Catholic League president William Donohue is delighted to endorse and recommend Good News for Bad Days, a new book by Father Paul Keenan: “Written by a model priest who is known in New York for his radio talk shows, Good News for Bad Days delivers sound advice on a wide range of issues that touch everyone’s life. It is not only lively and well-written, it evinces a mature understanding of what compassion really means.

“Father Keenan, who is assistant director of the Office of Communications of the Archdiocese of New York, brings his considerable pastoral experience to bear on matters that are close to the heart and soul. His book addresses personal and spiritual issues without succumbing to a pop psychology approach. That is why it is a breath of fresh air.”

The book is available through your book stores, or the publisher, Warner Books. It can also be purchased through Father Keenan’s website (www.FatherPaul.com) or Amazon Books (www.amazon.com). It is priced modestly at $18.

Kathryn Jean Lopez

American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile by Richard John Neuhaus (New York: Basic Books, 2009) To order call 1-800-343-4499 or order online atwww.perseusbooksgroup.com

In the late Father Richard John Neuhaus’s American Babylon, the author cites his friend, the late Avery Cardinal Dulles, whose funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fr. Neuhaus, suffering his last battle with cancer, barely made in December. The Dulles story was about the cardinal once speaking at a Catholic parish which had a huge banner outside that read “God Is Other People.” Cardinal Dulles had wished he had a black marker because he very much wanted to add a comma after “Other.”

Someone at that Catholic church was “mistaking the creature for the Creator,” Fr. Neuhaus explains. God, for them, “is useful for achieving other purposes.” (The good news is that even with more than a few bestselling atheist tracts, there is a lot of religiosity in the air. The bad news is it’s not always all quite right.)

I don’t know if that banner is still up there but I do know that these men of truth are now gone. They’re not the only ones we’ve lost. And they won’t be the only ones.

We’re left without these wise men to call for advice, whatever’s going on in the news today. But, this is, of course, exactly what’s supposed to happen. They weren’t living to be in this world forever. They were living for Someone and somewhere else. With His truth.

That’s what American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile is all about. It’s an acknowledgement that we live in a flawed world. But it’s a world to be actively engaged in, on our road to eternal salvation. We won’t spend perpetuity here, but we have work here before we go.

Neuhaus belonged in this world for his 72 years, always with another destination in mind. (Friends tell how, in his last days, if he couldn’t do much, praying the Office would be his priority; when a mutual friend told me he would wake up in the morning and read, among other things, National Review Online, another friend, a priest, quickly corrected my pride: Fr. Neuhaus’s breviary was his beginning and end.) And it is fitting then that Fr. Neuhaus’s parting work is written for those who belong; “for those who accept, and accept with gratitude, their creaturely existence within the scandal of particularity that is their place in a world far short of the best of all possible worlds. This world, for all its well-earned dissatisfactions, is worthy of our love and allegiance. It is a self-flattering conceit to think we deserve a better world. What’s wrong with this one begins with us. And yet we are dissatisfied. Our restless discontent takes the form not of a complaint but of hope. There is a promise not yet fulfilled. One lives in discontented gratitude for the promise, which is to say one lives in hope.”

That, of course, is a “hope” of another world, not that which we hear so much about in the political sphere.

American Babylon—and living with that hope—is about “a way of being in a world that is not yet the world for which we hope. This means exploring the possibilities and temptations one confronts as a citizen of a country that is prone to mistaking itself for the destination. It means also a cultivated skepticism about the idea of historical progress, especially moral progress, when that idea defies or denies the limits of history upon which our humanity depends.” It also means not moving into a ghetto. Engagement is a crucial ingredient in this world; “engagement with some of the more troublesome, and more interesting, citizens of this present Babylon.”

