Every December controversies rage over the placement of religious symbols in public schools and on public property.  This year is no exception as lobbying efforts to cleanse the schools and parks of any religious symbolism are being waged by activist organizations that want to further secularize society.  Such organizations include the ACLU, ADL, People for the American Way and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

For example, the ACLU is currently challenging the erection of nativity scenes in Lincoln, Nebraska; Lexington, Massachusetts; Lafayette, Indiana and elsewhere. They have also protested, with success, the term “Christmas break” in Newton County, Georgia—school authorities switched the name to “semester break” so as to avoid a lawsuit.  The ADL has taken a different approach, electing to publish a pamphlet on “The December Dilemma: Guidelines for Public Schools During the December Holidays.”

Catholic League president William Donohue explained the league’s response:

“The Catholic League is opposed to the use of government funds to pay for the placement of religious symbols on public property, but it is not opposed to the erection of such symbols in the schools or in parks if it is done voluntarily and with private funding.  For example, for the past several years the Catholic League has secured a permit from New York City that allows us to put a nativity scene in Central Park; Jews erect a menorah and Muslims place a Crescent and Star.  This constitutes government accommodation, not sponsorship.

“We continue to object to those who profess a rank hostility to the public expression of religious liberty.  That is why we provided a response to the ADL’s statement, ‘The December Dilemma,’ on our website: it is called ‘The December Celebration’ and is found at catholicleague.org.”

At yesterday’s press conference in New York, Catholic League president William Donohue outlined the league’s plan of action regarding the Al Gore Playboy Mansion fund-raiser scheduled for August 15. As part of that effort, the league has placed a half-page ad in today’s edition of the Washington D.C. publication, Roll Call. The ad is titled, “Catholic League to Gore: Cancel the Playboy Mansion Fund-Raiser.” The second prong of today’s protest involves the initiation of a “web war.” Donohue explained his strategy today:

“We are contacting all of our friends in the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities to join with us in our protest of the Playboy Mansion fund-raiser scheduled for August 15; this is the Feast of the Assumption, a holy day of obligation for Catholics. We will post on our website, catholicleague.org, the phone (202-456-1414) and fax (202-228-2424) numbers of Gore’s office, and his e-mail address (vice.president@whitehouse.gov). We are asking all our allies to jam the lines at the White House and get the message across: we want Gore to cancel the ‘Gorgy.’

“This ‘web war’ is entirely Gore’s doing and no attempt by him to separate himself from this event will work. It is true that Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the vice chairman of the Democratic National Convention, organized the bash, but she was appointed by the vice president to this post and ultimately works with his approval. We will have more to say on this subject tomorrow.”

The recent sex survey of Roman Catholic priests by the Kansas City Star has just been analyzed by two leading statisticians: David Murray, research director at the Statistical Assessment Service and S. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. They have independently posted their review of the survey at newswatch.org.

They said that “few survey researchers would consider a 27 percent response rate to be ‘very good,’” adding that in such instances “follow-up surveys” are typically conducted; this was not the case.

They also concluded that the survey’s margin of error of 3.5 percent was a “boilerplate description of sampling error.” They made this charge because it is not known whether “the minority who responded were unusually concerned about AIDS, differentially open to questions of personal sexuality, or even more likely to have a homosexual orientation than the 2,212 non-respondents.”

The survey’s most sensationalistic conclusion—that AIDS-related deaths among priests is about 4 times the general population rate—was also the source of Murray and Lichter’s harshest assessment: the survey compared priests to the general population, which includes women and children, and therefore offered a skewed comparison. When the rate of AIDS-related deaths among priests is contrasted with the rate among adult males, the difference disappears—they have the same rate!

Catholic League president William Donohue commented on this today:

“Murray and Lichter’s analysis of the Kansas City Star data demonstrates the unscientific nature of the sex survey. When coupled with the obvious political agenda of the survey, the only unqualified conclusion that can be drawn is that the Kansas City Star deserves the Maria Monk award for fabricating stories that demonize the Catholic Church.”

Deal Hudson, president of the Pennsylvania Catholics Network, is cited today in a U.S. News blog story on the anti-religious antics of Catholics for Obama.

Bill Donohue addresses this issue:

Should Christians vote for a Jewish Democratic candidate for president? Should they be made to feel guilty if they even gave it a second thought? How would the media react if Catholics for Republicans called prospective voters asking, “How can you support a Jew who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”

The question needs to be raised in light of what Catholics for Obama is now doing: In a scripted phone message, Catholics are being asked, “How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”

The question is obscene. The beneficiary, President Obama, should demand an end to this Mormon-baiting strategy immediately.

Contact:  info@catholicdemocrats.org

Bill Donohue comments on a petition drive against Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

Approximately 100,000 persons have signed a petition demanding the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn. It’s a phony exercise.

The petition is found on the website of change.org, home to mostly left-wing activists. Anyone can sign it—you don’t have to be Catholic or from Finn’s diocese. For example, almost 7,400 signatures were sent to the diocese, and all but approximately 150 were from outside the area. Of the signatories online, activists from foreign countries have signed. In short, there is no grassroots rebellion against Bishop Finn.

