Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the attacks on Archbishop Gomez:

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez is under attack by left-wing Catholics and outside activists for his stellar speech given in Spain on November 4th. They are particularly angered over his comments on contemporary social justice movements, which he properly labeled as “pseudo-religions.”

John McWhorter is a Columbia University professor and he understands what Gomez is talking about. An African American, he has written a new book, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.

Both men call attention to identity politics and radical race theories—which judge people on the basis of their race, not their individual characteristics. These ideological currents are not only profoundly racist in themselves, they satisfy the religious yearnings of those drawn to them.

Anyone is free to disagree with Gomez’s address, but there is something unseemly about left-wing organizations launching a petition drive against him. Gomez, who is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, should he commended, not condemned, for his courage to speak the truth.

Those who started the petition, Faith in Public Life and Faithful America, have both received funding from George Soros, the atheist billionaire who has long been at war with the Catholic Church. The former is a front group for left-wing zealots seeking to create havoc in the Church; the latter is run by a rogue Episcopalian priest who sticks his nose into the Church’s affairs.

Show your support for Archbishop Gomez.

Contact: Office.Archbishop@la-archdiocese.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Catholic politicians in Colorado who reject the Church’s teaching on abortion:

Separation of church and state cuts both ways, but few in the media have any interest in reporting on this when it is the state that is crossing the line. That’s what is happening in Colorado.

In March, Democratic Colorado lawmakers passed a bill that explicitly rejects the humanity of unborn children; it was signed into law in April by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. Not unexpectedly, Catholic bishops denounced the legislation.

In a letter signed last week by Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila, Jorge Rodriguez, Auxiliary Bishop of Denver, Pueblo Bishop Stephen Berg and Colorado Springs Bishop James Golka, they said it is “a gravely sinful action because it facilitates the killing of innocent unborn babies, and those Catholic politicians who have done so have very likely placed themselves outside the communion of the church.”

The letter made it clear that these politicians are “encouraging others to do evil,” thus giving scandal to the Church. As such, until they seek repentance in confession, they should “voluntarily refrain from receiving communion.”

The bishops did their job and did so without drama. The drama came from some Catholic lawmakers who are now telling the bishops they are wrong. Rep. David Ortiz, for example, said the bishops were not “stewarding people’s souls” and were guilty of “confusing spirituality and politics.”

Ortiz could not be more wrong. In fact, the bishops are charged with upholding Catholic teachings on public policy issues (abortion being one of them) and are expected to follow canon law prescriptions regarding Catholic politicians who are in open defiance of those teachings. They are not the ones who are politicizing this issue—it is those who are publicly challenging them. That they are agents of the state makes their stance even more serious.

Rep. Monica Duran, another pro-abortion Catholic critic of the bishops, accused the bishops of “sending the wrong message” to Catholics. She has it backwards. By standing their ground, the bishops are sending the right message to practicing Catholics: they are saying to them that fidelity to the Church’s teaching on abortion is expected by those who publicly claim to be part of the Catholic community.

Brittany Vessely, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, defended the bishops, noting that abortion “violates a fundamental moral teaching of the Church in its complete desecration of life and the millions of children who are killed annually.”

Every organization, including secular ones, has tenets that those who belong to it are expected to follow. If some find it too burdensome to do so, they know where the exit door is. It is the height of audacity when those who reject strictures they voluntarily embraced to claim victim status when they are called out for doing so.

Kudos to the Colorado bishops and the Colorado Catholic Conference.

Let Denver Archbishop Aquila know of your appreciation for what he and the other Colorado bishops are doing.

Contact Kevin Greany, the archbishop’s director of communications: kevin.greany@archden.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the rift between Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her bishop:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been told by her bishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, not to present herself for Holy Communion, has been begging for a confrontation with him for many years. Now she has succeeded.