At the same time, Neuhaus is an avowed fan of both his adopted country (he was born in Canada) and city (he confesses to “being something of a chauvinist about” New York City, something this New York native can appreciate!). “America,” he says, “is the most successful political experiment in human history.” It’s “our homeland, and, as the prophet Jeremiah says, in its welfare is our welfare. America is also—and history testifies that this is too easily forgotten—a foreign country.” The U.S. is “for better and worse, the place of our pilgrimage through time toward home.” Just remember, “it is still for the time being.”

So how do we live as Christian Americans, never forgetting while we’re full citizens of one, we’re aiming for another? For one, “through our tears, sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land.” Because there will be tears.

Neuhaus warns: “We should at least be open to the possibility that we are today witnessing not moral progress but a dramatic moral regression. While, as we have seen, practitioners in the hard sciences express a new humility about the limits of their knowledge and control, many who work in the field of ethical theory and practice exhibit an extraordinary self-confidence, bordering on and sometimes crossing the line into the vice of hubris.”

By hubris he means, for instance, Peter Singer, the infanticide defender on the faculty of Princeton University. The most important thing to realize about Singer—and Neuhaus reminds us of this—is that he is “no marginal figure in our intellectual culture.” For one thing, he authored the main piece on the history of ethics—15 pages worth of “ethics” (scare quotes are mine not Father’s)—in the 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Neuhaus writes, “From Confucius and Aristotle, to Maimonides and Aquinas, through David Hume and Kant to Peter Singer, the article traces the liberation of moral theory and practice from any truths that pose an obstacle to our will to power and control. The gist of it is caught in the title of Singer’s 1995 book, Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics.” Singer welcomes the collapse and the Brave New World he’s rushing us toward, one impressionable young mind at a time.

Considering Fr. Neuhaus died not long after Christmas, the timing of the book is perfect for us. He demonstrates some prescience, writing: “Among the most glaring indications that we are in exile is the necessity of contending for the most basic truth of the dignity of the human person. If we don’t get that right, we are unlikely to get right many other questions….”

His book was released around the same time that President Barack Obama lifted the ban on federal funding of embryo-destroying stem-cell research. And here we are, in the month of President Barack Obama’s commencement address at the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame struggles with the “American Babylon” dilemma as much as any individual. The nation’s most prominent Catholic university should consider itself a South Bend exile, a training ground in being good citizens on the road to the City of God. Instead, they’re flirting with becoming just any other institution, one where truth is a debate, rather than a reality.

Notre Dame should exist to live in communion with the truth. That’s “the life of the Church,” living “in communion with Christ, who says of himself, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’” There, “we experience a foretaste, a prolepsis, of the community that is to be.” The Eucharist is the key to that, in which “we experience the genuinely ‘new politics’ of the new polis that is the City of God. But, still surrounded by “the ruins of Babel,” that is “only a foretaste that whets our appetite for, and sacramentally sustains us on the way toward, that final destination.”

The solution to the Notre Dame problem is in American Babylon. They have the Eucharist. “As Christians and as Americans, in this our awkward duality of citizenship, we seek to be faithful in a time not of our choosing but of our testing…never tiring in proposing to the world a more excellent way…[as] through our laughter and tears, we see and hail from afar the New Jerusalem and know that it is all time toward home.”

As dual citizens, we aspire to excellence, but not at the expense of the most excellent. At the end of the semester, Notre Dame must ask itself, “what is our final destination?” Is it White House affirmation or the New Jerusalem? There’s nothing wrong with the former, but it can never be at the expense of our quest for the latter.

Shortly after American Babylon hit bookshelves, New York’s new archbishop, Timothy Dolan, was installed. An Associated Press write-up of an interview declared that Dolan “will challenge the idea that the Roman Catholic Church is unenlightened because it opposes gay marriage and abortion.” He, in other words, won’t change his values because of what a court, party, or even consensus has decided is their truth. To these developments, believers must remain firm. As Neuhaus puts it, “There is considerable truth in the observation that politics is primarily a function of culture, that at the heart of culture is morality, and that at the heart of morality are those commanding truths typically associated with religion. I expect it is true in every society, but it is certainly true in this society, that politics and religion can be distinguished but never separated.”