We know who Bishop Finn’s enemies are: the Kansas City Star and the National Catholic Reporter (both are located in Kansas City, Missouri). They are the real source behind this phony petition drive: Both have been beating the drum calling for Finn to resign. It is not child sexual abuse that angers them, it is where it takes place and under whose purview it is.

There has been an ongoing story in the Orthodox Jewish community of rampant child sexual abuse, intimidation of victims, and a refusal to cooperate with the authorities, yet the Star has never covered this issue and the Reporter has largely ignored it (both publications carry national stories, not just local ones).

Similarly, at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota, child rapists abound and kids are being murdered, yet neither the Star nor the Reporter have anything to say about it. That’s because they are too busy focusing on twisted clergy who take crotch-shot pictures of children fully clothed.

For the past decade, the most important goal of anti-Catholics has been to bring down a bishop. That’s what is behind this petition drive.

A little more than 100,000 people recently signed a petition demanding that Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn resign. It was a phony exercise.

The petition was found on the website of change.org, home to mostly left-wing activists. Anyone was able sign it—you didn’t have to be Catholic or from Finn’s diocese. For example, almost 7,400 signatures were sent to the diocese, and all but approximately 150 were from outside the area. Of the signatories online, activists from foreign countries signed. In short, there is no grassroots rebellion against Bishop Finn.

We know who Bishop Finn’s enemies are: the Kansas City Star and the National Catholic Reporter (both are located in Kansas City, Missouri). They are the real source behind this phony drive: Both have been beating the drum calling for Finn to resign. It is not child sex abuse that angers them, it is where it takes place and under whose purview it is.

There has been an ongoing story in the Orthodox Jewish community of rampant child sexual abuse, intimidation of victims, and a refusal to cooperate with the authorities, yet the Star has never covered this issue and the Reporter has largely ignored it (both publications carry national stories, not just local ones).

Similarly, at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota, child rapists abound and kids have been killed, yet neither the Star nor the Reporter have ever said anything about it. That’s because they are too busy focusing on twisted clergy who take crotch-shot pictures of children fully clothed.

For the past decade, the most important goal of anti-Catholics has been to bring down a bishop. That’s what was behind this petition drive.

Bill Donohue comments on scurrilous media coverage of the pope:

The following persons and media outlets erroneously said that Pope Benedict XVI “joined” the Hitler Youth, without ever noting that it was compulsory:

U.S.
AP Planner; John Patrick Shanley, New York Times blog; Huffington Post; Philadelphia Daily News; Regional News Network (it said his “defenders” argue he was drafted, implying that it is a rebuttable presumption); Sun-Sentinel; thepeoplesvoice.org; timminspress.com; Washington Post.

Canada
The Globe and Mail

England
BBC; The Guardian; The Independent; Metro; politics.co.uk

Ireland
Daily Mirror; Irish Independent

Here are the facts. Like all teenage boys in Nazi Germany, Joseph Ratzinger was forced to join the Hitler Youth. Unlike many others, he did not attend meetings and deserted when he was drafted into the German army. His refusal to attend meetings brought economic hardship to his family—it meant no discounts for school tuition. German left-wing intellectuals like Günter Grass and Jürgen Habermas also were conscripted into the Hitler Youth, yet no one ever accused them of voluntarily joining.

Rabbi David Rosen, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said it is “rubbish” to suggest that the pope willfully joined the Hitler Youth. Following a complaint by us, even Bill Maher apologized in 2008 for making this pernicious accusation. In short, it is despicable for these journalists to smear the pope as a Nazi sympathizer.

Readers of Catalyst know that we have long felt that Father Gordon MacRae has been treated unjustly. In 1994, he was sentenced to prison for up to 67 years for allegedly molesting a minor. His case garnered national attention when Dorothy Rabinowitz raised serious questions about MacRae’s guilt in a pair of articles in the Wall Street Journal in 2000.

Father MacRae’s case is on appeal; he is being represented by Robert Rosenthal of New York City and Cathy J. Green of Manchester, New Hampshire. The National Center for Reason and Justice is sponsoring the case. The new trial is entirely warranted.

Tom Grover is the accuser. In the early 1990s when the alleged offense took place, it was well known around Keene, New Hampshire that the Diocese of Manchester was forking out a lot of money to alleged victims. Enter Grover, an unemployed drug addict and alcoholic. He charged MacRae with molestation when he was a teenager and won a settlement of $200,000.

There were no witnesses, but there are plenty of family members and friends who are now talking. They say Grover is a liar and that he perjured himself at MacRae’s trial. We know, for example, that when Grover won in court, he paraded around flashing wads of cash and taking pictures with it. Moreover, FBI Special Agent Supervisor James Abbott, who spent three years investigating this case, has said, “I discovered no evidence of MacRae having committed the crimes charged, or any other crimes.”

For more information, go to MacRae’s website, These Stone Walls. If you would like to make a donation to the hefty legal costs he is incurring, you can do so by following the directions on the home page. The website of the National Center for Reason and Justice, ncrj.org, provides all the legal information you need to make up your own mind; just type Gordon MacRae in the search engine.