Bill Donohue comments on the bigotry that marks the effort to legalize abortion in Ireland:

On the front page of Amnesty International’s website it says, “We campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.” It is a lie: Human beings not yet born, it argues, have no human rights.

When the organization was founded in 1961, it took no position on abortion. That changed in 2007. Citing issues such as rape, it endorsed decriminalization. Predictably, that didn’t last: just last year it started a new campaign, My Body My Rights: it demands the legalization of unrestricted abortion everywhere on the planet. Now it has launched an all-out assault on Ireland’s Constitution because it protects the unborn.

Amnesty International is not content to make an impassioned case for abortion rights in Ireland. In fact, it has descended into the gutter by igniting a vicious anti-Catholic campaign. To do its dirty work it has hired Irish actor Liam Neeson; he is featured in an obscene video.

Neeson wants Ireland’s Eighth Amendment repealed because it protects the human rights of all humans. The viewer is treated to dark footage of an abandoned church, demagogically accompanied by eerie-sounding music. This tees it up for Neeson to exclaim, “A ghost haunts Ireland.” The ghost, of course, is the Catholic Church, an institution that “blindly brings suffering, even death, to the women whose lives it touches.” That they can’t make their case for killing more kids without fanning the flames of anti-Catholicism speaks volumes.

Neeson was a good choice. A few years ago, while Muslims were raping and beheading Christians, he fell in love with Islam, and almost converted. His attraction to Islam was demonstrated even earlier when he famously claimed that the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis could be interpreted as a statement about Muhammad, and not just Jesus!

Whatever it is that’s haunting Neeson is no excuse for his teaming with Amnesty International to stoke the flames of bigotry.

Contact Amnesty’s International Press Office: press@amnesty.org

Contact Neeson’s agent, Alan Nierob: anierob@rogersandcowan.com

Bill Donohue comments on the pope’s reaction to those who seek to exploit the issue of priestly sexual abuse:

Last May, Pope Francis spoke about allegations that the bishop of Osorno, Chile, Juan Barros, was complicit in a crime of priestly sexual abuse. The bishop, who was installed in March, has come under fire for covering up the abuses of Father Fernando Karadima. The priest was found guilty by the Vatican in 2011; the following year a Chilean court dismissed claims against him because the statute of limitations had expired.

It should be noted that the bishop’s principal accuser, Juan Carlos Cruz, a gay man, was 15 when the alleged abuse occurred and it did not end until he was 23! Moreover, we know that a Vatican inquiry was sufficient for Pope Francis to take the bishop’s side. “The Osorno community is suffering because it’s dumb,” he said. He explained that it “has let its head be filled with what politicians say, judging a bishop without any proof.” Then the pope got specific: “Don’t be led by the nose by the leftists who orchestrated all of this.”

Pope Francis could have admonished the crowd not to be manipulated by critics of the Church, or by those with an agenda. Instead, he identified “leftists.” Much the same could be said about those who have sought to exploit the homosexual scandal here at home.

Professional victims’ groups such as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), along with their steeple-chasing lawyer/donors—Jeffrey Anderson is the worst of many—are leftists who hate the Catholic Church. Ditto for bishopaccountability.org, a partisan website that is anything but fair. Left-wing journalists at the National Catholic Reporter, which rejects the Church’s teachings on sexuality, have also exploited this issue. Much the same could be said about leftists in the secular media, both reporters and pundits.

Too many bishops and priests have been falsely accused by those with a left-wing agenda to dismiss the pope’s concerns. We commend him for his courage.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attack by the Associated Press (AP) on the Catholic Church:

Something is going on at AP that needs to stop. There is a concerted effort on the part of this American wire service to smear the Catholic Church. This is the third time in the past three months that AP has unfairly slammed the Church on the subject of clergy sexual abuse.

In October, AP was critical of the Church for not keeping tabs on priests removed from ministry—as if other institutions monitor the behavior of their former sex offenders. In November, it published anecdotal stories—with no summary evidence—of some Catholics who were unhappy with their diocese for the way it investigated cases of alleged abuse.

Never once did it report that this problem is almost non-existent in the Catholic Church today: the stories are all about dead priests or those who were kicked out of the priesthood. Now it is back again, with another installment of its “investigation.”

“Church Offers Little Outreach to Minority Victims of Priests.” That is the title of the story it released over the weekend. AP put three reporters on this non-story: they could not come up with one statistic to prove their point that somehow the Church treats minority victims different from non-minority victims.

Even the anecdotes the reporters roll out don’t support their thesis. No one claimed that he was treated differently because of his minority status. Didn’t an editor catch this? Embarrassing.