Or, as Dolan put it to the Associated Press: “Periodically, we Catholics have to stand up and say, ‘Enough,’” he said. “The church as a whole still calls out to what is noble in us.”

One imagines Fr. Neuhaus, a former Lutheran pastor who came to love the Catholic Church, warmly greeting Archbishop Dolan, offering him a drink, and applauding his call to humble nobility. It’s the call Neuhaus answered in his journey through this world. Neuhaus can’t offer the new archbishop a drink, but the existence of American Babylon will make Dolan’s job just a little bit easier.

Kathryn Jean Lopez  is the editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com) and a nationally syndicated columnist.

Raymond Arroyo

You could say that the Will Wilder series, my first foray into fiction, started as a “soap opera.”

When they were younger, my children, during bath time would demand original stories for entertainment. To get them to advance to the next step in the bathing process, I would indulge the kids desire for new stories night after night. Most were slapstick tales about an impetuous, rule-breaking kid with a good heart and lousy judgment. Though I can’t recall many of those yarns now, the head-strong boy and his family I had created never left my imagination. Over the years I made several attempts to situate those characters in a coherent storyline, but nothing really satisfied me.

Then while in Ireland on a trip with my sons, I stumbled across an article that changed everything. Irish media reported that a treasured relic from the thirteenth century, the heart of St. Laurence O’Toole, had been stolen from Christ Church Cathedral. O’Toole is apparently the patron saint of Dublin. The relic had been locked in a cage on a wall of the cathedral for more than 700 years. “With gold, and silver artifacts everywhere, why would anyone want to steal an ancient relic?” I thought.

Then it hit me: What if a 12-year-old boy—the one I had been telling my children about for years—snatched a relic of rare power? And what if that relic had been rescued and hidden away by his great-grandfather? I finally had a solid concept to drive my story. Over several years, I refined the narrative, expanded it and unearthed the supernatural, slapstick thriller that I suppose had been waiting for me all along.

In Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, 12-year-old Will hurts his brother in a backyard accident and is punished for weeks. While on yard duty he learns that his great-grandfather, the founder of the town of Perilous Falls and an avid collector of antiquities, has hidden a special relic away. It is credited with holding back the town’s floodwaters and is believed to possess healing abilities. Will figures he’ll borrow the relic, touch it to his injured brother, get out of his punishment, and return it before anyone is the wiser. But once he snatches the relic, floodwaters begin to rise and Will unwittingly unleashes an ancient foe that will change his life and those around him, forever.

There are frights and fun galore in the series, as well as some characteristics unique to middle-grade fiction. While Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has Greek mythology at its center and Ms. Rowling uses wizardry to propel Harry Potter, my story turns on sacred antiquities; historical items capable of summoning divine power. Many early readers have loved that most of the relics and items mentioned in the book can actually be found in museums, churches and libraries all over the world. I wanted to draw young people to the wonder of these touchstones and to help them experience the thrill of discovering them in person, no matter where they might live. The conversations that the book has already instigated among young and old are beyond gratifying.

This is also a rare children’s book that features an intact, if imperfect, family. Think about it, most children’s literature centers around an orphaned or abandoned child making his or her way in the world. It has become such a cliché that I guess I unintentionally sought to avoid it. What I ended up with was a rich family saga about how the past can profoundly shape our future and how the cherished touchstones of our ancestors can light our way forward. It also speaks to our unique gifts and how it is incumbent upon each of us—especially parents—to nurture those gifts in the young.

More than an entertaining series (which I hope it is), Will Wilder is part of a larger mission for me. It is an effort to encourage literacy in the young. Through conversations with librarians and educators, I became sensitized to the scourge of illiteracy facing our country. The numbers are staggering. 21 million Americans can’t read at all. According to the Department of Justice, one-fifth of high school graduates cannot read their own diplomas! 67% of all US fourth graders scored below proficient in reading. 67%! When you begin to understand the correlation between low fourth grade reading scores and incarceration later in life, the picture is very dire indeed. So I decided to do something about it. Last year I launched a literacy initiative.

