Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Jon Stewart’s remarks about racism on his Apple TV + show:

It seems everything about Jon Stewart is phony. His real name is Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz. He rails against “white privilege” yet he enjoys a net worth of at least $25 million. He hates white people who make racist comments about black people yet he is known to make racist cracks about blacks. He proclaims tolerance for everyone yet his serial hate speech directed at Catholics proves otherwise. Now he is libeling Andrew Sullivan, suggesting that the writer is a white racist.

In a recent episode of “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” the host featured a panel discussion on white racism, one of the most popular topics these days for white people who feel guilty about being white. Two of his guests, both white, agreed with him that America is irredeemably racist, but Andrew Sullivan, the Irish immigrant writer, disagreed.

Sullivan is a lot brighter than Stewart, so it was not hard for him to make the host look like a fool.

“America in 2022 is the most multiracial, multicultural, tolerant, diverse, melting pot that has ever existed on planet Earth, and there is no other place on Earth even like it. That’s why 86 percent of our immigrants are non-white. Do you think they want to come to a white supremacist country?”

Stewart was tongue-tied. He couldn’t offer a riposte so he settled on making a throw-away comment about blacks being brought here as slaves. He couldn’t even get that right. No, blacks were not “kidnapped”—the whites bought slaves from their African slavemasters. More important, Stewart depicted Sullivan as a white racist.

Stewart is no virgin. In 2008, before he came on stage for his “Daily Show,” a comedian warmed up the crowd. He picked on a black couple in the audience, making racist remarks about their sex life. Alison Kinney, an Asian writer, was there, and in 2014 she wrote about what happened.

Stewart had a few exchanges with the audience before the show started. Kinney asked, “Why does your warm-up comedian use ethnic humor?” Here is how she characterized Stewart’s response. “Stewart’s face creased with annoyance. He said, shortly, loudly, glaring at me, ‘BECAUSE IT’S F***ING FUNNY.‘”

“Meanwhile, he stared at me with palpable hostility.” She added, “People sitting around me stared at me and whispered.”

In 2015, a black former writer for Stewart, Wyatt Cenac, was upset about  a racist voice impression that Stewart did of presidential candidate Herman Cain. According to the Hollywood Reporter, when Cenac complained, “Stewart blew up at him in front of the entire Daily Show staff.” Cenac said he was the only black person in the room and it made him feel uneasy.

Then Cenac brought the issue up again at a writer’s meeting. He recalled that “Stewart got riled up,” becoming “incredibly defensive.” Stewart stood up screaming “F—off. I’m done with you.” He then “stormed out.”

This incident caused Cenac to have an emotional breakdown.

According to Stewart’s position today, it was his white racist tirade that led to this black man’s collapse. Is he going to make reparations? Maybe by ridding himself of some of his stash he can shed some of his white guilt.

Stewart’s visceral hatred of Catholics requires him to do much more than make reparations. Here’s a sample of his hate speech.

• In 1999, he mocked the pope when the Holy Father visited the U.S.
• In 2001, he compared the pope to the Grand Wizard of the KKK
• In 2002, he questioned whether Mary and Joseph had oral sex
• In 2007, he made a gay joke about a bishop
• In 2008, he made a gay joke about the Holy Family
• In 2008, he ridiculed priestly celibacy
• In 2011, he mocked the Body and Blood of Jesus
• In 2011, he claimed that a Norwegian madman was acting like a Christian
• In 2012, he said Our Blessed Mother was “knocked up”

None of these cruel statements can compare with what Stewart did on his April 16, 2012 show. It was so obscene that I wrote an ad about it titled, “Jon Stewart’s Legacy.” Here is the first paragraph from the May 21, 2012 ad in the New York Times.

“Five weeks ago today, Jon Stewart did something that will forever stain his legacy. After making fun of Fox News for not addressing the ‘war on women,’ Stewart said, ‘Maybe women could protect their reproductive organs from unwanted medical intrusions with vagina mangers.’ On the screen behind him was the picture of a naked women with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament in between. How ironic that in the name of defending women, he grossly degraded them, while also insulting Christian sensibilities.”

Jon Stewart has no moral authority to lecture Andrew Sullivan, or anyone else, about their alleged bigotry. He has proven to be the Master of Bigotry, many times over.

Contact Stewart’s agent, Steve Levine: [email protected]

MEDIA RESPONSE TO VATICAN INQUIRY OF LCWR

Once again, an internal matter of the Catholic Church became fodder for media voyeurs, pundits and talking heads when a number of dissident nuns became the subject of an apostolic visit, announced in April 2012. It was disturbing to read the way some of the Vatican’s critics were trying to defend the indefensible. Only 3% of the 55,000 nuns in the U.S. actually belong to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a fact largely omitted by the secular press. Critics of Vatican efforts to reform the LCWR had their talking points down so well that everyone just assumed that the reform initiative was triggered by concerns over these nuns pushing for ObamaCare. All of them were wrong, and it is not a matter of opinion.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) legislation wasn’t introduced in the House until September 17, 2009. The decision to undertake a doctrinal assessment of the LCWR was announced on April 8, 2008, while George W. Bush was president. In other words, the narrative about “payback” was untrue: the timeline undercuts the critics’ argument.

What follows is a selection of the most vitriolic comments:

Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post, April 19: “The Vatican, of course, knows a lot about scandal—to the point that the nuns are the only morally uncompromised leaders poor Holy Mother Church has left….Keep right on like this, your excellencies, and before you know it even more Catholics will be ‘moving beyond the church.’”

Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, April 22: “Pope Benedict XVI can’t wait to crack down on ‘radical feminist’ nuns. But will he ever really crack down on protectors of pedophile priests?”

Monica Yant Kinney, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22: “Surely, fallout from the international sex-abuse scandal represents a more grave concern than devout old ladies saying health care is a human right. Rome is burning from fires set by collared arsonists, but the Vatican takes aim at women without so much as a match?”

Jamie Manson, National Catholic Reporter, April 23: “Essentially, the hierarchy is reducing them to the equivalent of spiritual enslavement.”

Michele Somerville, Huffington Post, April 23: “The Vatican needs to flex its muscles. More urgent, still, is its need to push tales of Vatican corruption, child molestation and news of its colossal failure to convince Catholics to vote in accordance with the Magisterium off of what we once called ‘the front pages….’ The Vatican needs to create fresh fear.”

Joseph Ferullo, National Catholic Reporter, April 23: “Here’s some comfort I can offer American nuns: It’s not just you. If there is any theme that has formed around the statements and behavior of the Vatican and bishops in recent years, it’s this: Doctrinal purity is valued above all else. It doesn’t matter if lives are at stake or if doctrine flies in the face of tragic realities. It doesn’t matter if dark measures must be taken to sweep disquieting contradictions under the rug, tucked away in places that only courtrooms and lawyers can pull out into the light. Purity—or the appearance of it—is prime.”

Isabella Moyer, National Catholic Reporter, April 23: “Rightly or wrongly, the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR is being perceived by many as a bullying tactic from on high with little room for a spirit of mutual respect or collaboration…. Clericalism and authoritarianism do not model mutual respect and collaboration and are no longer accepted by those who truly seek an adult church.”

Maureen Fiedler, National Catholic Reporter, April 24: “What this ridiculous statement does show is the overwhelming desire of these men to ‘regulate’ women and to put a stamp of approval on everything we say. This is ‘patriarchy’ in its worst form.”

Tom Roberts, National Catholic Reporter, April 24: “In the church, no greater challenge exists to hierarchical power and the traditional way of doing things than the sisters.… Bishops’ authority everywhere is compromised, their moral stature diminished as the world keeps hearing through trial testimony and released documentation how the leadership culture of the Catholic church ignored the horror that was being done to children in order to protect their priests and the reputation of the clerical culture….The U.S. hierarchy is aiming its rage at the sisters, but the temblors moving the earth beneath their feet have little to do with women who serve the poor and dare to ask unsettling questions.”

Jim Wallis, Huffington Post, April 25:  “Quite honestly, do most of us believe, or even most Catholics believe, that the bishops are the only ‘authentic teachers of faith and morals?’”

Mary Hunt, Religion Dispatches, April 25:  “The truth is, most Catholics no longer look to Rome for guidance on our personal lives, or anyone else’s. Nor do we live within the narrow confines of a cultic Christianity, or, as women, accept male leadership and priestly ministry as if theirs were God-given and ours were not. We appreciate the complexity of these matters and strive to create forums in which to listen, discuss, discern, and pray….The question is how to stop the cycle of violence, how to refuse to cooperate in structures that oppress, how to ‘engage impasse’ as some of the most creative nuns have tried to do.”

Mark Morford, SFGate.com, April 25:  “Funny how no one ever talks about the nuns. I suppose it makes sense. After all, Catholic nuns are so rarely embroiled in sex scandals. They are never caught pants down in the rectory with a 10-year-old altar boy, teaching him of the ‘mystical secretions’ of the Lord. They never cost the church billions in litigious payouts for rape, abuse, millennia of pedophilic atrocity and shame. For that, you gotta look to the priests.”

Steve and Cokie Roberts, News Tribune, April 27: “Really? Women religious in America will now have a bishop grading their morals? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Given the sex-abuse scandals – in which many Roman Catholic bishops looked the other way at best and moved child molesters from parish to parish, perpetrating evil, at worst – you would think that a ruler rap on the hierarchical knuckles would be in order.”

Maureen Dowd, New York Times, April 28: “Even as Republicans try to wrestle women into chastity belts, the Vatican is trying to muzzle American nuns.”

James Carroll, Boston Globe, April 30: “This month alone, the pope has rebuked the disobedience of European priests and, acting through a Vatican congregation, set in motion a severe disciplining of American nuns.”

Books

October 2
Former Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy’s book, Bad Habits, was published; the cover featured her dressed as a nun holding rosary beads. After its publication, McCarthy was on “Access Hollywood,” where she recounted a story from the book. She claimed that, when she was in Italy in 1995, a few “mafia” guys brought her to the pope’s apartment (he was allegedly out of town) where she tried on some of his clothes. At the suggestion of her Jewish friends, she allegedly grabbed a crucifix as a souvenir for her mother. The Catholic League noted that 15 years ago McCarthy said she still thought of herself as a Catholic, insisting that “I broke free from the chain of the pope.” Free at last, she opined, “The Catholic religion was making me feel a tad bit guilty for everything I was doing.”

Internet

January 25
In his column, sexpert Dan Savage wrote that when Newt Gingrich was married to his second wife, he was “still f***ing the consecrated host out of his ‘devout Catholic’ mistress.”

February 24
In a piece on Catholic presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Larry Doyle at Huffington Post went beyond the candidate to slam all Catholics for participating “in a barbaric ritual…a ‘mass’ in which a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine…[resulting] in a cannibalistic reverie.”

March 7
In a Huffington Post article entitled “Imposing ‘Sharia’: Roman Catholic Version,” Rabbi Arthur Waskow compared the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to Muslims seeking to enforce sharia law. “During the last few weeks, we have seen an outrageous attempt to impose sharia law on the US government and the American public,” he wrote.

The following is a list of his comments:

• “The only threat to religious freedom was the attempt by the bishops to deny religious freedom to the employees of those institutions—Catholics and others—whose religious consciences are totally at peace with the use of contraception.”
• “The bishops are asserting that the only ‘Catholic’ consciences that count are those of—surprise!—the bishops! Not parishioners, not women, not the adults who as children were molested or raped by priests who were protected by the bishops.”
• “Those who brag that ‘The Church is not a democracy’ might better ask themselves, ‘Why not?’ Indeed, in the early centuries of the Church the people of Rome and other cities took part in electing their bishops—in Rome, the Pope. Time
to renew the tradition, and not just in Rome?”

March 19 & 26
Washington, D.C. – Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl was attacked by Catholic writer George Neumayr in two pieces that were posted on the website of The American Spectator. The first one did not receive much attention. But then Neumayr struck again in response to a complaint registered by Wuerl’s communications director.

Neumayr alleged that a priest in Cardinal Wuerl’s archdiocese was put on leave for denying communion to a lesbian at a funeral mass. His version was contested by the Washington Archdiocese: what led to the sanctions were “credible allegations” regarding the priest’s “intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others.”

Neumayr said Wuerl is one of those “cufflinked cardinals” who “worry not about punishment in the next world but slights in this one”; their goal, he says, is to curry favor with the “Pretty People.” Worse, he had the audacity to put the cardinal on notice, exclaiming that “Wuerl can only earn the red of his rich robes through a willingness to endure the blood of Jesus Christ’s martyrdom.” Neumayr was not above wallowing in the dirt: he referred to the Washington archbishop as “Wuerl the girl.”

Cardinal Wuerl’s communications director made a formal complaint with Neumayr’s editors. In response, he wrote a second article in which he became unhinged, charging that Cardinal Wuerl “exposed the Holy Eucharist to sacrilege.”

March 28
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend posted an article on the website of The Atlantic about how she spent her St. Patrick’s Day at a conference attended by homosexuals, lesbians, and “transgender” men/women. Without citing a single example, she asserted that the Catholic Church’s teachings “encourage bigotry and harm.” She also claimed that the conference was put on by a Catholic organization called New Ways Ministry. There is no Catholic group by that name (on St. Patrick’s Day in 2011 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reaffirmed that New Ways Ministry is not a Catholic organization). Finally, even though the Catholic Church has no female priests, she claimed that two female priests gave her a special blessing at the conference.

April 7
On Holy Saturday, CNN’s Belief Blog website featured a post called “The Jesus Debate: Man vs. Myth.” It was a classic example of religious profiling that subjected the reality of Jesus to scrutiny in the guise of historical analysis. No one objects to legitimate historical analysis. What is objectionable, however, is the pretence of objectivity when anti-Christian animus poses as hard science.

April 12
Sarah Posner’s article, “Bishops Release Religious Liberty Manifesto Vowing Disobedience to ‘Unjust Laws,’” appeared on the Religion Dispatches website. She attacked the bishops’ “Statement on Religious Liberty” as “even more pointed and hostile than previous statements.” She said the statement expressed “disdain for (and even a refusal to acknowledge) court rulings against the Bishops.” She referred to “the phony religious freedom wars” and looked forward to the “summer of the Bishops’ content.”

April 13
The “LGBT” blog of ThinkProgress, associated with the Center for American Progress, attacked a statement on religious liberty by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying that the Catholic Church wants to “impose its public services” on the public and accusing the hierarchy of caring about “its own dominance over society.”

April 16
When Pope Benedict XVI called for “radical obedience” to the Magisterium during Holy Week, writer Michele Somerville responded in the Huffington Post defending Catholic dissidents. In a piece called “Radical Disobedience: Why Roman Catholics Won’t Heed the Pontiff’s Call for Radical Obedience,” she attacked the Church’s hierarchy for upholding doctrine on matters like marriage, homosexuality, abortion, and birth control. She fantasized about the Vatican’s loss of “credibility.”

April 17
The Daily Caller exposed Media Matters for America’s targeting of Christianity, with the goal of silencing the Christian voice.

It uncovered that, in 2004, Media Matters leader, David Brock, made clear his goals when he applied to the IRS for a tax-exempt status. “It is common for news and commentary by the press to present viewpoints that tend to overly promote corporate interests, the rights of the wealthy, and a conservative Christian-influenced ideology,” the application said.

Anyone who has followed the history of Media Matters knows that it has evolved into something far more extreme than what its founding statement said. To be frank, it is one thing for left-wing activists to promote a radical agenda, quite another to finger a world religion for monitoring.

April 24
In the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog, Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo raised the question, “Is the Church Corrupt?” The answer implied the worst. He ended by saying, “Catholics are loyal enough to Jesus and to each other to prevail against the Gates of Hell that now besmirch the institutional church.” We made the point that it would then logically follow that they are no longer Catholic.

Sally Quinn, the blog’s moderator, contributed another rap, entitled, “A Catholic ‘War on Women.’” She began with this insight: “The Roman Catholic Church is a hierarchical institution if there ever was one.” Then she accused the Vatican of “condemning nuns, including those among the 55,000 members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).” But the Vatican condemned no one and only 3% of nuns belong to the LCWR.

June 5
A post on Gawker.com carried the title “The Catholic Church Should Not Expect to Be Taken Seriously,” and attacked the Vatican for censuring Sister Margaret Farley on the publication of her book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. The post was an obscene rant claiming that she was censured because it was a “a book that did not say that your sexual urges are nothing more than the shameful pangs of demon penises f***ing your soul which should be repressed and repressed and repressed until you are absolutely warped, underneath that church outfit. Burn the witch! Ahh, apparently we don’t do that any more? Well… censure the witch!” [Italics in original].  The writer referred to leaders of the Church as “holy relics.” He accused the hierarchy of saying something “so patently stupid, backwards, hateful, discriminatory, and downright unrealistic that any 13 year-old can tell you that you’ve removed yourself from the sphere of reasonable discussion.” The article ended with “Go f*** yourself, The Vatican. It might make you feel better.”

August 6
A Salon.com article by Joan Walsh contained an attack on the U.S. bishops, suggesting that they are a “military group” as well as an “unregistered arm of the GOP.”

August 13
A lexicographical website, Wordsmith.org, engaged in anti-Catholic bigotry: “Latin is the preferred language of the Vatican, but don’t hold it against the language. It had no say in the matter. A language never hurt little kids, if you don’t count all the schoolchildren who had to memorize all those ‘amo amas amat’ conjugations.”

November 26
The website, AlterNet, published an article entitled “50 Reasons to Boycott the Catholic Church.” The author’s main gripe was that “the church isn’t a democracy” and that “progressives have no voice or vote in its governance.” Therefore, he advocated a boycott of the “institutional church and its abhorrent mission,” adducing 50 reasons which he felt proved his point.

December 13
In an online article called, “Rare Pornographic Movie Shot at Vatican For First Time Since 1982s ‘Pope Fisters IV,’” The Onion crossed the line between irreverent satire and vicious anti-Catholicism. The article elaborated at length about a “new hardcore pornographic movie being shot at the Sistine Chapel” and used pornographic terms to mock such things as First Communion, the Holy Eucharist, the Immaculate Conception, and Pope Benedict XVI’s name.

Magazines

March 26
An article by Joel Mathis posted on the Philadelphia magazine blog site was a blatant attempt to silence Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput. Mathis isn’t Catholic, but that did not stop him from giving some advice to Archbishop Chaput: just tend to the problems in the archdiocese and drop your criticisms of the Obama administration. Mathis was angry that Chaput had a new e-book, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America, which addressed recent attacks on religious liberty. Mathis counseled Chaput to “concentrate on fixing the Catholic Church in Philadelphia,” adding that the archbishop’s alleged “anti-Obama crusade” amounted to “a distraction.”

Movies

April 13
“The Three Stooges” opened in theatres nationwide. The Stooges were depicted seeking to raise money for their orphanage run by habit-wearing, stereotypical nuns. One of the sisters was played by swimsuit model Kate Upton, who was shown wearing a “nun bikini” with a large rosary around her neck. Another nun, Sister Mary-Mengele, named after the Nazi war criminal, was played by Seinfeld creator Larry David. On his own show in 2009, David splattered urine on a picture of Jesus in a Catholic home.

