Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on atheist critics of Vice President Mike Pence:

Organized atheists, unlike most Americans who are non-believers, are more often than not driven by hatred of religion and the faithful. Their impulses are totalitarian: they would ban all religious expression if they could. A classic case is Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).

FFRF has gone ballistic because Vice President Mike Pence recently implored Americans to make donations to their church, even if they cannot attend during the coronavirus crisis.

The atheists said that no American public official “should lend the power and prestige of their office to a particular church or to religion in general.” They even accused Pence of being un-American. “Leveraging a global pandemic to drum up church donations is an egregious betrayal of the country’s founding principles in order to benefit religion.” The atheists added that Pence “should not further encourage Americans to give their money to those who least deserve it.”

Their reasoning is bankrupt. Here are four reasons why.

First, Pence was exercising two of his First Amendment rights: freedom of speech and freedom of religion (religious expression is a core constitutional right). Even vice presidents maintain those rights.

Second, Pence did not order anyone to give to their church or offer new tax incentives if they did. His terms were purely volitional.

Third, what Pence said not only did not betray America’s founding principles, it affirmed them. Every president in American history has made public appeals expressing the critical role that religion plays in society, especially during times of adversity.

During the Civil War, Lincoln once told his secretary, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” Similarly, William McKinley, struggling with his decision to seize the Philippines, said to a group of ministers, “I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night.”

Atheists like those at FFRF like to cite Jefferson as an example of a non-believing president who wanted an impregnable wall between church and state. They are badly educated.

When Jefferson was seen carrying a red prayer book, a skeptical citizen asked where he was going. “To church,” he replied. “Why, Mr. President, you don’t believe a word of it,” the citizen said. Jefferson replied, “I, as the chief magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.” Jefferson also awarded the Kaskaskias Indians $300 so they could build a Catholic church. And all Pence was doing was asking Americans to give to their church!

Fourth, it is risible to read atheists tell the faithful not to give to their church because it will go to “those who least deserve it.” Every study on charitable giving shows that atheists are the least generous and religious Americans are the most generous. From giving blood to providing food, clothing, and shelter to those in need, the churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship lead the way in donating goods and services to those in need.

God bless Vice President Pence for encouraging Americans to support their local religious institutions during this crisis.

Contact FFRF’s communications director, Amitabh Pal: apal@ffrf.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Christian videos being removed from Facebook:

“You are invited to pray, to pray for the family, to pray for the sick, and to pray for our leaders.”

“God encourages us not to be dismayed by what we see around us, things we cannot control. We can, however, with the best intel in this moment, place our trust in him, walk forward in his strength, and treat others with kindness.”

These remarks were posted on Facebook and were removed by military officers following a protest.

The first statement was made by Captain Amy Smith; Major Scott Ingram made the second one. They are military chaplains at Fort Drum, and their video remarks were posted on Facebook.

They were taken down when Mikey Weinstein, an anti-Christian activist who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, complained that the videos (there were four in all) amounted to “illicit proselytizing.” He also said his complaint was done “to ensure church-state separation.”

Weinstein complained to officers of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and they yielded. Yet they had no need to—they were deceived by the false arguments made by Weinstein.

There is nothing “illicit” about the mere invocation of God by military chaplains. Had an atheist religion-hating member of the armed forces posted a video on Facebook celebrating Lucifer, Weinstein would have defended it as freedom of speech.

Military chaplains do not lose their twin First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech by posting religious commentary on a private media outlet. Moreover, the separation of church and state provision of the First Amendment only applies to what government cannot do.

Every president, acting as commander in chief, has invoked God, beginning with George Washington. To say that military chaplains have no right to identify themselves as officers when they engage in religious commentary is to say they have no public right to exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Only fascists think this way.

Contact: mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how easy it is to fool Catholic bashers:

If there were a gullibility record, it was broken on April 27 by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). This Church-hating band of professional victims’ advocates—which the Catholic League played a key role in effectively destroying (it limbers on but few pay it any heed)—proved how easy it is to seduce when it bought, hook, line and sinker, a parody about Cardinal Timothy Dolan floated by Michael Sean Winters at the National Catholic Reporter.