We call it Storyented because I believe stories orient us in the world and help us discover our place in it as we grow. Our tag line explains it all: Find your story. Find your way. So once a month on TV, radio, and the internet we host a Storyentation: a chance for readers to connect with their favorite authors, live. I interview a best-selling author for a half hour about their career and newest work, then readers call in with their own questions. It’s sort of a large scale, real-time, book club and it has been very well received. There are few places for authors to discuss their work in a big way, and few things are more important than putting young people in touch with good authors and good books. In addition to the reader/author engagement, Story-ented also provides families with literacy strategies to get their kids reading. We’re at www. Storyented.com and I hope you’ll join us for a Storyentation sometime soon.

Ray Bradbury ominously said: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” There are a lot of reluctant readers out there today—especially boys. My hope is that the Will Wilder books will furnish boys and girls with intriguing tales they’ll want to read.

Following a visit to a Catholic school in New Orleans last week I received the most wonderful letter from the principal. She wrote in part:

You had an impact on my students that can’t be described. I watched my middle schoolers, BOYS, walk into school this morning holding your book. I saw students reading in morning care… I was floored. I don’t know how you did it, but you got my kids to read. Thank you. Thank you.! Thank you !!!

I created Will to transport kids to places they might never have a chance to go and in an amazing turn, he has taken me to places I would never have gone—and together we have touched those we never expected to meet. Like Will, I suppose I have my own daring quest: to insure that kids find other epic, funny, moving, uplifting, and even scary books that will excite them enough to lose themselves in the art of reading. Our very future depends on it.

Raymond Arroyo is the New York Times Bestselling author of Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls, managing editor and lead anchor at EWTN, host of the network’s “The World Over” and a Catholic League Board member. For more information on his book and a trailer visit www.raymondarroyo.com.

Bill Donohue comments on how the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and BishopAccountability.org, are reacting to Pope Francis as he nears his first anniversary, which is one week from today:

Almost everyone loves Pope Francis, but not among his admirers are SNAP and BishopAccountability.org, two of the most hate-filled activist outlets in the nation.

SNAP condemns the pope for doing “nothing—literally nothing—that protects a single child, exposes a single predator or prevents a single cover up.” Not a single example, anywhere in the world, was cited, of the pope’s alleged delinquency.

Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org condemns the pope for his “tired and defensive rhetoric,” saying the pope’s rigorous, and wholly justified, account of the Catholic Church’s reaction to sexual abuse is “breathtaking.” He cites one bishop, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, “who was convicted in 2012 of failing to report suspected child abuse,” as an example of the pope’s alleged intransigence.

What McKiernan did not tell the Associated Press is that the case did not involve child sexual abuse: no child was ever abused, or touched, by a disturbed priest, Shawn Ratigan. Nor did the case involve child porn: it involved crotch-shot pictures of children (one showed a girl’s genitals, determined by the police to be of a “non-sexual” nature).

The short of it is that the review board was contacted, the authorities were notified, and an independent investigation was ordered (the Graves Report). It was later discovered that more disturbing photos were found on Ratigan’s computer, and Bishop Finn was found guilty of one misdemeanor for failing to report suspected child abuse. Had Finn elected to do nothing, no one would have known about Ratigan, because there was no complainant. This is why the pope has not acted against Finn—what happened is a far cry from what McKiernan is saying.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the “On Common Ground” forum that RHRealityCheck.org has launched on abortion:

The terms “dialogue” and “common ground” are innocuous enough, and may even convey something benign. But when selectively invoked by ideologues as a political vehicle, they are worse than vacuous—they are devious. Such is the case with the latest effort by RHRealityCheck.org.