According to one AP movie critic, the directors “never wanted to tinker with the Stooges.” The New York Times agreed, saying the brothers “strove for absolute fidelity to the original.” CBS News also cited their “loyalty to the subject.”

The slapstick was there, but the TV show never mocked nuns. The film did.

May 4
“The Perfect Family” opened in 13 theaters nationwide, eight of which were in California. The movie portrayed Hollywood’s idea of a Catholic family: a neurotic devout Catholic wife, played by Kathleen Turner, married to an alcoholic; her pregnant lesbian daughter who wants to “marry” her girlfriend; and her adulterous lout of a son.

Turner is a left-wing atheist who serves on the board of directors of the Christian-bashing People for the American Way. She said her character tries to show the conflict between being a practicing Catholic and seeking to “live in the real world.” Movieline.com agreed, saying she plays “a religious dinosaur roaming a modern world.” Though the movie was riddled with intolerance toward Catholicism, Turner said, “I would hope tolerance” is the message that comes through. Variety concurred, adding that the film preaches “tolerance toward gays” (but not toward Catholics).

It is a staple of anti-Catholicism to say that Catholics are not independent thinkers. Predictably, Turner’s character admits, “I’m Catholic. I don’t need to think.” However, not all family members are stupid. Shockya.com noted that the pregnant lesbian daughter embodies “independent thinking and modern beliefs.”

When asked about the portrayal of Catholicism, Turner said, “I thought we were pretty nice.” The executive producer, Connie Cummings, agreed: “We didn’t want to take cheap shots or villainise anyone.” Rex Reed takes a different approach, saying, “The movie is almost guaranteed to offend the humorless.”

September 8
Venice, Italy –The Venice Film Festival awarded a special jury prize to “Paradise: Faith.” In the film, a “devout” Catholic woman is shown masturbating with a crucifix. The movie begins with the woman whipping herself topless before a crucifix. She is shown walking around the house on her knees praying. She also likes to go door to door carrying a two-foot high statue of the Virgin Mary; this is her way of getting new converts. The film is part of a trilogy; Strand Releasing acquired the U.S. rights and planned to release it early in 2013.

November 28
New York, NY – At the prestigious Film Forum, a showing of the documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” by director Alex Gibney was used by Margaret Markey to push her sex abuse reform law, which exempts public schools. She was joined by Marci Hamilton, a Cardozo School of Law professor who has singled out the Catholic Church in her work for the professional victims’ lobby.

Gibney’s documentary was mere propaganda purporting to establish a “direct connection of the Vatican” to the homosexual abuse scandal.

Much of the movie focused on Father Lawrence Murphy, a serial abuser from Wisconsin. Gibney’s propaganda omitted inconvenient facts: the crimes against Murphy extend to the 1950s; the civil authorities were not asked to investigate until the mid-1970s; following the probe, the case was dropped; the Vatican wasn’t notified until 1996 (it could have ignored the case because the statute of limitations had expired); a trial was ordered; the priest who presided over the case between 1996-1998 has said that in all the meetings he had in the U.S. and in Rome, “at no time…was Cardinal Ratzinger’s name ever mentioned.”

One review of the movie said, “All the reports of sex abuse in the church since the 1960’s went directly to the current pope, Benedict XVI, to the time when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.” There was no central command center until 2001 when Ratzinger took over, which is when things really began to change—just the opposite of what Gibney would have us believe.

Music

February 12
Los Angeles, CA – During her performance at the Grammy Awards, pop star Nicki Minaj trashed the Catholic faith. As a prelude to her act, she appeared on the red carpet with a man dressed like the pope. Her performance began on stage with a mock confessional skit that was followed by a taped video depicting a mock exorcism. With stained glass in the background, she appeared on stage again with choir boys and monks dancing.

Perhaps the most vulgar part was the sexual statement that showed a scantily clad female dancer stretching backwards while an altar boy knelt between her legs in prayer. Finally, “Come All Ye Faithful” was sung while a man posing as a bishop walked on stage; Minaj was shown levitating.

None of this was by accident, and all of it was approved by The Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys. The Catholic League took The Recording Academy to task for its irresponsibility and selective tolerance, and our protest of this obscene assault was picked up by media outlets from the New York Times to the Times of India.

March 23
Madonna’s new CD, MDNA was released. It embraced moral dissolution and bashed Catholicism.

The video for the song, “Girl Gone Wild,” showed the 53-year-old tramping around in black hot pants and stiletto heels while gyrating with well-greased topless guys adorned in tight black pants. The homoerotic show was so vulgar that YouTube said the video was not fit for those under the age of 18. YouTube even asked Madonna to recut a more appropriate video for teenagers.

“Girl Gone Wild” began with Madonna reciting the first few lines of “The Act of Contrition.” (Indeed, it was no accident that this song, and the album, were released during Lent.) She then pranced around to the backdrop of a light-show configured to resemble a cross. A man who was shown wearing a Crown of Thorns was no doubt meant as another swipe at Christianity.

The album also featured “I’m a Sinner.” With lyrics such as “I’m a sinner, I like it that way,” Madonna made it clear that she always has Catholicism on her mind. “Hail Mary full of grace” was followed by a quip about Jesus, St. Christopher and St. Anthony.

Madonna admitted that MDNA was chosen to reference both her name and the drug MDMA; the line from “I’m a Sinner” about “magic dust” was used to refer to the PCP drug by that name.

July 16
In Madonna’s video that accompanied the song, “Nobody Knows Me,” French National Front party leader Marine Le Pen was shown sporting a swastika on her head. After the video was played during Madonna’s performance in Paris, the National Front said it was going to sue her. In fact, Madonna bowed to pressure by changing the swastika to a question mark. Madonna’s vile attack on Pope Benedict XVI, however, did not attract much media attention, which explains why it went unchanged.

The full video of “Nobody Knows Me,” which was part of Madonna’s MDNA Tour, was replete with religious symbolism. The most offensive part for Catholics occurred when anti-gay protesters were shown just before Madonna’s face morphs into that of Pope Benedict XVI; at the point where the pope’s face appeared, protesters holding gay-bashing signs were shown on both sides of him. The accompanying lyrics, which included the refrain, “Won’t let a stranger give me a social disease,” tied the pope to hate speech directed at homosexuals. Moreover, photos of gay youths who committed suicide were also shown during this sequence.

What was particularly sick about this attack was that the protesters were not only not Catholic, they were anti-Catholic members of the Westboro Baptist Church. To demonstrate how relentlessly anti-Catholic these people are, they were going to picket St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas on July 22: the church was called a “whorehouse” and the priests were labeled “rapists.”

Madonna not only libeled the pope, she attributed to Catholicism the hate speech of those who hate Catholics, as well as homosexuals. That the media gave scant coverage to this part of her bigoted performance was also disturbing.

August 27
Comic, singer, and actor Harry Shearer released a new album, “Can’t take a hint.” One of the songs was called “Deaf Boys,” which was recorded two years earlier. The song takes as its subject a serial abuser from Wisconsin, Father Lawrence Murphy, as if he were singing. The video is shot inside a church and exploits Catholic iconography, including images of priests, bishops, and cardinals showing only the lower half of their faces as they are singing and without faces while clapping. Here is a sampling of the lyrics: “Deaf boys, can’t hear me comin’ / Deaf boys, got me hymin’ and hummin’ / A shepherd with a closet full of toys / Let’s hear it for those deaf boys.”

Newspapers

January 5
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an editorial sympathizing with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and called on Catholics to rebel against St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson by refusing to put money in the collection basket. It also called Judge Ann Mesle, who ordered SNAP to hand over internal documents, “a minister’s daughter.” This was clearly a term of disapprobation, as no one would ever dare to ask how many reporters at the paper were raised by committed atheists, had a liberal rabbi as a father, or were born to an unwed mother.

January 11-17
SF Weekly featured an attack piece on Mother Teresa called “Tainted Saint,” which was given front-page prominence together with a picture of Mother Teresa and the caption, “New evidence suggests Mother Teresa told church officials to overlook a sex abuse allegation against her favorite Bay Area priest.” The magazine claimed to have obtained documents supporting its case, but none was even barely credible.

February 10
A Tony Auth cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer presented a caricature of the lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn, who was facing trial at the time on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy. The caricature said, “The trial judge says anyone who doubts there was widespread child abuse in the Catholic Church is living on a different planet. Outrageous!!” In the next frame, a bishop is shown in outer space. He is standing on a moon marked “denial” above the planet Earth.

February 12
A Signe Wilkinson cartoon in the Lexington Herald-Leader depicted a group of bishops and a group of women, one of which held a sign that read “Catholic Women (who mostly use contraceptives).” The bishops say, “Our medical facilities shouldn’t have to cover birth control!” The women say, “Ours should!” The cartoon portrayed the Catholic hierarchy’s opposition to the Health and Human Services contraception mandate on the ground of religious liberty as not just a “war on women,” but a “war on Catholic women.” The cartoon dishonestly omitted the fact that, when polled on the question of contraceptive coverage at the cost of religious liberty, a greater percentage of women polled in favor of religious liberty.

February 14
Highlands Today ran a Gabe Closten cartoon depicting the hands of a priest holding above the cup of the Chalice not the consecrated Host, but a dispenser for birth control pills.

February 14
A Joe Heller cartoon ran in the Frederick News-Post. In the background, it depicted a crowd of people behind the phrase “Majority of U.S. Catholics use birth control.” In the foreground, President Obama is shown holding a document that reads “change in gov’t health care policy on contraception.” A bishop standing next to Obama has his arm around Obama’s shoulder and tells Obama: “See? Compromise is good…The last thing you want is everyone ignoring your rules!” This was a blatant attack on the Catholic hierarchy.

February 16
A Mike Luckovich cartoon in the New Haven Register depicted a priest telling congregants, “Parishioners, the government wants our hospitals and universities to cover contraceptives in their health care plans!” In the next frame he says, “That wasn’t supposed to be an applause line.” The cartoon was an attack on the parish letters on the threat to religious liberty posed by the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate that was read to congregants across the country in January. It suggested that Catholics welcomed the mandate and portrayed Catholic opposition to the mandate as a phenomenon of the bishops.

February 16
The Portland Press Herald ran a Clay Bennett cartoon depicting a fully armored knight ineptly raising a medieval flail only to have the spiked ball at the end of the chain crush him square on the helmet. On his shield were the words “culture war.” His tunic resembled those worn by crusaders, except the red cross was emblazoned with the letters “GOP.” The cartoon was an amalgam of clichés suggesting that the Catholic Church is waging a self-defeating crusade-style “culture war” through the GOP.

February 16
The Lanconia Daily Sun ran a Mike Luckovich cartoon in which an elephant lawmaker in a suit, symbolizing the Republican Party, says “I’m taking a well-deserved break from job creation….” He was depicted playing monkey-in-the-middle with a bishop. A woman is in the middle, being kept from “birth control,” which is being tossed over her head. The cartoon implied that the Catholic Church was conspiring with the Republican Party to keep access to birth control from women.

February 16
A Paul Laud cartoon in the Caldwell Progress depicted a birth control dispenser being broken in the hands of a priest as if it were the Host. The cartoon contained the following limerick: “The Constitution and lots of prayer helped bishops squash a terrible scare. / But it’s over, Amen. / The flock safe again, / from family planning and pre-natal care.” This was yet another cartoon attacking Catholics as a result of the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate.

February 17
A cartoon entitled “Santorum Discovers the New World” appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune and attacked presidential candidate Rick Santorum for his Catholicism. A man caricatured in a missionary robe labeled “Santorum” stands next to a woman labeled “21st Century.” He is holding a document marked “Women’s Issues,” turning his head in repugnance at the sight. He exclaims: “Ugh! Naked savage!” This cartoon exploited the “war on women” narrative advocated by radical feminists and their “liberated” cohorts in the media.

February 19
A Taylor Jones cartoon in the Staten Island Advance depicted Uncle Sam saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. This cartoon suggested that the support for the U.S. bishops’ fight for religious liberty compromised loyalty to America.

February 20
The Frederick News-Post ran a David Fitzsimmons cartoon vilifying the bishops for defending the First Amendment rights of Catholics. In the first frame of the cartoon, a caricatured bishop is shown “huffing” about the position that “hospitals and universities should not be asked to include contraceptives in their employee’s health plans.” In the next frame, he then says, “We believe in the principle of separation of church and state.”  In the third  frame, he adds, “And the principle of church and reality.” In the last frame, the cartoonish bishop is shown reading a newspaper with the headline, “98% of Catholic Women Use Contraceptives.”

February 20
The Philadelphia Daily News ran a Joel Pett cartoon in which, in one frame, a bishop tells a mother with a baby and young child, “You can take your immoral, evil desire for birth control somewhere else!” In the frame underneath, as mother and children are walking away, the bishop adds, “Adorable boy, by the way…” This was a swipe at all priests as child abusers.

February 20
A Jim Morin cartoon in USA Today depicted Rick Santorum, who was campaigning for president at the time, in the same bed with a couple and a bishop. The bishop says, “Mr. Santorum and I are here to make sure the government doesn’t interfere with your lives…”

February 21
The Portland Press Herald ran a R.J. Matson cartoon depicting the confessional from the outside. In a conversation bubble, the penitent says to the priest, “Bless me father for I have health insurance that pays for contraceptives…”

February 21
The Universal Press Syndicate issued a Pat Oliphant cartoon attacking the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform February 16 hearing entitled “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” The panel featured eminent religious leaders from various faiths, including then-Bishop of Bridgeport William Lori.

In the cartoon, a woman faces a panel of experts, all male clergy, including a rabbi, a bishop, and a priest. She points indignantly at a sign saying “Reform Committee on Contraception – No Women Please.” The priest replies, “I’m sorry, my dear. But contraception is far too important a matter to be left to women.” In a corner of the cartoon, two small figures have a conversation. One says, “What would Jesus say?” The other says, “Verily, it taketh two to tango.” The cartoon also ran in the Lexington Herald-Leader on February 25.

February 25
The Times-Reporter ran an Ed Stein cartoon in which Rick Santorum, in papal regalia, is being sworn into the Office of the President of the United States. The cartoon attacked Santorum for his Catholicism.

March 1-7
The Monterey County Weekly carried an elaborate Tom Tomorrow cartoon that depicted the bishops in alliance with conservative pundits as waging a “war on women.” The Catholic resistance to the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate was depicted in the most vile anti-Catholic terms. In the cartoon, one bishop says, “The pursuit of the orgasm leads women to have sex—which leads to abortions!” Another bishop continues, “And that’s why the female orgasm is a violation of our religious liberty!”

March 13
Following the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s (FFRF) anti-Catholic ad in the New York Times [see Activists, March 9], anti-Islamist activist Pamela Geller decided to submit an ad to the Times that played off FFRF by changing the wording to make it look like an attack on Islam. For example, she asked Muslims to quit their religion because they oppress so many people.

The Times rejected the ad with the excuse that “the fallout from running this ad now could put U.S. troops and/or civilians in the [Afghan] region in danger.”

The Times’ rationale for denying Geller’s ad was sound: we are opposed to unnecessarily putting our armed forces in harm’s way. But we wondered why it took fear to impel the New York Times not to run bigoted ads. Wouldn’t ethics suffice? It certainly wasn’t enough when they decided to run the FFRF ad assaulting Catholic sensibilities.

April 16
The Indianapolis Star ran a story about Maria Thornton McClain, a 71-year old former nun who had declared herself to be a priest. This Father Maria hoax was featured on page 1 of the B Section; the website featured 17 pictures of her and her fans. “The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize the ordination of women, but more and more women are answering the call as part of a reform movement,” the paper said.  A spokesman for CORPUS, a group that actually thinks Maria is a priest, was quoted as saying “we have to stand up for inclusivity.”

April 29
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a Steve Sack cartoon in which a caricature of Pope Benedict XVI says to a cartoonish figure in habit labeled “U.S. Nuns,” “I’m very upset with you for not speaking out against homosexuality!” In the next panel, the pope says to a caricature of Jesus, “Same goes for your friend.”

May 7
In an editorial called “More Time for Justice,” the New York Times criticized New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan for opposing legislation by New York Assemblywoman Margaret Markey which would lift the statute of limitations for one year on civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of a minor. The Times opined: “Cardinal Timothy Dolan has made defeating statute of limitations reform one of his top legislative priorities.” It also attacked the Church more generally when it said that the Church “had been working hard to defeat statute of limitations reform across the country.” The editorial also insinuated that opposition to the campaign to abolish the statute of limitations suggested an acknowledgement of guilt rather than a prudent requirement of law.

May 7
In an editorial called “The Passivity of the Catholic Church,” the Washington Post pretended that the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is a legitimate organization that “has championed the victims of pedophile priests” and that is being harassed by the Church. The editorial concluded that, “While Catholic leaders insist they have turned the tide against clerical sexual abuse, the church’s behavior suggests that its default is to protect the abusers and their supervisors who turned a blind eye. Until that changes, the church’s promises of zero tolerance will remain an illusion.”

May 8
The National Catholic Reporter ran an editorial with the following comment against the Vatican and bishops in response to the Vatican investigation into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious: “This is the latest episode of episcopal flailing about in a search for enemies anywhere and everywhere to explain how so much has escaped their control. This isn’t about authentic teaching and orthodoxy. This is about thought control and censorship.” In other words, the National Catholic Reporter regarded the hierarchy as no better than the totalitarian monsters who have ruled in communist and fascist nations. This assault represented a new low.

May 16
In an editorial entitled, “Georgetown gets it right on invitation to Kathleen Sebelius,” the Washington Post found it “shocking” that the Archbishop of Washington Donald Cardinal Wuerl found it “shocking” that the president of Georgetown University stood by the decision to invite Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a commencement ceremony in light of the HHS abortifacient mandate. In particular, the paper opined that, “What we find shocking is Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s failure to credit the proper role of a university and the importance of vigorous, open debate, even—or perhaps especially—involving matters of intense controversy and religious disagreement.” By framing the invitation as a way of facilitating the “exchange of ideas” proper to a university setting, the newspaper arrogantly attempted to portray the cardinal’s opposition as close-minded and out of place, when in fact it was a reasonable defense of the school’s Catholic identity.

May 18
In an editorial entitled, “Silencing Kathleen Sebelius,” the Los Angeles Times attacked the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. for criticizing Georgetown University’s decision to invite Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a commencement ceremony. In particular, the paper accused Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl of “censorship” for speaking out against Georgetown’s embrace of abortion champion Kathleen Sebelius.

May 19
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd accused Archbishop of Washington Donald Cardinal Wuerl of “dogmatic censorship” for opposing Georgetown University’s invitation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a commencement ceremony. The entire article was malicious in its attempt to portray the Church as a coercive institution: “Absolute intolerance is always a sign of uncertainty and panic. Why do you have to hunt down everyone unless you’re weak? The church doesn’t seem to care if its members’ beliefs are based on faith or fear, conviction or coercion. But what is the quality of a belief that exists simply because it’s enforced?”