On April 27, Winters wrote a critical piece about those bishops who were on a conference call on April 24 with the president, saving his licks for Cardinal Dolan. In what everyone with an IQ in double figures realized, what he said about Dolan was meant in jest.

“The archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, announced he was resigning as the spiritual leader of the ‘capital of the world’ in order to dedicate all his energies to his new position as co-chairman of the Committee to Re-elect the President. The resignation has yet to be accepted by Pope Francis, but there is little doubt the Supreme Pontiff will grant Dolan’s request to be relieved of his spiritual duties.”

We read that at the Catholic League and even commented on the more serious points that Winters made. We understand parody. The dunces at SNAP do not. Here is how they reacted that same day.

“New York’s top Catholic official is reportedly resigning from his position to help lead the re-election committee for President Donald Trump. We believe that New York Catholics will be better served by just about any other prelate and are glad that this longtime enemy of transparency will no longer lead the Archdiocese of New York.”

You gotta love these louts. In a time when we all need a laugh, SNAP has come through for us. How many other Catholic bashers also drank the moonshine is hard to say. But given that their average IQ is in the single digits, the numbers could be daunting.

Contact Zach Hiner, head honcho: zhiner@snapnetwork.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on accusations against Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio:

Cardinal George Pell of Australia was recently acquitted of sexually abusing minors, accusations that were totally without foundation from the beginning. In this country, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is now being accused, for the second time, of abusing a minor. In the end, the smart money is on these charges being found as bogus as the ones against Pell.

Last November, attorney Mitchell Garabedian made a big public splash when he said he was going to file suit against DiMarzio for abusing Mark Matzek in the 1970s. But he never did. It was all for show: His goal was to smear DiMarzio’s good reputation. Now Garabedian—whom I have dealt with and found to be unethical—claims he has found another victim, Samier Tadros.

Bishop DiMarzio categorically denies both accusations and his lawyer, Joseph Hayden, says, “We have uncovered conclusive evidence of Bishop DiMarzio’s innocence.” No lawyer, aside from those like Garabedian, would put his name on the line with such an unequivocal statement unless he knew his case was a slam dunk.

Some things just don’t add up. Why would anyone wait a half century to bring a lawsuit? How is it possible that the parents of these boys never knew about it—Tadros says the abuse started when he was 6 years old and happened “repeatedly”—especially given its alleged serial nature?

The Associated Press broke this latest story. What makes this interesting is that Garabedian chose Michael Rezendes of AP to go public. The two men are from Boston, and know each other well. Rezendes was a reporter who worked on the “Spotlight” team of the Boston Globe that found wrongdoing in the Boston archdiocese, and Garabedian’s role in it was featured in the movie by the same name; he was played by Stanley Tucci.

Rezendes showed his true colors by citing, as authoritative, the National Catholic Reporter. He called it “an independent Catholic newspaper.” In fact, the only thing independent about it is its independence from the teachings of the Catholic Church. Worse, its attack on the Church’s teachings on sexuality helped to foment the sexual abuse crisis that Rezendes covered.

Rezendes then offers a quote from BishopAccountability, a website known for leaving the names of accused priests found innocent on its list of accused priests. It has also smeared Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and has never accepted my challenge to provide evidence that he was hiding dozens of molesting priests.

Bishop DiMarzio is being singled out because he has fought unjust legislation that was targeted at the Catholic Church, bills that allowed the public schools to get off scot-free. New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, who represented a district in the Brooklyn diocese, was the one who pushed for a suspension of the statute of limitations for sexual abuse crimes, permitting a free ride to the public sector.

In 2016, this former office holder accused DiMarzio of offering her a $5,000 bribe. But it was all a lie. She admitted she was wrong about the date of their meeting—by three years—and wrong about the venue. She was also wrong about her accusation, which was undercut by witnesses at the meeting.

There are some very vicious people out to destroy Bishop DiMarzio. He is a good man who has given his life to the Catholic Church.