Less than two years after Cordileone was installed as the new archbishop in 2012, Pelosi, who was House Minority Leader at the time, “took the lead,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “in a high-profile lobbying effort to pressure San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone not to attend the controversial March for Marriage event….”

The March for Marriage was held to promote the idea of marriage,  properly understood: in other words, as the exclusive union between a man and a woman. This bothered Pelosi immensely, which is why she went public with her dissenting position. She has never stopped egging her bishop on since that time.

Americans of any religion, or none at all, would understand if an imam, minister or rabbi publicly called out a politician who claims to be of his faith for misrepresenting it. They would find it bizarre if the wayward politician called him out. This is exactly how the Pelosi feud with Cordileone began—she started publicly lecturing him, not vice versa.

Cordileone’s letter to Pelosi, instructing her not to go to Communion, was not some impulsive act. He has tried to deal with her for many years, trying to bring her back into the fold, but she resists.

At what point does a prominent Catholic lawmaker who promotes the killing of unborn babies—for any reason and at any time of pregnancy—merit sanctions by her Catholic superior? That Pelosi defends her support for abortion-on-demand as the decision of a self-described “devout Catholic” makes her offense all the more hideous.

Worse, by publicly defending what the Church says is “intrinsically evil,” she is giving scandal to the Church. To be specific, she is not simply guilty of false advertising: She is giving scandal by leading Catholics to think that they can be pro-abortion and a Catholic in good standing at the same time.

It is rather amusing to read what non-Catholics have to say about this issue. To begin with, it is none of their business. To be sure, it is their business to be for or against the Church’s teaching on abortion—that is a public policy matter—it is not their business to weigh in on the internal strictures of Catholicism, or any other religion.

The reverse is also true. We would not expect Archbishop Cordileone to tell the San Francisco Examiner how to handle their personnel matters. We would also not expect this newspaper to tell him how to deal with Pelosi. But they couldn’t resist doing so.

The Examiner has called on Pope Francis not to discipline Pelosi—”she reflects the true spirit of Christian care”—but to remove Cordileone. They want him canned.

As it turns out, nothing Cordileone said violated anything the pope has said about this issue. While the pope has said bishops should not politicize these controversies, he has also said they had a right to address these matters in a pastoral way.

Indeed, he explicitly said last year that Catholic politicians who publicly support abortion are “outside the community.” “These people who are not in the community cannot take communion, because they are out of the community. It is not a punishment: Communion is linked to the community.”

What Pope Francis said on the papal plane on September 15, 2021 is not in dispute. “Then, those who are not in the community, cannot receive communion: Excommunicated, it’s a harsh word, but they don’t belong in the community, because they were not baptized, or because they are estranged from it (my italics).” He then added that abortion is “more than a problem: It’s a homicide. No middle terms. Whomever does an abortion, kills.” It doesn’t get much plainer than that.

Ever since Cordileone became the leader of the Catholic Church in San Francisco, the local libertine-minded media have had their sights set on him. That’s because he was a leader in the Proposition 8 movement trying to secure marriage as the exclusive union between a man and a woman. So their latest salvos are hardly surprising.

Over the past decade, Archbishop Cordileone has demonstrated great prudence and patience in dealing with Pelosi. He is a man of courage and goodwill, and a loyal son of the Catholic Church.

Let the archbishop know of your support for him.

Contact his communications assistant director, Mary Powers: powersm@sfarch.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a controversy at the College of Holy Cross:

Bishop Robert McManus, who heads the Diocese of Worcester, has notified the College of Holy Cross that he will not attend the school’s commencement on May 27. He made his decision after the school’s president, Vincent Rougeau, was petitioned by some students, faculty and alumni to disinvite him. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the bishop has not attended a graduation ceremony at the Jesuit school.

This year the source of the controversy began on April 3 when McManus issued a statement that was critical of the Nativity School, a middle school affiliated with Holy Cross. The school had been flying a Black Lives Matter and a gay pride flag next to the American flag for over a year, but was only recently brought to the attention of the bishop. When he learned of what was going on, he asked the school to stop flying the two flags. That request sparked the online petition.

