)

La Crosse Bishop Jerome Listecki: “Good fruit does not come from a bad tree… It is clear that this movie is the first part of a trilogy that expresses hatred of Christianity and that portrays God, the Church and religion as oppressive and urges children to join fallen angels in a rebellion against God…It is good for all of us to be reminded that it is our duty, especially that of the lay faithful, to form and inform our culture.” (Catholic News Agency, December 12)

Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien: “The Archdiocese of Baltimore is grateful that the conference withdrew the review because it caused much confusion in the Catholic community. From all reports, the review failed to adequately warn parents about the movie’s widely recognized dark themes and anti-Catholic imagery.” (Baltimore Sun, December 12)

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput: “The aggressively anti-religious, anti-Christian undercurrent in ‘The Golden Compass’ is unmistakable and at times undisguised. The wicked Mrs. Coulter alludes approvingly to a fictional version of the Doctrine of Original Sin. When a warrior Ice Bear—one of the heroes of the story—breaks into the local Magisterium headquarters to take back the armor stolen from him, the exterior walls of the evil building are covered with Eastern Christian icons. And for Catholics in our own world, of course, ‘Magisterium’ refers to the teaching authority of the Church—hardly a literary coincidence. The idea that any Christian film critics could overlook or downplay these negative elements, as some have seemed to do, is simply baffling.” (Catholic News Agency, December 13)

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke: “I caution all Catholics regarding the atheistic and anti-Catholic nature of Pullman’s writings, upon which ‘The Golden Compass’ is based…A most defective review of the film was published by Catholic News Service. The review has by now been removed from the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The review was not based on a viewing of the film by bishops and was not endorsed by the bishops.” (St. Louis Review, December 14)

Editorial in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano: The Vatican called the film “the most anti-Christmas film possible” and wrote that “honest” viewers would find it “devoid of any particular emotion apart from a great chill.” (December 19)

Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered his latest remarks today on “The Golden Compass,” which opens on Friday:

“The screenwriter, Chris—‘American Pie’—Weitz, got himself into another sticky situation when he told Variety, ‘People are essentially misreading and misrepresenting a book that is full of good values.’ Commenting on a similar remark by Weitz, Hanna Rosin noted in The Atlantic Monthly that Weitz ‘hadn’t quite realized that the loudest part of Pullman’s fan base regarded that interpretation as a cop-out.’

“Pullman’s most conspicuous fan base is bridgetothestars.net, and the anger expressed there regarding the watering down of the anti-Catholic bigotry is palpable. The website’s review of the movie says, ‘The removal of the religious motivations makes the institution [Catholic Church] incredibly bland, a mere band of thugs with a domineering power for no apparent reason.’ They’re disappointed that the thugs aren’t priests. In the latest issue of the U.K. magazine The Big Issue (available on the fan website), it complains that the film is guilty of ‘toning down Pullman’s at times brutal attacks on the Catholic church.’

“Lou Lumenick in the New York Post was totally honest when he wrote that ‘Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has been publicizing the movie by claiming it’s an anti-religious tract, as much as it pains me to say so…[he] may actually have something of a point. You don’t need to be a Jesuit scholar to figure out that the film’s bad guys who keep complaining about heretics…are clearly meant to be reps of the Catholic Church.’ Similarly, Mark Morford of SFGate.com calls Pullman’s books ‘aggressively anti-Christian,’ but he is also chagrined that the movie denies him the red meat that Catholic bashers feed on.

“Best of all is American Atheists and the U.K.’s National Secular Society. They are furious about being undernourished. The leader of the latter was quite revealing when he said, ‘We knew from the beginning that the producers of this film intended to leave out the anti-religious references. We think this is a great shame.’ Exactly our point—it’s Pullman’s trilogy, not the film, that really sells atheism to kids.”

In what has become a disturbing pattern this year, over 40 videos depicting the desecration of the Eucharist were posted on the Internet site, YouTube. After a Catholic League protest, some restrictive measures were taken. Other steps are being weighed.

A young man, Dominique (who goes by “fsmdude”), made the videos and posted them on YouTube. This is a popular Internet site that is available to anyone who wants to post a video; it is also used to show clips  from TV shows, etc. What he did was to flush the Eucharist down the toilet, put it in a blender, feed it to an animal, drive a nail through it, etc.

On September 29, Bill Donohue wrote to YouTube CEO Chad Hurley in San Bruno, California, asking him to take down these offensive videos. When he didn’t hear back, he called Hurley on October 3. After no reply, a video of Donohue registering his protest was posted on YouTube on October 6; a news release on this subject was issued the next day.

After being pummeled by angry Catholics responding to our news release, as well as our YouTube video, an official called Donohue on October 15. The conversation was productive; she listened attentively while Donohue explained in some detail the basis of the league’s outrage. She responded by saying that a decision had been made to “age-gate” the videos, meaning that they are not available to the general public—age confirmation is required. Moreover, the viewer is informed that the material may not be appropriate.

The YouTube official stressed that this was a “preliminary step,” part of an ongoing review process. In other words, they are taking the complaints made by the Catholic League seriously, and may yet decide to implement stronger strictures.

In the course of the conversation, Donohue told the official that we do not object to making fun of Catholics, if it is done in good taste. What we object to are situations where it is obvious that the whole purpose of the communication is to deliberately insult Catholics. It is one thing for an avowed atheist to lecture Catholics about their beliefs, quite another for someone to intentionally desecrate the Eucharist. The latter represents malice, having nothing to do with discourse.

On October 16, we issued a press release on our partial victory; we also posted a video on YouTube wherein Donohue discussed the outcome. While we appreciate the seriousness that YouTube has shown to our concerns, we hope they conclude that these videos violate their guidelines on matters like these.

by Robert P. Lockwood

(3/2001)

When Joseph Lieberman was nominated as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in the summer of 2000, commentators feared an upsurge in anti-Semitism in reaction to the Jewish senator from Connecticut. Reporters scanned the Internet to look for anti-Semitic sites and searching for anti-Semitic hate speech. For the most part, they found, other than the usual suspects, no outburst of such sentiments. After the election, Jewish organizations praised the fact that the senator’s national campaign evidenced little or nothing of traditional anti-Semitic activities in the United States.

It goes without saying that this tolerance toward Mr. Lieberman’s Jewish faith is an admirable sign. Yet, it is questionable if the results of that initial Internet search would have been the same if either party had nominated a Catholic for president or vice president. It is also questionable whether a reporter in that event would have even considered combing the Internet for anti-Catholic rhetoric. More likely, that reporter would have been raising questions about the candidate’s Catholic faith, seeing that faith as a threat rather than an opportunity for tolerance. If the reporter did comb the Internet, it would have been to find material to buttress that alleged Catholic threat, rather than to warn about an underbelly of anti-Catholic prejudice. And the reporter would not have to look very far or “surf” very long. The Internet is inundated with anti-Catholic websites and anti-Catholic rhetoric.

We are all well aware that there are anti-Semitic sites on the Internet and sites that engage in other forms of racism. That has been well documented. Virtually ignored, however, is the abundance of anti-Catholicism that exists on the Internet. The existence of anti-Catholicism is simply not a story that generates much interest in the secular press. Yet, anti-Catholicism on the Internet is neither hidden nor difficult to find. Logon to any of the popular search engines for the Internet and type in “Roman Catholicism” or “Roman Catholic.” More than likely, you will find in one of your first 10 options for websites to explore an Internet site dedicated to anti-Catholicism. Using Alta Vista, for example, six of the first 20 websites that appear are specifically anti-Catholic; using “Go To,” seven of the first 20 cites listed were anti-Catholic. The pervasiveness of anti-Catholicism on the Internet reflects how deeply entrenched, obsessive and normative this prejudice is within contemporary culture. If the Internet is our most contemporary means of communication and information gathering, then anti-Catholicism is entering the new Millenium in a powerful fashion.

Anti-Catholicism has been carried along by new technologies since its inception. The birth of anti-Catholicism in Western Civilization was strongly tied to the invention of moveable type that created the printing press. Johann Gutenberg of Strasbourg is generally credited with the “invention” of printing from moveable metal type. Born in 1400, the first printed work he produced may have been a letter of indulgence issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1451. In 1456 he produced his first type-printed book, the famous “Gutenberg Bible” which is popularly considered the birth of modern publishing.¹ Within a matter of just two decades, printing presses spread throughout Europe and “a passion for books became one of the effervescent ingredients of the Reformation age.”²

By the time that Martin Luther posted his 95 “theses” on the door of the castle church of Wittenberg on Halloween 1517³ published works – meaning works meant for the public – were widely popular. In a sense, “news” had been created and the printed word would spread the Reformation throughout England and Europe by the use of books and popular tracts. Anti-Catholic literature became a part of the popular polemics of the time.

The post-Reformation period of the mid 16^th and 17^th Seventeenth centuries saw a wealth of anti-Catholic published material that would establish the foundation for anti-Catholic historical and cultural assumptions that are now moving to the Internet. John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563) created the English legend of “Bloody Mary” and became the most popular book next to the Bible in the Protestant world with its tales of Protestant suffering at the hands of the Catholic queen of England. (It would come to the New World as a favorite work among the Puritans.) In Germany in 1567, two Spanish Protestants under the pseudonym Reginaldus Gonzalvus Montanus published Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes. Though a basic propaganda tract, it would be reprinted throughout Europe and be considered the definitive source on the Inquisition for over 200 years. Most inquisition “histories” written thereafter, virtually until the late 19^th Century, would rely on Montanus, which became a primary source, though written by anything but an unbiased eye. It was from Montanus that the gruesome legends of demonic torture machines were invented. In 1581, the Apologie of William of Orange was published. Written by a French Huguenot, the Apologie utilized anti-Inquisition theatrics to validate the Dutch revolt against Spain and would be a source book for anti-Catholicism in the English-speaking world. The Apologie and Montanus created the myth of the Inquisition that still feeds the popular imagination.⁴

In the United States, anti-Catholic books and literature blossomed in the early 19^th Century. Rebecca Reed’s Six Months in a Convent sold 200,000 copies within a month of its publication in 1835. Reed claimed to have been a “captive” Sister in an Ursuline convent in just outside Boston, though the Mother Superior stated that Reed had been an employee of the convent who was dismissed. An angry mob burned the convent to the ground. In 1836 the most popular and famous book of anti-Catholic literature, the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk was published in New York. It became one of the most widely distributed “religious” book in the United States in the 19^th century.⁵ In the 20^thcentury, anti-Catholic newspapers were widespread, particularly in the United States. They popularized centuries of anti-Catholic literature and legends. A study by the Knights of Columbus in 1914 found over 60 national anti-Catholic weekly newspapers reaching millions of readers.⁶

The advent of movies and television as a source of information and entertainment in some ways toned-down the more overt elements of anti-Catholicism because of the widespread and public nature of the medium. The violence and sexuality of anti-Catholic literature (which gave it the name “Puritan Pornography”) did not translate well to both movies and television in their early days. The crude sexual descriptions of life in a convent as contained in the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monkwould be unacceptable to a mass audience that movies hoped to attract. Television, funded primarily by paid advertising, could hardly hope to offend nearly a quarter of its audience by anti-Catholic presentations.

However, in recent years, with the advent of cable television and a change in the culture of movie making, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of anti-Catholic imagery and rhetoric in popular media. The short-lived television program That’s Life on ABC and movies such as Dogmaand Quills evidenced a new willingness to engage in anti-Catholicism in entertainment aimed at a general audience.⁷

It should come as no surprise that the newest form of communication through the Internet should absorb this anti-Catholic heritage in an environment of increasing acceptance of anti-Catholicism in popular media. Every book title mentioned above is available in some form on the Internet. Hundreds of anti-Catholic titles and tracts, some many years old, others the creation of contemporary bigots, can be accessed. The Internet has also expanded on accessibility to this anti-Catholic heritage. No reputable publisher would be interested – except as a historical curiosity – in publishing Rebecca Reed’s book today.⁸ On the Internet, however, excerpts abound and the book can be easily viewed.

By its nature, the Internet is unregulated. In addition to its benefits, it is the dumping ground for the effluvia of Western culture. There is no editing for truth, objectivity, reliability or responsibility on the Internet. With its millions of websites, personal home pages and search portals, it is impossible to monitor or respond in any consistent fashion to its content. It would take a lifetime to even begin to visit every anti-Catholic website on the Internet.