May 22
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd attacked the bishops in her article, “Father Doesn’t Know Best.” She wrote the following regarding the U.S. bishops’ opposition to the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate:

“The church insists it’s an argument about religious freedom, not birth control. But, really, it’s about birth control, and women’s lower caste in the church. It’s about conservative bishops targeting Democratic candidates who support contraception and abortion rights as a matter of public policy. And it’s about a church that is obsessed with sex in ways it shouldn’t be, and not obsessed with sex in ways it should be. The bishops and the Vatican care passionately about putting women in chastity belts.”

May 24
A New York Times syndicated cartoon by Jeff Danziger appeared in the Huffington Post. The cartoon depicted a Catholic pontiff next to a Mulism imam. The prelate says, “Religious leaders must be free to decide what women can do with their bodies.” The imam replies, “Great wisdom…inshallah [Arabic for God willing].” The cartoon also appeared in the Albany Times-Union.

May 27
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Entitled “Confession,” it depicts a priest “confessing” to a woman on the other side of the confessional that, “the contraception debate’s about controlling you.” The cartoon also appeared in the New London Day on June 6.

June 8
The Boston Herald ran a Jerry Holbert cartoon entitled “Ninja Nuns.” In the background a nun is shown in habit, with a ruler in one hand and a ninja-like covering on her face. Two bishops are shown in a state of alarm. One says: “The nuns have gone rogue!! We trained them, and now they are turning on us!” The other says: “Ow! Someone just hit my hand with a ruler!” The bottom of the cartoon reads: “Vatican to crack down on American nuns.”

June 16
The Seattle Times ran a Chan Lowe cartoon in which a bishop and a nun are shown having a conversation. The bishop holds a newspaper with the headline, “U.S. Bishops’ Contraceptive Fight.” The bishop says, “Our fundamental concern isn’t politics, but the protection of religious liberty…” The nun says, “Excuse me, your excellency…” The bishop replies, “Put a sock in it, sister.”

June 17
The New York Daily News ran Rick Stromoski’s “Soup to Nutz” cartoon in which a character reads a book called “Lies my father told me.” In one panel, the cartoon implies that one of the lies is, “Don’t question the Pope…he’s infallible.”

June 27
The Portland Daily Sun ran a Stuart Carlson cartoon showing cardinals following the pope. Each figure holds a stack of paper with one of the following signs: “U.S. nuns,” “sex abuse,” “butler scandal,” and “bank scandals.” Another cardinal is labeled “contraceptives.” The pope asks: “What would Jesus do?” One of the cardinals says: “It’s obvious—hire a new P.R. guy!”

June 28
The Valley Advocate ran a vicious Tom Pappalardo cartoon entitled “And also with you” with the sub-heading “Variations on a Theme,” in which a priest is shown holding the consecrated Host. A young man wearing a backwards baseball cap and earphones has his hand out and says the following:

• “I’ll stop with the pedophile jokes when you get WIFI up in this beeyotch.”
• “I always wondered where recycled styrofoam went.”
• “…Is it true that Jesus’ foreskin is hidden in the basement of the Vatican next to the Holy Spear of Longinus?”
• “…wait, whoa! Body and blood of who??”
• “…believe me, Padre. If I had my way, there’d be carvings of half-naked dead men crucified to each and every dang telephone pole in America.”
• “…this is the smallest megachurch I’ve ever been to.”
• “…you gonna finish that pimp cup o’wine, playa?”

July 26
Boston, MA – After a bill was passed by voice vote in the Massachusetts House expanding the time period on civil claims of child sexual abuse  [see Government, July 25], an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer called for Pennsylvania lawmakers to allow a two-year window for filing civil lawsuits in such cases. The bill that was passed did nothing about child sexual abuse that occurs in the public schools and applied exclusively to private institutions, such as the Catholic Church. The editorial said absolutely nothing about blanketing the public sector; unless a bill specifically targets the sovereign immunity status of the public schools, they remain exempt.

August 5
The Washington Post ran a review of two movies that addressed “the highly controversial ACT UP protest” at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989, noting that “the hostility directed at the group after disrupting a religious service is now seen in a broader more sympathetic historical perspective.” Such sympathy is not only a disgrace, it is a veil for a virulent anti-Catholicism. The reviewer had no intention of reminding readers of what actually happened at St. Patrick’s: The activists disrupted Mass, chained themselves to the pews, interfered with Communion and spit the Host on the floor. Bill Donohue contacted the author Philip Kennicott, remarking that, “In other words, they acted like Nazis who stormed synagogues.”

October 1-17
On October 17, FX premiered the first episode of the series, “American Horror Story: Asylum.” It depicted an evil Catholic home for the criminally insane where a promiscuous nun—in habit, of course—beats inmates; a Catholic doctor tortures them. When the Catholic League submitted a full-page ad to be run that was critical of the show on October 1, it was turned down by The Hollywood Reporter’s publisher, Lynne Segall, who responded by saying the ad “was not appropriate.” She did not say the show “was not appropriate.” After being rejected by The Hollywood Reporter, the Catholic League submitted the ad to Variety on October 2 where it met the same fate, this time because of the alleged “mudslinging” title, “FX Trashes Nuns.” No one at Variety said the show was guilty of “mudslinging.” For the text of the ad that was rejected, please [click here].

The Catholic League refused to amend its ad and took to the radio waves in Los Angeles to expose the Hollywood censors. On Monday, October 15, radio stations KFI and KTLK ran the following ad: “I’m Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. On Wednesday, the first episode of FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Asylum,’ will air. The entire series portrays an evil Catholic home for the criminally insane where inmates are beaten and tortured by nuns and doctors. I recently sought to place an ad critical of the show in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, but was turned down by both because of the ad’s content. In other words, not only does Hollywood delight in bashing Catholicism, it seeks to censor objections to it.”

October 19
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a Chan Lowe cartoon called “The Boy Scouts scandal,” with the caption, “A boy scout leader goes to confession.” The cartoon used the revelation of sex abuse in the Boy Scouts to attack the Church. The drawing shows the closed confessional with a speech bubble on one side saying, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” Another speech bubble in response reads: “Believe me…I can relate.”

November 1
The weekly Miami Sun Post ran an opinion piece by Charles Branham-Bailey attacking Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski for issuing guidelines on how to vote. The article was called: “Can He Say That? Wenski the Buttinski: Archbishop Signals (Wink-Wink, Nod-Nod) Woe to Any Catholic Who Strays From the Flock.” The article attacked Wenski’s First Amendment rights, implying that he had no right to speak out on the complex moral issues that underlie public policy positions.

The article also attacked the Archbishop for upholding Church teaching on the common good and the human person: “That from a guy who is forbidden to engage in sexual relations, and who belongs to a profession all too many of whose members have scandalized their Church for decades thanks to their inability to keep their pants zipped up and their private parts unexposed when around children.”

November 1
The cover of the weekly Miami New Times featured on its cover a picture of Jesus Christ with Mickey Mouse ears with the question, “How would Jesus vote?” The cover was meant to accompany its feature article on the fight for votes in the I-4 corridor that cuts through central Florida. The following week, the paper ran two letters taking offense at the cover and apologized for any offense the cover caused.

December 6
The Kansas City Star ran a Mike Judge cartoon in which news of Pope Benedict XVI tweeting for the first time was used to bash the Catholic Church. At the top of the cartoon is a question: “Why did the man with archaic views on women, gays, birth control, sex, marriage, health care and child molestation open a Twitter account?” Underneath was an image of the pope caricatured to look like a dimwit with the words: “He wants to keep up with the times.”

December 6
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a Rob Rogers cartoon in which news of the pope tweeting for the first time was used to bash the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI is shown tweeting on his smart phone the words: “OMG!! This 21st century technology is great for spreading my 15th century views on gays, women and contraception! LOL #say10hailmarys”

Radio

March 17
The National Public Radio weekend game show “Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell me!” included attacks on Pope Benedict XVI, calling him “another famous gay icon.” Using the news that the pope would receive his own cologne, the host envisioned a “pope product empire,” including jeans (“nothing gets between me and my Benedicts”) and cereal (“let’s give this cereal to Popey, Popey condemns everything”).

April 12
On his nationally syndicated radio show, Mike Malloy went on a tirade against Bill Donohue, whom he called “that piece of human waste” and “the fascist Bill Donohue Catholic Nazi.” He also called Catholics “child-raping sons of bitches” and referred to “your scum, the Nazi Pope.”

May 27
The web version of Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s story, entitled “Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official’s Defense,” was posted on the website of National Public Radio (NPR). It began: “A clergy sex-abuse trial in is [sic] reaching a crescendo in a Philadelphia courtroom. One defendant is James Brennan, a priest accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.” [Emphasis added.]

In this day and age when it is considered taboo to make sweeping generalizations of a negative sort about so many demographic groups, it was astonishing that NPR allowed this bigoted swipe at Catholic priests.

The Catholic League asked NPR to respond to our complaint, which the ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, addressed in a separate posting on the NPR website. He claimed that Hagerty had contacted him “even before” we issued our statement and that “a number of other listener complaints came pouring in” to him. He claimed Hagerty had told him the phrase, “which is not that unusual,” was “inartfully written” and “wished she could take it back.” The ombudsman was quick to defend Hagerty’s “sensitivity” as a religion reporter, even at the expense of the Catholic League, which he charged could use “a little bit more measure.”

December 14
On the day that the nation was mourning the loss of 20 children in the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting, employee of Rhode Island Public Radio (RIPR), Scott MacKay, had the following exchange on Twitter:

Scott MacKay: “Hug every child you see this evening.”
Elayne C. Burke: “@ScotMackRI that’s a good way to get arrested.”
Scott MacKay: “@chatelainedc Don’t worry I’ [sic] not a priest or scoutmaster”

After it was posted, RIPR promptly had it removed. Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin responded swiftly and decisively with a letter to the CEO and General Manager of Rhode Island Public Radio about the offensive post defaming members of the clergy and gave credit to the organization for promptly removing the bigoted Twitter post.

Television

January 5
Jay Leno opened up his show with a monologue in which he commented on an auxiliary bishop from Los Angeles who had stepped down after admitting he fathered two children.

After explaining what happened, Leno said, “I thought bishops could only move diagonally. I didn’t know they could move up and down.” When making these remarks, Leno gestured with his hands, waving them side to side, and then up and down. Leno went on to say, “Isn’t it amazing the bishop of L.A. confessed to fathering two children? But, hey, he didn’t use birth control, so at least he followed the church rules. Ya gotta give him credit for that.”

January 11
“Are You There, Chelsea?” debuted on NBC as part of its new lineup of mid-season shows. It was based on the bestselling book by Chelsea Handler, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.

The real-life Chelsea Handler was in the show, and although she is Jewish, she played a Christian. Her character was described by various reviewers as the “judgy, super-Christian sister” [of Chelsea]; a “born-again Christian” who was “supposed to be a bit of a stiff”; and an “uptight born-again Christian.” Another woman played Chelsea’s “goofy virgin roommate”; she was also described as “a reliably funny gangly naif.”

What was particularly interesting about the show was that the Christian character did not appear in the book upon which the script is written; it was made up entirely by NBC.

February 14
Comedy Central aired an episode of the “Colbert Report” in which host Stephen Colbert addressed the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate in a segment called “Contraception Crusade.” The show’s website summarized the segment this way: “Barack Obama launches a vengeful health care crusade against the Catholic church, essentially forcing priests to hand out condoms at mass.” The segment crossed the line from Colbert’s usual over-the-top satire into anti-Catholicism. Below is a list of his remarks:

• He said that, “Catholic groups are forced to provide contraceptives, but the pope wants his hat to be the only thing with a reservoir tip.”
• There was a close-up photo of a priest distributing condoms instead of the consecrated Host.
• He said that “If Jesus would have wanted everyone to have insurance, he would have been crucified on a Blue Cross Blue Shield.”
• He mocked Catholic teaching on contraception,calling it a “central tenet” and then saying that it is as central as
“marble, Jesus on toast, and unintentionally hot school uniforms.”
• He mentioned the teaching of Humanae Vitae and then said, “If you use contraception, you are not only sinning, you are c**kblocking the Almighty.”
• He used transubstantiation to mock how the Catholic Church receives money from “secular cash,” i.e., taxpayer dollars, which is then “transubstantiated” into “Bishop bucks” that can be used for “legal settlements.”

April 11
Two days before the opening of the film “The Three Stooges,” in which he played a nun named after a Nazi, Larry David, who has a history of anti-Catholicism, said to Conan O’Brien that dressing as a nun in the film made it easy to understand why nuns are “so mean.” He explained, “You know, the outfits might have something to do with that. Forget about the fact that they never have sex. If you gave me a choice of no sex or having to wear that outfit the rest of my life, I would definitely take the no sex.”

April 16
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” flashed a picture on the screen of a naked woman with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament in between. The show’s host, Jon Stewart, called it the “vagina manger.” This was unabashed hate speech. Stewart was angry with Fox News for not being exercised over the alleged “war on women,” which is how the media was framing the defense of religious liberty against the Health and Human Services abortifacient mandate.

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CAMPAIGN AGAINST JON STEWART

In all the years of monitoring anti-Christian bigotry, seldom have we seen something as vile as what happened on April 16. On Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” they flashed a picture on the screen of a naked woman with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament in between. He called it the “vagina manger.” We called it hate speech. Stewart was angry with the Fox News for not being exercised over the alleged “war on women” that is going on. Ironically, in the name of defending women, he degraded them. He also unnecessarily assaulted the sensibilities of Christians; they constitute the vast majority of the population.

We did not call for Stewart to be fired, but we did call for him to apologize. After hand-delivering our request to the offices of Comedy Central (it carries the show), and failing to garner a response, we contacted ten of his major sponsors; they were asked to put pressure on the network seeking an apology.

Delta quickly apologized for Stewart’s obscene stunt. Within days, the airline company went further and pulled its advertising. According to a public relations official, Delta claimed, “We just weren’t comfortable with the graphic nature of their image that was used on the show.”

What upset us the most was the response by Kellogg’s—they blew us off. So we took them on. Bill Donohue did a lengthy interview on the number-one radio show in Battle Creek (home to Kellogg’s). Interestingly, Kellogg’s refused to dispatch a spokesman to explain its dismissive attitude. We also called for a boycott of Kellogg’s cereals, and took out an ad in the Kalamazoo Gazette. To see a copy of the ad [click here].

We know we got to Stewart because during a performance in Tampa on April 21, he switched gears—going from comedic to serious—and made an oblique swipe at the Catholic League.

Our campaign against Stewart extended to the board of directors and the senior management of Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central; we mailed them a copy of the offensive photo. Then we sent a copy to all the bishops, as well as to religious leaders in every faith community.

We also hit the op-ed page of the New York Times. On May 21, “Jon Stewart’s Legacy,” was published, reaching millions of readers. To see a copy of the ad [click here]. No one in public life can afford to have his reputation damaged, not even cultural gurus like Stewart.
The avalanche of very sick e-mails we received from Stewart’s fans was disturbing. It indicates that these angry young white men have a misplaced sense of priorities: if Stewart is their hero, it doesn’t bode well for our nation’s future. But we also received a ton of positive responses, suggesting that the culture war is still up for grabs. As always, we were relentless in our campaign.

CHRONOLOGY

The following is a chronological list of our campaign against Jon Stewart.

April 16: Jon Stewart performed “vagina manger” skit
April 17: First request for apology
April 18: Second request for apology
April 19: Start of Campaign: Allies contacted
April 20: Kraft Foods contacted
April 23: SUBWAY contacted
April 24: Mars, Inc. contacted
April 25: Kellogg’s contacted
April 26: Delta Air Lines contacted
April 27: The Wrigley Company contacted
April 30: The Hershey Company contacted
May 1:    Ace Hardware Company contacted
May 2:    Paramount Farms contacted
May 3:    Anheuser-Busch InBev contacted
May 4:    Press release, “Jon Stewart’s Record of Offending Christians”
May 7:    Press release, “Jon Stewart’s Record of Apologies”
May 8:    Viacom’s Board and Senior Management contacted
May 9:    Catholic Bishops contacted
May 10:  Mainline Protestant leaders contacted
May 11:  Evangelical leaders contacted
May 14:  Jewish leaders contacted
May 15:  Mormon leaders contacted
May 16:  Muslim leaders contacted
May 17:  Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh Leaders contacted
May 20:  Kalamazoo Gazette ad
May 21:  New York Times ad

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April 19
On his MSNBC show, Lawrence O’ Donnell expressed antipathy towards the Catholic Church, attacking Peoria Bishop David Jenky, Church teachings on abortion and gay rights, and the right of the Vatican to discipline its flock. He also attacked the Catholic League and interviewed Sister Jeannine Gramick and an official from Dignity, which has been rejected as a Catholic entity.

May 2
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart opened with a replay of Lawrence O’Donnell’s tirade against Mormons that had aired April 3 on MSNBC.

Stewart then said: “Mormons aren’t the only religion whose origin story can be explained as a convenient alibi. You can easily say that Christianity was created by a knocked up teenage girl who told her parents an angel had come down and….” Stewart was then interrupted with laughter, but not before they showed a huge picture of a pregnant Virgin Mary on the screen.

May 2
E!’s show “Chelsea Lately” featured a roundtable discussion with three comedian guests. Host Chelsea Handler discussed a story out of Ireland about a priest who was asked to leave his parish because he “accidently showed pictures of gay porn during a Power Point presentation” to parents at a grade school. The presentation was “supposed to be about the First Holy Communion.” Handler continued: “Then he insisted he was not responsible for the presence of the offending images and immediately removed the memory stick from the laptop and destroyed it later that evening.” Handler said into the camera sarcastically, “After he transferred the images to his desktop.”

Guest Dov Davidoff then said, “The Catholic Church has got to be celebrating. The pope right now is just relieved, like, at least they were over 18, the actors. I don’t know. They get a bad rap, these priests. They just had another thing with the Boy Scouts and the priests. I don’t know. After a while maybe we should start pointing the finger at sexy-a** boys.” Guest Ben Gleib ended the segment by saying, “People are still sending their kids to the same church, too. I would rather send my kids inside a tanning bed to be honest.”

June 15
ABC provided coverage of a daredevil crossing the Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Live footage and real-time live blogging of his death-defying feat blacked out any mention of his audible prayers to Jesus along the way, which included such shout-outs as “Praise you, Father God. Praise you, Jesus!” This was a glaring example of media intolerance of public displays of piety by Christians.

October 6-7
In the run-up to the debut of stand-up comedian ventriloquist Jeff Dunham’s new special, “Minding the Monsters,” on October 7, Comedy Central re-aired Dunham’s 2007 program, “Spark of Insanity,” in which he took a swipe at Catholic priests. The “joke” went as follows:

Puppet: I’m kidding, I would not kill the Jews, no. I would toss a penny between them, and watch them fight to the death. (laughter) Yes, yes. I  did the same thing with two Catholic priests, but I tossed in a small boy. Yes, yes. and the winner had to fight Michael Jackson!