RHRealityCheck.org may have been able to persuade reasonable persons like Steven Waldman of Beliefnet to join in this effort, but too many of the announced participants are hardened pro-abortion activists. Moreover, the website demonizes a number of religious conservative groups by labeling them “far right” organizations. It even posts an attack piece on me done at the behest of the nation’s most notorious anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice; this shell of an organization has twice been condemned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Bad as these aspects of the project are, they are nothing when compared to the vicious denunciations of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. If giving young women an alternative to abortion is considered taboo, then the entire Common Ground project is destined to be an abysmal failure. It also shows that their alleged interest in adoption is a ruse.

Religious conservatives should not only reject offers to participate in this forum—they should condemn it as a fraud.

On June 18, Bill Donohue spoke to the “On Common Ground” forum that RHRealityCheck.org launched on abortion.

Donohue said that the terms “dialogue” and “common ground” are innocuous enough, and may even convey something benign. But when selectively invoked by ideologues as a political vehicle, they are  devious. Such is the case with the latest effort by RHRealityCheck.org.

RHRealityCheck.org may have been able to persuade reasonable persons like Steven Waldman of Beliefnet to join in this effort, but too many of the announced participants are hardened pro-abortion activists. Moreover, the website demonizes a number of religious conservative groups by labeling them “far right” organizations. It even posted an attack piece on Donohue done at the behest of the nation’s most notorious anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice; this shell of an organization has twice been condemned by the U. S. Bishops.

As bad as these aspects of the project are, they are nothing when compared to the vicious denunciations of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. If giving young women an alternative to abortion is considered taboo, then the entire Common Ground project is destined for failure. It also shows that their alleged interest in adoption is a ruse.

Donohue ended his statement saying, “Religious conservatives should not only reject offers to participate in this forum—they should condemn it as a fraud.”

Catholic League president William Donohue commented today on the slanderous attack by MoveOn.org against Catholics:

“The PAC arm of MoveOn.org, the Internet-based organization funded by George Soros, made a despicable statement on its website yesterday against the pope and American Roman Catholics (it has since been removed).  As part of its campaign protesting Republican efforts to change the filibuster rules governing federal court appointees, MoveOnPac.org posted a picture of a smiling Pope Benedict XVI holding a gavel outside the U.S. Supreme Court.  Above the picture was the following inscription:

God Already has a Job.…

He does not need one on the Supreme Court

Protect the Supreme Court Rules

“So this is the way George Soros operates.  Of all the anti-Catholic canards ever expounded in American history, none is more infamous than the one that accuses the Vatican of steering U.S. public policy.  And this is exactly what Soros is doing now.  Simply because Catholics and Protestants have come together to protest de facto discrimination against Christian pro-life judges by some Democrats, Soros thinks he has a right to fan the flames of anti-Catholic bigotry.

“When I joined with evangelicals last month in the ‘Justice Sunday’ rally, a reporter asked me why I would join hands with some who have expressed sharp disagreement with Catholicism.  I said as long as the tone is civil and the discord is confined to theological matters, I have no problem forging an alliance in the culture war.  Indeed, the latest attack by Soros shows that my decision to participate in ‘Justice Sunday’ was the right one.  It is not evangelicals who worry Catholics—it is fat-cat, left-wing bigots like George Soros who concern us.”

January 14
Searcy, AR – Police Chief Jeremy Clark refused to remove a small white cross that sits outside his private entrance to the police station, despite being pressured to do so by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The small cross was placed there with permission from the previous police chief. The crosses were made by volunteers at a local Methodist church and can be seen throughout the town.

January 16
Rhinelander, WI – The University of Wisconsin-Extension announced it had complied with demands from the Freedom From Religion Foundation to end the tradition of placing Bibles in guests’ rooms at the campus conference center. “We reviewed the concern raised about the placement of Bibles in our guest rooms and decided to remove them. We want to make sure all guests are comfortable in our lodging,” said Bill Mann, the University’s conference center director.