The nature of the Internet also leads to a generally more coarse standards even with so-called “legitimate” Internet sites. Profanity, obscenity and nudity are commonplace while they remain less so in newspapers that are still viewed as “family reading.” Of course, that bar has been lowered in recent years in newspapers but it is a standard far higher than mainstream sites on the Internet. Salon.com, the Internet “magazine,” routinely publishes descriptive obscene material and nudity. In a Halloween, 2000 offering, Salon excerpts a story with a graphic sex scene involving a mysterious Catholic girl destined for the convent.⁹ MensJournal.com in July 2000 featured a piece about a British comedian who refers to Pope Pius XII with a vulgarity and plays a scene in which Jesus hosts the Last Breakfast and his disciples are served Rice Krispies (“These are my corpuscles”) and “orange juice doubles as plasma.”¹⁰

Anti-Catholicism persists today in two primary forms. Traditional anti-Catholicism – fundamentalist attacks on the Church as the Scriptural “whore of Babylon” – bubbles just below the surface in many areas of our society. This traditional anti-Catholicism created many of the myths of anti-Catholicism that linger within the culture: the church as solely interested in power; Catholicism as an “alien” religion in America; Catholicism as the enemy of separation of Church and State (as well as the public school system); the Catholic Church as oppressor. This traditional anti-Catholicism sees the Church as unchristian and derived from paganism. Catholic ritual is portrayed as medieval superstition masquerading as belief. This is a Church portrayed as the enemy of the Bible, as well as the enemy of freedom.

This traditional anti-Catholicism laid the foundation for the common secular anti-Catholicism of contemporary culture. Stripped of its theological foundation, this is the bigotry of the so-called enlightened. It portrays the Church as a medieval relic, the enemy of science and individual freedom. Born in the pseudo-scientism of the 19^th Century – with its mix of nationalism, racism and class warfare – it focused on the Church as the enemy of modern thought and progress. Developed during the eugenics, birth control and pro-abortion crusades of the 20^th century, it reached its contemporary culmination in various theories of sexual liberation. It is widespread in contemporary thought and sees anti-Catholicism not as a prejudice, but as a legitimate tool to be utilized to denigrate Church teaching in the public arena.

Both these forms of anti-Catholicism thrive on the Internet. In the confusing world of the Internet, however, these two expressions of anti-Catholicism mix together. The aptly-named morons.org is an obscenity-laced screed that accuses the Church of ongoing campaigns that “slaughtered millions.” The website is primarily based on an agenda of sexual liberation, though it’s focus is wider in attacking any traditional expression of values or beliefs. Yet, it provides “anti-Catholic links” which are essentially traditional old-Protestant attacks on the Catholic Church. Most of the links listed would be horrified to be associated with the gutter language and anti-Christian commentary on morons.org.

The number of such sophomoric sites spewing anti-Catholicism and generally anti-Christian views is legion. Run either as one-man shows on personal websites or organized more professionally for profit, these sites are generally witless attempts at satire. At The Onion,¹¹ a site for an allegedly humorous weekly newspaper published out of Wisconsin, pseudo news stories are run that lack either wit and satire. In the “religious archives” in a recent posting¹²headlines read: “Christ announces associate Christ”; “Aging Pope ‘Just Blessing Everything in Sight’ Say Concerned handlers’”; “Christ Converts to Islam.” The Onion website is filled with the expected scatological references and obscenities. One story – “Pope Calls for Greater Understanding Between Catholics, Hellbound” had the Pope say: “During the Holocaust, the Church stood silently by while six million fellow human beings, guilty of nothing but the murder of Christ Our Lord, descended to the depths of brimstone at the hands of Protestants. Our intervention in that affair could have averted a monumental tragedy, and, more important, might have converted the souls of untold multitudes of evil heretics to the Holy Word of God.”¹³

At The Catholic Page¹⁴ which is part of the “Anti-Religion Web Ring,” there is “The Top 10 Reasons Why t Sucks To Be A Catholic.” Authored by “Prince Wally,” among the reasons listed are “Communion – the wine sucks and the wafers are dry”; and “Being an Altar Boy – Read a newspaper…” The attempt at humor is as sophomoric as The Onion Page, but the author is straightforward that “my page is Anti-Catholic but I don’t have any problems with specific Catholics, it’s Catholicism in general that irritates me…. They have too many rules and too much hypocrisy for my taste. That makes them fun to bash.” At Ask Sister Rosseta¹⁵ the so-called “Lavender Nun” engages in double-entendres and sexual buffoonery. Particularly tasteless is a cartoonish rendition of Jesus on the cross that a person can “dress” in top hat and tails, rabbit slippers or other blasphemous outfits.

Pornography is ubiquitous on the Internet and sites that use Catholic imagery are commonplace. Models in various stages of undress garbed as clergy, bishops, priests, nuns and the pope engaged in sexual activity seems to feed in literally to the heritage of anti-Catholicism as Puritan pornography. The use of Catholic settings and sacred images on these sites only increases the nature of this peculiar fetish.

That fetish nature of these sites is even more enhanced by the use of female models dressed in Catholic school uniforms. This “virgin\harlot” fetish of Catholic schoolgirl imagery is common throughout the pornographic sites. Even more repulsive, however, are certain sites selling images of alleged Catholic girls. One such site, based in Canada, promises pornographic photos of “Catholic teens.” (There appears to be no pornographic “Baptist teens” or “Jewish teens” sites.) In a particularly repulsive fashion, this site advertises virtual pedophilia – boys and girls – while a special emphasis on the Catholicity of the young models\victims of this pornography.

In mind-numbing detail are a host of traditional anti-Catholic cites. From rural churches and personal websites, to sites for fundamentalist publishing houses, the traditional anti-Catholicism that was said to have died with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 thrives on the Internet. A major website is for the Jack Chick Company.¹⁶ Jack Chick was one of the first to realize in the post-Kennedy years that old-fashioned anti-Catholicism could still make a buck. He released a series of traditional anti-Catholic “comic books” in the 1970s, the most popular being Alberto. Alberto is the story of a man who claims to have been a Jesuit priest who worked under assignment from the Vatican. Murder and assassination – as well as the usual priestly licentiousness — are common tools for the Holy See, according to the Chick comic book. Chick followed this up with a few other comics, though none as successful as the originalAlberto. Chick, who publishes today out of California, also produces a range of small black-and-white tracts that viciously attack Catholic practices and beliefs. Perhaps the most tasteless among the tasteless is the “Death Cookie,” that portrays the Eucharist as a Satanic-inspired ritual rooted in pagan beliefs. Chick also has reproduced classic anti-Catholic works such as “Father” Chiniquy’s “Fifty Years in the Church of Rome.”¹⁷

Chick’s website is primarily a tool for selling his materials. As his advertising is routinely rejected as offensive in mainstream Christian periodicals, he has limited vehicles in which to reach an audience. He proclaims – as do most of the church-based anti-Catholic Internet sites – that his only goal is the conversion of Catholics to “bible-based” beliefs. But Chick does not bother to engage in honest dialogue, or honest argument, over Catholic beliefs. Rather, the Chick website, like so many others, peddles bombastic charges against the Church as knowingly teaching false doctrine and purposely sending souls to hell. This is ugly stuff.

At jesus-is-lord website¹⁸ vicious anti-Catholicism flourishes. Convents are referred to as “torture chambers” and 19^th-century anti-Catholic polemics are excerpted. “Ex-priest” William Hogan, who claims to have been ordained in Ireland, writes of an abortion and the murder of the young nun-mother by “lascivious, beastly priests of the Whore.” Alleged ex-priests like Hogan made a good living after the Civil War in the United States. They were usually tent preachers who came to town under the sponsorship of a local Protestant congregation. A few, like Chiniquy, might have actually been priests, usually with a bumpy past with Church authorities, rather than the sincere converts they claimed to be. It was a good way to make a living, as these “revivals” would draw good-sized crowds and the “free will offerings” where usually generous. Like pornographic websites today that use Catholic imagery (sacramentals, or women dressed as nuns or in Catholic school girl uniforms), the promise to the crowd was usually a touch of scandal and sex as they promised to reveal what goes on in the confessional or behind the doors of convents. Even as late as the first quarter of the 20^thCentury, revivals by “ex-priests” were common in the Midwest and the South.¹⁹

Jesus-is-lord reproduces “The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional” by Chiniquy as well as “Thirty Years in Hell” by ex-priest Bernard Fresenberg (1904 date of publication) “who today stands at the Vatican’s door, with the torch of Protestant wisdom, and denounces Popery with a tongue livid with the power of a living God.” Jesus-is-lord provides the “Anti-Christ Slideshow” that stars “the popes of Rome and the great whore of revelation XVII the Roman Catholic Religion.” The slideshow promises “blasphemy, torture, licentiousness, damnation, whoredom” and “the power of the devil.” Also included on the website is a Washington Post wire story on the debunked Kansas City Star story of an alleged epidemic of AIDS in the priesthood proving, according to the website, that the Catholic priesthood is the “repository of perverts.” TheKansas City Star should be happy that someone has treated their stories seriously. The counter for hits on Jesus-is-lord for about a two-year period shows that 1,172,583 visitors have logged onto the website.²⁰

As most parents understand, virtually any child can access pornographic images with two or three clicks of a mouse on the Internet. It is just as simple to access anti-Catholic pages. Internet Websites such as Jack Chick’s rarely have a positive presentation of their own faith. Primarily, these sites castigate other believers, particularly Catholics. At Harbor Lighthouse²¹produced by the Ankerberg Theological Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, a wealth of anti-Catholic material is readily available. In a posted article entitled “The Spiritual Battle for Truth” – which can be downloaded for $2 – Michael Grendon, who claims to be a former Catholic, writes: “Satan has been profoundly successful in deceiving multitudes in the name of Christ because his servants appear as ministers of righteousness. They wear high priestly garments and religious collars and carry boastful titles such as ‘most reverend,’ ‘right reverend,’ ‘his excellency’ and ‘Holy Father.’”²²

Catholicism is not the enemy alone, though anti-Catholic articles appear to be the highest in number at Harbor Lighthouse. Catholicism is attacked along with Jehovah Witnesses, the Islamic faith, Mormonism, New Age cults and rock music. Throughout the Harbor Lighthouse site articles appear in Spanish, particularly those attacking Marian devotion. As in the above quote, this is not, for the most part, an attempt to theologically engage Catholicism, a perfectly legitimate and sadly necessary discussion in a divided Christianity. This is simply old-time anti-Catholic nativism that has a primary form of argument that refers to Catholicism as a conscious, knowing Satanic plot to undermine Scripture. Such leaves little room for healthy and honest exchanges.

Login to Excite search engine for Roman Catholicism and one quickly will encounter the website for Cutting Edge Ministry.²³ With advertising sponsors such as Hickory Farms, Cutting Edge claims to “love you all” and wants Catholics to simply know the truth. Cutting Edge then proceeds to offer a series of articles that, among other things, claims that the Mass is witchcraft, the Holy Father is the Antichrist, the crucifix in Catholic churches is a Satanic symbol, and that “Roman Catholic teachings are blatant frauds upon the faithful people.”

At Alpha and Omega Ministries²⁴ one can read detailed explanations on how Pope Honorius I (625-638) in a letter to the patriarch of Constantinople on the nature of Christ may have been in error, thereby disputing the teaching of papal infallibility in matters of doctrinal definition.²⁵Almost the entire website is dedicated to attacking Catholic beliefs with endlessly tiresome apologetics. While self-promotion and sales of materials seem to be a major motivation, the conscious loathing of all things Catholic seems more psychologically compulsive than faith-based.

A particularly vicious traditionalist site is The Reformation Online²⁶ which makes the Alpha and Omega ministry seem tame in comparison. This page spends most of its space dwelling on 19^th Century anti-Catholic invective concerning Pope Pius IX and the fall of the Papal States. Vatican and Jesuit “one world” plots dominate the conversation. In a charge that is unique to all the traditional anti-Catholic Internet sites, Reformation Online claims that the Great Famine in Ireland was a plot concocted by Pope Pius IX. The only redeeming grace of the page is the audio of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” and other traditional tunes. Another anti-Catholic Internet site, Balaam’s Ass²⁷ has great piano and harpsichord music while informing the reader about the Catholic Whore of Babylon, the Church’s lustful art and the Masonic domination of the Holy See.

Lamb and Lion Ministries²⁸ states that is was founded in 1980 as a “non-denominational, independent ministry.” Run by a board of 24 trustees “from a variety of Christian fellowships,” it is based in McKinney, Texas. Though its mission statement claims that the ministry “does not seek to convert people to any Church”²⁹ it makes clear its purpose toward Catholics. As Dr. David Reagan writes on the website under “Religious issues”: “(Catholics) should do exactly what any believer should do who is caught up in an apostate religious organization, whether it be a Catholic parish or a Protestant church. They should leave!”