Dunham went back to the well in “Minding the Monsters.” One “joke” implied priests scared children:

Puppet: We were supposed to dress as whatever scared us as a kid.
Dunham: Oh, so for you, that was Frankenstein?
Puppet: Actually, it was a Catholic priest, but… (laughter, applause) But…everybody gets mad when I offend the Mexicans. (laughter, applause)

October 7
The second episode of a new Comedy Central animated series, “Brickleberry,” contained an attack on priests. In the episode, Steve, a mean character who contracts a sexually transmitted disease and is told he has only two weeks to live, speaks to an Irish priest in the confessional. The conversation ends with a blatant shot against priests. After discussing what it means to do good deeds for other people, the following words are said:

Steve: “Wait. Wouldn’t it be better if I just followed you around? You’re a priest.
Priest: “Too busy, Steven. I’ve got this other gig where I dress as a clown.” [Priest puts on a clown costume.]
The clown costume was used to insinuate that the priest was a pedophile.

October 12
Addressing the vice presidential debate between two Catholics, Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan, Bill Maher said the following on his HBO show: “I have not seen an old Catholic guy give it to a young Catholic guy like that since since I was an altar boy.”

October 17
The second season of the FX show, “American Horror Story,” began. The subtitle of this season’s series was  called “Asylum.” FX decided to portray a sadistic nun who runs an evil Catholic home for the criminally insane. Prior to the season’s debut, the Catholic League went on the offensive against FX for trashing nuns.

October 19
On a segment of the Fox News show, “The Five,” commentator Bob Beckel made a bigoted statement about priests, suggesting they are criminals. When co-panelist Greg Gutfeld remarked that welfare has replaced charity and that government has taken on the role of churches in taking care of people. The following exchange ensued:

Beckel: I didn’t know you were an expert on churches.
Gutfeld: Well, I spent a long time in them, Bob. I grew up in one. I was an altar boy for a long time.
Beckel: OK, you were an altar boy?
Gutfeld: Yes, I was. I’ll show you some pictures.
Beckel: Who was your priest?
Gutfeld: Ah…Father Zoft.
Beckel: Was he arrested?

October 22
On the “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” host Ellen DeGeneres showed her tolerance for Catholic bashing when she welcomed Jessica Lange to her show. Lange played an “evil nun” on the FX show, “American Horror Story: Asylm.”

Lange and DeGeneres had a good time feeding the worst possible stereotype of “mean” nuns. Lange admitted, with typical Hollywood brilliance, that she “wasn’t raised in any kind of religious situation, so, I mean, we didn’t go to church or anything.” That was apparent enough. In discussing nuns, words like “insanity” and “evil” were used.

October 23
An episode of the NBC sitcom, “The New Normal,” a series about a male homosexual couple and a surrogate mother, was entitled “The Godparent Trap.” The episode contained an offensive scene that attacked the Catholic Church for its teaching on marriage and homosexuality.

The pretext for the attack is that the homosexual couple decide it’s time to find godparents for their baby. They want “spiritual guidance for their child since they have little themselves.” One of the homosexuals, Bryan, grew up Catholic and decides to go to a church, where he makes offensive comments to himself: “12 dudes sitting around gossiping and drinking wine? You call that the Last Supper? I call that a Tuesday night. Hey, Mary. I’m a virgin, too. I’ve also slept in a barn with three wise men. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking smack about your mother. But you know who judges me? Your father.”

Bryan is then shown in a confessional talking to a priest. The priest says about the pope: “Oh, yeah, the pope. Come on. Haven’t you ever had a lovable old uncle who popped off intolerant comments at a family barbecue?” He also says that the Church can “change,” specifically saying that “I’ve seen gay people battle discrimination and march for marriage equality.”

October 27
On the “Late Show with David Letterman,” the show’s host used the news that Pope Benedict XVI had announced seven new saints to launch into a skit featuring “Saint Jeffrey Tompkins of Massapequa, New York,” whom Letterman claimed was one of the saints. When Letterman asked him what his plans were, Tompkins responded, “First, I’ll stop by Saint Patrick’s…you know, company business. Then I’m going back to the hotel and get myself a cheeseburger and a whore.” The audience laughed at this joke. Later on in the show, Tompkins said to Letterman as part of the skit, “The Vatican found out about the whore. I’m no longer a saint. Thanks a lot a**hole!”

November 20
On the FX show, “Brand X,” host Russell Brand invited two representatives from the Westboro Baptist Church as guests. One of them was wearing a t-shirt that read “priestsrapeboys.com” and showed a skull with a clerical collar.

December 13
On TBS’s “Conan,” host Conan O’Brien made an attack on the pope which was remarkable for its utter lack of context. The gratuitous insult went as follows: “Pope Benedict’s in the news. Pope Benedict has come out with a children’s book. Yeah. The book is called stay the Hell away from Father O’Malley.”

December 24
On E! Entertainment Television’s “Chelsea Lately,” host Chelsea Handler’s opening monologue featured “The Story of Christmas as Told by a Jew,” in which she made stupid, vulgar, and obscene comments to mock Christians at Christmastime. Among them were:

• The Virgin Mary was a virgin because this was “the olden days before they invented the bikini wax so it was tough for any man to find her peekachu.”
• She said St. Joseph “was not the baby’s father,” saying that “it was also rumored that Joseph had a lower sperm count because he smoked too much weed.”
• She also created offense when she introduced Jesus, who was represented onstage by a dwarf wearing a beauty contest sash that said “Saviour.”

December 27
On his MSNBC show, host Lawrence O’Donnell attacked the Church for its stance on traditional marriage and spoke derisively about the Church’s teaching, accusing the Vatican of being “full of guys who have taken a lifetime vow to remain tragically ignorant about marriage.”

Back to Top

February
The Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song was revoked from the film “Alone Yet Not Alone.” The film and the song of the same title had a strong evangelical Christian theme, and the song was sung by a well known evangelical artist. The official reason for revoking the nomination for only the fourth time in the 86 year history of the Oscars was that the song’s composer had violated the rules by lobbying committee members. Some of the people associated with the film pointed out that lobbying in favor of one’s films is not at all uncommon, and speculated that the nomination was revoked because of its Christian theme.

May 26
After Pope Francis spent three historic days in the Middle East trying to bring Christians, Jews, and Muslims together, he fielded 11 questions on nine issues during the plane ride home. Two dealt with his trip: there was one question on Jewish-Muslim relations, and one on the status of Jerusalem. But there were three on sexual issues: priestly sexual abuse, celibacy, and divorced and remarried Catholics.

The media’s coverage of the trip focused on the pope’s remarks on the plane. On the “Today Show” the following morning, only two issues were discussed: sexual abuse and celibacy. In Nicole Winfield’s AP story the night of the trip, about half the article was on sexual abuse; in the next day’s version, this was the only issue covered. Almost all of CNN’s coverage was on sexual abuse. John Allen of the Boston Globe covered many topics, but most of his reporting was on sexual abuse. The Boston Herald showed no interest in anything but sexual abuse.

In England, the Guardian only discussed sexual abuse and celibacy. Almost all the coverage by the BBC was on sexual abuse. This subject dominated the coverage in the Daily Mail.

There is no mystery here. The big media lean left, and what interests them is pressuring the Catholic Church to change its teachings on sexuality. Their obsession with priestly sexual abuse, which as a problem is mostly a non-starter these days, is a function of their desire to discredit the Church’s moral authority.

May 29
The following is an excerpt from an article by Bill Donohue that was originally published by Newsmax. It cites two different stories where an anti-Catholic bias could be seen in how the media reported:

Every demographic group can cite instances of media bias against them, but no group is more unfairly covered, on a consistent basis, than Catholics. Here are some examples drawn from news stories published on May 29.

Whenever a Catholic does something good, such as a police officer or firefighter who risks his life for someone, his religion is never mentioned. Nor should it be. But when he does something bad, we all learn of his religious affiliation.

To wit: Lukas Iorio went on a drunken rampage on the Jersey Shore— he was arrested for carjacking, assault, burglary, driving under the influence, criminal mischief, and resisting arrest. Here is how the media played it:

• “Former Bergen Catholic Wrestling Star Charged with Assault, Carjacking in Manasquan.” Star-Ledger
• “Ex-Bergen Catholic High School Wrestling Star Lukas Iorio Accused of Wild Rampage on Jersey Shore.” The Record
• “Former Bergen Catholic Wrestler Charged with Attacking 5 in Jersey Shore Rampage.” Cliffviewpilot.com
• “Manasquan Charges ex-Bergen Catholic Wrestler with Beach Carjacking, Wild Behavior.” Myfoxny.com

All the italics were added. To its credit, CBS reported it fairly: “New Jersey High School Wrestling Champ Accused in Bizarre Rampage.” It is not biased to mention in a news story that Iorio went to a Catholic school, but to put it in the headline is a different story.

“Female Catholic Priest Celebrates Mass at St. Francis House” was the headline in the Columbian Missourian. Of course, this never happened. What happened is that yet another woman — a senior citizen, of course — played make-believe and had herself “ordained.” The Harbor Country News ran a story billed as “Wife, Mother & Now Priest.”

MLive, a blog post, told readers, “Michigan’s First Woman Priest in Dissident Catholic Sect: ‘My Job is to Give Witness.'” At least it mentioned “dissident Catholic Sect.”

The Columbian Missourian not only ran the most dishonest headline, it ran a biased story. The caption to her photo began by saying, “Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a female priest, led a mass at St. Francis House.”

The first paragraph of the story said: “In the middle of a living room, a table is set like an altar, with wine and bread prepared for Holy Communion. At the head is a priest dressed in a black shirt, jeans and sandals, hair tied behind the head revealing a gold earring hanging from her ear. She has a purple stole around her neck, which rests on her lap as she sits.”

In the next paragraph we learn that she is “an ordained Roman Catholic priest with one exception: The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize her status as a priest.” Of course, the only thing that counts is the “one exception.” It could also be said that the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize those who dress up as the Pope on Halloween to be the Pope.

The media game, naturally, is to whip up public sentiment against the Catholic Church for its teaching on ordination. It never does the same with regards to the role of women in the Orthodox Jewish community, or in Islam.

June 10 – 11
The dissident Catholic magazine Commonweal put the worst possible face on St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson when it reported on his exchange with attorney Jeffery Anderson, who has a hatred of the Catholic Church. Anderson released video clips of Carlson’s deposition where it was made to look like Carlson did not know it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child. Anderson edited out the lead-in to the question, which was about mandated reporting laws.

On June 11, Dennis Coday at the National Catholic Reporter essentially offered the account by the St. Louis Archdiocese regarding a controversial exchange between Anderson and Carlson. He should have stopped there. Instead, later in the day he walked back his piece, saying Grant Gallicho at Commonweal may have been right when he accepted Anderson’s version.

At issue was whether Carlson was responding to a question regarding mandatory reporting laws, or a question about the criminal nature of sex between an adult and a child. Carlson maintained that he was responding to the former question; Anderson claimed he was responding to the latter.

This entire controversy erupted because of something that neither Commonweal nor the Reporter addressed: Anderson intentionally clipped that part of the video exchange he had with Carlson so as to convince the public that Carlson didn’t know it was against the law for an adult to have sex with a child. Instead of blasting Anderson for his unethical distortion, Gallicho not only took Anderson’s side, he spoke with derision against Carlson’s lawyer (e.g, “defense attorneys aren’t too keen on compound questions”).

July 1
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case, numerous media attacked the five Catholic justices who voted in the majority.

“Once again an all-Catholic, all-male, all-ultra-conservative majority of five has voted en bloc to eviscerate fundamental rights,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor of the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation. “Court’s Catholic Justices Attack Women’s Rights” was the headline of Margery Eagan’s Boston Herald article. The American Humanist Association issued a statement with a picture of a rosary next to birth control pills.

In the Huffington Post, Ryan Grim noted that “these men [the five judges who voted for religious liberty] are Christians.” He also said, “The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Christian business owners are special.”

Also in the Huffington Post, Ronald A. Lindsay, a militant atheist, asked, “Is it appropriate to have six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court?” “Unfortunately,” he wrote, “a majority of the Supreme Court may now be resurrecting concerns about the compatibility between being a Catholic and being a good citizen…”

Philip F. Cardarella, writing in the Kansas City Star, said that when JFK ran, the question was, “How could someone who owed his religious obedience to the Pope in Rome and the doctrines of the Catholic Church truly be trusted?” After the decision, he opined, “Five men on the Supreme Court—all Catholics—may well just have proven him [JFK] wrong.”

September
Hartford, CT – The Archdiocese of Hartford challenged a $1 million verdict awarded to an individual who claimed he was abused by a priest. The timeline is as follows:

• Jacob Doe claimed he was molested in the early 1980s by a priest, Father Ivan Ferguson, who died in 2002.
• Doe had until 1988 to file a lawsuit, but he never did.
• In 1991, the statute of limitations was amended to 17 years.
• Doe had until 2003 to file a lawsuit, but he never did.
• In 2002 the statute of limitations for civil cases was extended to 30 years; it was made retroactive.
• In 2005, the Archdiocese of Hartford paid $22 million in a settlement with 43 people who claim they were molested by Fr. Ferguson and other priests dating back to the 1960s. Doe was not one of the parties that sued.
• Doe filed a lawsuit in 2008 after the statute of limitations was changed in 2002.
• In February 2014, a jury awarded Doe $1 million.

There is something wrong with this picture. It is no wonder that lawyers for the archdiocese argue, among other things, that making the statute of limitations retroactive for sexual abuse cases in 1991 and 2002 violates the civil liberties of their defendant.

It was particularly disturbing to read the editorial in the New Haven Register that invoked Pope Francis’ humble approach to sexual abuse, and his critical remarks on materialism, as a lever to criticize the archdiocese. According to its logic, the pope would counsel dioceses not to defend their interests, even in the face of palpable injustice. This is absurd. It is also a twisted reading of the pope’s thoughts on these issues.

Just as disconcerting was the lack of honesty on the part of the Connecticut media: none mentioned that the amended timeline on the statute of limitations only applies to kids molested in private [read: Catholic] schools—it does not apply to kids raped in public schools.

Internet

January 8 – January 13
We were only one week into the new year when we were treated to one of the most anti-Catholic articles we’ve seen in many years. Columnist Jamie Stiehm published her onslaught against Catholics, as well as the Catholic Church, in U.S. News and World Report. We choose our words carefully: this was not just an assault on the teachings of the Catholic Church, it was an assault on Catholics.

“The Catholic Supreme Court’s War on Women” was the title of this screed. What set Stiehm off was Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision to stay the Health and Human Services mandate from taking effect January 1.

Sotomayor was referred to as “just a good Catholic girl” who “put her religion ahead of her jurisprudence. What a surprise, but that is no small thing.” The Justice’s decision “brings us to confront an uncomfortable reality,” Stiehm writes. “More than WASPS, Methodists, Jews, Quakers or Baptists, Catholics often try to impose their beliefs on you, me, public discourse and institutions.” She then listed, as a happy exception, Nancy Pelosi. Sotomayor, by contrast, “is selling out the sisterhood.”

“Catholics in high places of power have the most trouble, I’ve noticed, practicing the separation of church and state,” Stiehm says. “The pugnacious Catholic Justice, Antonin Scalia, is the most aggressive offender on the Court, but not the only one.” Now it seems that Justice Sotomayor “has joined the ranks of five Republican Catholic men on the John Roberts court in showing a clear religious bias when it comes to women’s rights and liberties. We can no longer be silent about this” (Italics added).

Stiehm also indicted “the meddlesome American Roman Catholic Archbishops” who “seek and wield tremendous power and influence in the political sphere.” Moreover, “The rock of Rome refuses to budge on women’s reproductive rights and the Supreme Court is getting good and ready to strike down Roe v. Wade…”

Bill Donohue asked Brian Kelly, the Editor and Chief Content Officer of U.S. News, whether he defended the article. To his surprise, Kelly did. Brian Kelly said Jamie Stiehm’s attack on Catholics and the Catholic Church was “within the bounds of fair commentary.” He compared her vicious statement to “pieces from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archdiocese of New York and Concerned Women for America.”

Here is how Bill Donohue replied: “I have no way of knowing if Kelly is a bigot. I do know he is incompetent. Any man who equates a reasonable defense of Catholicism, written by those in the employ of the Catholic Church, with Jamie Stiehm’s anti-Catholic screed, lacks the faculty of discernment, and thus has no legitimate role to play in journalism. He couldn’t defend this in public; I challenge him to do so.”

January 21
Comedian Sarah Silverman posted a bigoted video on YouTube that featured her talking to a Jesus character about abortion. The language she used was so vulgar—she ended with the “c” word about women—that it cannot be repeated on broadcast television, or republished in any respectable newspaper.

Silverman exploited Christianity by hijacking Jesus in support of killing kids in the womb: he was shown making fun of unborn babies, saying “fertilized eggs aren’t people. People are people” and announced that he is, “Jesus F*cking Christ.” Silverman said pro-life Christians are un-American and that “using religion to dictate legislation is un-American.”

Toward the end of the video, the Jesus character was shown rubbing her while they were sitting on a couch. She said, “Oh, that’s my spot.” To which he replied, “I know where your spot is…that’s a good little Jewish girl.”

April 16
A video titled “Easter Bunny’s Coming” was posted on the YouTube Channel for Fox Broadcasting’s “Animation Domination High-Def” (ADHD) programming block. According to the Parents Television Council (PTC) the video “contains graphic cartoon images of fornicating rabbits, multiple unbleeped ‘f-words,’ harsh references to male sexual anatomy and vulgar slang for ejaculation.” The video closed with a reference meant to imply that Jesus had been watching it.

The video, which included overt references to Christians and Jews, was debuted during Holy Week and Passover.

After objections were raised by PTC, Target pulled its advertising from the program, and on April 18, Fox announced that the television component of the show would be cancelled in June. Fox did not specify if the ADHD website or the online content would be removed once the show was cancelled.

April 26
A Dario Castillejos cartoon published on cagle.com titled “Saint Pope John Paul II and Pedophile Priests” shows a figure meant to be the former pope blessing a child. At the same time a hand and arm reaching out from under the pope’s cassock is attempting to grab the child. The cartoon, published the same day as his canonization, depicted St. John Paul II as covering for child molesters.

June 14
In response to the film “Philomena” and the “mass grave” hoax, Niall O’Dowd, founder of Irish Central, posted an article on his website where he attacked the nuns who ran the mother and baby homes across Ireland.

O’Dowd’s article accused the nuns of selling children to wealthy American families as part of secret and illegal adoptions. He said that the unmarried mothers whom the nuns cared for were “held in female gulags masquerading as convents.” He went on to say that the children were “snatched” from their mothers for “forced” adoptions.

July 25
On philly.com, a news website affiliated with both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, a story was posted about a new group that would help pay off the student loan debt of men and women who pursue the religious life. While the story was positive, an image was used promoting the story of a woman in full habit, wearing heavy makeup and smoking a cigarette. After complaints, the image was quickly removed from the website, but remained posted on some of philly.com’s social media sites.