It begins with a lie: the reporters say “the church has done little to identify and reach sexual abuse victims.” It must be thinking about the public schools. In fact, no institution has established independent compensation programs for alleged victims, asking them to come forward with their story, other than the Catholic Church; many dioceses have followed the lead of the Archdiocese of New York.

The reporters follow up with an accusation that is hollow. They claim that there is no “concerted outreach” to minority victims. That’s right. Like every institution in the nation, the Church does not employ bean counters, or play identity politics, in its handling of sexual misconduct.

If AP is unhappy with the Catholic Church for not collecting data on the racial and ethnic profile of alleged victims, perhaps it can open its own books to the public showing how it keeps racial and ethnic data on its miscreants.

Then the story gets worse. It quotes some professor from Case Western Reserve University, Brian Clites, who is supposedly an expert on this subject (I never heard of him). He says the Church has a practice of shipping predator priests to poor minority neighborhoods. What evidence did this “leading scholar on clergy sexual abuse” provide? None. It was his unsupported opinion.

As it turns out, there is a reason why no one knows who this guy is. Clites is not a “leading scholar” of anything. He has never published a book on any subject. Type his name in the Amazon search engine under “books” and up pops, “Did you mean brian clothes?”

That’s how well known this “leading scholar” is. Oh, yes, there is a listing for him at Case Western and it says he is working on his first book (about alleged victims). Didn’t an editor catch this? Embarrassing.

There is something sinister going on at AP. It is cherry picking the Catholic Church, turning up nothing but old cases of abuse and inane “findings” like the one it just published.

Maybe the managing editor can explain what their game is.

Contact Brian Carovillano: bcarovillano@ap.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following open letter today to the president of the National Education Association regarding a senior member of the organization who is calling for innocent Americans to be shot. He has also written separately to DA Jack Daneri.

December 8, 2021

Ms. Rebecca S. Pringle
President
National Education Association
1201 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-3290

Dear Ms. Pringle:

Your role as president of the National Education Association is pivotal, and that is why I am urging you to remove Mollie Paige Mumau from the board of directors of the NEA; she is employed in the General McLane School District in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, which is part of Erie County.

In her December 7 Facebook post, Mumau did more than criticize those who are seeking a religious exemption from receiving the Covid-19 vaccination. She called for them to be shot. Here is an excerpt of her remarks (she was apparently responding to someone who chose not to get vaccinated, citing religious objections).

“Screw this guy and screw them all who are all about hiding behind religious exemptions because they don’t want anybody to tell them what to do….He and his ilk deserve whatever comes their way, including losing jobs, getting sick, and perhaps dying from this virus….I don’t know why the GOP doesn’t just take those guns they profess to love so much and just start shooting all of their constituents who think this way (my emphasis).”

As someone who spent 20 years teaching, 16 as a professor, and as the president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am calling on you to terminate Mumau’s membership on the board of directors of the NEA. Given all the gun violence that our nation has endured lately—including school shootings—it is beyond belief that an educator would make such a statement.

There is no legitimate place in public life for anyone who advocates the mass slaughter of innocent Americans, and it is doubly offensive that it should emanate from a teacher. Indeed, Mumau should be prosecuted for what she has done, and that is why I am contacting Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: NEA Executive Committee
Executive Officers, Pennsylvania State Education Association
Dr. Matthew Lane, Superintendent General McLane School District
Jack Daneri, Erie County DA, PA

Contact the NEA: newsdeadline@nea.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on two media outlets that are out to get the Catholic Church:

The media can’t find new dirt on the Catholic Church, so they resort to finding old dirt. Any ethical media source would just move on, but there are some that bear an animus so strong that they can’t. The latest example is a report jointly issued by ProPublica, a liberal non-profit investigative internet outlet funded by establishment sources, and the Houston Chronicle.

The report is a bomb. It breaks no new ground. It focuses on the way the Catholic Church deals with a few priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse and who are either no longer in ministry or have moved to another country. All the priests named in this anecdotally driven article of more than 5,000 words are alleged to have offended decades ago.

This exact same game was played last fall when the Associated Press, the Denver Post, USA Today, and WCPO (the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati) did stories on credibly accused, not convicted, priests who are either inactive or have been removed.

Nowhere in the ProPublica/Houston Chronicle article does it say the Catholic Church did anything illegal or, for that matter, out of the ordinary. When employees who work for the media—or anyplace else—have been let go for alleged instances of sexual misconduct, no one expects the employer to keep tabs on them. If they take another job someplace else, that is never considered a black mark on the organization that dumped them. Except, of course, if that institution is the Catholic Church.