While Lamb and Lion Ministries eschew talk of money and finances by stating that “we do not charge fees for any of our services,” the website seems dedicated to peddling tapes, videos, books and tracts from Dr. Regan. Dr. Reagan writes on the “Whore of Babylon” that, “I believe that the harlot church of revelation 17 will most likely be an amalgamation of the world’s pagan religions, including apostate Protestants, under the leadership of the Catholic Church.” That might be quite a concession, as most of these anti-Catholic websites consider the Catholic Church alone to represent the Whore of Babylon. He writes on the website that the “apostasies of the Catholic Church are great in number and profound in their implications for the Christian faith…(Catholicism) is the ancient Babylonian mystery religion parading in new clothes, worshipping Mary as the ‘Queen of Heaven.’”³⁰

White Horse Publications³¹ is the website for a “Christian publishing company devoted to exposing the errors and trappings of a sacramental system of salvation.” Based in Huntsville, AL, White Horse believes that “the most prominent manifestation of that error is Roman Catholicism, or Romanism.” They publish seven books, all of which attack various aspects of Catholicism, including “Graven Bread,” a book that calls the Eucharist “a centuries-old practice that amounts to nothing less than idolatry.”³² At Bible Believers³³ an alleged ex-nun gives a testimony right out of 19^th Century anti-Catholic tracts. There are the usual sexually-deviant priests, vicious penances and Roman “blasphemies.”

An army of individual pastors and their local churches have put up sites dedicated to tradition anti-Catholicism. One of the most loathsome is from Pastor Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps has made a name for himself for decidedly homophobic hate speech. Its Internet address is godhatesfags.org. Phelps refers to the Catholic Church as a “fag” church and claims that a third of Catholic priests are actively homosexual, seducing young boys and women. (The logic is his, not mine.) He reproduces an alleged “Diary of Another Fag Catholic Priest” and asserts that, “fag priests and dyke nuns is the order of the day for Kansas Catholics. They deserve the sick, perverted leadership that now dooms and damns them.”

At Just for Catholics website³⁴ Catholics are advised to “reckon yourself an unworthy sinner and a rebel against the sovereign God. Plead guilty before the Judge of the earth, admit that you deserve the everlasting fire of hell…Do not rely on a church, Mary, the saints, a human priest, the sacrifice of the Mass, or an imaginary Purgatory.” Just for Catholics is operated by a minister who claims to have been raised a Catholic but found the truth at age 14.

There are numerous websites by alleged ex-Catholics that engage in evangelization aimed specifically at Catholics. Most use anti-Catholicism as their primary means of attack. Very few rely on a positive presentation of a faith to which they hope to convert Catholics. For the most part, they simply – very simply – attack Catholic beliefs, present a distorted view of Catholic practices, and re-write history from an anti-Catholic perspective. At Pro-Gospel³⁵ they “untangle Roman Catholics from the dogmatic jungle in which they are held captive.” So-called “born again” Catholics – those who have left the Church – are told to contact their Catholic friends to “rescue those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They – Catholics – have been in submission to the controlling, irrefutable dogmas of the Catholic clergy.” The site has registered 898,128 hits.³⁶

Reaching Catholics for Christ³⁷ comes from Bend, Oregon and has a series of articles attacking Catholicism as an “apostate” Church. Good News for Catholics³⁸ is dedicated to the proposition that the “Roman Catholic Church has led its people astray.” The organization itself began in 1981 by a very public distribution of anti-Catholic booklets at the consecration of Bishop Pierre DuMaine at San Jose, CA. On the website, they describe the Catholic Church as an “unbiblical form of Christianity which has deceived the Catholic people. It cannot be reformed or revived.” At Former Catholics for Christ³⁹ Catholics are told that the Church is “proven to be a practice of white witchcraft.”

Mission to Catholics International⁴⁰ is a long-time anti-Catholic group founded by Bart Brewer, a former priest. Brewer has made a living on anti-Catholicism. Like the tent preachers from the late 19^th and early 20^th Century, Brewer does the traveling circuit with a group of alleged ex-priests. Though supposedly aimed at rescuing Catholics from their false faith, the audience he serves is primarily fundamentalists who want to hear that “old-time religion” of anti-Catholicism.

Brewer’s website – which peddlers Brewer tracts and books – states that the “authority claimed by the Catholic Church is blasphemous and unchristian.” In another article it is stated that “the autocratic domineering of the Catholic Church over its members dishonors Christ and the Bible.” With tangled rhetoric, the author proclaims: “But not only the Catholic who is domineered and ruled and bossed suffers. The Catholic must eat fish on Fridays and during Lent (or macaroni and cheese).”

Brewer claims that there “were no Roman Catholics until Christianity was merged with paganism into a state religion around 315 AD. The true Christians obeyed God’s word, they never joined in the pagan corruption…There are more than 100,000 masses said all over the world every day. Jesus suffers the terrible agony of Calvary at least 1000,000 times every 24 hours instead of ‘once and for all’ as Scripture teaches.” He concludes that the “dogma of transubstantiation is the most wicked and Satanic.”

The common thread running through these “conversion” sites is the viciousness of the attacks on Catholic beliefs and practices. These sites are not content to legitimately argue theology or make a positive presentation of their own faith. Instead, they create an image of Catholic beliefs as essentially pagan. They constantly present the Catholic priesthood as corrupted by sexual deviancy and the Church as a conscious effort to deceive people in order to oppress them. Old historical canards are resurrected, long-debunked anti-Catholic tracts reproduced. Reading this material, one is left not with a positive impression of faith, but rather with a picture of an evil, satanic Catholic Church.

Anti-Catholicism also finds its way into the Internet’s crazy world of militia groups and radical right-wing zealots. Though much time is spent on these pages with anti-Semitism and racism, Catholicism shares in their vicious attacks. One particularly odious page is the website of Free American newsmagazine⁴¹ Run by Clayton Douglas out of New Mexico, that features material on Jesuit “control” of the CIA and the old Soviet KGB and attributes to the Jesuits all kinds of political mayhem.

There are also websites from traditionalist Catholic groups, and disenchanted Catholic organizations from the left, that often borrow the language and approach of traditional anti-Catholic sites. Some of these sites represent followers of the late Archbishop Lefebvre and are formally schismatic. Their primary aim is to attack the Church today as being heretical and the Mass as celebrated contrary to traditional Catholic teaching. Their attacks on the Church and its members are vehement, and often raise accusations of “Masonic conspiracies” or satanic infiltration, not unlike sites such as jesus-is-lord noted above. From the ex-Catholic left, the attacks are mostly from a secular perspective, and usually driven by pro-abortion or a gay agenda. Sites for “recovering Catholics” simply assume that any thinking person will have left the Church, and offer advice often centered on a supposed sexual liberation.

The amount of anti-Catholic sites on the Internet is overwhelming and shocks any serious researcher. In a paper presented to The Fifth Biennial Conference on Christianity and the Holocaust in October 1998, Mark Weitzman of The Simon Wiesenthal Center outlined anti-Semitism and Anti-Catholicism on the Internet.⁴² He explained that any search for extremism on the Internet will turn out the usual victims. He noted, however, that “one group that was conspicuously present in the list of traditional American targets is conspicuously absent when we think of targets. I am referring, of course, to Catholics, particularly Catholics in the U.S.”

Weitzman acknowledges the long history of anti-Catholicism in America and he states that “the Internet has not been investigated or analyzed by researchers for its anti-Catholic propaganda. It would almost seem that no one expects to find vestiges of classical bigotry in this new medium. My own research demonstrates quite a different story. Along with other forms of extremism…one can find anti-Catholicism to be visible as well.”

Weitzman reviews a number of these anti-Catholic websites, many of which have already been noted here. He found in his research that the “papacy is a common target of many of these sites. The pope, according to one, ‘purposely misinterprets scripture,’ according to another he is a hypocrite, who ‘parades around the world as the champion of freedom and truth for everyone, that is everyone except for those in his Romish system.’ Another asks the question, ‘has the Pope apologized for his persecutions?’ and answers ‘Don’t be deceived by the clever manipulations of false teachers. The Pope has not repented, and the Roman Catholic Church has not substantially changed’ for if he had, ‘a repentant Pope would cast aside his blasphemous title’ and ‘would acknowledge that the papacy, through its blasphemous claims and the sacramental gospel, has led multitudes to eternal hell.’”

Weitzman quotes from a number of sites that identify the pope with the Antichrist then concludes that “it should come as no surprise that we can find sites that link Catholicism with Satanism…Many other categories of anti-Catholic extremism can be found, such as anti-Jesuit and anti-Marian.” Weitzman is especially concerned with “the amalgamation of antisemitism and anti-Catholicism.” He notes the homepage of Michael Hoffman’s Campaign for Radical Truth in History.⁴³ Describing Hoffman’s site as “one of the most virulently antisemitic on the Internet,” Weitzman cites an article, “John Paul II: Judas Iscariot of our Time.” “The Pope is accused of ‘preaching a false gospel,’ of ‘negating and betraying…sacred scripture.’ Of ‘fraud,’ Why is the pontiff thus excorciated? Because he is in ‘obeisance to the Talmudic Pharisees of today…the direct spiritual heirs of the assassins of Jesus Christ.’ He ‘is completely smitten with…the Jewish world leadership. He caters to and pimps for them.’ More specifically, Hoffman is reacting to the Vatican statement of November 2, 1997, that ‘Christians who yield to anti-Judaism offend God and the Church itself.’ According to Hoffman, by ‘discarding the traditional Christian (view), John Paul II has virtually admitted, by his actions, that the Pharisees were right to crucify Christ.’”

The question is always asked: why is anti-Catholicism so persistent? Why are we finding it so prevalent today on the Internet? The primary reason is that anti-Catholicism is a part of our cultural inheritance. William Bradford’s famous “Of the Plymouth Plantation” – the history of the Plymouth Colony from 1620-1647 by its governor – is considered a seminal document of American thought and culture, giving tremendous insight into the ideas that helped to create America. It describes the voyage of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, and the trials of the establishment of the colony. Yet, in its very first sentence, it refers to “the gross darkness of popery which had covered and overspread the Christian world.”⁴⁴ this anti-Catholic mentality has never disappeared from American thinking and it remains an intransigent part of American thought. Most of all, however, it is so persistent because it is not merely the perspective of the uneducated or the ill informed. Anti-Catholicism remains an effective tool of America’s elite. In that sense, it is allowed to persist because it remains acceptable. The anti-Catholic bigotry of a Jack Chick and a Michael Hoffman are easier to condemn.

However, anti-Catholicism is not confined solely to those fringes on the Internet. There are any number of strictly secular websites with particular secular agendas that routinely engage in anti-Catholic rhetoric. Public activist organizations such as the National Abortion Rights Action League or the National Education Association routinely employ anti-Catholicism in their public positions. The website for the gay newspaper The Advocate⁴⁵ reproduced a recent commentary from the newspaper by Michael Signorille. Called “benevolent hatemongers,”⁴⁶ the author attacked Pope John Paul II for his comments on the gay pride march in Rome during the Jubilee Year. While decrying alleged “hate speech,” Signorille engages in rhetoric not dissimilar to Hoffman, saying that Pope John Paul II “revealed before the whole world that he is a hateful man…(his hatred is) no different from Stalin’s or even Hitler’s…But the fact that the pope is a virulent hatemonger is something that religious and political leaders don’t dare admit – though they may privately agree – lest they be labeled attackers of the all-powerful Catholic Church.”⁴⁷ This is not taking issue. This is not disagreement. This is simply anti-Catholic hate speech.

SUMMARY POINTS

There are anti-Semitic sites on the Internet and sites that engage in other forms of racism. That has been well documented. Virtually ignored, however, is the abundance of anti-Catholicism that exists on the Internet.

The pervasiveness of anti-Catholicism on the Internet reflects how deeply entrenched, obsessive and normative this prejudice is within contemporary culture. If the Internet is our most contemporary means of communication and information gathering, then anti-Catholicism is entering the new Millenium in a powerful fashion.

The post-Reformation period of the mid 16^th and 17^th Seventeenth centuries saw a wealth of anti-Catholic published material that would establish the foundation for anti-Catholic historical and cultural assumptions that are now moving to the Internet.

In recent years, with the advent of cable television and a change in the culture of movie making, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of anti-Catholic imagery and rhetoric in popular media. The short-lived television program That’s Life on ABC and movies such as Dogma and Quills evidenced a new willingness to engage in anti-Catholicism in entertainment aimed at a general audience.

By its nature, the Internet is unregulated. It is the dumping ground for the effluvia of Western culture. There is no editing for truth, objectivity, reliability or responsibility on the Internet. With its millions of websites, personal home pages and search portals, it is impossible to monitor or respond in any consistent fashion to its content.

Traditional anti-Catholicism – fundamentalist attacks on the Church as the scriptural “whore of Babylon” – bubbles just below the surface in many areas of our society. This traditional anti-Catholicism created many of the myths of anti-Catholicism that linger within the culture: the Church as solely interested in power; Catholicism as an “alien” religion in America; Catholicism as the enemy of separation of Church and State (as well as the public school system); the Catholic Church as oppressor.

The nature of the Internet leads to a generally more coarse standard even with so-called mainstream Internet sites. Profanity, obscenity and nudity are commonplace while they remain less so in newspapers that are still viewed as “family reading.” Of course, that bar has been lowered in recent years in newspapers but it is a standard far higher than “legitimate” sites on the Internet.