August 13
In a column for internet news site WorldNetDaily, former rock musician Ted Nugent commented on the sexual abuse crisis, and specifically on the deposition given by St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson.

Nugent incorrectly states that Carlson did not know it was illegal for priests to have sex with children. Nugent says that Carlson looked like “a space cadet zombie” while testifying that he did not remember if he knew that priests having sex with children was illegal. [The questions Carlson did not remember were actually about his knowledge of mandatory reporting laws in the 1980s.]

Nugent goes on to call Carlson a “fraud,” “liar,” “punk,” “black-hearted,” “devil in disguise,” and an “evil, evil monster.” He calls for the archbishop to be “stripped of his pompous title, excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and thrown to the court system for prosecution to the maximum extent of the law.”

September 4
An article on Newsmax’s website read “Former Catholic Cop Tried to Join ISIS after Conversion to Islam” in reference to the terrorist group ISIS that is murdering Christians in Iraq. The opening sentence of the article read “A Catholic-born former police officer from North Carolina attempted to join the Islamic State (ISIS).” The gratuitous references to the man’s former religion would never have been mentioned if he was being celebrated for having saved a life.

Newspapers

January 23
Chicago, IL – The Chicago Tribune’s editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis drew an image of a bishop wearing a mitre. Two snakes are emerging out of the mitre, one snake says “forgive us father” the second snake replies “for we got caught.” The cartoon implies that bishops hide crimes such as sex abuse and only apologize once they have been caught. The cartoon was subsequently published on January 26 in the Dallas Morning News.

January 24
The New York Post’s film critic Sara Stewart gave the pro-life themed film “Gimme Shelter” a negative review. However, the review not only criticized the film, but mocked the efforts of a priest and a Catholic charity that tried to help the pregnant teen in the film. The review stated that the film “feels as if it’s underwritten by the Roman Catholic Church.” It went on to say that a priest in the film “imparts vague sentiments that feel as if they’ve had God references edited out of them” and criticized the charity helping the teen for surrounding the girls with “praying hands imagery and [taking] them to church.”

February 22
Hazleton, PA – Syndicated cartoonist Jeff Stahler depicted a priest distributing communion to a woman. The priest says “Body of Christ” and the woman replies “Is it locally made?” The cartoon was published in the Standard-Speaker among other newspapers.

March 14 – 16
Stroudsburg, PA – The Pocono Record published an article saying that former Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino “allowed” a priest who was credibly accused of abuse to transfer to a diocese in Paraguay. The article faulted Bishop Martino and his predecessor for failing to suppress the priest in question. The Diocese of Scranton responded by outlining the many steps Bishop Martino took to keep the priest out of ministry, which included warning both the bishop and the papal nuncio in Paraguay. The Pocono Record ignored the diocese’s response and instead printed a second article about the priest two days later without ever mentioning the bishop’s efforts to sound the alarm.

The Pocono Record did print the Catholic League’s letter to the editor which stated in part, “The faithful of the Diocese of Scranton should be praising Bishop Martino’s actions, and those of his successor, to fight abuse, not reading a one sided argument that attempts to fault him for the actions of someone half a world away.”

April 9
Danbury, CT – A Drew Sheneman cartoon published in the News-Times shows Pope Francis in the left panel saying “our priests should live simply like those we serve.” The right panel shows two priests lounging by a pool and preparing to go golfing. One priest asks the other “what did he say?” “I don’t know, something about servants” is the reply. This cartoon makes it look like all priests are lazy and live exorbitantly.

April 16
Ireland – The Irish Times published a cartoon by Martyn Turner that showed three priests reading a newspaper announcing a new bill that would require mandatory reporting of child abuse. The priests share a speech bubble that reads “I’d do anything for children (But I won’t do that).” The cartoon implies that all priests cover for their colleagues by refusing to report those who molest children.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out that “many priests and people feel hurt” by the cartoon.

April 30
Washington, DC – A Tom Toles cartoon in the Washington Post shows two characters discussing a large poster that reads “Prevent Child Abuse.” The man asks “What do you call somebody who drags his feet on identifying and punishing abusers?” A woman who is reading a newspaper about John Paul II replies “Saint?”  The cartoon was published days after the canonization of St. John Paul II and attacks his record on preventing child abuse.

May 25
Cincinnati, OH – The Cincinnati Enquirer published a preview of an upcoming fringe theatre festival with the headline “May the peace of FRINGE be upon you.” The headline included a picture with Elvis Presley’s head superimposed on an image of the Sacred Heart.

June 20 – 23
When news of a “mass grave” found outside a Catholic Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland broke, the media went wild. As details started to emerge about the lack of truth behind these stories, the media began to back away. To read Bill Donohue’s analysis of the story click here.

The Associated Press issued its first retraction on June 20 regarding its stories of June 3 and June 8 on Ireland’s “mass grave” story. On June 23, AP reporter Shawn Pogatchnik issued a second, more complete, retraction; his article was titled, “Media Exaggerated Horror Tale at Irish Orphanage.” Here is an excerpt of what he said:

“The reports of unmarked graves shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the Irish public, who for decades have known that some of the 10 defunct ‘mother and baby homes,’ which chiefly housed the children of unwed mothers, held grave sites with forgotten dead. The religious orders’ use of unmarked graves reflected the crippling poverty of the time, the infancy of most of the victims, and the lack of plots in cemeteries corresponding to the children’s fractured families.”

“Contrary to the allegation of widespread starvation highlighted in some reports, only 18 children were recorded as suffering from severe malnutrition. While publicly available records are incomplete, sporadic inspection reports indicate that the orphanage’s population exceeded 250 throughout the worst years of child mortality, when overcrowding would have encouraged the spread of infection.”

AP admits that it was guilty of “repeating incorrect Irish news reports that suggested the babies who died had never been baptized and that Catholic Church teaching guided priests not to baptize the babies of unwed mothers or give to them [sic] Christian burials. The reports of the denial of baptism later were contradicted by the Tuam Archdiocese, which found a registry showing that the home had baptized more than 2,000 babies.”

AP had the courage to admit it erred; many other outlets did not.

July 2
Wilmington, DE – An RJ Matson cartoon was carried by several newspapers, including The Journal-News, depicting a photograph of the nine justices of the Supreme Court, except that the five justices who voted in the majority of the Hobby Lobby case are shown wearing a mitre and cross. The cartoon’s caption reads “We didn’t lose our religious freedom when we became judges.” The cartoon mocks the judges, all of whom are Catholic, for siding with the religious freedom arguments in this case.

July 3
Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Star published a Lee Judge cartoon that shows two priests at an altar atop an Aztec-looking temple. The altar is labeled “Who we’re willing to sacrifice to protect the priesthood,” and the bottom step of the temple is labeled “Women and children first.” This cartoon says that priests are willing to sacrifice anything, including the wellbeing of women and children, to protect the priesthood.

The cartoon was subsequently published in New York’s Watertown Daily Times on July 13. This occasioned Bishop Terry LaValley of the Diocese of Ogdensburg to write a letter to the editor. Bishop LaValley requested that an apology be printed or that his subscription to the Daily Times be canceled. The bishop wrote “I cannot and will not encourage readership of a newspaper that prints such disparaging and offensive portrayals of men who give their lives in service to others.”

July 6
Hudson Valley, NY – In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, the Times Herald-Record published a Bill Day cartoon which shows a book meant to represent the Bible. The book is labeled “Holy Corporations by The Supremes.” A speech bubble from the book reads “Go forth and multiply.” By using a biblical quote and a book that looks like a Bible, the author is mocking the religious freedom arguments presented by the owners of Hobby Lobby.

July 20
New York, NY – The New York Post ran a story about a charitable home run by nuns that was raising the rents for tenants, some of whom had lived in the building for decades. Along with the story, the Post printed a stock image of an imposing nun in full habit holding a ruler as if she was going to hit someone. The nun in the image was wearing a large cross around her neck and appears to be in makeup with manicured nails. The article did not identify the photo as a caricature, and made it appear that the nuns were punishing the tenants.

September 3
New York, NY – The New York Post’s story about an American man who tried to join the ISIS terror group had the following headline: “The Catholic ex-cop who tried to join ISIS from US.” The article goes on to mention that the man attempting to join the “murderous band of jihadis” was “Catholic-born.”

September 24
Hartford, CT – The Hartford Courant printed a Bob Englehart cartoon titled “Connecticut Supreme Court Considers Reversal of Law that Benefits Sex-Abuse Accusers.” The cartoon depicts a woman labeled “Victims” with a thought bubble that says “Unfair.” Meanwhile the devil and pedophile priests both share a thought bubble that reads “Fair!” The cartoon demeans priests and generalizes that all priests are pedophiles.

October 1 – 2
Harrisburg, PA – The New York Times reported that the Diocese of Harrisburg adopted a policy barring boys on high school wrestling teams from competing with girls from other schools; girls in Catholic schools have also been barred from football and rugby teams. The policy is not new: the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference Education Department has explicit rules on this subject. Indeed, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia previously dealt with this issue.

The rationale behind the Pennsylvania policy was clear-headed: there are nature-based differences between the sexes that need to be observed. Ergo, sports that involve “substantial and potentially immodest physical contact” ought to be treated differently. All but the enlightened ones have the cognitive ability to distinguish between wrestling and ping-pong.

We were astonished to read that the New York Times ran another story the next day on this topic. This was the second day in a row that the Times covered this story, and there was nothing new of any substance in the new piece.

The latter news story on the Pennsylvania Catholic high school wrestling policy merited 978 words. By contrast, the same day’s New York Times ran a story on Oslo withdrawing from a bid to host the 2022 winter Olympics that totaled 406 words. A story on Derek Jeter starting his own web forum was a mere 599 words. Even the Major League Baseball playoff game between the Pirates and Giants didn’t outdo the Catholic high school story—it was 897 words. If we add the first story on the wrestling policy to the most recent one (it was 401 words), the total figure is 1,379.

No newspaper in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh reported on this story, and outside of The Sentinel (a Carlisle, PA paper), it got almost no coverage; no national wire service or newspaper covered it.

October 16
Minneapolis, MN – The Star-Tribune published a commentary by Arthur McCaffrey, a Harvard psychologist and Boston Globe contributor. McCaffrey’s article, titled “Is the media too deferential towards the church?” cheered the decision of the Star-Tribune editorial board to twice call for the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt. McCaffrey called these editorials a “brave public service.”

McCaffrey went on to criticize those who defend the Church, spewing anti-Catholicism throughout. He claimed that “deference is something that the Catholic Church has profited from throughout its long history” and called for that deference to end. As proof he cited “Supreme Court justices hobnobbing with Catholic bishops at the annual ‘Red Mass’ dinner” and President Obama’s efforts to “yuk it up” with Cardinal Timothy Dolan at an annual fundraising dinner in New York.

McCaffrey called for newspapers, and the media generally, to be more critical of the Church and demand “honesty, transparency and accountability from our most entrenched institutions.”

The Star-Tribune did not print a letter to the editor from the Catholic League responding to McCaffrey’s article.

October 17
Buffalo, NY – Adam Zyglis’ cartoon “Church Synod” shows a sign that reads “Gays” pointing at a confessional outside of a church. Two bishops are shown pointing at the confessional and one says “At least we’re starting to welcome them in.” Zyglis draws cartoons for the Buffalo News. This cartoon was also published in Maine’s Portland Press Herald. This cartoon refers to an interim report of the synod of bishops.

October 19
Portland, ME – A cartoon by John Cole in the Maine Sunday Telegram depicts Pope Francis with the title “Habemus Papam” (We have a pope). Next to the pope is a cardinal labeled “Vatican Conservatives” who is reading a newspaper about the synod interim report’s comments on divorce and sexuality. The cardinal’s heading reads “Habemus Palpitations” implying that he is having a heart attack.

November 12
Gallup, NM – The Gallup Independent published an editorial to mark the one year anniversary of the Diocese of Gallup having filed for bankruptcy. In it the Independent published a list of 8 demands that it wanted the judge to institute against the diocese. Among them, “Publicize the list of credibly accused abusers by inserting it for three consecutive weeks in the church bulletins of every parish that was ever a part of the Gallup Diocese” and “Publicly release a list of all real property in Arizona and New Mexico” that the diocese owns. The editorial even opined that “the Diocese of Gallup has no need for such property.”

November 21
Providence, RI – Following the arrest of a suspended priest, the Providence Journal, like most other news outlets, had a news story reporting the arrest. But unlike other outlets, the Journal also published a timeline of all priestly sex abuse cases in Rhode Island since 1972. Only two of the entries on the timeline referred to the priest who had just been arrested.

A few weeks earlier a minister was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing a student. The Providence Journal did not publish a timeline and simply re-printed a small AP story about the case. That’s because the minister committed his crimes while serving as principal of a Baptist school.

Radio 

January 27
During the “Imus in the Morning” program simulcast on the Fox Business Network, regular guest Rob Bartlett reprised his “Don Corleone, The Godfather” character. In character Bartlett discussed the alleged homosexual network in the Swiss Guard:

Bartlett: “I am concerned for Pope Francis… he’s being guarded by a bunch of finocchios…apparently there is a network of homosexuals within Il Papa’s security forces, the Swiss Guard… do not misunderstand me. I have nothing against the gays, if a man wants to [censored] another man, that is none of my business. However if he’s going to be more concerned with the velvet drapes in the Sistine chapel than insuring the safety of Il Papa perhaps he should just protect the altar boys instead.”

March 7
On “Imus in the Morning,” which is simulcast on the Fox Business Network, Don Imus and the co-hosts discussed Pope Francis. Imus found it confusing that Pope Benedict XVI continues to live in the Vatican:

Imus: “It’s just, that’s ridiculous.”
Bernard McGuirk [producer]: “It’s their church, let them do whatever they want.”
Imus: “Ok, well that’s the problem. Them glomming onto the kids.”

Later in the segment Imus continued to discuss the fact that he does not like Pope Benedict XVI:

McGuirk: “Your issue is with the previous pope.”
Imus: “Yes, sneaking around [the Vatican], I mean you have that whole gay mafia there, I mean come on what a nightmare.”

July 8
On his nationally syndicated “Savage Nation” radio show, host Michael Savage attacked the pope and the efforts by Catholics to help immigrant children who had arrived at the border illegally. Savage said, “Here’s a breaking report. Catholic churches are providing housing for the storm of illegals crossing the border. You heard me. This is a conspiracy of the government/ Catholic complex. The government/Catholic complex is working together. […] [T]hose who torment us for our own goodwill torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. There’s your Roman Church, with a Jesuit, communist pope.”

July 28
On his daily radio program, “Imus in the Morning,” host Don Imus was interviewing Fox News contributor Fr. Jonathan Morris about Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff interview style. Fr. Morris said that the pope’s style had a way of touching people. Imus responded with a remark making reference to the abuse crisis.

Fr. Morris: “I’m happy he does it [off-the-cuff interviews]. And he knows, I believe, that its worth risking, you know, bad consequences, for the positive outcome of reaching out to people and touching people where they’re at. I love it, but what he said about this Don was…
Imus: “Careful touching people.” [Fr. Morris stops suddenly.]
Fr. Morris: “What was that?”
Imus: “Nothing. [pause, silence] I said just careful on the touching people.”

December 6 
A National Public Radio (NPR) game show, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” decided that the Brooklyn Diocese’s outreach program to millennial “hipsters” was worth a few jokes. There was a cheap shot taken about transubstantiation, and the Hail Mary was the source of laughter. By far the most offensive statement was made about Jesus. Here is what comedian Peter Sagal said:

“You can take a selfie with Jesus. The Catholic Church preaches that Jesus is always with us, in fact he’s right behind you. So this new app—Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn shows a woman sitting by herself. She’s holding out her phone to take a selfie like the kids do, but in the picture you see this woman and this bearded beatific man smiling behind her. It’s not some (random) creepo who got into the church, it’s the Son of God. This raises all sorts of questions for the woman. For starters, why didn’t Jesus offer just to take the picture himself? His hands were occupied.”

Some suggested the reference was to Jesus’ hands being nailed to the cross, while others saw a veiled reference to Jesus with his hands on his genitals. After the Catholic League asked those on our email list to contact NPR, many did. As a result, NPR responded to complaints about the offensive episode. Here’s how NPR responded: “Wait Wait is a comedy show that pokes fun at the news. The goal is always to make people laugh. I regret that we did not succeed in this case.”

The “news” that NPR decided to deride was neither a major national or international story: it was about an outreach program aimed at young people in the Diocese of Brooklyn. More seriously, NPR was very selective about who it wanted its audience to laugh at. For example, never once did NPR come even close to mocking Muhammad, and no sexual references have ever been made about him, including on “Wait Wait.”

Bill Donohue wrote to House Speaker John Boehner asking him to take up the issue of defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the parent company of NPR. Until Catholics are afforded the same degree of respect for their “deeply held religious beliefs,” they should not have to subsidize attacks on their religion. This is hardly the first time that NPR has ridiculed Catholics, but doing so at Christmastime makes it all the more egregious.

December 8
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) made no attempt to be fair in its coverage of a story involving a priest. A jury acquitted Father Mark Huberty of criminal sexual conduct after a woman claimed he took sexual advantage of her during counseling sessions. Three media outlets in Minnesota had been tracking this story from the beginning: the Pioneer Press, the Star-Tribune, and MPR. When reports surfaced clearing Father Huberty of wrongdoing, the two newspapers gave the jury verdict complete coverage. But not MPR.

For many years MPR has specialized in issuing lengthy reports on alleged priestly abuse; it ran a long story one week earlier about a former priest. When a priest is found not guilty, however, that is of no interest to MPR. To wit: In 2013, MPR did four lengthy stories on salacious accusations against Father Huberty, but when he was exonerated, the best it could do was to offer a 134-word AP story. It had no motivation to recant its previous reporting, or to present its own story.

Television

January 3
On the E! show “Fashion Police,” host Joan Rivers and her guests discussed Hollywood’s power couples and their combined earnings. Discussing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Rivers said “they spent a fortune last year on child care. They spent more money keeping kids quiet than the Catholic Church.”

January 19
Comedy Central aired the one hour premier of “Neal Brennan: Women and Black Dudes.” Brennan attacked Mary and Joseph, and defamed priests.

Brennan: [On Jesus] “We are going to worship you and your mom, but not your step dad because f*ck him.”
Brennan: “He goes out of town, comes back, Mary’s like ‘I’m pregnant,’ ‘we haven’t had sex in 6 months’ ‘no, it was a ghost'” …  “If I were Joseph and Mary were like ‘do you mind changing Jesus’ diaper?’ ‘No, but maybe the ghost will.”
Brennan: “I went to Catholic school, 12 years. People’s first question when they hear this: Hey Neal, you get molested? It’s a sign of a classy organization isn’t it? And to answer the question, no I didn’t get molested, I f*cked a few priests, but I didn’t get molested. I ain’t no bitch you understand. 8-year-old me f*cking priests. Forgive me father, you know why.”