In his public statement on this issue, McManus wrote that while the Catholic Church respects everyone equally, “the flag with the emblem Black Lives Matter has at times been coopted by some factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police and those entrusted with enforcing our laws.” He also said that “gay pride flags are often used to stand in contrast to consistent Catholic teaching that sacramental marriage is between a man and a woman.”

“As the Bishop of this diocese,” McManus said, “I must teach that it is imperative that a Catholic School use imagery and symbols which are reflective of that school’s values and principles so as to be clear with young people who are being spiritually and morally formed for the future.”

Bishop McManus is to be commended for telling the truth. If anything, he was too kind.

Black Lives Matter has not been coopted by anyone—from the very beginning this Marxist, anti-Christian organization has been very specific about its goals. It has explicitly called for the destruction of the nuclear family. As I have said before, this is precisely the kind of objective that the Klan would endorse. Nothing would further punish the black poor more than to further destabilize the intact family.

It is striking how the same left-wing students, faculty and alumni that deplore violence stand in unison with an organization that is responsible for the murder of at least 25 persons and has engaged in arson, vandalism and looting, often in black neighborhoods. The cost of its wanton destruction is upwards of $2 billion. White supremacists couldn’t have done a better job.

How ironic that these brave Catholic students are still defending an organization whose leaders have ripped off the public—no one more than blacks—by buying mansions for themselves, leaving the black community high and dry. Their refusal to pay taxes is now under investigation throughout the nation.

Flying a gay pride flag at a Catholic school sends an unmistakable message: We don’t buy the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics. As such, it is not a plea to respect homosexuals: on the contrary, it is an in-your-face rejection of Catholicism. That this should take place at a time when child abuse is taking place in some schools, and parental rights are under attack—in the name of sexual orientation and gender identity—makes the flag issue all the more reprehensible.

It is a shame what has happened to Holy Cross. It is not the college that once made so many of its graduates proud.

We cannot allow those who are responsible for this travesty to carry the day. We need to show our support for the courageous stance taken by Bishop McManus.

Contact Joan DeMasi at the bishop’s office: jdemasi@worcesterdiocese.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how child and parental rights are being violated by an educational association:

Three weeks ago today, I sent a letter to Donna Orem, president of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), asking her to validate a story about the organization that was published by Breitbart, an internet media outlet; copies were sent to members of the board of trustees. She has not replied, thus I am going public with my concerns.

NAIS is the national accreditation association for private schools across the country. In my letter I refer to its “queer-inclusive curriculum,” one which constitutes manipulative and highly objectionable fare. Moreover, it does so in secrecy, intentionally shielding parents from its contents. Many Catholic parents who send their children to a private non-sectarian school would be horrified to learn what the curriculum entails, as would non-Catholic parents.

At a NAIS conference in 2020, a staff member explained to teachers in a  training session what children will be taught.

“Starting in Pre-K we talk about their bodies, the parts that they were born with, about penises and vaginas and whether they make somebody a boy or a girl. But also their feelings, what do they feel like inside, do they feel like a boy or a girl? What does their head say? Do their heart and their body match up?” Vocabulary lessons include words such as “the vulva and the labia.”

After leading these children to question their status as a boy or a girl, the schools will then proceed to encourage those who are in rebellion against their nature. “Students ready to socially transition may initiate a process to change their name, pronoun, attire, and access to preferred activities and facilities,” the latter meaning locker rooms and bathrooms.

Books that students can access in their library may include Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. It includes illustrations of boys performing oral sex.

All of this is to be done behind the back of parents. Worse, their children may be expelled from school if parents voice “strong disagreement” with the curriculum. To top things off, teachers are being instructed how to deal with “puritan” parents who object. The condescending attitude is typical of educational elites.