Traditional anti-Catholicism laid the foundation for the common secular anti-Catholicism of contemporary culture. Stripped of its theological foundation, it portrays the Church as a medieval relic, the enemy of science and individual freedom. Born in the pseudo-scientism of the 19^th Century – with its mix of nationalism, racism and class warfare – it focused on the Church as the enemy of modern thought and progress. Developed during the eugenics, birth control and pro-abortion crusades of the 20^th century, it reached its contemporary culmination in various theories of sexual liberation. It is widespread in contemporary thought and sees anti-Catholicism not as a prejudice, but as a tool to be utilized to denigrate Church teaching in the public arena.

The number of sophomoric sites spewing anti-Catholicism and generally anti-Christian views is legion. Run either as one-man shows on personal websites or organized more professionally for profit, these sites are generally witless attempts at satire.

In mind-numbing detail are a host of traditional anti-Catholic cites. From rural churches and personal websites, to sites for fundamentalist publishing houses, the traditional anti-Catholicism that was said to have died with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 thrives on the Internet. A major website is for the Jack Chick Company. Chick does not bother to engage in honest dialogue, or honest argument, over Catholic beliefs. The Chick website, like so many others, peddles bombastic charges against the Church as knowingly teaching false doctrine and purposely sending souls to hell.

Much of the anti-Catholicism on the traditionalist Internet sites is not, for the most part, an attempt to theologically engage Catholicism, a perfectly legitimate and sadly necessary discussion in a divided Christianity. This is simply old-time anti-Catholic nativism that has a primary form of argument that refers to Catholicism as a conscious, knowing Satanic plot to undermine Scripture. Such leaves little room for healthy and honest exchanges.

An army of individual pastors and their local churches have put up sites dedicated to tradition anti-Catholicism. One of the most loathsome is from Pastor Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps has made a name for himself for decidedly homophobic hate speech. Its Internet address is godhatesfags.org. Phelps refers to the Catholic Church as a “fag” church and claims that a third of Catholic priests are actively homosexual, seducing young boys and women.

There are numerous websites by alleged ex-Catholics that engage in evangelization aimed specifically at Catholics. Most use anti-Catholicism as their primary means of attack. Very few rely on a positive presentation of a faith to which they hope to convert Catholics. For the most part, they simply – very simply – attack Catholic beliefs, present a distorted view of Catholic practices, and re-write history from an anti-Catholic perspective.

The common thread running through these “conversion” sites is the viciousness of the attacks on Catholic beliefs and practices. These sites present an image of Catholic beliefs as essentially pagan. They constantly portray the Catholic priesthood as corrupted by sexual deviancy and the Church as a conscious effort to deceive people in order to oppress them.

Anti-Catholicism also finds its way into the Internet’s crazy world of militia groups and radical right-wing zealots. Though much time is spent on these pages with anti-Semitism and racism, Catholicism shares in their vicious attacks.

There are websites from traditionalist Catholic groups that often borrow the language and approach of traditional anti-Catholic sites. Some of these sites represent followers of the late Archbishop Lefebvre and are formally schismatic. Their primary aim is to attack the Church today as being heretical and the Mass as celebrated contrary to traditional Catholic teaching. Their attacks on the Church and its members are vehement, and often raise accusations of “Masonic conspiracies” or satanic infiltration.

From the ex-Catholic left, the attacks on the Internet are mostly from a secular perspective, and usually driven by pro-abortion or a gay agenda. Sites for “recovering Catholics” simply assume that any thinking person will have left the Church, and offer advice often centered on a supposed sexual liberation.

Anti-Catholicism remains an effective tool of America’s elite. In that sense, it is allowed to persist because it remains acceptable. The anti-Catholic bigotry of a Jack Chick is easy to condemn. But anti-Catholicism is not confined solely to those fringes on the Internet. There are any number of strictly secular websites with particular secular agendas that routinely engage in anti-Catholic rhetoric.

FOOTNOTES

¹ See The Reformation, Will Durant (Simon & Schuster, 1957, 1985) pp. 156-158

² ibid. p. 159

³ On the following All Saints Day, November 1, the collection of relics of the Elector of Wittenberg would be displayed and Luther believed he could attract a wide immediate audience for his views.

⁴ See Inquisition, by Edward Peters (University of California Press, 1987) pp. 144-154

⁵ The Awful Disclosures was second in sales only to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” prior to the Civil War.

⁶ For an overview of anti-Catholic publishing in the United States see Anti-Catholicism in American Culture, ed. Robert P. Lockwood (Our Sunday Visitor, 2000) pp. 30-45)

⁷ See The Annual Report of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 1998 and 1999 for descriptions of Dogma and That’s Life, and additional examples.

⁸ Reed’s book is available through Ayer Publications which produces a number of historical studies on anti-Catholicism, such as Ray Allen Billington’s original study of the origins of anti-Catholic Nativism in the early 19^th Century.

⁹ The Virgin Spring, by Lorelei Shannon

¹⁰ July 17, 2000 MensJournal, portrait of British comedian Eddie Izzard

¹¹ theonion.com

¹² The Onion, November 15, 2000

¹³ ibid.

¹⁴ angelfire.com/mn/psychospeak/catholic.html

¹⁵ rossetta.com

¹⁶ chick.com

¹⁷ Chiniquy was a renegade priest who left after arguing with his bishop over parish assignments. He wrote “Fifty Years in the Church of Rome” after the Civil War. It was the source of the infamous – and fabricated – prophecy of Abraham Lincoln of a “dark cloud” coming over America from Rome. Chiniquy was still on the anti-Catholic preaching circuit in the early 19^th century under the auspices of the American Protective Association (APA), a short-lived anti-Catholic populist movement.

¹⁸ jesus-is-lord.com

¹⁹ A biography of Bishop John F. Noll, bishop of the Fort Wayne, IN diocese and founder of Our Sunday Visitor (With Ink and Crosier, Our Sunday Visitor 1952), by Richard Ginder contains a series of stories of the young Father Noll dealing with “ex-priests” in rural Indiana.

²⁰ jesus-is-lord homepage counter as of November 17, 2000 over a two-year period

²¹ harborlighthouse.org

²² Ibid.

²³ cuttingedge.org

²⁴ aomin.org

²⁵ Pope Honorius is raised in numerous anti-Catholic websites of an apologetic nature. His pontificate was dominated by the Monophysite heresy over the dual nature of Christ. Traditional Catholic teaching is that Christ has a dual nature, human and divine. The Monophysite heresy claimed His nature was solely divine. In a letter to Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople Honorius referred to Christ’s nature as indivisible and as having “one will.” His views were later condemned. This was hardly a papal pronouncement under the conditions required for infallible papal statements, but it is held to be such by those attacking the doctrine.

²⁶ reformation.org

²⁷ balaamsass.org

²⁸ lamblion.com

²⁹ ibid. Mission Statement

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ whpub.com

³² ibid. Publications

³³ biblebelievers.com/falsedoctrine.html

³⁴ stas.net/goodnews

³⁵ pro-gospel.org

³⁶ ibid. Homepage counter as of November 17, 2000

³⁷ excatholicsforchrist.org

³⁸ gnfc.org

³⁹ geocities.com/heartland/plains2594/

⁴⁰ sd.znet.com/-bart

⁴¹ freeamerican.com

⁴² wiesenthal.com/watch/inveetedimage.html

⁴³ hoffman-info.com/christian1/html

⁴⁴ Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647, by William Bradford (Alfred A. Knopf, April 2000. Twelfth edition)

⁴⁵ advocate.com

⁴⁶ The Advocate, September 12, 2000

⁴⁷ Signorille based his comments on papal remarks on July 9, 2000. The full text of the statement by Pope John Paul II that led Signorille to engage in this viscous hate speech, comparing the pope to Hitler and Stalin, was: “I feel obliged now to mention the well-known demonstrations held in Rome in the past few days. In the name of the Church of Rome I can only express my deep sadness at the affront of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and the offence to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics throughout the world. The Church cannot be silent about the truth, because she would fail in her fidelity to God the Creator and would not help to distinguish good from evil. In this regard, I wish merely to read what is said in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which, after noting that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law, then states: ‘The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”

BOOKS

June 3
Lewis Black released his book, Me of Little Faith. In his book, Black attacks the Church, Orthodox Jews and Mormons, but gives Islam a pass. Black’s chapter on Islam, titled “Islam. All I’m Saying Is, I Got Nothing to Say,” is the shortest chapter in the book (only three paragraphs). The chapter begins with the following: “I have nothing to say. Nothing. And let’s leave it that way.” But Black had no problem with saying that the “history of the Catholic Church is littered with more bull****” than he could put up with. He also stated that the Church has a “history of being greedy and violent and underhanded and a home for sexual predators.”

We said it was sickening that Black received praise for “pushing the envelope” and being countercultural. In a news release we told the media: “There is nothing courageous about pushing buttons that everyone knows are safe.”

INTERNET

January 11
The blogsite, Wonkette, slammed both the Catholic League and the Eucharist. A posting, “Thin-Skinned Catholics Offended by ‘Deep Fried Christ,’” referred to the league’s reaction to the anti-Mike Huckabee skit that trashed the Eucharist. The site’s editor posted the following:

“Anyway, this is apparently a big deal because there are very serious crazy people who don’t want you to say the wrong thing about how you put a cracker in your mouth and it turns into a little little Jesus, and if that gets stuck in your throat just drink his blood because, hey, vampires!” (Original italics)

April 18
On her blog, columnist Michelle Malkin slammed the Catholic Church’s immigration policies in a post on her website. In a blog entry she wrote: “Open borders benefit Catholic churches looking to fill their pews and collection baskets. The Vatican and American bishops, led by radical L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony, have long promoted anarchy and lawlessness.”

April 21
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, did more than lecture Pope Benedict XVI after his successful visit to the U.S. in April—she blamed him for making the sexual abuse scandal worse. Her evidence? None. But she did make the case that homosexuality has absolutely nothing to do with the scandal. However, she did not explain why the majority of the victims were post pubescent males. Instead, she blamed “homophobia” for creating the scandal. The entire tone of her column was condescending and smacked of a deep-seated bias.

June 23
Sally Quinn, a Washington Post journalist and founder of the blog On Faith, posted why she decided to take Communion at the funeral Mass for Tim Russert. Quinn, who was an atheist most of her life, posted the following:

“Last Wednesday I was determined to take it [the Eucharist] for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I’m so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it.”

Quinn also admitted the following: “I had only taken communion once in my life at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started On Faith and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

We noted that Quinn’s statement reeked of narcissism and showed a profound disrespect for Catholics and the beliefs they hold dear. We also stated that if she really wanted to honor Tim Russert, she could have done so without trampling on Catholic sensibilities.

June 29
The website NewsBlaze ran an article by Robert Paul Reyes called, “The Pope Should Ditch His Red Designer Loafers.” In the article, Reyes comments that Pope Benedict XVI should act more like Jesus and not dress “like a clown.” Reyes also says that the pope’s wearing of red designer shoes is enough to “make a drag queen blush.”

September 29 – October 18
Over 40 videos depicting the desecration of the Eucharist were posted on the website YouTube by a young man, Dominique (who’s username is fsmdude). What he did was to flush the Eucharist down the toilet, put it in a blender, feed it to an animal, drive a nail through it, etc.

On September 29, Bill Donohue wrote to YouTube CEO Chad Hurley asking him to remove the offensive videos. When Hurley didn’t respond, Donohue called him. After no reply, a video of Donohue registering his protest was posted on YouTube on October 6; a news release on this subject was issued the next day.

After being pummeled by angry Catholics responding to our news release and video, a YouTube official called Donohue on October 15. She informed Donohue that a decision had been made to “age-gate” the videos, meaning that they were not available to the general public—age confirmation was required. Moreover, the viewer would be informed that the video’s material might not be appropriate.

The official stressed that this was a “preliminary step,” part of an ongoing review process. In other words, YouTube took our complaints seriously. On October 16, we issued a press release and we also posted a video on YouTube wherein Donohue discussed the outcome. A few days after YouTube “age-gated” the videos, fsmdude removed his desecrations from the website.

October 26
A copycat video was placed on YouTube by “Discipline01” pledging to continue the work of “fsmdude.” He vowed to continue the “DESECRATION OF THE EUCHARIST AND THE BIBLE…AND ALL THINGS HOLY…IN HONOR OF FSMDUDE!”

MAGAZINES

January
In Columbus Monthly, a section called “A Year of Fools and Foibles” highlighted the magazine’s 2007 Annual Awards. In that section, a quip was made about Columbus (OH) Bishop Frederick Campbell’s mild heart attack. The magazine implied that he suffered his heart attack because “he met a straight priest.”