January 23
The October 2, 2012 episode of “Tosh.0” was re-aired on Comedy Central. Host Daniel Tosh showed a video clip of a priest, a rabbi and an African American sitting next to each other on a plane:

Tosh: “All right, stop me if you have heard this next one. A rabbi, a priest, and a black guy get on a plane. And then a Muslim hijacks it and kills them all. … Guess which one ordered the 12-year-old boy for his meal?” 

January 29
The CW’s Dallas, TX affiliate KDAF reported on the installation of the new Bishop of Fort Worth, Michael Olson, during its evening news program, “Nightcap News.” Talking about Pope Francis the reporter said “this pope may just be the best thing for the Church since sliced Communion wafers” at which point an image was shown of a hand giving out Communion. This was followed by a short clip taken from a movie of a man laughing.

The segment concluded with the reporter saying “Expectations may be high for the new bishop, he has a tough act to follow with this pope, wait, aren’t all bishops supposed to follow the pope?” (Emphasis is added on the word ”supposed” while Bob Dylan’s “Times They Are A Changin” plays in the background.)

February 5
Comedy Central’s game show “@Midnight” asked comedians to respond to a topic in order to earn points. The topic presented, “Jesus, Mary and Toe-Seph,” was about a woman who claimed that a bruise on her foot resembled an image of Jesus. Contestants were told to respond to this category “as Satan”:

Dana Gould: “I’d believe that before I’d believe that his mom was a virgin. Continued success, Satan.”
Arden Myrin: “Figures, Jesus sprays himself all over some stripper’s dirty toes and I’m the one with the bad rap. All hail Satan!”

February 14
Joan Rivers and the panel of “Fashion Police” on E! were playing a game where they attempted to identify photographs of Boy George compared to other celebrities, with their faces obscured. When a photo was posted of a person in a long white dress, with a pink robe and purple hair, Rivers guessed, “I’m going to say, Pope Francis when he was about to enter a gay bar.” The photo was of George Clinton.

February 21
On E! Network’s “Fashion Police” host Joan Rivers and the panel were discussing a dress worn by Oprah Winfrey. Rivers said “I don’t know what kind of undergarment she’s wearing, but there are no lumps and bumps for a slightly heavier woman. That dress is covering up more secrets than the Catholic Church.”

February 25
“Secrets of the Vatican,” a 90 minute “Frontline” presentation, marked the 48th time that PBS addressed sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Though this problem is practically non-existent in the Catholic community these days, and is rampant in the public schools, as well as in the Orthodox Jewish community, PBS has devoted a combined total of zero episodes to both.

All the contrived melodrama was there: ominous dark images; dramatic music; a deep voice-over; bleak hallways; shadowy figures locking doors as a boy enters the room; the words “Power,” “Money,” and “Sex” flashing about, etc. The predictable villain: Pope Benedict XVI. Ironically, he did more than anyone to check this problem, but facts don’t matter when Jason Berry is involved.

A dissident Catholic, Berry was a co-producer of this show; he was also featured in Alex Gibney’s film, “Mea Maxima Culpa.” Indeed, the recent hit job was nothing more than a retread of Gibney’s propaganda: a New Orleans reporter who previewed it said, “this film reminded me of ‘Mea Maxima Culpa.'”

March 7
Joan Rivers, host of “Fashion Police” on the E! network, was critiquing celebrities at the Academy Awards. Discussing Amy Adams’ dress and her dancing, Rivers said “Did you see when she tried to dance? Ugh. And I think she’s a great actress, but she has less rhythm than an Irish Catholic mother with 18 kids.”

March 8
During an episode of “Saturday Night Live,” guest host Lena Dunham mocked the story of Genesis during a sketch where she appeared nude playing Eve. Dunham called Adam sexist for suggesting that she was formed from his rib, and lectured God about original sin. She complained to God about health insurance, and refused to cover her naked body, stating, “I’m not going to like conform to society’s demands for me.” The episode was the second lowest rated “Saturday Night Live” of the year.

March 9
The first episode of the new Fox series “Cosmos” aired. The propagandists involved in this show told viewers that “the Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts known as the Inquisition and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs. And it wasn’t long before [Giordano] Bruno fell into the clutches of the thought police.”

The ignorance was appalling. “The Catholic Church as an institution had almost nothing to do with [the Inquisition],” wrote Dayton historian Thomas Madden. “One of the most enduring myths of the Inquisition,” he said, “is that it was a tool of oppression imposed on unwilling Europeans by a power-hungry Church. Nothing could be more wrong.” Because the Inquisition brought order and justice where there was none, it actually “saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule” (his emphasis).

As for Bruno, he was a renegade monk who dabbled in astronomy; he was not a scientist. There is much dispute about what really happened to him. As sociologist Rodney Strong put it, he got into trouble not for his “scientific” views, but because of his “heretical theology involving the existence of an infinite number of worlds—a work based entirely on imagination and speculation.”

March 10
During a segment titled “Infallible Me,” Jon Stewart attacked Pope Francis on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Stewart discussed a new magazine that had been published about Pope Francis. Stewart said the magazine “will have to go behind the newsstand counter with ‘Prayboy’ and ‘Repenthouse'”

Stewart then discussed when the pope accidentally used a swear word, and the pope’s confession that he once took a rosary from his dead confessor.

Finally, Stewart showed news clips, including a clip of Fr. Edward Beck, talking about how the pope had opened the door to civil unions. Stewart said “dropping f-bombs, stealing rosaries, not condemning gay unions, that’s a lot of rogue popery for this Vatican to deal with.” After showing a clip of a Vatican spokesperson clarifying the pope’s comments on civil unions, Stewart said “now who’s crossed the line? Not a problem that he’s running around cursing and grave robbing, but the minute he says something about treating gay people with respect, That’s it! Vatican damage control squad leaps into action. What he meant to say was, gay civil unions, f*ck them.”

March 18
The guests on E! Network’s “Chelsea Lately” attacked Pope Francis during a discussion on a new Russell Crowe movie. Margaret Cho, Liza Treyger and Ross Mathews implied the pope was looking for sex or drugs, maligned Catholic teachings on abortion and insinuated that the pope was gay:

Cho: “The pope is busy though I mean he’s everywhere, he’s picking up hitchhikers in the popemobile. He’s got like bumper stickers ‘ass, gas or grass no one rides for free'”  [this is a reference to paying for a ride with sex, cash or drugs].
Treyger: “… I feel like I’m a Jew but I would kind of convert to Catholicism. I’ll put ash on my forehead, I’ll drink a Hail Mary, but if I get pregnant I’ll convert back, you know?”
Mathews: “He [the pope] canceled this meeting with Russell Crowe, but he liked “Philomena” so much he invited the real Philomena over. So I don’t like Russell Crowe and I love Philomena so the pope and I are kind of, if you think about it, the same person – in a weird way, or at least BFFs [best friends forever]. So as the pope’s new BFF I feel like I can say, for the love of God can we start belting that robe? He has kind of a hot little body, and what a shame not to show that off. I’m just being a friend.”

March 25
On the “Late Show with David Letterman” which airs on CBS, Letterman implied that the pope has used cocaine. Letterman then showed a video of Pope Francis speaking, but the pope’s words were dubbed over with a rant. In Letterman’s video the “pope” said: “People took advantage of me [Jesus], they found out I could do miracles like healing the blind and let lepers f*ck. Now 5000 people show up, with no f*cking clue. They weren’t sick, they didn’t need healing. They were too f*cking lazy to make a f*cking sandwich. Oh I know, let’s let Jesus get it! He’s trying to preach, he’s trying to share all this information, what, what 5000 of you? Not one of you brought a sandwich? I guess you expect me to get it huh?! I’ve come to be Jesus the miracle caterer. There’s no pressure, I’ll just f*cking create food out of the f*cking air.”

March 30
Al Jazeera aired a one hour documentary titled “Holy Money.” A commercial said there has been “questionable behavior all the way from Rome to your local parish church.” The commercial goes on to say “the church is spending heavily on political lobbyists.” The documentary claimed to go “into the pockets of the Holy Father to reveal the money issues facing the Catholic Church.”

“The Power,” “The Money,” “The Greed,”  and “The Scandal” each flashed on the screen as images were shown of expensive looking artwork and long, dark hallways, coupled with ominous sounding music. All of this was meant to make the viewer question the integrity of the Church and imply that donations were being sought to cover up abuse and other scandals.

April 2
On the CW’s “The Arsenio Hall Show,” Hall had George Lopez as a guest, and they discussed a news story about Pope Francis going to confession in public.

Lopez:  “… usually Arsenio, when you hear about priests confessing, he is usually surrounded by the police, and about to be transferred to another parish. [speaking sternly like a police officer]: ‘Father this way.’ [speaking softer, like a church official]: ‘No, Father this way.'”

April 6
“Greatest Mysteries: Vatican” premiered on the Travel Channel. Lies about Catholicism abounded, and the intentional distortion of the truth was commonplace throughout. The program’s recklessly inaccurate portrayal of Catholicism seemed straight out of the annals of sci-fi.

Yes, there were rogue popes, none more disgraceful than Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI. But if the goal was to promote skepticism of all matters Catholic, then the savants who worked on this program should have stopped there. To say they put their foot in it when they invented a female pope would be a gross understatement.

The Travel Channel program perpetuated a fable that Pope Joan ruled in 855. Among those interviewed for the show was Candida Moss, a Notre Dame professor who is mostly known for discounting the persecution of Christians in the early Church. The fact is that Pope Joan is pure myth: the fairy tale began in the middle of the 13th century, making it inexplicable why no historians in the intervening years managed to write about Ms. Popess. Here is an inconvenient fact: Leo IV died on July 17, 855, and he was immediately followed by Benedict III. There was no pope in between.

April 7
The Science Channel premiered “Unsealed: Alien Files”; the entire half hour episode was dedicated to what knowledge the Vatican has of aliens. The priest who directs the Vatican observatory, Dr. Jose Funes, was interviewed for the program, and he made the rather unexceptional remark that the universe is so huge that “it would be possible that life could evolve the way we know it on Earth.” This was soon followed by a voiceover that said, “Vatican officials have publicly acknowledged the likelihood of alien life. This dramatic reversal of Vatican policy demands an explanation. What does the Church know, or what have they found that causes them to reverse a 2000-year-old teaching?”

Evidence of alien life, we learn, is available in the “Vatican secret archives.” But thanks to the Science Channel, it is a secret no more. “The Vatican secret archives is approximately 52 miles of shelving we’re told, and over 32,000 archives.” The guy who said this did not disclose who told him this “secret,” but who needs evidence? Then a voiceover gets really melodramatic: “But the secrets hidden within the Vatican can’t stay buried forever. Now new evidence may prove the Vatican is hiding actual aliens from the public.” The program also claimed that skulls with elongated heads and small faces, resembling aliens, were found in 1998 under the Vatican Library, but that access to the site has been denied. A voiceover asked, “Could these skulls be the remnants of aliens who once lived in the Vatican?”

April 8
On NBC’s new late night show, “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” host Meyers did a segment titled “How they reported it.” The segment was a series of mock headlines from a variety of media outlets about a story on global warming:

Meyers: “Maybe we need to turn to religion for a minute, let’s see what Catholic Digest says, ‘Global Warming: It’s Because You Touched Yourself.’  They did warn us, they did warn us a bunch of times.”

An image was shown on the screen of a fake Catholic Digest cover with the aforementioned headline along with a priest holding a chalice and a loaf of bread.

April 16
On April 14, Conan O’Brien made fun of Pope Francis during his late night show on TBS. On April 15, he made an inoffensive joke about Jesus. We said nothing about these two jokes because they were not insulting, and we are not in the business of criticizing comedians when they take light-hearted jabs at our religion. But Conan didn’t stop there.

In his April 16 monologue, Conan said the following: “The pope let two 11-year-old boys ride in the popemobile with him. Afterwards the Vatican told the pope ‘that’s not the kind of publicity we’re looking for.'”

By perpetuating the stereotype that priests are child molesters, Conan O’Brien discredits himself and foments hatred of priests. We make critical distinctions at the Catholic League between disagreement and derision, and we expect no less from late-night talk-show hosts and their writers.

April 21
On NBC’s new late night show, “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Meyers did a segment, “Venn Diagrams,” where he sought to find common ground between two seemingly unrelated things. He compared “The Second Half of the Final Season of ‘Mad Men'” [a TV show] with “Catholic Girls.” The common thread was, “You Have to Wait Before You Get To See it All.”

While we have heard worse, there was a disturbing pattern evolving. His show was only a few months old, and it was already clear that he had a Catholic fixation. On March 6, he made a quip about the pope and Jesus. On April 3, Meyers discussed “Philomena,” a movie we exposed for its vicious lies about nuns. One of the movie’s stars, Steve Coogan, who predicted that he would garner an Oscar (he came away empty-handed), whined about the criticism leveled at the film. This is in addition to his April 8 mock Catholic Digest headline. There were other shots taken at Catholics as well.

April 29
On the Comedy Central show “Tosh.0” Daniel Tosh hosted a mock game show, “American Christians got hella Talent” which featured the “Holy Trinity of judges.” God was represented as an empty chair. Jesus was described as being fond of “fishing for men” [gay innuendo]. And the Holy Ghost was someone with a white sheet over his head. The judges commented on a series of faux performers.

The first act was “Fr. Flanagan and the hairless angels.” A man dressed as a priest did a provocative dance with two young boys dressed as altar boys. The dance ended with the priest hugging the boys. Tosh said, “that’s a slippery slope Fr. Flanagan.” After the performance the judges offered their comments; Jesus refused to judge the man, and God responded “we’re here to judge, don’t be such a p*ssy.”

Another act featured a rabbi who the judges disqualified. Tosh asked the judges “[are] you still upset about that whole crucifixion thing?” As the panel watched other fake contestants, Tosh interjected at one point, “you can cut the tension in this room with a nail through the palm.”

The sketch ended with a bizarre sequence about the film “X-Men” and included God defending X-Men’s director, Bryan Singer, against accusations that he sexually abused children.

May 16
After being pounded with mail from angry Catholics, including many bishops, Bill Maher laid off portraying priests as molesters for several months on his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Then he went back to the sewer again:

Maher: “This week Pope Francis said he would baptize aliens if they came to Earth. I love you, Frank, but that is some Mitt Romney-level crazy pope. I’m pretty sure any beings advanced enough to travel hundreds of light years aren’t that interested in getting sprinkled with magic water. Besides, given the past history of fondling and groping, the last thing the Church needs is a 50-foot-priest with six arms.”

May 30
Joan Rivers’ filthy antics made even her panelists recoil in embarrassment on E!’s “Fashion Police.” The occasion for Rivers’ vulgarity was a picture of singer Solange Knowles with her hair sticking up, looking particularly messy. Rivers quipped, “From the looks of Solange’s hair that comb gets used less frequently than the pope’s penis.”

June 4
Chelsea Handler and guest Ryan Stout attacked homosexual priests on the E! network’s “Chelsea Handler.” The occasion was Pope Francis advising young married couples not to see cats and dogs as an adequate substitute for children. Handler responded, “Yeah, that’s the point! And like you would know about having children—you’re a gay priest.” Stout followed up by saying that for these priests, “cats aren’t the same as kids.”

June 20
On E! network’s “Fashion Police” host Joan Rivers was commenting on a mug shot of singer Kid Rock. In the photo Kid Rock has a long beard and long shaggy hair:

Rivers: “…and if you look at this mug shot, this is the way Jesus would have looked if Mary had given birth in a trailer park instead of an inn.”

June 20
Bill Maher took a shot at Catholics during his HBO show “Real Time.” Maher discussed some recent comments that the pope had made about drug use and then he made an unnecessary joke about the center of the Catholic faith. “You know, look I respect, the pope says he never indulges in anything stronger than the Blood of Christ,” said Maher.

June 23
On the “Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS) Letterman discussed the pope’s remarks that members of the mafia were excommunicated. Letterman introduced the topic and made some mafia related jokes. Then Letterman made a joke about abusive priests: “…the pope also said, that members of the mafia, excommunicated, and creepy priests, not a problem. So that’s… [laughter and applause] not what he said, but you know.”

June 27
Joan Rivers attacked gay priests on her E! show “Fashion Police.” Commenting on a short plaid skirt worn by singer Katy Perry, Rivers said “She is so much a Catholic schoolgirl that three priests stopped her to say ‘you’re cute, do you have a brother?'”

July 11
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher discussed the Hobby Lobby case that the U.S. Supreme Court decided. Here is an excerpt:

• “…but the five Catholic men on the Supreme Court agreed with Hobby Lobby that those women who have pleasure sex should be saddled with a baby.”
• “And those five Catholic men on the Supreme Court, they know that God loves every tiny spec of human life, every single sperm from the moment it leaves the penis, until it tries to sneak into America. Then you’re on your own.”
• “…the five Catholic men on the Supreme Court they decided that, I think, that Catholic doctrine trumps federal law.”
• “I just think that it’s a little suspicious that its five Catholic men, and the Catholics do the thing about ejaculating. They do.”

July 15
On CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” the host talked about celibacy, priests, Pope Francis and Cardinal Timothy Dolan:

Letterman: “The pope is considering repealing celibacy for priests. Priests will no longer have to take a vow of celibacy. They’ll be gettin’ it done.  It’s a miracle! And everybody is taking him seriously, earlier today at Communion, Cardinal Dolan, over at St. Patrick’s, sent over some Communion wine over to a sweet looking young thing over in the first pew…” [at this point Letterman used body language to imply that he is hitting on a girl. Nodding, winking, etc.].

July 16
For a second night David Letterman discussed priestly celibacy. He began by saying Pope Francis was thinking about lifting the celibacy requirement for priests. “That’s right, the pope is saying that priests can be in a marriage with a woman and have sex.” [A clip of women are shown cheering.]

The pope was also shown speaking to bishops and cardinals, his words dubbed over. “When two people love each other very much, they become more than just good friends. Eventually they might even get married and have a baby. The mommy and daddy make the baby together, but it grows inside the mommy.”

Letterman continued “So if a priest sees someone out there in the crowd that he likes, he might send over some Communion wine.” [Letterman was shown pointing and winking at someone.] Off camera, band leader Paul Shaffer replied, “That little lady over there.” To which Letterman replied, “Priests having sex, can you believe that?” [The clip of the cheering women is replayed.]

July 17
Kristeen Young was a musical guest on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Young performed her song “Pearl of a Girl” which attacked religion, the Bible and the Blessed Mother. Song lyrics include:

• “I never knew I was a girl until they stooped to tell me, I never knew I was disturbed until they dropped three volumes on me. But in the Bible/Torah/Quran there are really no good roles for me except concubine and wash woman. I used to be the sad one, now I just wanna stab them.”
• “They’ve needed to have the law so they can legally bind us. They’ve needed to have the church so they can morally ground us. They’ve needed most of the dough, they must be so scared of us. So their stories are of ghosts; I only wish the Virgin would’ve had an abortion.”