The Catholic League was right about Cardinal Pell and we will be proven right about Bishop DiMarzio. Let him know of your support.

Contact the bishop’s communications director, Adriana Rodriguez:
arodriguez@desalesmedia.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the status of Catholicism in California:

Anti-Catholicism is sweeping California. Attacks on Catholic statues, public complaints about Catholics attending Mass, the selective enforcement of executive orders on religious gatherings, and politicians seeking to intimidate priests and bishops, are commonplace.

A mob of anti-Catholics celebrated the 4th of July by destroying a statue of St. Junípero Serra in Sacramento, the state’s capitol. The statue was set on fire and smashed with sledgehammers. Though Serra did more to defend the rights of Indians in the 18th century against Spanish colonizers than all the protesters have ever done for American Indians today, Serra is a demon. That is why statues of him were previously destroyed in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

What’s feeding this frenzy? Citing COVID-19 concerns, restrictive measures on religious gatherings have been mandated throughout the state. The tone has been set by politicians: There is one rule for people of faith and another for protesters. This has not been lost on the anti-Catholics. Protesters by the thousands, many of them violent, have been allowed to march in big cities across California—without a permit—as public health officials and politicians said nary a word.

According to the New York Times, 1,300 epidemiologists and health workers from across the nation recently signed a letter saying that those who protested stay-at-home orders were “rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black Lives Matter.” But when it comes to the protesters, they said, “we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for Covid-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health.”

The mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, shares the same position. He said in late May that he supported the Sacramento City Council’s refusal to impose a curfew after two nights of violence and looting. He contended that it would be useless to do so because “those who are perpetrating looting and violence would probably ignore the curfew anyway.” But in early April he said it may be permissible to have the police disperse church-goers if they assembled in prayer.

Meanwhile, public officials in San Francisco are now doing a headcount of Catholics attending Mass. The San Francisco city attorney, Dennis Herrera, says he has received complaints that more than 12 Catholics have been seen at a Mass. He sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Archdiocese of San Francisco ordering it to stop indoor religious services.

Herrera did not say whether he has done a headcount of Protestants going to church, Jews going to synagogues, or Muslims going to mosques. But we do know that his office is fielding complaints from the public that one Catholic church actually held six Masses in one day! Why Herrera did not send in a SWAT team remains a puzzle.

We know who is contacting Herrera’s office, and we know they are not public health fanatics. Moreover, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of them were among the 1,300 doctors and health care workers who signed the letter giving the protesters a pass while condemning everyone else who refused to abide by their highly politicized directives.

Contact Herrera: cityattorney@sfcityatty.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an Associated Press story on the Catholic Church:

Everyone from Nancy Pelosi’s husband to the Los Angeles Lakers has received money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), but none of the individuals and organizations who have benefited from the congressional legislation angers the Associated Press (AP), except for the Catholic Church. It is livid that a dime went to pay for the Church.

AP did not do an investigation of Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, or Protestant houses of worship, or institutions affiliated with them. But it did probe the Catholic Church. Did the Church do anything illegal? No. Then what’s the beef? It got too much money. It also doesn’t like the fact that some of the money could be spent on lawsuits.

For instance, AP cites the “dramatic rise in recent clergy sex abuse claims,” mentioning former cardinal Theodore McCarrick and the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report.

These journalists are embarrassing to their profession.

The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church took place between 1965 and 1985. The latest audit of clergy sexual abuse, released a few weeks ago, shows that there were 8 substantiated accusations made against a member of the clergy between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019. Given that there are 49,972 clergy members, that means that .016 percent had a substantiated allegation made against them.

McCarrick is a disgrace but one man has nothing to do with the kind of hyperbole that the AP indulges in. The grand jury report was about priests who are mostly either dead or out of ministry.

What is perhaps most striking about the AP story is its disinterest in Hollywood law firms that received PPP money. Dozens of them did so. Maybe AP can find out how much money went to pay off the kids whom the celebrities raped.

The funds received by Catholic dioceses go to pay for an array of services, many of which are vital to the poor. To suggest otherwise is not only unfair, it is malicious.