February
An issue of Colorado Avid Golfer featured an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with a picture of golfer Lauren Ochoa’s face in place of the Virgin Mary’s. The image appeared with an article that celebrated the success of the golfer. The editor of the magazine followed with an apology to anyone that was offended by the image stating that the magazine “did not intend to show disrespect to anyone.”

April 12
In a Newsweek article “Why This Pope Doesn’t Connect,” Lisa Miller stated that the pope cannot bridge the gap between “what the Church teaches and what the American laity practices.” In her article, Miller said:

“Benedict is not the man for this job. His defenders know this, or his advance team of bishops, archbishops and theologians wouldn’t have been out there spinning in the weeks before the papal visit, telling anyone who would listen how very, very kind and gentle the Holy Father really is. Feeling is not Benedict’s strong suit. It’s not just his unfortunate visage that puts people off, or his predilection for the more outré aspects of papal fashion (antique chapeaux and ermine-trimmed capes), or his decades employed as John Paul’s theological enforcer. It’s that Benedict is a Christian believer first and an intellectual second, a man who shows little comfort on the global stage with the messiness of human life and politics.”

Of course, Miller’s article looked foolish after the successful papal visit. The Holy Father showed his compassionate side on many occasions, including his meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse.

June 11
The online magazine Slate ran a piece by William Saletan on virginal restoration. Saletan’s piece followed articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times about Muslim women in France who have elected to have their hymens surgically reattached. On the homepage of Slate’s website, Saletan’s column was flagged by a picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; below the image was the inscription, “A Defense of Virginity Restoration Surgery.” We asked why Slate could not find any suitable Muslim images to draw attention to Saletan’s article; we called them gutless for taking a cheap shot at Catholicism.

December
The Mexican edition of Playboy ran a cover showing a nude woman depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary. After a protest led by the Catholic League, the publisher apologized.

When asked for a comment by the media entertainment outlet, TMZ, Bill Donohue said: “Playboy’s juxtaposition of the sacred with the profane is a game that many have played, but to exploit Catholicism and insult Latinos in the same breath is novel. The December cover of its Mexican edition demonstrates once again that when it comes to good taste, Playboy remains quintessentially virginal.”

To make matters worse, the apology was insincere. “The image is not and never was intended to portray the Virgin of Guadalupe or any other religious figure,” said publisher Raul Sayrols. “The intent was to reflect a Renaissance-like mood on the cover.”
When Rick Sanchez of CNN asked Donohue whether he accepted the apology, he replied, “They are liars. I mean everybody knows it has nothing to do with the Renaissance.” Sanchez then asked whether it would have made a difference had they not lied. “No,” Donohue said, “I wouldn’t be okay with it. But at least I wouldn’t call them dishonest.”

MOVIES

May 9
The film “Bloodline,” which claims Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, had children and was  entombed in France, opened in New York. Bruce Burgess, who previously made documentaries exploring the Bermuda Triangle and searching for Bigfoot, produced “Bloodline.”

October 5
Bill Maher’s movie, “Religulous,” opened and it was clearly more absurd than it was hateful. Because of Maher’s history of smearing Catholicism, we expected more of the same in the film, but in fairness this did not happen.

Apparently the public didn’t care too much for the movie either. The film came in 10th after its first weekend out, and dropped to 13th the next weekend.

October 26
Palo Alto, CA – The documentary “Immaculate Confession” played at the United Nations Association Film Festival held at Stanford University; it focuses on people who left the religious life “for love.” The film is directed by Simone Grudzen and produced by her sister Corita; they are daughters of a former nun and priest.

The film baited Catholics by altering a photo used in the film’s poster to make it look like a priest and a nun were engaged in a sensual embrace; in the original picture the man and woman were dressed in lay clothes.

NEWSPAPERS

January 8
Bill Donohue wrote to the managing editor of the Times Herald Record (NY), about the omission of a story regarding Christmas vandalism. The Walton Firehouse in Chester, New York, had its Infant Jesus statue decapitated and the crèche vandalized for the second straight year. Local news outlets covered this story but the Times Herald Record deemed it was not newsworthy. It is interesting to note that incidents of Christmas vandalism had attracted the attention of national newspapers such as the Washington Post but still garnered not a peep from the Times Herald Record.

Although we received no response from the newspaper, we were happy to send our gratitude to the parish of St. Columba in Chester for their help.

February 19
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial about a defrocked priest and called for the statute of limitations to be suspended for sex abuse claims after the priest faced no criminal charges after allegedly abusing eleven minors in 25 years. Bill Donohue wrote to the editors offering Catholic support, but only if public and private institutions were placed under the same legislation.

February 22
The Palm Beach Post (FL) ran an editorial by Steve Gushee, a long-time enemy of Catholics, slamming Pope Benedict XVI on several accounts. Gushee criticized the pope’s revision of the Good Friday liturgy asking that the Jews acknowledge Christ as their savior. Gushee wrote that the new prayer would be a step back from the Catholic-Jewish progress that had been made under the pontificate of John Paul II.

Gushee filled his piece with snide comments and bashed the pope for granting indulgences to those who visited Lourdes, France during the year. Gushee called the declaration of indulgences a “fund-raising marketing tool that mocks the mission of the church, the theology of Scripture and the justice of God.”

The column ended with Gushee demanding that Benedict decide where he would stand in world affairs. He stated:

“The pope needs to choose the role he wants to play. He can act as the cult leader catering to the emotional needs of his followers and the power lust of his institution. He can take a responsible place in the world’s religious community, embrace his ‘elder brothers (Jews)’ and give up the indulgence fantasies.”

February 24
The Star Ledger ran an ad for The Church of Christ that stated the teachings of the Catholic Church were “The Doctrine of Demons.” We responded by writing a letter to John Dennan, the General Manager of the Star Ledger.

On March 4, we received a letter from R. Wayne Wedgeworth, the Star Ledger’s Local Retail Advertising Director. He apologized for any offense that the advertisement may have caused but said that doctrine and religious interpretations are “not generally afforded the same protections” as cultural or ethnic groups. He finished his letter by saying: “We take your position seriously and will balance it with our commitment to allow voices in our newspaper to express opinions and positions that might be adverse to others if they are legal and in good taste.”

February 24
On February 24, an op-ed column by Joe Feuerherd in the Washington Post attacked the United States bishops.

Feuerherd said he was proud to vote for a pro-abortion candidate in the Maryland primary, namely Barack Obama, even if it meant that the bishops had consigned him to Hell. Indeed, according to Feuerherd’s interpretation of what the bishops had said, it meant that he put his “soul at risk,” all but assuring himself of a “ticket to Hell.” He concluded by charging, “the bishops be damned.”

For example, the bishops’ document that Feuerherd referenced, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, says at one point that “It is important to be clear that the political choices faced by citizens…may affect the individual’s salvation.” Two paragraphs above that one it explicitly says that when all candidates “hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil,” the voter may decide not to vote or to “vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.” In the next paragraph it says, “In the end, this is a decision to be made by each Catholic guided by a conscience formed by Catholic moral teaching.” Does this sound like the bishops have condemned him to Hell?

Feuerherd would have us believe that the document lists as “intrinsically evil” such things as “abortion, stem cell research and same-sex marriage.” He is twice wrong. The document does not call either stem cell research or same-sex marriage “intrinsically evil.” There are eight acts which merit that label: abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, the destruction of embryos, genocide, torture, racism and targeting noncombatants in war.

As we said to the press, “Feuerherd is angry because issues like ‘affordable housing’ are not given the same preeminent status as killing the innocent. He is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to bash the bishops or distort their words, not even in his quest for martyrdom.”

We weren’t the only ones that took notice of Feuerherd’s antics. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the director of media relations for the USCCB, wrote an article in theWashington Post that denounced Feuerherd. She called Feuerherd’s column a “screed” that was full of “demeaning and mocking words” and epitomized the “incivility” of the campaign season. She also slammed him by saying, “The crude reference to the Eucharist as ‘the wafer’ should be beneath anyone who respects people’s religious sentiments, let alone an acknowledged Catholic.” Finally she points out that the “damning of the bishops, is unworthy of both Feuerherd and The Post.”

March 25 & 26
Only a few weeks before the pope arrived in the United States, The Journal News conducted an online survey of lapsed Catholics. The newspaper, which is owned by Gannett and covers the Lower Hudson New York counties of Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam, posted the following survey:

“Are you Catholic? As part of The Journal News’ coverage of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York next month, we’re hoping to interview Roman Catholics who consider themselves lapsed or non-practicing on their views about the pope’s visit. If you’re willing to be interviewed please contact Ernie Garcia at elgarcia@lohud.com”

After we saw this survey, we returned the favor and secured the e-mails of 134 Journal News employees, ranging from Publisher, Michael J. Fisch, to the Gardening and Horticultural Editor, and sent them the following survey:

“Protestants: Given that no religious group switches denominations more than Protestants, can you tell us what it feels like to bounce around from one contiguous neighborhood to another in search of the ideal church?

“Jews: Given that the vast majority of Jews do not attend synagogue and that 52 percent of them intermarry, can you tell us what it feels like to be a non-Jewish Jew?

“Muslims: Given that Muslims who convert may be murdered, can you tell us if you’ve at least fantasized about converting?”

We ended our news release by asking our members to contact The Journal News. After the publication was bombarded with e-mails, they asked us to call off the dogs.

March 30
Michael Sean Winters wrote a piece in the Washington Post entitled, “Wholly Different Angles On The World.” The article focused on the political differences of the Vatican and the United States. Winters predicted the pope would denounce the U.S. for its occupation of Iraq during his speech to the United Nations.

His piece was one of the first salvos thrown by left-wing Catholics. It proved to be utterly baseless—the pope did no such thing, instead he focused on natural law and natural rights.

April 13
The Chicago Tribune ran a piece, “Ghostwriting for the Pope,” by Robert McClory, a former priest. McClory offered to the readers what he wished Pope Benedict XVI would say during his visit to the United States. The following is what the ex-priest hoped the pope would say:

“I [Benedict XVI] am therefore inaugurating a series of international conferences, dialogues and debates on some of the most disputed church issues, including its position on the ordination of women, homosexual acts, marriage after divorce, stem cell research and artificial birth control. (Our italics)

“I want these issues to be openly considered from all sides, not just by bishops and other clergy but by theologians and biblical scholars, by educators and catechists at all levels, and by experts in the social sciences….

“In addition, I will invite input from Orthodox and Protestant churches, whose traditions in these matters have great significance….”

McClory seemed to realize just how absurd his wishful thinking was; he quickly acknowledged that the reader might dismiss his idea as “the product of an unhinged imagination.”

April 13
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an editorial entitled, “The Catholic Church; Who will be left to speak and hear?” The editorial accused the Church of helping to create the shortage of priests by “insisting on ancient disciplines such as priestly celibacy and the bar against women in the clergy.” The editorial also noted that there is much to be ashamed of in the Church “including the Inquisition and an often ambiguous response to Nazism in World War II.”

Bill Donohue followed these outrageous allegations by writing a letter to the editor:

“The editorial on the Catholic Church was a classic. You blame celibacy for the declining numbers of priests yet fail to recognize that all of the mainline Protestant denominations, which do not require celibacy, are hurting big time. Your history is also suspect: it was civil authorities, not the Church, which played the lead role in the Inquisition, and the Church’s efforts in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust were surpassed by no other religion or institution.”

April 14
Emmett Coyne, a Catholic priest, wrote an editorial in the Washington Post titled, “A Time for Penance, Not Pomp.” Coyne stated that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States should be penitential and not celebratory due to the sex abuse scandal. The editorial stated, “Benedict’s visit to America ought to be in purple, scarlet or black robes, penitential colors—not triumphal white or gold.”

If the pope addressed the scandal, the priest stated that the papal visit could be Benedict’s “Obama Moment,” referring to Barack Obama’s public address concerning the controversial remarks of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Coyne also wrote, “A true leader hits head-on, rather than ducking, vexing issues,” almost as if to compare the pope’s leadership qualities with Obama’s.

April 16
The News-Press (FL) ran an editorial prior to the  papal visit. The editorial stated that Pope Benedict XVI “owes it to the church to address his congregants’ concerns.” Among the concerns the editorial stated were: ordination of women, gay rights and the ban on contraception. The editorial went on to say that the clergy sex abuse scandal “dented the church’s moral authority, leaving many Catholics divided, damaged and demoralized.”

April 27
Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle wrote a column titled “Equal Justice for Prophets and Priests.” In the column Casey addressed the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound that was raided in Texas and the state’s protection of children. Casey stated: “You can, however, wish the state of Texas had shown similar vigor in protecting the children of some other religious groups with sexual practices that seem out of touch with modern society. Say, for example, the church that prescribes celibacy for its priests.” Casey goes on to criticize Texas for turning a blind eye and abetting the Catholic Church for years.