July 18
Joan Rivers called Jesus a pimp on her show “Fashion Police” on E! While looking at a photo of singer Kid Rock wearing a full length fur coat, with sunglasses Rivers said “First of all, let me just say, Kid Rock, when did he audition to play Jesus Christ Super Pimp?”

July 18
On “Real Time with Bill Maher” (HBO) Maher called the pope a pimp during his “New Rules” segment: “New Rule. The pope is a pimp. I’m serious. I find myself wanting to ask this pope a question I never wanted to ask a pope before: Can I party with you?” 

July 22
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the host mocked Fox News for a soft interview with Sen. John McCain. Pretending to be a reporter, Stewart asked of himself, “Is Jon Stewart fair to Republicans?” Although this skit had absolutely nothing to do with Catholicism, Stewart managed to turn it into another one of his vintage Catholic-bashing moments.

Stewart: “Does the pope sh*t [bleeped] in the woods? Because if not, not only am I not fair to Republicans, I think a bear wearing a hat gave me Communion.”

[Next is an image of Stewart kneeling with his hands folded in prayer, and a large bear dressed as the pope holding a Host and ciborium; Stewart is kneeling waist high to the bear.]

Stewart: “I’m not going to make that other joke that I was just about to make—it was about one of us not using our teeth.”

July 24
On the E! show “Chelsea Lately,” host Chelsea Handler discussed sex abuse in the Catholic Church. She took issue with Pope Francis’ statement that there was a zero tolerance policy for clerical abuse. Handler said “Well yeah, what should there be, a 50% tolerance policy? There should have been a zero tolerance policy years and years ago.”

July 31
David Letterman made a series of jokes about summer vacations on his CBS late night show. He ended the segment claiming to have video footage of Pope Francis’ summer vacation. Letterman showed a clip of an old man running along a beach wearing only a thong. A mitre was superimposed on his head.

August 1
On his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host made two comments that caught our eye. Speaking about those that win the lottery but continue to work, Maher said “Oh please, either quit your job or give the money back, you’re a waste of good luck, like a nun with a huge rack.”

Later Maher said, “Where did we get this idea that drudgery is next to godliness? The Church of course. For hundreds of years the Catholic Church taught that God loved poverty, that’s why he made so much of it.”

August 4
A new show, “Partners,” starring Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence, premiered on FX. The show received negative reviews, but that is not why the Catholic League protested it. The show revolves around two down-on-their-luck lawyers who team up. Lawrence’s character decides to investigate his ex-wife, who has found religion and moved into the rectory of the parish where she is a bookkeeper. The protagonists believe that she is now sleeping with one of the priests. They break into the rectory in the middle of the night hoping to confront the priest, but end up searching his empty room. They find rosary beads that they insinuate are used for sex as well as a box of condoms and other clues that help them conclude that the woman is sleeping with the priest.

After this the sexual jokes abound. For example, “I can’t believe my ex-wife was getting broke off by the one straight priest in Chicago”; and, “This is the woman I lived with for 22 years … and the entire time she’s sleeping with Fr. Francis giving him a second coming.”

August 6
On an episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” which airs on NBC, Meyers said, “A Spanish hotel inspired by Fifty Shades of Grey is having its opening delayed because officials are concerned that it’s too close to a nearby Catholic Church.  ‘We don’t want to be next to all those creepy perverts,’ said the hotel.”

August 9
Comedy Central re-aired an episode of “South Park” from July 3, 2002. The episode, titled “Red Hot Catholic Love,” was entirely about priestly sex abuse. The cartoon featured priests, bishops and cardinals defending child abuse. It was re-broadcast as part of Comedy Central’s “Shart Week” programming. The Catholic League condemned the show when it originally aired. 

August 15
A new show, “The Knick,” on Cinemax featured a nun who performs an abortion. Sister Harriet, a nurse who runs an orphanage, visits an Irish Catholic woman, Nora, who wants an abortion. The woman doesn’t want her husband to find out.

Sister Harriet: “Your husband will know nothing of it. I promise.”
Nora: “Will God forgive me? I don’t want to go to hell for killing a baby.”
Sister Harriet: “He knows that you suffered. I believe the Lord’s compassion will be yours.” [The audience is led to believe that the nun performed the abortion.]

September 5
Cinemax’s “The Knick” continued its storyline about a nun who performs abortions. An ambulance driver who knows that the nun, Sister Harriet, performs abortions tries to extort money from her in exchange for his silence: “See I know about you. The mothers, the babies, the abortions. I’ve seen you with all of them. You are who you are. You defy God and you kill his creations and you stand there looking down on dirty old Cleary. A girl could get hanged for killing babies if the Bishop knew what you were doing.”

After a girl dies while trying to abort her own baby, the ambulance driver, Tom Cleary, strikes a partnership with Sister Harriet:

Sister Harriet: “Now you know why I do what I do for these girls.”
Cleary: “Don’t go off defending your baby murdering. I still don’t like it but I won’t see another girl bleeding to death winding up here. So how about this? I find the girls needing services and you do the job on them. Good and safe?”

October 7
An episode of “The Mindy Project,” a Fox show, opened with an implied sex scene involving Dr. Mindy Lahiri (played by Mindy Kaling) and Danny Castellano (played by Chris Messina); it was titled, “I Slipped!” The room is dark and there is moaning. Here is how the script unfurls:

Mindy: “Oh my God, Danny, this is heaven. Wait! Danny, Danny, that doesn’t go there!”
Danny: “I slipped!”

After the title sequence, the two characters are shown in an office arguing about the sexual encounter from the night before. Mindy is upset with what Danny did. Danny insists it was a mistake. It is implied that Danny attempted anal sex. They take a shot at the Church’s teachings on sodomy, as well as gay priests and the abuse crisis:

Mindy: “Okay, so you’re innocent? You had no intent?”
Danny: “Of course no intent. I’m Catholic. Even if I think about that…”
Mindy: “They promote you to Cardinal?”
Danny: “Hey! Hey! That is all over. It’s over. Pope Frank is on the case.”
Danny: “Can we please just go talk about this in your office, please?”
Mindy: “I don’t know, Danny, because my office only has one entrance and I don’t know if that’s enough for you anymore.”

The show’s writers may be interested in promoting homosexuality but there is no need to bring Catholics into their twisted storylines.

October 8
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the co-hosts discussed the synod of bishops that was going on at the Vatican to discuss challenges facing families. The co-hosts particularly focused on a speech given by a couple who had been married for 55 years. The couple discussed the role of sex in marriage as part of their remarks.

Joe Scarborough initially described the couple’s speech as “uncomfortable” and co-host Mika Brzezinski found the situation very funny. Scarborough then made a comment about priestly celibacy.

Scarborough [to Brzezinski]: “You like that?”
Brzezinski [while laughing]: “I think it was probably very enlightening for them.”
Scarborough: “The joy of sex.”
Brzezinski [while laughing]: “Oh stop”
Scarborough: “I don’t know how many of them are celibate”

October 8
On NBC’s “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” the case centers around a popular but troubled young actress. The starlet, who is in her twenties, performs oral sex on a 15-year-old boy while she is in rehab. As a result, she gets charged with statutory rape. It turns out that she was molested by a producer when she was a teenager. Detectives want to prosecute the producer, but the statute of limitations has run out on the older rapes that he’s responsible for:

Detective Amanda Rollins: “Were you sick the day that they went over the statute of limitations at law school?”
Unnamed Detective: “Yeah, yeah, she’s 24, which in New York is one year too late to charge statutory rape. Anybody want to explain to me why that law still exists?”
Prosecutor Rafael Barba: “You can thank the Church lobbyists for that.”

Barba’s claim is patently false. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are responsible for these situations. By blaming the Church, NBC is fanning the flames of anti-Catholicism.

October 10
The Tom Selleck show “Blue Bloods” on CBS has treated Catholics fairly in the past before beginning to turn on its audience. Selleck stars as Police Commissioner Frank Reagan.

Reagan, a practicing Catholic, cannot defend the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, so when Catholicism is branded an “anti-gay faith,” he replies, “Well, I do believe the Church is a little behind the times on this.” Indeed, he goes so far as to say, “I do believe the Church is backwards on this. And of all the stands to hold onto. In the midst of the scandals of the past decade.” Viewers also meet a conflicted Cardinal Brennan, and a proud lesbian, Sister Mary.

October 27
After delivering a subtle pro-life message in earlier episodes, the writers for “Jane the Virgin” on the CW Channel got around to exploiting the Blessed Mother in the third installment. The show is based on the premise that Jane became pregnant through artificial insemination and remains a virgin. But in a recent episode Jane decided she was going to have sex with her boyfriend. In church during Mass, Jane’s grandmother spoke to her about honesty, making her feel guilty. Hallucinating, Jane pictured the choir singing to her. Here is what followed:

Choir: “Tonight’s the night you’ll lie in bed. You should tell the truth, but you’ll lie instead. Don’t have sex, Jane, don’t have sex.”
Grandmother: “Can you really lie to my face?”
ChoirandCongregation: “Can you really lie to her face?”
StatueofVirginMary: “Virginity for you and me if you keep your legs closed.”
ChoirandCongregation: “Keep them closed! Keep them closed! Keep them closed!”

When the scene ended, Jane was still in church. She was shown telling her mother and grandmother she was going to have sex with her boyfriend. Jane’s mother said, “Halleluiah,” shocking the grandmother.

October 29
During “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on NBC, the late night host made the following statement in his monologue:

Meyers: ”A church in Seattle has filed a lawsuit claiming that the legal marijuana retailer next door is too close to a church,” Meyers said. “‘It’s causing some problems,’ said the priest, through a giant mouthful of Communion wafers.” [Talking as if his mouth is full, and acting as if he is stuffing more food in his mouth], Meyers continued, “It’s like super close to the church. I mean, sometimes it seems like it’s coming a little closer” [he acts as though he is taking a big drink].

There is a Seattle church that filed a lawsuit protesting the licensing of a legal marijuana retailer next door, but it is not a Catholic church: Mount Calvary Christian Church Center filed the lawsuit. But those who write script for Meyers are not interested in attacking Protestants—it’s much more fun mocking Catholics. That they stooped so low as to trash the Catholic celebration of the Eucharist shows the depth of their disorder.

November 6
On “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (Comedy Central) Stewart made a gratuitous joke about Jesus. He was comparing the reaction of Republicans following the 2012 election to the reaction of Democrats following the 2014 election.

Stewart: “…they [the media] said the exact same things about the Republican party when their death warrant was signed, a mere 24 months apparently before it burst forth from its grave like Jesus Christ [imitates the way a preacher might say ‘Jesus Christ’] or a zombie depending on your personal beliefs.” 

November 6
On Comedy Central’s game show “@Midnight” comedians respond to questions or topics by making jokes and are awarded points. Host Chris Hardwick introduced the topic “Jesus Christ Superstardust” where the contestants had to guess if the person pictured was a hot priest, or an unemployed actor working at a restaurant. The contestants were told to guess if the person pictured was a “servant of God or a server of french fries”

Hardwick: “The priests were taken from the 2014 hot priest calendar which features 12 actual Vatican priests sexy enough to be mister January through December. GLORY HOLE-LELUJIAH!” [a “glory hole” is used for anonymous gay sex].

The first round featured a picture of someone who was not a priest. The second round was a priest, “Father July.” In the second round, the show’s performers took a gratuitous shot at Jesus; they also played their anti-Semitic card. Jeff Ross, one of the contestants, said, “I’m not even gay and I want to nail him like Jesus to the cross.” To which Hardwick replies, “Listen, don’t worry, Jeff is a Jew—he did nail Jesus to the cross.”

November 7
For the second night in a row, Comedy Central’s “@Midnight” game show attacked Catholics. Host Chris Hardwick asked the comedians to come up with sensational headlines that could be used by the New York Post. Contestant Jim Norton responded “In God we thrust, Vatican sex scandal.” Hardwick awarded points for the joke.

November 9
“Mulaney,” is a Fox TV show starring comedian John Mulaney that offers typical sit-com fare blended with occasional stand-up appearances.

The story line was silly: Mulaney dupes his mom into thinking he’s a practicing Catholic, and even asks a priest to lie to his mom about going to church. He doesn’t succeed in his quest, but not before telling the priest that he is not like other comedians. On his knees in prayer, he says, “I would like to point out that I never did jokes about priest molestation during that whole thing—even though a lot of stand-up comics did and I totally could have.”

While still on his knees, Mulaney’s girlfriend walks in, asking, “Are you praying?” Mulaney grabs his crotch and says, “No, I’m just masturbating.”

November 21
Providence, RI – Following the arrest of a suspended priest, Father Barry Meehan, NBC 10 Rhode Island summoned its I-Team to investigate. The Diocese of Providence learned of the accusations of the priest in question in December 2012 and immediately contacted the police. In January 2013 the priest was suspended, and proceedings were initiated in the Vatican for a permanent removal from ministry. He was arrested and formally indicted in November 2014.

However the NBC 10 I-Team report focused not on Meehan but on letters sent from the diocese to the State Police about a number of different priests. The names were all blacked out so the reporter actually had no idea who the letters referred to. The reporter continually showed the blacked out letters and indictment. There was also an image of hands holding a crucifix. SNAP leader Ann Hagen Webb was interviewed but the reporter did not identify her as part of SNAP.

The documents used for the I-Team investigation were not proof of a cover-up or larger scandal, and in fact provided no new information about Meehan, because the diocese had previously released all its information on him. The letters had no names or dates, and all the letters were the diocese contacting the police. These facts did not stop NBC 10 from airing its one sided coverage and trying to stir up animus against priests.

November 25
During the Christmas episode of “Tosh.0”  on Comedy Central, host Daniel Tosh opened a segment, “Beef Baby Jesus,” by explaining that in a previous episode viewers were encouraged to tweet using the hashtag #beefbaby. Tosh then showed a clip on how the ‘beef baby’ was made using meat, human feces, and semen. Tosh then wrapped the “beef baby” in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

December 9
On the celebrity show “TMZ” a joke was made about gay priests. The story focused on New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady’s use of the word “F*ck” on the football field. Some TV cameras have picked him up saying it and aired it on their broadcasts.

Brady answered questions about it during a radio show which TMZ played clips from.

Brady [to radio station]: “Yeah, we’re not choir boys, I know that.”
TMZ Narrator: “And Catholic priests are upset he isn’t.”

An image of a person dressed as a cardinal holding a bible is shown. The face of the person is censored.

December 16
The host of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on NBC made a joke about a priest embezzling money and implied that all priests are child abusers, “This is unfortunate. Today a Catholic priest was sentenced after being convicted of embezzling money from a charity. Said Catholic officials, ’embezzlement, oh thank God oh, oh I thought it was going to be so much worse. Oh, thank you. Oh it’s a Christmas miracle. He just stole money.'”

Special Reports

DEBUNKING “PHILOMENA”

January 27
The film “Philomena,” which premiered in the fall of 2013, was nominated for four Academy Awards. What had been peddled as a true story was, in fact, untrue. Worse, it deliberately painted the Catholic Church in a negative way, and was especially cruel to Irish nuns.

“Philomena” is such an outrageous lie that Bill Donohue exposed it in a lengthy article, “Debunking Philomena.” Copies were sent to the bishops, those in the entertainment industry, and to many in the media; scores of reporters in the U.S., England, and Ireland were mailed a copy. It is posted on the Catholic League website; see the “Special Reports” section.

The crux of the matter was this: according to the book (of the same name), upon which the movie is based, Philomena Lee got pregnant out of wedlock in Ireland in 1952 when she was 18-years-old. That part is true. But it was a malicious lie to say that the nuns stole her baby and then sold him to “the highest bidder.” It was also a lie to say that Philomena went to the U.S. to find him.

In reality, Philomena’s mother died when she was six, leaving her father to care for three boys and three girls. He put the girls in a convent and raised the boys. When Philomena got pregnant, and could not provide for her child, her father contacted the nuns asking for assistance.

In other words, the nuns never “stole” the baby. Moreover, Philomena’s baby was not sold to “the highest bidder”: no fee of any sort was charged.

The Wisconsin couple who adopted the boy offered a donation, which is customary, but it was entirely voluntary. And Philomena never set foot in the United States until the end of 2013 when she was hawking the movie—no attempt was ever made to find her son. Her son died of AIDS in the mid-1990s.

When the writer, the director, and the actors involved were asked about criticism by the Catholic League, they quickly said that the movie was “inspired” by true events. To show how utterly dishonest they are, consider the last paragraph of the book’s Prologue. The author, Martin Sixsmith, said, “Everything that follows is true, or reconstructed to the best of my ability” (Italic added).

The word “everything” is an absolute—it allows for no exceptions. But Sixsmith can’t even complete the sentence without contradicting himself: as soon as “or” is added, the claim is no longer absolute. It gets better. “Gaps have been filled,” Sixsmith says, “characters extrapolated, and incidents surmised”; this was also how the film starts. The gaps, it turned out, are gargantuan, but he was a master at filling them.

The film’s producer, Harvey Weinstein, proved how diabolical he is when he went to Switzerland to meet with Vatican officials: he wanted the pope to see the film in a private screening. He failed. Father Federico Lombardi of the Holy See Press Office said, “The Holy Father does not see films and will not be seeing this one.”

There were more lies. Steve Coogan, a co-producer of the movie and the person who adapted the book for the screen, told CNN that Philomena Lee was invited by the Vatican to meet with the pope. In fact, the two of them shook hands with the pope with a wall in between them, as part of the general audience, which is open to the public.

After the film received four Oscar nominations – it did not win a single one – the lies continued to mount. The New York Times said it was a contender because one of its “advantages” was “its backing by the Weinstein Company, which even orchestrated an audience with Pope Francis.”

Regarding the so-called meeting of Philomena Lee and Pope Francis, she was denied a private audience; all she got was a pass to join the general audience. According to Vatican Radio, in the nine months that he was the pope in 2013, “over 6.6 million people attended events led by Pope Francis at the Vatican.” Of that number, 1.5 million attended the pope’s weekly general audience. Philomena Lee was one of the 1.5 million people who “met” the pope.

However, two Vatican officials did agree to see it. Immediately, it was said that Pope Francis’ “personal secretary” saw it. Floating this lie was Coogan as well as several media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. The person they identified as the pope’s personal secretary, Msgr. Guillermo Karcher, is actually one of nine papal masters of ceremonies; he is not even the main master. Msgr. Alfred Xuereb was the pope’s secretary.

It is true that the Weinstein boys, Harvey and Bob, spent an enormous amount of money lobbying this movie. The non-stop ads in the New York Times, multiple each day, and in every section of the paper, were just one index. The lavish parties that Harvey Weinstein threw in Hollywood—everyone wants an invitation—also positioned him to score. While this may have gone down well with those in Tinseltown, it did not sit well in the Vatican.

Father Federico Lombardi, head of the Holy See Press Office, explicitly said that the pope would not see the movie. Furthermore, he took umbrage at those who were exploiting the pope to cash in on the film. According to Lombardi, “It is also important to avoid using the pope as part of a marketing strategy.”

