The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a very informative website, blessme.org, that addresses many topics.  For example, there is a Question & Answer section on issues many Catholics are confused about, including questions regarding sexual morality.   Unfortunately, Philadelphia Magazine thought it would be a cute exercise to parody this section by offering up some crude commentary.

We won’t get into details, but suffice it to say that some of the questions were intimate in nature.  That, after all, is to be expected in a section like this.   Yet for the writer, Sally Hingston, this was an opportunity for ridicule.   That is why she wrote how the site “might wind up on the hit-lists of perverts seeking kinky-self pleasuring tips.”

You can write to this media voyeur at Philadelphia Magazine, 1818 Market Street, 36th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103.  We did.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

The New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHF) includes luminaries as diverse as Albert Einstein and Shaquille O’Neal. It should not be dishonored by including bigots: Catholics will be outraged to learn that of the 50 nominees for the class of 2012, Thomas Nast made the cut. Nast is not only the most bigoted cartoonist in American history, the 19th-century artist consistently inflamed hatred against the Irish and Catholics alike.

Amazingly, the NJHF’s website omits any mention of Nast’s anti-Catholic legacy. No one is denying his many talents as a creative cartoonist, but to discuss his work without mentioning his virulent anti-Catholicism is on a par with discussing filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s contributions without citing her role in generating anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Nast and Riefenstahl belong in a Bigots Hall of Shame, not in any honorary club.

Nast’s cartoons show a long and pernicious pattern of bigotry born of nativism [click here for a sampling]. He encouraged the mixing of racism and anti-Catholic bigotry in his depictions of the Irish as a race of inferior gorillas; he demonized the Church as a nefarious institution threatening America’s public schools; he depicted an attack on Fort Sumter by priests and bishops; he demonized bishops by portraying them as crocodiles with miters for jaws; and he also depicted them as emerging from slime while prowling towards children.

I have written to NJHF’s Executive Director Don Jay Smith asking that he withdraw Nast’s nomination. The NJHF bills itself as “a source of learning, inspiration and hope for children.” Thomas Nast was not a “significant and powerful” role model for children in the 19th century, and he sure is not a role model for any U.S. citizen today.

Contact Don Jay Smith: djsmith@njhalloffame.org

On November 6, the Anti-Defamation League will convene its 90^th Annual National Meeting at New York’s Plaza Hotel.  One of the sessions will explore the controversy over the Mel Gibson film, “The Passion of Christ.”  Speaking to the issue will be Paula Fredriksen, professor of theology at Boston University; Sister Mary C. Boys, professor of Judeo-Christian Studies, Union Theological Seminary; and Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s national director.

Catholic League president William Donohue addressed the event today:

“The ADL session on Mel Gibson will reveal no surprises.  All three of the participants have already demonized the man and none has seen the movie.  Paula Fredriksen has even charged Gibson with sponsoring violence, saying ‘When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to’; she has also said she has no intention of seeing the film.  Sister Mary Boys has gone so far as to say that the movie ‘could be one of the great crises in Christian-Jewish relations,’ even though the closest she has come to seeing the film has been to read an early draft of a stolen script.  Abe Foxman has accused Gibson of being anti-Semitic, and has then had to take back his charge when confronted by reporters.  (Our website, catholicleague.org, has a new section on Gibson’s movie.)

“Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who heads an organization called Toward Tradition, has made it his life ambition to build good relations between Christians and Jews.  He regards these blind protests against ‘The Passion of Christ’ as ‘morally indefensible.’  He is right.  There is not one scene in the movie that blames all Jews for the death of Christ—either then or now.  And if it did, the Catholic League would condemn it.

“The Catholic League congratulates the ADL on its 90^th anniversary.  Notwithstanding our sharp disagreement with the organization on this issue, we commend the ADL for its brilliant track record in combating anti-Semitism and other expressions of bigotry.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

On November 18, I wrote to Michael B. Keegan, president of People For the American Way (PFAW), challenging him to a debate. I did so in response to his challenge the day before to Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio: he invited DiMarzio to participate in a public forum on the issue of the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Hide/Seek” exhibition that features a vile video of ants running all over Jesus on the Cross. Bishop DiMarzio had asked that the video not be included in the exhibition. Because I led the charge against the video last year when it was shown at the Smithsonian—it was pulled after we put public pressure on the museum—I thought it only appropriate that Keegan debate me.

I closed my letter by saying the following: “Please be advised that I am in a win-win situation and you are in a lose-lose. If you say yes, you will lose the debate. If you say no, I will tell the entire world.”

Yesterday, in PFAW’S “Right Wing Watch” section, came the reply, written for Keegan by Josh Glasstetter. Here’s what was said:

“In fact, debating Donohue would be the lose-lose.” Got that right.

“Donohue is a press hound of the worst sort who feeds off contrived controversies.” Thanks to PFAW and their ilk, I don’t have to contrive anything (although it is true that I am a press hound of the worst sort).

“It would be a mistake to provide any more oxygen to Donohue’s one-man challenge.” One-man? How do they know I wouldn’t bring an army?

Here’s their most manly statement of all: “In another century, a guy like Donohue might have challenged us to a duel.” Might have?