May 16
In the opinion section of the Kansas City Star, Barbara Shelly wrote a piece titled, “Archbishop Seeks Improper Church-State Mix.” Her column focused on Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann’s request that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, refrain from receiving Holy Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

The archbishop censured Sebelius after she vetoed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, a bill the archbishop described as an attempt to “protect women.” Shelly determined that this bill was designed to “diminish women’s authority to make medical decisions and ease the way for lawsuits against providers.”

Shelly finished her piece by stating: “Naumann’s harsh request is more likely to alert the public to an uncompromising stance that forces Catholic politicians to choose between ethical public service and participation in their church.”

June 20
The Chronicle of Higher Education published a letter to the editor from a philosophy professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. An excerpt from the letter follows:

“From reading Musgrove’s column, you would never know that Catholic colleges have fired or silenced Catholic professors such as Charles Curran, who evidently carried critical thinking too far. Nor would you know that the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach that it has a unique and superior knowledge of truth and reason in religion and morality…. But let’s not forget the dark side of Catholic higher education, whose main victims are Catholic students and faculty members.”

August 14
An editorial titled “Church can’t have it both ways,” appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. The editorial lectured the Diocese of Springfield (MA) on church-state separation because it exercised its freedom of speech in promoting traditional marriage. The paper also scoffed at the diocese’s opposition to a local government official requesting a moratorium on local church closings. The editorial smacked of anti-Catholicism.

August 15
Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a satirical piece attacking the Catholic Church. Throughout the article, Morford implied that all priests were pedophiles.

He wrote that the Church issued “a decree under which all priests of Rome must undergo a brief medical procedure in which a tiny electrical device is implanted just beneath the foreskin. The microsensor, known as God’s Little Cherub, measures holy heart rate, heaviness of breathing and blood flow to the penis and is designed to deliver an electric shock ranging from ‘mild’ to ‘Cazzo!’ when the priest comes into proximity with nubile flesh.”

Morford also mentioned that priests should wear special sunglasses designed to dim the “bright light of a child’s tantalizing innocence…”

October 11
The New York Daily News ran a front-page story about a priest who was arrested for sending graphic images of himself through e-mail to an undercover cop; there was a follow up on the story the next day. Only a few days earlier, on October 7, the Daily News buried a story about a rabbi who had sex with his daughter for 10 years, beginning when she was 9.

Bill Donohue wrote to the Daily News’ editor-in-chief, Martin Dunn, asking him why the story about the priest garnered front-page attention, but the story about the rabbi was relegated to page 18. Donohue also mentioned that neither the New York Times nor the New York Post covered the story, yet Dunn’s paper decided to make it a lead story.

In his letter Donohue said, “What is disturbing is the flagrantly different standard that the Daily News uses in running stories on clergy sex scandals.” Donohue concluded his letter by asking Dunn, “Could you please explain why the Daily News decided not to do a front-page story on a rabbi who raped his daughter?”

October 19 & 22
The New York Times ran two articles praising the Terrence McNally play, “Corpus Christi.” The play features Jesus as an ordinary person who has gay sex with his apostles.

In the October 19 edition of the Times, Mark Blankenship said those that protested the play when it opened in 1998 offered “stark reminders of lingering homophobia.” Bill Donohue responded by saying, “So when anti-Catholic homosexuals like McNally feature Jesus having oral sex with the boys, and Catholics object, it’s not McNally who is the bigot—it’s those protesting Catholics. One wonders what this guy would say if a Catholic made a play about Barney Frank showing him to be a morally destitute lout who ripped off taxpayers. Would he blame objecting gays for Catholic bashing?”

On October 22, the Times’ Jason Zinoman applauded the play for its “reverent spin on the Jesus story.” To which Donohue said, “One wonders how debased a performance against Catholicism must become before this guy would call it irreverent. Moreover, one wonders what this guy would say if the play substituted Martin Luther King for Jesus.”

On our website and in our e-mail blasts, we asked Catholics to contact the paper’s ombudsman, Clark Hoyt. To our surprise, Hoyt contacted Donohue and wanted to know more about our reaction to what happened. On November 9, Hoyt ran an article about the controversy, stating Donohue’s concern. Donohue didn’t object to the Times’ coverage of the play, but to the two articles about it.

October 29
The comic strip “Agnes” appeared throughout the country and compared Pope John XXIII to a mass murderer. In the strip, the character Agnes shaves her head in preparation for Halloween; she was attempting to look like Samuel B. Krotty, a 12th century mass murderer. When her friend tells her that Krotty’s head wasn’t shaved, Agnes says that the picture she had of Krotty featured John XXIII on the other side and she forgot which one was which. The cartoon—created by Tony Cochran and syndicated by Creators Syndicate—appears in prominent newspapers such as the Washington Post.

November 1
An editorial titled, “Vatican’s Gay Hunt,” appeared in the Berkshire Eagle. The editorial was strewn with factual errors claiming that the Church has a “pedophile problem” and shows “antipathy toward homosexuals.” We didn’t object to the fact that the editorial was wrongheaded, but because it shows the deep-seated bias against Catholicism that we have noticed in the paper for a long time.

November 12
The Times Record ran an ad from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide that took unwarranted shots at the Catholic Church. Alamo claims that because of the sex abuse scandal, “The Catholic church and schools are far too dangerous for children, both boys and girls, to attend. They are also extremely dangerous for adult men and women.”

November 19
Roll Call made a big splash on its website with a “Breaking News” story on Father Coughlin. The headline, “Chaplain Managed Abusive Priests,” gave the impression that Coughlin either did something illegal or something immoral. The fact of the matter is that he did neither.

In the November 20 print edition, Roll Call discussed how Coughlin ministered to troubled priests in Chicago. For example, it said that he played the role of “caretaker, providing services ranging from room and board to spiritual support and advocacy.” Coughlin admits to “pastoring priests” and the article mentions that he “was not responsible for overseeing the men.”

So that was the story. Father Coughlin, before being named House Chaplain, tended to the needs of troubled priests. Instead of being smeared—which in fact Roll Call did—Coughlin should have been applauded.

We issued a release calling on Morton Kondracke, the executive editor of Roll Call, to extend an apology not only to Father Coughlin, but also to the Catholic community as well for exploiting the issue of priestly sexual abuse.

Kondracke refused to apologize.

December 18
A letter to the editor appeared in The Commercial Appeal that smacked of bigotry against the Catholic Church and had no legitimate role in public discourse. The writer called the Church hierarchy “a bunch of silly old geezers” that has no say in the sexual morality of the public.

December 18-24
The Long Island Press ran an ad from Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide that took unwarranted shots at the Catholic Church. Alamo claims that because of the sex abuse scandal, “the Catholic church and schools are far too dangerous for children, both boys and girls, to attend. They are also extremely dangerous for adult men and women.”

RADIO

January 7
Salt Lake City, UT – Utah’s National Public Radio station, KCPW, trashed the Eucharist on the show, “Fair Game with Faith Salie.” The skit was aimed at making fun of presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, but offended Christians instead.

The following is a transcript of the offensive segment:

[Woman’s voice]: “And now another Huckabee family recipe leaked by his opponents.”

[Male Voice]: “Tired of bland unsatisfying Eucharists? Try this Huckabee family favorite.  Deep-fried Body of Christ—boring holy wafers no more. Take one Eucharist.  Preferably post-transubstantiation. Deep-fry in fat, not vegetable oil, ladies, until crispy. Serve piping hot. Mike likes to top his Christ with whipped cream and sprinkles. But his wife Janet and the boys like theirs with heavy gravy and cream puffs. It goes great with red wine.”

[Woman’s voice]: “Now that is just ridiculous. Everyone knows evangelicals don’t believe in transubstantiation.”

After we issued a news release, the producers of the show, Public Radio International, called Bill Donohue to apologize and pulled the skit from its rotation, as well as from the show’s archives. Importantly, it also issued an on-air apology.

March
Washington, DC – During Holy Week, WTOP ran a commercial that ridiculed the Sacrament of Confession. The spot, paid for by a local Presbyterian church, mimicked a man confessing his sins to a priest. The priest repeated the man’s sins back to him, and with each sin (e.g., having lustful thoughts while watching lingerie ads and coveting a neighbor’s lawn equipment) a cash register clicked, as if to tally up the sum of each sin. At the end, a voice told listeners that with the Presbyterian Church their spiritual journey doesn’t have to be a “guilt trip.”

We received many complaints regarding the ad and contacted WTOP. They confirmed the ad and played it for us. After Catholics complained to members of this Presbyterian Church, they agreed it was offensive and pulled the ad.

April 19
On NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” the panel discussed the papal visit. During the discussion, panelist Roy Blount Jr. was asked the question, “What will be the next gift which the pope receives from President Bush?” Blount said that the president would give the pope a “notorious rough and wild bronco,” which was reputed to be able to “separate the men from the boys.”

June 27
George Knapp, who was the guest host on the “Coast to Coast AM with George Noory” radio program, had on filmmakers René Barnett and Bruce Burgess, the directors of the anti-Catholic documentary “Bloodline.”  The film claims Jesus was not divine and was, in fact, married to Mary Magdalene and that the two had a child and escaped to the South of France following his crucifixion.

August 8 – 11
The daily Internet show “Keith and the Girl” took a cruise with listeners on Carnival Cruise Line and staged a “Mass” in which they desecrated the Eucharist. The “Mass” was staged in protest over the University of Central Florida Host-stealing incident.

We wrote to Carnival to notify them of the event that was scheduled to take place on their cruise; we did not receive a response.

TELEVISION

January 4
Bill Maher bashed Christianity during an appearance on the NBC program, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Maher commented on the highly publicized speech made by presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, explaining the role of religion in the government.

Maher remarked:

“You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”

Looking uneasy, O’Brien followed up by asking Maher whether or not anyone who is religious is schizophrenic. He responded, “Well, yes, sort of, because they have walled off a part of their mind.”

January 11
“Comedy Central Presents Stephen Lynch” featured a song, “Craig Christ,” by the comedian. In the song, Lynch sings about Jesus’ “brother” Craig and the lifestyle he leads. “Craig Christ” accuses the Apostles of homosexuality, grows marijuana with Judas and “layin’ every lady in the Testament.”

Lynch is also known for his song, “Priest,” which is about a priest being tempted to sexually molest an altar boy.

January 25
On his HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher was joined in a discussion about UFOs with some panelists. Here is what he had to say about the possibility of UFOs:

“But I think it is much more likely that there could be space ships from outer space, than what a lot of things people believe. People still believe, you know, excuse me I know I may inject religion into every show but UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman…”

February 4
On CNN’s “Larry King Live,” comedian Bill Maher railed against religion. Maher exclaimed:

“They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don’t have it out especially for Catholics. I think all religions are coo-coo. Ok? It’s not just the Catholics. I’m not a bigot. Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn’t make me a bigot.”

February 7
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” comedian Ed Helms introduced a Homometer; a radar device that determined the “gayness” of things. One of the items that he tested was a statue of the Holy Family outside of a church. When Helms waved the Homometer over the statue it said, in a stereotypical gay voice, “Oh my god that’s so gay! Oh my god that’s so gay!”

February 18
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno lashed out against priests, citing a news report about the Vatican and sex scenes in movies:

“Oh, I love this story. Did you see the pope at the Vatican today? Oh, they came out. They’re very strict. The pope and the Vatican asking actors not to do sex scenes in movies. They don’t want actors doing any sex—good luck! They can’t keep priests from doing sex scenes! What are you talking about? [Laughter and applause.] Come on! Please!”

February 19
On ABC’s “The View” the panel of Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd made fun of the Church’s canonization process. Behar exclaimed that “some of [the saints] may have been psychotic” because they heard the voice of God. She also stated that there are not as many saints in current times, because people can take medication to stop the voices in their heads.

February 23
During the Weekend Update segment on “Saturday Night Live,” guest correspondent Tina Fey opined about Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign. Fey said:

“What bothers me the most is people say that Hillary is a b****. Let me say something about that. Yeah, she is. So am I…You know what? B****es get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests. They’re mean old clams and sleep on cots and are allowed to hit you. At the end of the school year you hated those b****es, but you knew the capital of Vermont. I’m saying it’s not too late; Texas and Ohio get on board. B**** is the new black!”

February 26
On ABC’s “The View” the panel discussed a Pew Research Center study on religion in the “Hot Topics” segment of the show. The conversation turned to Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s dislike of the Sacrament of Confession and why she left the Church.

When she spoke about why people change religions, Hasselbeck said: “I guess I can kind of relate to this. I grew up in a Roman Catholic Church…and I found at some point I kind of wanted to—I moved to a more nondenominational church. I think it was some of the structural things in the Catholic Church that just for me felt manufactured…and I questioned all the time, like going to confession. Since second grade I would be in detention because I didn’t want to go.”