Apparently, we must remind these journalists of an elementary axiom of the criminal law: the accused is assumed innocent until proven guilty, and is entitled to due process. Yes, that even includes the Catholic clergy.

ProPublica boasts of developing an interactive database to search for accused priests. Where is its interactive database for accused public school employees? Only a fool would think this is an oversight. They don’t have one because they don’t care about the victims of sexual abuse, unless, of course, the victimizer is a Catholic priest.

What these media outlets are doing is piling on, cherry picking the Catholic Church so they can throw mud at it. They are the really filthy parties to this contrived controversy about old cases of abuse.

Contact Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief: stephen.engelberg@propublica.org

Bill Donohue

There are many radical organizations in the country, but none has achieved a more inflated status than the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Its undeserved status is due to its perceived expertise in assessing hate groups. While its tracking of hate groups includes some that are undeniably hateful, its list also includes many that are merely conservative organizations who are anything but hateful. By smearing these entities, SPLC is proving that it is the master of hate.

[This is Part I of a two-part series.]

The following organizations are listed by SPLC as hate groups, and the quotes are cited by it as proof that they are a Klan-like organization. Judge for yourself.

Alliance Defending Freedom

“Allowing males to compete in the female category isn’t fair and destroys athletic opportunities. Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented girls – that’s the reason we have girls’ sports in the first place. And a male’s belief about gender doesn’t eliminate those advantages.” ADF legal counsel Christiana Holcomb

“Men who self-identify as women are still biological men. Sure, they can take synthetic hormones to make themselves appear more feminine, style their hair, and wear makeup (or not). But being a woman is more than a physical appearance or a feeling – it is a biological reality.” Marissa Mayer, senior web writer, on the ADF website

“The only surprise is the rapidity with which this degradation of our human dignity has occurred. It has occurred, with raging effect, and within twelve months, on the heels of government mandated recognition of same-sex ‘marriage’ – an oxymoronic institution if ever there was one.” ADF-affiliated attorney Charles LiMandri

American College of Pediatricians

“Transgenderism is a belief system that increasingly looks like a cultish religion – a modern day Gnosticism denying physical reality for deceived perceptions – being forced on the public by the state in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.” Andre Van Mol, co-chair of ACPeds’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality

“Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.” Gender Ideology Harms Children, ACPeds article

“Sex is hard-wired from before birth, and it cannot change.” Michelle Cretella, former president of ACPeds

Family Research Council

“People with gender dysphoria or transgender identities are more likely than the general public to engage in high-risk behaviors, which may result from or contribute to psychological disorders (or both).” FRC senior fellow Peter Sprigg 

“I know they’ll mock at the idea, but look, if you are a male – genetically you are a male, biologically you’re a male – and you say, ‘Well, I’m not a male. I’m a female.’ I mean what’s to keep you from saying that you’re an animal?” Tony Perkins, president

“By ignoring underlying conditions, the demands of transgender supremacy ignore our unique kids, especially those with autism and mental health diagnoses. They deflect much-needed resources away from the pandemic of autism.” Sarah Perry, FRC director of partnerships and coalitions coordinator

Liberty Counsel

“Homosexual conduct can result in significant damage to those involved who engage in such conduct. There is no evidence that a person is born homosexual. And there is evidence that people can change.” Liberty Counsel website.

“One of the most significant threats to our freedom is in the area of sexual anarchy with the agenda of the homosexual movement, the so-called LGBT movement. [It]   undermines family and the very first building block of our society [and] secondly…it’s a direct assault on our religious freedom and freedom of speech.” Mat Staver, president

“Statistically, sexual promiscuity is increased among those who engage in homosexual conduct, the result of which is disease found predominantly, if not exclusively, among homosexuals.” Mat Staver

Pacific Justice Institute

“It is fundamentally unjust for the government to treat some crime victims more favorably than others, just because they are homosexual or transsexual.” PJI  president Brad Dacus

“Most parents do not want their first through fifth graders bombarded with pro-homosexual messages at school. If LGBT advocates really want to stop name-calling and bullying, they should start with themselves.” Brad Dacus

“Forcing boys and girls to share bathrooms, locker rooms and sleeping arrangements is not equality; it is insanity.” Brad Dacus

Ruth Institute

“Transgender is a political category. Invented for political purposes. It has nothing to do with either psychology or medicine. It is a political category.” Jennifer Roback Morse

“Compared to children raised by their own biological parents, married to each other, children whose parents had a same-sex relationship are at elevated risk for the following…emotional problems, pleading guilty to a non-minor offense, learning disabilities.…” Ruth Institute pamphlet

“It’s really important to be well informed about what the church actually says about homosexual practice…The church is very clear that same-sex sexual action are intrinsically disordered and can never be morally acceptable.” Jennifer Roback Morse

Note: Because of its outsized influence, we are sending our series to Washington lawmakers and many others.