“Puritan Speak” includes phrases such as “That’s my job.” “They’re just not ready.” “They’re too young to know that.” “Won’t they lose their innocence?” “But, what if my child is not ready?” “You’re just trying to put ideas in their heads.” There is nothing “puritan” about these concerns—they are merely expressions of responsible parents.

What these educators are doing to children is child abuse. What they are doing to parents is parental abuse. This is not sex education: it is sexual engineering, and it is violative of the rights of mothers and fathers.

If there is one good thing that the pandemic yielded, it is the extent to which unsuspecting parents have learned just how morally debased some teachers and administrators have become. The pushback must continue.

Contact Donna Orem: orem@nais.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on what happened in D.C. on the eve of the March for Life:

An anti-Catholic outfit, Catholics for Choice (CFC), did not go to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. last night to observe Catholics attending a prayer vigil ahead of today’s March for Life. No, they went to sabotage the event. They projected pro-abortion slogans on the Basilica.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, one of the leading pro-life leaders in the Catholic Church, referred to the assault as a “desecration,” further branding it as “diabolical.”

CFC is led by a lesbian activist, Jamie Manson. She is commanding a sinking ship at CFC and is trying anything to jump start it. Last year she explained her new strategy. “We have to talk back to the anti-choice movement in religious language. Because they’re using religious language.”

In other words, her idea of using religious language is to disseminate pro-abortion messages at a Catholic pro-life event. That would be like using racist language at a pro-racial justice rally. Moreover, it is not accurate to suggest that pro-life Catholics exclusively use religious language to get their point across: they also use the lexicon of biology.

CFC has no members. It is entirely funded by the pro-abortion establishment. The Ford Foundation has been its most consistent source of funding, extending back decades. It also receives huge grants from The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (Warren Buffett is a big fan of abortion), the Hewlett-Packard Foundation, and, of course, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Without the ruling class, CFC would fold.

The media, which are overwhelmingly pro-abortion, ignored what happened, just as they will ignore the throngs at the March for Life. It’s who they are.

Contact Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation: d.walker@fordfoundation.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the reaction of the Catholic left to the clergy sexual abuse scandal:

It’s over. Not only is the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church over, those who helped drive it—the Catholic left—have lost. Their pitiful reaction to the 20th anniversary of the Boston Globe series on priestly sexual abuse in Boston is all the evidence we need to make this charge.

The National Catholic Reporter ran three articles on the 20th anniversary of the Boston Globe series, and not one of them had the intellectual honesty to say that the homosexual scandal has been effectively checked.

On January 4, the Reporter ran a piece by Barbara Thorp which concluded that we need a national database of accused clergy. On January 11, it republished an article by Catholic News Service that allowed the discredited shell of a group, SNAP, to claim that no progress has been made. On January 12, it featured an essay by its former editor, Tom Roberts, wherein he said the scandal “is not over.”

As I point out in my book, The Truth About Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes, the Reporter played a prominent role in fostering the scandal.

Its relentless attacks on the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics gave succor to already disordered men, effectively giving them the green light to act on their twisted id. I also point out that dissidents such as the Reporter have a vested ideological interest in pretending that the scandal is on-going. Now they have proved my point beyond dispute.

My news release of January 3 provides evidence that the scandal is long over. “The average number of substantiated accusations [against the clergy] made in the last ten years is 5.9.” In all three articles by the Reporter, there is not one statistic that can support their position. I have the data—they have none.

Case closed. The Catholic left has lost.

Contact Heidi Schlumpf, executive editor of the Reporter: hschlumpf@ncronline.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on recent recipients of the “Genius Grants”:

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation annually present a Fellowship to those deemed worthy of what is known as their “genius” award. The winners this year have much in common: 72% of the winners are hard-core left-wing writers, artists and activists. In keeping with the zeitgeist, almost all are consumed with race, and do not look kindly on the United States.

Many are socialists, though none will turn down the $625,000 grant that was made possible by the capitalist system that they abhor.