February 26
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” Jay Leno commented on a report about teenage sex:

“According to a new report on teenage sex by researchers…4% of teenagers lost their virginity in a car, and 56% lost it in their homes. When they heard this, child development experts said it might help if teenagers talked to someone like a teacher or a priest, which is how the other 40% lost it.”

March 1
Fox reran an episode of “MADtv” which featured a skit of priests, wearing only Roman collars and bikini bottoms, chasing frightened boys around a campsite, dancing obscenely with one another and boasting about sexual molestation. Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Marcy Ross, Fox’s Programming Executive Vice President, regarding this episode and asked that Fox refrain from airing anti-Catholic episodes in the future.

The episode first aired in 2002.

March 12
Comedy Central aired the first show in a new series, “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil,” in which Black played a judge ruling on who was more evil—the Catholic Church or Oprah Winfrey.

The episode featured two comics, Greg Giraldo and Paul F. Tompkins, debating the evilness of the Church and Oprah. Giraldo held the task of proving the Church was the more evil of the two.

Giraldo focused his attacks on the sex abuse scandal, the Blessed Virgin, the Inquisition, and Pope Benedict XVI. The following are excerpts of his vitriol:

· “The Church is sack tickling its way into bankruptcy.”

· “The Catholic Church is also evil because it has such a grip over the mindless masses that they’ll wait in line, thousands of them in the rain for hours, just to get a glimpse of a pork rind in the shape of the Virgin Mary…God impregnated Mary. We have a whole religion based on one woman who really stuck to her story.”

· “Let’s not forget the Inquisition. In the 1400s, Jews and Muslims in Spain were forced to convert to Catholicism. And to test the sincerity of these conversions, thousands were tortured.”

· “The pope, to me, is a hypocrite in his Prada loafers and his ball gown. How can he condemn homosexuality when he dresses like he is on his way to nickel comso night at the Veiny Shaft Tavern”?

The day after the premier episode, we slammed the show. We pointed out that it is estimated that public school teachers are a hundred times more likely to molest minors than are priests (see the work of Dr. Carol Shakeshaft.) Yet it was not the public schools that were labeled evil by the show.

We also wondered why it was the Church that was singled out and not Muslims. We noted that radical Muslims behead their enemies, real and contrived, terrorize non-combatants, fly planes into buildings, shoot nuns in the back, kidnap and kill bishops, burn churches to the ground and legally murder those who wish to convert. Despite all of this, the show did not have the guts to call them out.

March 18
On ABC’s “The View” the panel discussed the controversy surrounding Barack Obama and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Elisabeth Hasselbeck compared Wright’s inflammatory comments, such as “God damn America,” and “The U.S. of KKKA,” to the reason she left the Catholic Church.

Hasselbeck stated that when she “found out the heads of the Church were up to things that were not good…I left. I say, ‘you know I don’t want to be a part of that at all.’”

March 22
On the Bloomberg Channel’s “Political Capital,” host Al Hunt was speaking with guests Bob Novak and Margaret Carlson about the 2008 election. In response to Novak bringing up the controversy with Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Carlson brought up “pedophile priests.” The following is a transcript of what was said:

Novak: “Howard Dean is a joke. But don’t count Hillary out yet. The problem is Obama is fading in the polls. In the Gallup poll he is behind her. In several other polls he is behind McCain. It is because of this flak over his pastor. I would say that the Obama campaign right now is on a very serious problem with this racial divide in the party. And that is the only hope for Hillary is the divide is going to push her over. What that means for the Democratic Party in this year’s election is something Democrats don’t want to consider.”

Carlson: “I’m so glad I don’t have to answer for the pedophile priests in my parish. I don’t know if you have any in yours.”

Carlson’s attack on the priesthood was unwarranted and gratuitous. This had absolutely nothing to do with what Novak was talking about.

March 22
The pope set off a firestorm by baptizing a Muslim-born journalist at the Vatican’s Easter Vigil. The pope’s critics had a field day with his baptism of Magdi Allam, an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism. The critics blew this situation way out of proportion and helped set off a media firestorm. The following is a sample of the attacks that the Holy Father received from around the world:

· “I cannot understand the Vatican’s motivation. Why with preparations for dialogue underway…would the pope revive antagonism this way?” [Sheila Musaji, founding editor, The American Muslim]

· “What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion. Why couldn’t he have done this at a local parish?” [Yaha Sergio Tahe Pallavicini, VP of the Italian Islamic Religious Community]

· “The problem lies in the vindictive atmosphere surrounding the conversion ceremony.” [Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh]

· The baptism was a “deliberate and provocative act…made into a triumphalist tool for scoring points.” [Aref Ali Nayed, head of Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre]

· “A new provocation for the Islamic world.” [Mohamed Yatim, commentator for the Moroccan daily, Attajdid]

· “The Vatican’s act seems unnecessarily incendiary and irresponsible.” [Calgary Herald editorial]

· “The problem is that he was baptized by the Pope in public and in front of satellite TV cameras. This is a hostile act against Islam….We were looking for a different approach from the Pope after his anti-Islam remarks two years ago. But the Pope’s baptism of a person who is known for his enmity to Islam and the Qur’an made us stick to our previous decision to suspend the IUMS relationship with the Vatican.” [Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars]

In our news release we credited the Jerusalem Post for its spot-on analysis of the controversy: “Allam was not a practicing Muslim, was educated in a Catholic school as a teenager, has been married for years to an Italian Catholic, and credits Pope Benedict for having influenced his decision…[and] he has been living under police protection for years, primarily because of his criticism of Islamic terrorism and defense of Israel—which, of course, is the real story here.”

April 1
NBC’s Jay Leno apologized for asking actor Ryan Phillipe to give his “gayest look” during an earlier episode of his “Tonight Show.” The actor was uncomfortable with Leno’s quip and the late-night host came under fire by gay rights groups for his remarks.

We issued a statement blasting Leno for his duplicity saying, “We have a fat file on Leno’s anti-Catholic comments, and with the lone exception of his phone call to [Bill Donohue] apologizing for his Catholic-bashing rant on February 7, 1997, we haven’t heard a word from him regarding our many complaints.” We closed our release by stating the only conclusion that could have been drawn from his lack of regret for anti-Catholicism: Gays and Jews are protected classes in Hollywood, but Catholics are not.

April 11
Bill Donohue wrote a letter to Fox Broadcasting’s President of Entertainment, Peter Ligouri, regarding an episode of “Family Guy.” The episode in question first aired in 2000, and features Peter Griffin receiving a chalice from a priest and drinking the Blood of Christ with the accidents of wine. Peter coughs and says of Jesus, “Man, this guy must have been wasted 24 hours a day, huh?” This clip was airing as part of a commercial for the program.

Donohue stated that Catholics are not without humor, but disparaging the Body and Blood of Christ crossed the line. We requested that Fox retire the episode in question and cease using the clip in its promotions.

April 11 – 18
On “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian saw the papal visit as an opportunity to slam the Church and in particular attack the Holy Father. On Monday, April 14, we slammed Maher for his bigotry and lies.

On the “New Rules” segment of his show, Maher addressed the raid on a polygamist compound in Texas, but quickly turned his attack to Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. The following is his bigoted rant:

“And, finally, New Rule: Whenever you combine a secretive compound, religion and weirdos in pioneer outfits, there’s going to be some child-f***ing going on. In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as ‘God’s infallible wing man’ here on earth, lock away the kids.

“Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound. And this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. [Photo of pope shown] That’s right. The pope is coming to America this week, and, ladies, he’s single!

“Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Bill, you can’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult! For one thing, altar boys can’t even get pregnant.

“But, really, what tripped up the ‘little cult on the prairie’ was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided. Religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!

“If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you ‘Pope.’

“It’s like if you can’t pay your mortgage, you’re a deadbeat, but if you can’t pay a million mortgages, you’re Bear Stearns, and we bail you out. And that’s who the Catholic Church is, the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia. Too big to fail.

“When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out. And that’s the Church’s attitude: ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.’

“Which is fine. Far be it from me to criticize religion. But, just remember one thing: if the pope was, instead of a religious figure, merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of daycare centers where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he’d be arrested faster than you can say, ‘Who wants to touch Mister Wiggle?’”

Maher’s anti-Catholic bigotry was nothing new; he had been on our radar long before. But this time Maher literally made things up.

Maher lied when he said the pope “used to be a Nazi.” Like all men in Germany at the time, Joseph Ratzinger was conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could). Every responsible Jewish leader has acknowledged this reality and never sought to brand the pope as a Nazi. But Maher was right there to chime in.

In the days following Maher’s outburst, many media outlets picked up on our news release and pounded Maher for his bigotry. Mike Gallagher, Investor’s Business Daily, Steve Malzberg, Les Kinsolving of WorldNetDaily, Newsbusters, Newsmax, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cunningham, the Culture and Media Institute, Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani and others were justly outraged.

On April 17, Bill Donohue received a phone call from an HBO executive regarding the league’s news release of April 14. The executive told Donohue that Maher was expected to apologize on his Friday, April 18 episode of “Real Time,” for accusing the pope of once being a Nazi. After researching this matter, HBO concurred with our assessment. Apparently, so did Maher. Maher acknowledged the pope was never a Nazi and mentioned that the Catholic League called this issue to attention. But Maher didn’t stop there.

After apologizing for accusing the pope of being a Nazi (which we accepted), Maher reiterated the point that if the pope were the CEO of an institution that housed molesters, he would have been fired. To suggest that Pope Benedict XVI was in charge of policing molesters, and failed in doing so, was patently absurd. As Pope John Paul II’s right-hand man, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s principal job was to make sure that theologians were faithfully presenting the teachings of the Church. He was not in charge of enforcing codes of conduct. Indeed, it wasn’t until after the scandal hit the newspapers in 2002 that he was put in charge of dealing with predatory priests, and by all accounts did so effectively.

April 16
On ABC’s “Nightline,” there was a segment on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that focused on Chicago Archbishop Francis Cardinal George. The segment took him to task for the way he handled a case dealing with Rev. Daniel McCormack. We blasted “Nightline” for its failure to deliver the whole story and ABC for its glaring hypocrisy.

In the segment, “Nightline” focused on the decision of Cardinal George to allow Rev. McCormack back into the ministry after the police found him innocent. This is what happens every day in America—those found not guilty resume their jobs. Cardinal George’s decision was the logical consequence of innocent until proven guilty. The fact that McCormack was later found guilty of groping a male doesn’t change what’s at stake. Moreover, “Nightline” failed to tell the whole story.

In the initial case, the police and Cook County prosecutors found no credible allegations against McCormack. Interestingly, the Department of Children and Family Services concluded that McCormack may have been guilty but never notified the archdiocese or the school where the priest was working that it was conducting an investigation. To top it off, the agency didn’t even bother to tell them after it suspected he might be guilty.

What was really mind-blowing was ABC’s hypocrisy. In 2003, Steve Bartelstein, a New York anchor at WABC-TV, was accused of sexually harassing and stalking a male writer and producer at the station. WABC launched an investigation and concluded there was no evidence to remove Bartelstein and allowed him to keep his job; he was fired in 2007 for another matter. And last year in Miami, ABC reporter Jeff Weinsier at WPLG was arrested for carrying a loaded gun on school property while investigating school violence. He kept his job, too. If ABC had subjected them to their Cardinal George standard, they would have been canned immediately.

We called on ABC to make an apology to Cardinal George and all priests. They failed to do so.

April 17 – 21
After addressing the Catholic Church’s failure to act responsibly in handling the sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the social context in which the scandal took place, asking, “What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?” CNN’s Lou Dobbs took issue with the pope’s words and blasted him on two occasions. After we issued a news release challenging Dobbs to either a debate or apology, he quickly changed his tune.

The following are remarks made by Dobbs on April 17:
· “The idea that the pope would come here and criticize the United States this way is, I think, first of all bad manners. I don’t care if you’re infallible [sarcastically].”

· “It is absolutely out of all proportion with the world scale. The most welcoming nation, the most generous nation on the face of the earth. And for the pope to have this attitude and to make these comments is, in my opinion, absolutely repugnant.”

· “It seems to me that if one is going to reach to the level that he did, you have to have some moral standing for it. And what has been happening to this Church…seems to leave open his standing, cleaning up his own house.”

On April 19, Dobbs bashed the pope again:

· “Well, he’s in America, partner. And you know what, when we’re in Rome, we’ll do as Rome does. But when Rome comes to America, how about a little salute and stay out of our politics.”

· “I don’t care if he listens or not, but I’m going to send him the message [of staying out of politics] because I really don’t appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do.”

Following Dobbs’ outburst, we demanded that he either apologize or invite Bill Donohue for a debate. Although he did neither, our pressure got to him. During his CNN show, on April 21, Dobbs hosted a discussion about Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the U.S. Unlike previous nights, his panelists showed nothing but respect for the pope; Robert Zimmerman and Ed Rollins were particularly fair. But the biggest surprise came from Dobbs. The following is an excerpt from the discussion:

Rollins: “I thought the pope saying illegals should be treated in a humane way is not saying that they should stay here. I think he’s basically saying you shouldn’t mistreat them when they are here. Send them home, but don’t mistreat them.”