Contact LaShawn Warren, Chief Policy Officer, SPLC: lashawn.warren@splcenter.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a very sick celebration:

Most pro-life Americans understand, but do not condone, why some young girls and adult women make a terrible mistake by terminating the baby in their womb. Some make this decision out of fear, or they panic. They need to be ministered to, and that is why the Catholic Church has an outreach program, Project Rachel, that offers them help and guidance.

What pro-lifers don’t understand is why anyone would celebrate those doctors who make their living by exploiting women and killing their children. Abortionists are no heroes.

March 10 is Abortion Provider Appreciation Day. According to the Abortion Care Network, the sponsor of this event, they will celebrate “all of the courageous, compassionate people who provide abortion care.” They will do so “through love notes, art, acts of kindness and support, messages of affirmation, a giant love-fest Tweetstorm, and more.”

There is nothing compassionate or loving about killing the innocent. This infamous day tells us volumes about the character of those who support it. They prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are not reluctantly pro-choice. No, they are rabid pro-abortion enthusiasts.

Contact: info@abortioncarenetwork.org 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the way the media are reporting on crime in New York City:

When Rep. Jim Jordan put the spotlight on crime in New York City this week, he garnered the support of outraged crime victims. Immediately, politicians and the media responded by saying New York is a safe city. They are wrong. No media outlet was more wrong than the Associated Press (AP). Facts matter.

AP wrote that following Jordan’s hearings on violent crime in New York City, “claims spread across social media that the bad old days are back in the nation’s largest city.” To make its point, it said, “experts and city officials say crime across the five boroughs is nowhere near the levels seen in the 1990s….”

It also contended that “criminal justice experts say crime levels were significantly higher three decades ago, and that current levels are more comparable to where New York was a decade ago, when people frequently lauded it as America’s safest city.”

Here’s what AP didn’t report.

Between 2021 and 2022, overall crimes were up 27.6 percent. Felony assaults were up 13.2 percent, and rapes, robberies and transit crimes dramatically increased.

In his first year as Manhattan D.A., Alvin Bragg—who took over January 1, 2022—downgraded 52 percent of felonies to misdemeanors (compared to 39 percent downgraded in 2019). So of course felony statistics declined. But felony victims increased. Just as bad, Bragg sports a lousy 51 percent conviction rate for felonies he did charge.

The crime rate exploded in the early 1990s under Mayor David Dinkins. Why? Because, unlike his predecessor, Ed Koch, Dinkins was incompetent. As soon as Dinkins left office—he was succeeded by Rudy Giuliani—crime decreased dramatically. Giuliani did more to clean up New York City and restore civility than any mayor before him, or after him. He served from 1994 to 2001.

As I point out in my new book, War on Virtue, Giuliani is the reason why the crime rate fell by more than 40 percent in the 1990s. It was due to more aggressive, yet fair-minded, police practices. Bill Bratton, who was the police commissioner for a period during that time, later co-wrote an article explaining what happened and accurately reported that “the decline in homicides and other violent crimes between 1990 and 2000 constitutes one of the great achievements in the history of urban America.”

AP left all of this out.

Progress against crime continued under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “Stop and frisk” tactics, allowing the police to act when they have reasonable suspicion, not only saved lives, but in 2012, the number of civilian complaints was the lowest it had been in the previous five years. All of these accomplishments were undone by Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Marxist millionaire who undermined the police while failing to deal seriously with violent crime.

I work across the street from Penn Station. In his last few years in office,  de Blasio allowed riots to take place with impunity, destroying one business after another. The area is a disaster. The storefronts are still boarded up and the crime element is as bad as ever.

It must also be said that when the police are told to “stand down,” as they have for the past several years, crime statistics will not appear as high as they really should. In other words, we are dealing with a mirage. Couple this with the continued demonization of the police and what we have is lawlessness that is out of control.

When Giuliani and Bloomberg were mayor, those who live within 50 miles of the city would not hesitate to come into New York for shopping, plays, concerts, sports and restaurants. Now relatively few do. The decline in revenue that the city was banking on is going to become its next big problem. It’s going bust.

New York City has become a drug-infested, crime-ridden, filthy city, and no amount of media spin about it being safe can change that reality.

Contact Julie Pace, executive editor, AP: jpace@ap.org