The superstar of this year’s awards is Ibram Henry Rogers, better known as Ibram Xolani Kendi. His main contribution to America is promoting racism in the name of fighting it. He likes to boast how much he hates capitalism, though that hasn’t stopped him from charging $20,000 an hour for one of his virtual presentations. He is filthy rich.

Here is a list of this year’s “geniuses.”

Hanif Abdurraqib, music critic, essayist, and poet

• Abdurraqib focuses heavily on the subject of race. In one piece for The New Republic, he complains that Ohio has embraced white supremacy. Also his social media is littered with accusations that America is a racist country.
• Abdurraqib has also been critical of American efforts in the War on Terror. “There is no retaliation like American retaliation, for it is long, drawn out, and willing to strike relentlessly, regardless of the damage it has done. Sept. 11 is used as a tithe in our church of brutality, even 15 years and endless bombs down the road.”

Daniel Alarcón, writer and radio producer

• Alarcón is critical of America defending its border. While most of his social media is in Spanish, there are several accusations that American border security is racist and harmful to oppressed immigrants.

Marcella Alsan, physician-economist

• Alsan contends that legacies of discrimination perpetuate racial disparities in healthcare usage and health outcomes. She once tweeted that “CDC Director Declares Racism A ‘Serious Public Health Threat.'”
• In a 2006 article, Alsan complained about the Catholic Church is opposed to using condoms to combat AIDS in Africa, thus subjecting them to hardship.

Trevor Bedford, computational virologist

• During the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests/riots in 2020, Bedford took to social media to say that they did not increase the potential risk of spreading Covid-19. He also tweeted that systemic racism and police brutality were greater threats to public health.

Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet and lawyer

• Betts maintains that the American justice system is racist. An ex-con, he says “we live in a country that’s too punitive when certain people commit crime.”
• His social media is full of accusations that America is a racist country.

Jordan Casteel, painter

• Casteel invites the viewer to consider “blackness” as a concept and social construct through her experimental use of color. She uses her art to call attention to systemic racism.

Don Mee Choi, poet and translator

• Choi focuses on grappling with the effects of military violence and the U.S. imperial legacies on the Korean Peninsula. She blames American imperialism for much of the suffering in the world.

Nicole Fleetwood, art historian and curator

• Fleetwood is a prison reform activist who has called to “abolish the carceral state.” She regularly praises BLM and condemns the police as racists.
• In a 2020 interview with Asia Art Tours, Fleetwood spoke out against the “extractive capitalism” present in both prisons and museums.

Cristina Ibarra, documentary filmmaker

• Ibarra uses her films to unearth and portray complicated colonial legacies and cross-border tensions that continue to exist in the community. Her films depict intergenerational life, displacement, labor struggles, and community violence, often from the perspective of Chicana and Latina youth.

Ibram X. Kendi, racist expert

• When Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, Kendi attacked her for adopting two children from Haiti. He likened her to “white colonizers” who “adopted” black children so that these “savage ” children could be “civilized.”
• “When I see racial disparities,” Kendi opines, “I see racism.” However, “racial discrimination is not inherently racist.” Indeed, he argues that “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” He wants to defund the police.

Daniel Lind-Ramos, sculptor and painter

• Lind-Ramos art embodies social history and religious rituals. His work focuses on the Afro-Antillean heritages and promoting multiculturalism.
• Lind-Ramos’ art also focuses on religious aspects. Some of his works involve the inclusion of altars that are a tribute to the afro-Caribbean religions worshipped by Cuban Yoruba slaves, and are meant to unveil the taboos on colonial history that continue to produce anxiety and divide the Puerto Rican society according to skin color and dependency complexes.