Contact Brian Carovillano, managing editor, AP: bcarovillano@ap.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Catholic support for Black Lives Matter:

If someone were running for president and said he was committed to destroying the nuclear family, we wouldn’t expect any practicing Catholic to support him. What if the same candidate said he was pro-abortion? What if he said he was against school choice? What if he said he wants to defund the police? No Catholic who follows Church teachings could ever support such a person.

These questions must be raised because an article endorsing a group that supports these four policy positions, Black Lives Matter, was just published by a man who used to work at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and now works for Faith in Public Life, a left-wing outfit. Moreover, it was published by a Catholic left-wing media outlet, Commonweal.

Worse, the author, John Gehring, slams the “white hierarchy” of the Catholic Church, and some Catholic organizations (including the Catholic League), for not supporting this agenda. Gehring is funded by George Soros, the atheist billionaire who funded the “Catholic spring,” a movement aimed at taking down the Catholic Church.

The bishops need to know who their foes are, as well as their friends. Gehring is working against them, and Commonweal is egging him on. Such is the state of Church politics in 2020.

Contact Commonweal editor, Dominic Preziosi: dominic@commonwealmagazine.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Planned Parenthood’s rejection of its founder:

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a notorious racist and anti-Catholic bigot, yet this never stopped the organization from defending her until now. Indeed, I once clashed on TV with a Planned Parenthood official who denied Sanger was a racist. Now the abortion-happy institution has come clean and is admitting the obvious.

In fact, the New York-based abortion mill is removing Sanger’s name from its building (her name from local streets in Greenwich Village may also be removed).

With rare exception, the removal of tributes to historic leaders from public spaces should be resisted. This certainly includes Margaret Sanger. By removing her name from public association with the organization she founded, Planned Parenthood is trying to erase its bigoted and bloody history, one which continues to this day.

Regarding its current record, Rev. Dean Nelson, a black minister who directs Human Coalition Action, notes that “nearly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities [are] located within walking distance of Black neighborhoods.” This is not by accident: It is being faithful to the aspirations of Margaret Sanger, a position shared by Planned Parenthood officials today.

Planned Parenthood is finally saying that there is “overwhelming evidence for Sanger’s deep belief in eugenic ideology.” No matter, Sanger’s biographer, Ellen Chesler, claims we are not being fair to her heroine, saying her views have been misinterpreted. Really?

Was Planned Parenthood misinterpreted when it wrote of the necessity of weeding out the “undesirables,” meaning African Americans? “Many of the colored citizens are fine specimens of humanity,” it boasted in 1932. “A good share of them, however, constitute a large percentage of Kalamazoo’s human scrap pile.” A year later Hitler rose to power and wasted no time launching his eugenics program.

In vivid contrast to the eugenics policies adopted by Planned Parenthood and the Nazis was the enlightened perspective of Pope Pius XII. “Can it be licit, by order of the public authority,” he said in 1940, “to kill directly those who, although they have not committed any crime deserving of death, still, because of their physical or psychic defects, cannot be useful to the nation and might be a weight for it and, it is reckoned, might be an impediment for its vigor and strength? No, because it is contrary to the natural law and the divine precept.”

It is nice to know that 80 years later, Planned Parenthood is finally catching up to the wisdom of the Catholic Church, even if its reasoning is politically motivated. If it were principled, it would embrace natural law, but if it did it would have to go out of business.

Planned Parenthood has more work to do. It now needs to address its anti-Catholic legacy. Chesler wrote that Sanger was “rabidly anti-Catholic as she grew older.” It is time for the abortion behemoth to make a public statement denouncing Sanger’s anti-Catholicism.

Planned Parenthood’s historic racism, and its monistic fixation on aborting black babies, needs to be taught in the schools, starting this fall. Its despicable legacy must never be erased.

Let Planned Parenthood know that it must now address its history of anti-Catholicism.

Contact Jacquelyn Marrero, director media relations at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York: jacquelyn.marrero@ppgreaterny.org