Dobbs: “You know, I could sign on with that….We’re going to have to take this all in. I like Pope Benedict XVI, is what [the conversation] just taught me here….By the way, I can close this out with one thing. He [the pope] changed the minds of a lot of priests around the country I believe.”

To his credit, Dobbs pivoted away from his previous remarks about the pope and conducted himself in a most professional matter. What cannot be picked up from the transcript was the sincerity of his comments. In doing so, he put to rest any concerns we had.

May 4
On MSNBC’s “The McLaughlin Group,” panelists Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift were discussing the Obama/Wright controversy. After Buchanan questioned how Obama did not know about Wright’s beliefs “when he [Obama] knew him 20 years,” Clift responded, “Because you didn’t know what the priests in your church were doing all those years you sat in the pews.” So instead of pointing out a few miscreant priests, Clift decided to make a sweeping generalization of the 40,000-plus priests as molesters. This was an unqualified and unprovoked attack on the Catholic Church.

May 14
On the ABC program “Boston Legal,” David E. Kelley, the show’s creator, once again displayed his hatred for Catholicism. The episode focused on the plight of an oppressed woman—she was being oppressed by the Catholic Church. The woman desired to be a priest and she sued the Catholic Church for discrimination. The same clergy strictures apply to Orthodox Judaism, Mormonism, Islam and Orthodox Christianity; why didn’t Kelley go after them? The answer is simple: those religions don’t count; it is the Catholic Church that Kelley sets out to attack.

There were other lies that were perpetuated in the episode. For example, lies were told about the Catholic Church’s alleged support for slavery, the execution of witches and the Inquisition. [Note: It was the Catholic Church—not any other religion—which first opposed slavery and for the most part, it was the civil authorities, not the Church, who punished witches and were responsible for the Inquisition.] At the end of the show the Catholic Church’s tax-exempt status was revoked.

June 22
PBS aired the documentary “Tal Como Somos” to educate on the experiences of homosexual, bisexual or transgendered Latinos and the difficulties they face. The following is a part of a discussion by a gay couple:

“My foundation is Catholicism….I grew up like most Catholics, and I’ll dare say this, most Catholics grow Catholic by tradition, not by faith….Being gay and Catholic. Wow….Before I came out it was a big issue for me because I’ve always identified myself as very Catholic due to my parents’ upbringing, of course, and of course being something that’s not accepted by the religion or the Church but yet my conflict was, wait a minute, God loves me for who I am but yet I’m not accepted in the Church. I realize that if I am consciously going to a place where I’m not accepted and I am being stigmatized…why would I want to part of that group? It’s the same thing as me going to the KKK and saying, ‘You know, I’m a gay Mexican but I want to be part of the KKK although they hate me,’ I wouldn’t want it.”

July 7
On the E! Television show, “Chelsea Lately,” host Chelsea Handler commented on actress Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend, Raffaelo Follieri, who had been arrested for fraud. Handler made the following comment regarding his claim that he was the chief banker of the Vatican: “Anne Hathaway has broken up with her Italian boyfriend who is—he’s been arrested now on 12 counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, and was accused of telling an investor that he had been appointed as the chief financial officer of the Vatican. First of all, you cannot mess with the Vatican. That’s like the Oprah of Italy, okay? We’ve seen what the Vatican does to the boys they don’t like or they do like, sorry. Sorry, screwed that up. Let’s just start over. Just kidding, go ahead.”

July 15 & 16
The Cartoon Network re-aired two episodes of its Adult Swim program “Robot Chicken.” The episodes in question, “Tapping a Hero” and “Celebutard Mountain,” mocked the life of Jesus.

“Tapping a Hero” features a sketch based on the movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” It is replaced with a trailer for the “33-Year-Old Virgin.” The parody focuses on the life of Jesus as a virgin and how He loses His virginity to Mary (Magdalene). The final scene shows the two of them laying in bed and Mary saying, “It looks like you’re ready for a second coming.”

“Celebutard Mountain” features a sketch based on the CW show “Everybody Hates Chris,”; the spoof is called “Everybody Hates Christ.” In the parody, Christ is scourged, crucified and ridiculed in a slapstick manner as a laugh track plays in the background.

July 18
Comedy Central re-aired a special featuring comedian Stephen Lynch. In the special Lynch sings a song named “Craig Christ,” in which he sings about himself as the sexually promiscuous brother of Jesus. In the song, Lynch also mocks Jesus and accuses Him and His Apostles of being homosexuals.

July 24
Comedy Central re-aired a “South Park” episode titled “Bloody Mary.” The particular episode centers on a statue of the Virgin Mary “bleeding out her ass” and spraying people with the blood. In December of 2005, an executive vice president at Comedy Central told the Catholic League that there were no plans for the cable channel to re-air “Bloody Mary.”

July 25
Comedy Central re-aired “Comedy Central Presents Ted Alexandro,” in which the comedian attacked the Catholic Church over the sex abuse scandal. Here is an excerpt of what he said:

“The pope was dying, Michael Jackson on trial. Tough times for the pedophilia industry, huh? Yeah. When it rains it pours. I think Michael Jackson gets too much press though, ‘cause he’s one guy. The Catholic Church is like the Microsoft of pedophilia, like giants in the industry…. Jesus juice, that was brilliant. You know priests had to be like, damn, why didn’t we think of that? It was right in front of us the whole time!”

July 28
“Late Night with Conan O’Brien” ran a skit that featured two foul-mouthed priests that were portrayed as fools. At the end of the skit, it was implied that Mary’s relationship with God was sexual. While most of the skit bordered on the objectionable, the way it concluded pushed it over the line.

We wrote to the show’s executive producer, Jeff Ross, and voiced our objection to the portrayal of the Blessed Virgin. We noted that it is a central tenet of the Catholic faith that Mary became pregnant by an act of God and that she remained a virgin.

August 8
Comedy Central aired an episode of “The Gong Show” that featured a duo, the Vava Sisters, who performed a “Stigmata Striptease.” The duo wore Catholic schoolgirl uniforms, carried Bibles and had the stigmata; they also took each other’s clothes off and fed each other a Communion Host.

October 8
On the Fox program “Bones,” the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation was ridiculed. The show, which features a female forensic specialist, Temperance “Bones” Brennan, and a male FBI agent, Seeley Booth, began with an exchange regarding a female Protestant minister who was reported missing.

The following is how the conversation went:

Booth: “She’s a pastor. Yeah. Looks like one of those grassroots community churches.”
Bones: “Huh. She was preparing for a sermon.”
Booth: “A pastor with augmentation and veneers.”
Bones: “So?”
Booth: “A spiritual leader shouldn’t be so vain.”
Bones: “The pope sits on a throne. He wears robes worth hundreds of dollars. Isn’t that vanity?
Booth: “Oh really? You’re going after the pope now?”
Bones: “One pastor gets her teeth whitened, and the other drinks wine on Sunday mornings and tells everyone that it’s been miraculously transformed into blood. Which of those is more outlandish?”

We issued a news release the following day and said:

“It does not matter that non-Catholics may not accept what happens at Mass. What matters is that they show respect. And to just throw this line in while the opening credits are running—about a minister, no less—shows how mean-spirited the writers are. If only they thought of Catholics as if they were an indigenous people, we’d be fine.”

October 19
On the Fox program, “Family Guy,” characters Brian (a dog) and Stewie (a baby) traveled back in time to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish friend) from the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Brian and Stewie dress Mort up as a priest to sneak him out of the country, a Nazi officer asks Mort, “Are you sure you’re a real priest?” Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.”

October 21
On the FX program, “The Shield,” a Catholic priest was portrayed as someone who allowed gang members to deal drugs under his watch, clipping a share of the profits for himself.

In another scene, the priest is accused of being a child molester. At this, the priest explodes, stating, “Just because some sick perverts decide to live out their fantasies through the collar doesn’t mean that every priest is a gay pedophile.” The confrontation continues and the priest admits to fathering a child with the gang leader’s sister.
November 2
“The Simpsons” aired its annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode and mocked Catholicism in the process. In the episode, the character Millhouse makes a declaration of faith to the “Grand Pumpkin” which was based on the Apostles’ Creed:

“I believe in the Grand Pumpkin, almighty gourd, who was crustified over Pontius pie plate and ascended into oven. He will come again to judge the filling and the bread.”

November 14
On the season finale of the HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the bigoted comedian said the following of Father Jay Scott Newman, a South Carolina priest:

“A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his congregation: If you voted for Obama you can’t receive Communion. That’s right. The cracker won’t let you get the cracker. He said supporting Obama constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil. Then he proceeds to pass around the plate so everyone could chip in to payoff the child f***ing lawsuits.” (Note: Newman did not say what Maher attributed to him)

Over the past few months, it has become increasingly evident that a large-scale campaign against Pope Benedict XVI is being waged by his critics. The issues that his adversaries have seized upon include his relations with Muslims and Jews, and his opposition to embryonic stem cell research, abortion and gay marriage. The latest firestorm occurred when the pope questioned the utility of condoms to check AIDS.

On his flight to Cameroon in March, Benedict XVI was asked about the Catholic Church’s position on fighting AIDS. He said, in part, “One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem.” Despite the uproar this caused, the facts support the pope’s position.

Last year, Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, wrote that “In every African country in which HIV infections declined, this decline has been associated with a decrease in the proportion of men and women reporting more than one sex partner over the course of a year—which is exactly what fidelity programs promote.”

As for condom use, Green said, “Many countries that have not seen declines in HIV have seen increases in condom use, but in every country worldwide in which HIV has declined there have been increases in levels of faithfulness and usually abstinence as well.” No wonder that when Green was asked about the Holy Father’s remarks, he said, “The pope is correct, or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments.”

The Catholic Church, we pointed out to the media, has been the most active of any institution promoting the very programs in Africa that Green touts. It also operates more hospitals and related medical centers for AIDS patients than any other private institution in the world.

The Holy Father will be visiting Israel from May 8-May 15. Look for commentators to try to discredit him by mentioning the flap over Bishop Richard Williamson’s inane comments on the Holocaust; the St. Pius X Society bishop has since apologized.

What the pope’s critics are trying to do is frame him as being out-of-touch. That way they can try to force feed Catholics with a steady diet of their so-called progressive ideas. Funny thing is this pope could run intellectual circles around every one of them.

When the D.C. gay marriage bill was first introduced, the Archdiocese of Washington kept quiet because the bill protected the rights of churches and other houses of worship not to perform gay marriages. But then the gay overreach took place: the language was changed to narrow the religious liberty protections. Because the archdiocese feared that the new language could be used to force it to provide health benefits to gay couples, and allow for gay adoption, it said it could not abide by the provisions of the revised bill. In practical terms, this meant that Catholic Charities would suspend its city services, a move that would terminate its medical clinics, foster care and adoption services, tutoring for GED tests, mental health services, homeless shelters, etc.

The reaction from the Church’s critics was not only harsh, it was over the top. “What the Church is doing is an uncharitable and cruel maneuver,” wrote Petula Dvorak in the Washington Post. In the Huffington Post, Allison Kilkenny concluded that “If gay folk can marry, the Catholic church refuses to feed the homeless.” Adele M. Stan at AlterNet.com said that this decision, along with the bishops’ opposition to the health care bill that offered abortion coverage, “serve the bishops’ obsession with the sex lives and reproductive organs of others.” She showed her true colors when she opined, “As an institution, it [the Catholic Church] ranks among the world’s most sexually dysfunctional.”

If Alabama Governor George Wallace had told the Archdiocese of Mobile that as a condition of receiving state aid for social services it had to cease performing interracial marriages, few would have criticized the archdiocese for exercising its doctrinal prerogatives. Indeed, it may have even been applauded for doing so. Now it should not matter what the issue is that the Church decides it cannot in good conscience support—what should matter is its First Amendment right to do so. The unprincipled, of course, cannot understand such logic.

Unfortunately, the bill was passed and signed into law by D.C. mayor Adrian M. Fenty on December 18.

A few weeks prior to D.C.’s bill being passed and signed, some good news came out of the New York State Senate: it rejected a bill legalizing gay marriage by a vote of 38-24. Earlier that day, the Huffington Post ran a headline that was classic. It said, “START SPREADING THE NEWS: New York Debating Historic Gay Marriage Measure, Vote to be Razor Thin.”

After those who sought to reinvent the institution of marriage got clobbered, we were all too happy to “START SPREADING THE NEWS.”

Kudos to New York State Senator Reuben Diaz and all of the other good men and women who resisted this illegitimate push to treat marriage and the family as if they were merely items on a moral smorgasbord of lifestyle choices. Too bad that their D.C. counterparts didn’t follow suit.