Monica Muñoz Martinez, public historian

• Martinez specializes in histories of racial violence, policing on the US-Mexico border, Latino history, women and gender studies, and restorative justice. She is also “cofounder of the nonprofit organization Refusing to Forget, which calls for a public reckoning with racial violence in Texas.”
• Martinez’s book The Injustice Never Leaves You in 2019 was named a Five Books Best Book on white supremacy. She has also claimed the Texas Rangers are an institution of white supremacy.

Desmond Meade, civil rights activist

• Meade has worked to change disenfranchisement laws and other barriers preventing formerly incarcerated citizens from fully participating in civic life.
• He has complained about a Florida law that returns voting rights to felons only after they have paid all the financial debts they have incurred because of the crimes they have committed calling it an example of “racist Jim Crow policies.” He has also used social media to promote the notion that whites are racist and America is a racist nation.

Safiya Noble, internet studies and digital media scholar

• Noble supports Black Lives Matter and defunding the police. Further, she wants to ensure that governments and law enforcement cannot use technology to promulgate racism and other forms of injustice.

Alex Rivera, filmmaker and media artist

• Rivera is best known for his films about labor, immigration, and politics. His works primarily focus on downtrodden immigrants suffering at the hands of border enforcement policies
• Rivera’s social media has multiple complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. He also has many tweets advocating for amnesty and other measures to mitigate the “hardships” endured by immigrants. He frequently frames the argument that white “Anglos” are oppressing poor Hispanics and other immigrant groups.

Jacqueline Stewart, film scholar, archivist, and curato

• Stewart’s work focuses on black-made movies, black movie-goers, and systemic racism in film
• In a 2020 opinion piece for CNN, Stewart argued in favor of HBO Max to continue streaming Gone with the Wind because the film show cases America’s racist attitudes and offered a perfect teaching moment for whites to confront their deeply held racist beliefs. In the same piece, she complains about police brutality and praises the rioters for calling attention to systemic racism. Following the piece, HBO Max invited her to provide a new forward to Gone with the Wind and a warning that the film is deeply racist and apologize for past abuses.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, historian and writer

• Taylor is the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016). In this work, locates the origins of BLM not just in police and vigilante violence, but also in the growing polarization between black politicians and ordinary black people. Taylor argues that black elected officials are often complicit in perpetuating systemic racism. Embedded within the dynamics of capitalist democracy, they create policies that support the economic status quo rather than the needs of their black constituents.
• Taylor was a member of the International Socialist Organization, a revolutionary Trotskyist non-profit.
• Taylor wants the police to be defunded and argues that America is a systemically racist country. Also, conservatives are the root of all evil. In one tweet, she shared a video of Amy Coney Barrett with the caption “White Power.”

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, choreographer and dance entrepreneur

• In 1984, Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW). This is an activist group that uses dance to fight back against inequality.
• In 1993, UBW put on a performance called LifeDanceIII… The Empress (Womb Wars). The performance takes up women’s cry against sexual violence, medical butchery, and the denial of women’s rights to control their own bodies, and Zollar recounts her deeply personal experience with abortion. Womb Wars presents abortion as a spiritual act.

These award winners are basically apolitical or at least not radicals.

—Ibrahim Cissé, biological physicist

—Joshua Miele, adaptive technology designer

—Michelle Monje, neuroscientist and neuro-oncologist

—Taylor Perron, geomorphologist

—Lisa Schulte Moore, landscape ecologist

—Jesse Shapiro, applied microeconomist

—Victor J. Torres, microbiologist

John D. MacArthur, whose capitalist ventures are responsible for the Foundation, was not a race-baiting anti-American left-wing activist. He was a businessman who created Bankers Life, a prominent insurance company. But like so many other successful capitalists, he did not lay down guidelines for his Foundation, and like so many others, what he created was hijacked by the Left and turned into a radical enterprise.

What we are witnessing is the sabotage of America by the ruling class. Their penchant for national suicide is stunning. They have become the enemy of the common man.

Contact Kristen Mack, Managing Director, Communications at MacArthur Foundation: kmack@macfound.org