The website of People magazine quoted the 80-year-old Philomena Lee as saying, “I’m thankful and happy I did find him [her son], and that’s all I ever wanted to do.”

Similarly, in the entertainment section of Time, it was written, “Many other Irish women found themselves in similar situations [pregnant out of wedlock at age 18 in 1952] but, unlike Lee, never managed to find the children who were taken from them.”

All of this was a lie because Philomena Lee never found her son: he died in 1995 and was buried on the grounds at the very convent that took her in when she was in need. She was lying about this because it fit with the lie about her looking frantically for him for 50 years. In the movie, she was depicted as searching for her son in the United States.

In regards to the lie that Philomena went to the United States to look for her son, here is what Suzanne Daley and Douglas Dalby wrote in the New York Times on November 29, 2013: “In fact, much of the movie is a fictionalized version of events. Ms. Lee, for instance, never went to the U.S. to look for her son with Mr. Sixsmith, who is played by Steve Coogan, a central part of the film.”

Philomena Lee never set foot in the United States until November 2013 when she went to Los Angeles to hawk her movie. Indeed, Philomena never even bothered to tell her daughter, Jane, about the brother she never knew she had until Philomena had too much to drink at a Christmas party in 2004.

Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe added to the lies when he said the nuns “gave him [the son] away to an American family behind Philomena’s back.”

Steve Coogan, a producer and screenplay writer for the film “Philomena,” was quoted in The Sunday Times (of London) as saying that the nuns asked Philomena Lee’s son, Anthony, “to pay thousands of pounds to be buried” on the grounds of Sean Ross Abbey. “We didn’t put that in the film. We were restrained.” He also stated that “The film offers an olive branch to the church in showing Philomena’s forgiveness. She dignifies her religion.”

Furthermore, Steve Coogan concluded his remarks with this gem: “The Catholic League is a conservative wing of the Catholic church. They say no fee was charged for Anthony’s adoption, but they [the nuns] did ask for a large donation. Well, call me stupid, but that sounds like a financial transaction.”

Coogan was also a guest of Bill Maher on his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Maher said there were 60,000 Philomenas in Ireland, women who had children out of wedlock and gave their children up for adoption. Coogan claimed they were “maltreated and eventually their babies were sold to Americans.”

Bill Maher also said that Philomena Lee “looks like a slave in the movie,” stating she worked long hours in the laundries. Coogan went further by contending that the women “were victims of actual slavery,” and were “incarcerated against their will.”

No woman was ever incarcerated against her will in any of the laundries: Every last one of the women came to the nuns—the nuns did not fetch the troubled women.

Moreover, they were not mistreated, never mind enslaved, and no babies were sold. In early 2013, the Irish government released the McAleese Report on the Magdalene Laundries: it debunked these myths, and many more, yet people like Maher and Coogan have continued to promote them.

The Independent.ie (Irish Independent) ran a story by Liz O’Donnell on “Philomena” saying that Philomena Lee’s “child was stolen by the nuns.” This was incorrect: the 18-year-old Lee, pregnant out of wedlock, was taken to the nuns by her widowed father, hoping they would care for the baby. They did. At age 22, Lee voluntarily signed a contract awarding the nuns her son. The nuns then got her a job. That is the undisputed truth.

“Good Morning America” on ABC also interviewed Coogan; In the voice over, the following was said: “Philomena is based on a true story about an Irishwoman played by Judi Dench who travels to the U.S. to track down the son she was forced to give up for adoption when she was a teenager.”

In his remarks, Coogan said that 50 years ago in Ireland, women who were pregnant out of wedlock, and abandoned by their family, would go to homes run by nuns where “your child would be sold to Catholic, often American, wealthy American couples.”

Chris Buckler, the BBC Ireland Correspondent, wrote Philomena Lee’s child was “taken away from her. When her son Anthony was three-and-a-half years old, the nuns in the convent gave him up for adoption to an American couple. It all happened behind Philomena’s back” (Italics added).

In fact, Philomena voluntarily signed adoption papers relinquishing custody of her son when she was 22 years of age. None of this was done by accident. It was as deliberate as it was malicious.

Sister Julie Rose, an official at the convent in question, flatly denied charging a fee. “No children were sold by any mother or the congregation, to any party, nor did the congregation receive any monies in relation to adoption while we were running the mother and baby home.” Even the author of the book upon which “Philomena” is based admitted that it was “customary for the adopting party to make a donation,” but that it was not mandatory.

All of this was a lie. The proof is the oath that Philomena signed. Here is what it said:

“That I am the mother of Anthony Lee who was born to me out of wedlock at Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, on 5th July 1952.

“That I hereby relinquish full claim forever to my said child Anthony Lee and surrender said child to Sister Barbara, Superioress of Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

“The purpose of this relinquishment is to enable Sister Barbara to make my child available for adoption to any person she considers fit and proper inside or outside the state.

“That I further undertake never to attempt to see, interfere with or make any claim to the said child at any future time.”

This oath was signed by Philomena Lee. Below her signature, it says:

“Subscribed and sworn to by the said Philomena Lee as her free act and deed this 27th day of June 1955.” Signed, Desmond A. Houlihan, notary public.

Not only did Philomena Lee voluntarily sign an oath when she was 22 giving her son up for adoption, in the film itself, Dench says, “No one coerced me. I signed of my own free will.”

Regarding the lie about Philomena’s baby being sold, in the book by Martin Sixsmith upon which the film was based, he stated that, “While neither the NCCC [National Conference of Catholic Charities] nor Sean Ross Abbey [the convent where Philomena resided] charge any fees, it is customary for the adopting party to make a donation….”

These lies were aided and abetted by many in the media, for reasons that only underscore the existence of the Catholic League.

The Catholic League has greatly emphasized the fact that Philomena was not a child when she voluntarily put her son up for adoption—she was 22. Anyone who doubts what has been said should read p. 51 in Martin Sixsmith’s book, Philomena. While he was a major part of the spin game regarding Philomena, the oath that he reprinted settles the argument: her baby was not “forcibly taken” and nothing happened “behind her back.”

IRELAND’S “MASS GRAVE” HOAX 

The following entry was originally published in the July/August Catalyst. It is an excerpt from Bill Donohue’s report, “Ireland’s ‘Mass Grave’ Hysteria.” To read the full account, see the “Special Reports” section of the Catholic League’s website. 

June 23
Mass hysteria gripped Ireland, England, and the United States over reports that nearly 800 bodies of children were found in a mass grave outside a former home run by nuns in Tuam, near Galway. The Catholic Church was hammered incessantly, and shrill cries of maltreatment abounded. Fresh off the heels of horror stories about the Magdalene Laundries, and the torment of Philomena Lee (as recorded in the film, “Philomena”), the public was reeling from the latest report of abuse at the hands of cruel nuns.

None of this is true. There is no mass grave. Women were not abused by nuns in the Magdalene Laundries. And Philomena’s son was never taken from her and then sold to the highest bidder. The evidence that the public has been hosed is overwhelming. Truths, half-truths, and flat-out lies are driving all three stories. That’s a bad stew, the result of which is to whip up anti-Catholic sentiment. This is no accident.

Regarding the latest hoax, many reporters and pundits charged that the “mass grave” story is “Ireland’s Holocaust.” The Nazi analogy belittles what happened to Jews under Hitler, and dishonors Irish nuns. The nuns never put kids into ovens; they did not starve them to death; and they did not torture anyone. Even if the most glaringly dishonest stories about children who died in Irish homes were true, they would not come close to approaching the monstrous atrocities that Jews endured under the Nazis. To make such a comparison is obscene.

It is true that 796 children died in the Tuam home between 1925 and 1961, and their whereabouts are uncertain. But that hardly merits the fantastic leap that wicked nuns dumped them in a septic tank, treating them as if they were raw sewage. There is not a scintilla of evidence to back up this scurrilous accusation. Yet in May and June, this propaganda was disseminated on both sides of the Atlantic, treated as if it were an accurate account.

What is perhaps most striking about this story is the extent to which much of the mainstream media had to walk back its inflammatory stories. The Associated Press even apologized in June for distorting the record. But the damage has been done: once again, the Catholic Church in Ireland has been unfairly blamed for persecuting innocent women and children.

Anti-Catholicism in Ireland, England, and the United States is fueling the “mass grave” hysteria. It’s a sick appetite, and there is no shortage of irresponsible persons feeding it.

One of the key players in the “mass grave” story about the Tuam home was Catherine Corless, a local historian. Her research “suggested 796 babies were buried in a tank outside the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home, in Co. Galway, once run by the Bon Secours nuns in Galway.” Research that suggests an outcome is hardly unimportant, but it is not dispositive. Furthermore, while it is entirely fair to surmise what happened, it is quite another thing to declare exactly what happened.

What is not in dispute is the fact that between 1925 and 1961, 796 children died at this home in Tuam. An initial investigation concluded that “No one knows the total number of babies in the grave.” On June 5, the New York Times said the local police discounted the “mass grave” story as myth. “These are historical burials going back to famine times,” the police said. They added that “there is no confirmation from any source that there are between 750 and 800 bodies present.” Yet that is precisely what many media outlets, and activists, said.

Eamonn Fingleton, writing in Forbes, noted that “experts believe that the babies were buried in unmarked graves within the grounds of the orphanage.” This was not uncommon in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century; this is the way church-run orphanages and workhouses buried their dead.

In many ways, the observations of Brendan O’Neill are the most impressive. He is an Irish atheist with no dog in this fight, save for telling the truth. O’Neill is anything but politically correct. He saw through the malarkey about the Magdalene Laundries, and he has been equally courageous in challenging tales of “mass graves.”

“On almost every level,” O’Neill said in his June 9 article in Spiked, “the news reports in respectable media outlets around the world were plain wrong. Most importantly, the constantly repeated line about the bodies of 800 babies having been found was pure mythmaking. The bodies of 800 babies had not been found, in the septic tank or anywhere else.” The myth was the product of Corless’ “speculation” that the children who died in the home were buried in a mass grave.

O’Neill was adamant in his conviction that “it’s actually not possible that all 800 babies are in this tank-cum-crypt, as pretty much every media outlet has claimed.” He cited a story in the Irish Times that said “the septic tank was still in use up to 1937, 12 years after the home opened, during which time 204 of the 796 deaths occurred—and it seems impossible that more than 200 bodies could have been put in a working sewage tank.”

Tim Stanley is another reliable source from the U.K., and he was also convinced that the popular understanding of what happened is false. “It is highly unlikely, if not physically impossible,” he wrote on June 7, “that 796 bodies would have been placed into one septic tank.” He took note of the fact that “the tank was only in use between 1926 and 1937,” thus undercutting wild accusations that the vile nuns treated dead children like raw sewage for decades.

Fingleton drew on his own experience to question the veracity of the conventional wisdom. He did not mince words: “For anyone familiar with Ireland (I was brought up there in the 1950s and 1960s), the story of nuns consciously throwing babies into a septic tank never made much sense. Although many aforesaid nuns might have been holier-than-thou harridans, they were nothing if not God-fearing and therefore unlikely to treat human remains with the sort of outright blasphemy implied in the septic tank story.”

Adding considerable weight to the observations of O’Neill, Stanley, and Fingleton was Dr. Finbar McCormick. He teaches at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Paleoecology at Queens University in Belfast. He berated the media for using the term “septic tank” to describe the child burials at the home. “The structure as described is much more likely to be a shaft burial vault, a common method of burial used in the recent past and still used today in many parts of Europe.” He specifically said that “Many maternal hospitals in Ireland had a communal burial place for stillborn children or those who died soon after birth. These were sometimes in a nearby graveyard but more often in a special area within the grounds of the hospital.”

So if the public has been duped, how did this story begin? It began innocently enough in 2010, but it took on a strong ideological bent in early 2014. The key players were Corless and Martin Sixsmith.

In 2010, Catherine Corless read an article in the Tuam Herald that caught her eye. The piece, “Stolen Childhoods,” recounted the fate of a former resident in the Mother and Baby home in Tuam that was run by the Bon Secours Sisters. She had already done research on this home, so she naturally followed up and contacted the man identified in the article. This provided her with other leads. Two years later, in November 2012, Corless published her findings in a local journal.

What was most striking about Corless is not what she said in 2012, but how she changed her story. In her journal article, there was no professed anger at the nuns, or the Catholic Church. But later she was in rage. While she does not explain her change in tune, it is evident that her encounter with Sixsmith early in 2014 proved to be a game changer.

Sixsmith is the English atheist who wrote the patently dishonest book about Philomena Lee; the movie about her life was based on his work. Since then, he has taken every opportunity to fan the flames of anti-Catholicism, and even arranged to include the “mass grave” hoax in a documentary about the horrors of Irish nuns. Once he hooked up with Corless, she became increasingly strident in her denunciations of the nuns and the Catholic Church.

Corless was now on a tear. Her previous comments on the possibility of a mass grave, which were tentative, gave way to absolute certainty. “I am certain there are 796 children in the mass grave.” Just as important, she was now convinced of the mendacity of the Catholic Church. “I do blame the Catholic Church,” she said. “I blame the families as well but people were afraid of the parish priest. I think they were brainwashed.” No longer a Catholic, she confesses, “I am very, very angry with the Catholic church.”

The notion that a mass grave existed in the site of the Home is oddly enough credited to the same person who says there never was one. His name is Barry Sweeney. Here’s what happened.

In 1975, when Sweeney was 10, he and a friend, Frannie Hopkins, 12, were playing on the grounds where the home was when they stumbled on a hole with skeletons in it. Corless had heard about some boys who found skeletons there, but did not know their identity until 2014. On St. Patrick’s Day, Sweeney was drinking at Brownes bar, on the Square in Tuam, when he learned of Corless’ research. The two subsequently met.

In her journal article, Corless made mention of a “few local boys” who “came upon a sort of crypt in the ground, and on peering in they saw several small skulls.” So how did she make the leap in 2014 that she was “certain” there are 796 bodies in a mass grave when just two years ago she wrote about “several small skulls”? The leap, it is clear, was not made on the basis of the evidence.

More important, Corless did not jump to the conclusion that “the bones are still there” because she learned from Sweeney about some new evidence. We know this because he contradicts her fantastic story. He was quoted in the Irish Times saying “there was no way there were 800 skeletons down that hole. Nothing like that number.” How many were there? “About 20,” he said.

It is a credit to Douglas Dalby of the New York Times that he did not bury this new information the way most other media outlets did. On June 10, he wrote that “some of the assumptions that led Ms. Corless to her conclusion [about the mass grave] have been challenged, not least by the man she cited, Barry Sweeney, now 48, who was questioned by detectives about what he saw when he was 10 years old. ‘People are making out we saw a mass grave,’ he said he had told the detectives. ‘But we can only say what we seen [sic]: maybe 15 to 20 small skeletons.'”

It does not speak well for Corless that she was flatly contradicted by one of the few persons whose credibility no one questions. Any objective researcher would have adjusted his thesis after encountering a central figure such as Sweeney. Even more bizarre, her initial assessment was sober in analysis. But meeting Sweeney was too late to matter: Corless had already met Sixsmith, and she wasn’t about to let the facts get in her way. Ideology, as we have seen repeatedly in history, has a way of trumping the truth.

It was not just writers such as Fingleton who see an anti-Catholic bias at work (he calls the whole story a “hoax”). Dalby quoted a member of the committee that was organized to memorialize the dead children, Anne Collins, as saying she has had it with the ideologues: “Ms. Collins said the news media and ‘church bashers’ had hijacked the situation, and she disagreed with the widespread condemnation of the nuns.”

Tim Stanley was right to finger a double standard that is present among elites: “Whenever a Muslim does something cruel or barbaric (such as female genital mutilation), politicians and the media are quick (rightly) to assert that this is a cultural practice rather than a religious one. But whenever a Catholic is guilty of a crime, it is either stated or implied that it is a direct consequence of dogma.”

The Sixsmiths of this world are not at all angry about the mass killings and the mass burnings of unborn babies going on today right before our eyes. No, they are too busy fabricating stories about nuns sexually assaulting young women, stealing their kids, and dumping their bodies in septic tanks. It tells us a great deal about the current state of anti-Catholicism that such nonsense is not only accepted, it is welcomed as affirmation of the venality of the Catholic Church.

In all the years of monitoring anti-Christian bigotry, seldom have we seen something as vile as what happened on April 16. On Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” they flashed a picture on the screen of a naked woman with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament in between. He called it the “vagina manger.” We called it hate speech.

Stewart was angry with the Fox News Network for not being exercised over the alleged “war on women” that is going on. Ironically, in the name of defending women, he degraded them. And he did so by unnecessarily assaulting the sensibilities of Christians; they constitute the vast majority of the population.

We did not call for Stewart to be fired, but we did call for him to apologize. After hand-delivering our request to the offices of Comedy Central (it carries the show), and failing to garner a response, we contacted ten of his major sponsors; they were asked to put pressure on the network seeking an apology.

Delta quickly apologized for Stewart’s obscene stunt. Within days, the airline company went further and pulled its advertising. What upset us the most was the response by Kellogg’s—they blew us off. So we took them on. Bill Donohue did a lengthy interview on the number-one radio show in Battle Creek (home to Kellogg’s). Interestingly, Kellogg’s refused to dispatch a spokesman to explain its dismissive attitude. We also called for a boycott of Kellogg’s cereals, and took out an ad in the Kalamazoo Gazette (click here).

We know we got to Stewart because during a performance in Tampa on April 21, he switched gears—going from comedic to serious—and made an oblique swipe at the Catholic League.

Our campaign against Stewart extended to the board of directors and the senior management of Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central; we mailed them a copy of the offensive photo. Then we sent a copy of it to all the bishops, as well as to religious leaders in every faith community.

We also hit the op-ed page of the New York Times. On May 21, Bill Donohue’s ad, “Jon Stewart’s Legacy,” was published, reaching millions of readers (click here). No one in public life can afford to have his reputation damaged, not even cultural gurus like Stewart.

The avalanche of very sick e-mails we received from Stewart’s fans was disturbing. It indicates that these angry young white men have a misplaced sense of priorities: if Stewart is their hero, it doesn’t bode well for our nation’s future. But we also received a ton of positive responses, suggesting that the culture war is still up for grabs. As always, we were relentless in our campaign.

On a recent episode of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” the host joked about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s situation with correspondent John Oliver. During their skit, Stewart ridiculed Weiner by sipping frantically on a Margarita, imitating the way Weiner sips from a water bottle.

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

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

Weiner sends porn pictures to strangers and his buddy Stewart laughed it off. This is to be expected as the ethical bar for people like Stewart and Weiner is quite low. But for Stewart to impulsively lash out at the heart of Catholicism—when discussing a subject that has nothing to do with it—reveals a side to him that is troubling. Indeed, it suggests that it doesn’t take much to bring out the worst in Stewart: when the bigotry is visceral, the pus gushes to the surface at the slightest rub. He owes Catholics an apology.

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

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