January 28
Whitefish, MT – The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a lawsuit opposing a shrine to Jesus that has existed on Big Mountain since 1953. The U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land, issued a permit to the Knights of Columbus to erect a statue of Jesus overlooking the mountain’s ski run. The government has protected the rights of the Knights to maintain the statue, calling it a “historic” monument. A federal district court approved the shrine, a ruling that FFRF’s lawsuit seeks to overturn.

January 31
When the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by a privately owned business, Hobby Lobby, that challenges the constitutionality of the Health and Human Services mandate, several organizations which have traditionally opposed the bishops lined up with their own brief on the opposing side.

BishopAccountability.org, a media outlet that allegedly monitors priestly sexual abuse, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a “victims’ group,” and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist entity, did not want the owners of Hobby Lobby to win. These are groups whose stated objectives have nothing to do with the issue, but their real goal surely did: they wanted to weaken the moral voice of traditional religious organizations.

Seven “Catholic” organizations joined with others to oppose Hobby Lobby: Catholics for Choice, a pro-abortion, anti-Catholic entity; CORPUS, Women’s Ordination Conference, and Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual reject the Church’s teachings on ordination; DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry reject the Church’s teachings on homosexuality; and the National Coalition of American Nuns is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage.

February 7
Levy County, FL – Local officials rejected American Atheists’ application to install a 1500-pound granite bench adorned with secularist quotes on the county’s courthouse lawn. The bench was meant to counter a Ten Commandments monument already at the courthouse. The county board that rejected the atheists’ bench said that it did so because the quotes inscribed on the bench were incomplete, thereby violating the county’s guidelines for monuments. American Atheists planned to take the matter to court.

March
Prior to the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ pontificate, the “victims’ groups” – Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and BishopAccountability.org – proved to be two of the most hate-filled activist outlets in the nation.

SNAP condemned the pope for doing “nothing—literally nothing—that protects a single child, exposes a single predator or prevents a single cover up.” Not a single example, anywhere in the world, was cited of the pope’s alleged delinquency.

Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org condemned the pope for his “tired and defensive rhetoric,” saying the pope’s rigorous, and wholly justified, account of the Catholic Church’s reaction to sexual abuse was “breathtaking.”

March 1
Ames, IA – Iowa State University’s Hotel Memorial Union removed the Bibles from the nightstands in each of its 52 rooms after receiving a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). FFRF sent the Hotel Memorial Union a letter claiming the Bibles were “unwelcome religious propaganda.”

March 4
Bladensburg, MD – The American Humanist Association filed a federal lawsuit demanding that a 40 foot tall cross-shaped World War I memorial be removed. The memorial, which was installed in 1925 by the American Legion, commemorates 49 residents who died during World War I. The Humanist group claimed that the cross-shaped memorial violates the First Amendment. The town’s administrator defended the cross and said “there are community members that would be disturbed if the cross were removed.”

March 12
Colorado Springs, CO – The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed a complaint after a cadet at the Air Force Academy placed a biblical verse on a whiteboard outside his room. After receiving the complaint, Air Force officials removed the inscription. In response to the removal of the quote, other cadets staged a “revolt” and began posting their own verses from the Bible and other religious texts on whiteboards outside their rooms. Mikey Weinstein, president of MRFF, demanded that the Air Force take action to remove the new religious inscriptions and punish the offending cadets. Weinstein threatened to take the Air Force to court over the matter, and suggested that punishments could include having a cadet’s pay docked, expulsion, or even jail.

March 19 – 21
On March 19, two days after New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, Bill Donohue asked officials at the Heritage of Pride parade, New York’s annual gay march, if he could enter with his own unit, “Straight is Great.”

Donohue’s gambit was a ploy: gays had objected to the house rules of the St. Patrick’s Day parade barring any unit from honoring anything but St. Patrick—they sought to march under their own banner (the parade also bans pro-life Catholics from marching under their own banner)—so Donohue sought to test their house rules.