Contact Miranda Blue, Communications Manager: media@pfaw.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds to a New York Times op-ed page advertisement placed today by Catholics for Choice:

“Choice” has no normative value absent an object, but even then it may carry no moral weight. Choosing chocolate over vanilla is a choice without moral consequence. But choosing to abort one’s baby clearly has consequences, both for the woman and her child: for the woman, they are traumatic; for the baby, they are deadly. No Catholic can support such a choice. Indeed, in this instance, the very name “Catholics for Choice” is an oxymoron.

Ironically, the Catholics for Choice advertisement in the New York Times focuses exclusively on limiting the choices of Catholics: it wants to deny Catholic institutions the right to a religious exemption from healthcare services they cannot in good conscience countenance.

Here’s another irony: there really is no organization called Catholics for Choice. It has no members, and is in fact nothing more than a well-funded letterhead, sponsored by the establishment. Over the years, its biggest and most consistent donor has been the Ford Foundation.

One more irony: bigotry has always stained the Ford legacy. Henry Ford was a notorious anti-Semite, and today the Ford Foundation is the most generous donor of anti-Catholic causes. Indeed, the Ford Foundation is so busy working against Catholics that it is currently funding the vile “ants-on-the-crucifix” video at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Contact: office-of-communications@fordfoundation.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds to comments by Arnold Lehman, the director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA), about the “Hide/Seek” exhibit which opens November 18:

For Arnold Lehman, there is no such thing as anti-Catholic art. Catholics who disagree are apparently too stupid to appreciate the complexities of these masterpieces. For example, in 1999 Lehman said it was not anti-Catholic for an artist to smear elephant dung and pornographic pictures on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother (he loved the “Sensation” exhibition). Now he says that a video featuring large ants crawling all over Jesus on the Cross is actually a statement about “human suffering and death.” Guess us stupid Catholics missed that one, too.

Better yet is John Tamagni, the chairman of BMA’s board. In response to a letter by Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who properly asked the video to be pulled, Tamagni said, “nothing in the exhibition was meant to be offensive.” This would include such spectacular fare as full frontal male nudity; scenes of naked men kissing; sado-masochistic images; and photos of AIDS-ravaged corpses. Perhaps they were meant to ennoble. Guess us stupid Catholics missed that one, too.

The fact is that the artist who made the vile video died of self-inflicted wounds: he died of AIDS. The homosexual, David Wojnarowicz, hated the Catholic Church (had he lived by its teachings, he would not have self-destructed). He once referred to Cardinal John O’Connor as a “fat cannibal,” and labeled the Catholic Church a “house of walking swastikas.” Sounds like the words of a bigot. But perhaps I’m too stupid not to understand that they were really meant to endear the artist to the Catholic community.

Contact Lehman:  Arnold.Lehman@brooklynmuseum.org

On November 18, the Brooklyn Museum of Art will host “Hide/Seek.” Included in the exhibit will be the video that the Catholic League protested last year when it was shown at the Smithsonian. The video, which features large ants running across the body of Jesus on the Cross, was pulled from the Smithsonian after we protested.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue released the following remarks today:

The anti-Catholic exhibit is being sponsored by the most anti-Catholic foundation in the United States, the Ford Foundation, and it is being shown in New York’s most anti-Catholic museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art. For decades, the Ford Foundation has given lavishly to Catholics for Choice, an anti-Catholic front group that has twice been condemned by the bishops’ conference as a fraud; it has no members. The Brooklyn Museum of Art was home to the “Sensation” exhibit in 1999 that featured elephant dung and pictures of female genitalia inserted on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother; I led a demonstration in front of the Museum.

Last year I exercised my First Amendment right to free speech by objecting to the video at the Smithsonian exhibit. Those who liked the anti-Catholic “art” lied about me by saying I called for the video to be censored. What they really wanted to do was silence me. They failed.

For two reasons, we will not stage a demonstration outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art: a) we won the big prize when Smithsonian officials voluntarily bowed to public pressure and withdrew the vile video, and b) the video has been shown many times since at other venues across the nation (we are not in the business of chasing dog and pony shows).

We are still waiting for the bigots to cut a video showing ants running all over Muhammad’s body, or maybe that of Martin Luther King’s. Then they can tell Muslims and blacks that they just don’t understand the benign message behind the video. Good luck.

Contact the Museum’s director, Arnold Lehman: Arnold.Lehman@brooklynmuseum.org

The Charity Give Back Group (CGBG), formerly known as the Christian Values Network, is an online service that partners with more than 170,000 charities, religious and secular, enabling users to support their favorite charities when they shop on the web. Because some of the charities embrace the traditional Christian understanding of marriage, some activist organizations have recently sought to pressure retailers not to associate with CGBG.

Rejecting diversity and tolerance, radical proponents of gay marriage declared an economic war against organizations that embrace the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage. They began contacting retailers asking them to withdraw their association with CGBG, the online charity support group that helps to channel money to various worthwhile organizations, maintaining that some of the recipients are Christian “hate groups.” This was an outright lie.

An anti-Christian force, Change.org, funded by George Soros, was the forum for these activists. Among the groups targeted by these activists is the Family Research Council, led by Tony Perkins. Perkins is an eminently decent man and a leader in the evangelical community. If these extremists get their way, they will silence the Christian voice. Which is why the bullies must be defeated.

We issued a news release asking Catholics to let three major companies know that they need not follow the dictates of these anti-Christian forces: Netflix, Walgreens and Petco.

We contacted each of these companies and asked them not to jump into the culture war on our side; we simply asked that they remain neutral.