The ensuing controversy validated Donohue’s point: he objected to their rule requiring him to attend gay “training sessions” as a condition of marching. When he refused, they replied that the rule was “mandatory.”

Donohue was welcome to march in their parade provided that he followed their rules and attended the “training session.” Just as the gay parade has rules, so does the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Gays were welcome to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade provided that they blended in and did not promote any political cause.

March 24
Madison, WI – The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) demanded that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker remove a Twitter post he made that included “Philippians 4:13.” According to FFRF, that verse, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” was “disturbing” and “seems more like a threat or the utterance of a theocratic dictator than a duly elected civil servant.” Governor Walker refused to remove the tweet and his spokesperson said he was inspired by the verse and chose to share it.

April 14
Madison, WI – A permit was issued for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) to install a display in the Wisconsin state capitol. The display, installed during Holy Week, read “Nobody died for our ‘sins.’ Jesus Christ is a myth.” FFRF sought permission to install the display after Concerned Women for America installed an Easter display complete with a cross and pro-life materials.

April 21
Monmouth County, NJ – Although the Supreme Court ruled that students could opt out of saying the Pledge of Allegiance in 1943, the American Humanist Association (AHA) filed a lawsuit challenging a New Jersey law that requires the Pledge to be recited in school each day. The AHA objects to children being subjected to hearing the words “under God” as part of the Pledge. Their lawsuit sought to prevent the Pledge from being said at all. “Public schools should not engage in an exercise that tells students patriotism is tied to a belief in God,” said an AHA attorney.

In the past, the courts have repeatedly upheld the use of “under God” in the Pledge.

April 21
Pismo Beach, CA – A decision was made to cut out invocations prior to the Pismo Beach City Council meetings. The invocations were mostly delivered by a volunteer chaplain who was a local Pentecostal minister. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United’s San Luis Obispo chapter filed complaints alleging that the prayers led by the unpaid pastor violated California’s civil rights laws. In addition to ending the invocations and firing the chaplain, the City agreed to pay a symbolic $1 to each of the plaintiffs and their $47,500 legal fees.

April 22 – 24
Seattle, WA – Planned Parenthood staged two “Bar Nun Bingo” fundraising events, which mocked nuns, and were led by the demonstrably anti-Catholic gay group, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Despite Planned Parenthood receiving more than half a billion in tax dollars each year, this was certainly not the first time that the pro-abortion group demonstrated its anti-Catholic roots.

April 24
Parkersburg, WV – Parkersburg South High School’s wrestling team’s motto is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The motto was displayed in the team locker room, on the team website, and on t-shirts worn by the wrestlers. As a result, a local atheist contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation who in turn demanded that the school remove any reference to the Scripture verse. The school agreed to paint over the motto in the locker room and remove it from the school website. The school, however, could not stop the wrestlers from wearing the t-shirts with the verse, as the school could not limit students from personally expressing their religious beliefs.

May 12
The Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers made a request to the Defense Department for the inclusion of humanist chaplains. The Catholic League would have no objection to counselors for atheists in the military, but the use of the word chaplain reveals that this was a ploy to challenge the rights of religious persons, especially Christians. The use of the word chaplain refers to members of the clergy, making an atheist chaplain an oxymoron.

The Navy rejected the atheists’ application, but did so due to the “highly competitive nature” of the application process, and not the absurdity of having a humanist chaplain. The Navy did not comment on the legitimacy of the application.

May 12
Cambridge, MA – The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club invited members of the Satanic Temple to perform a “Black Mass” at an on-campus bar. Although the event was eventually canceled hours before it was scheduled to take place, it was clear that the event’s purpose was to mock Catholics and the Mass, as well as trash the Eucharist. (Originally the Satanists said they were going to use a consecrated Host, but they later withdrew that claim and said they would use symbolic bread.) The independent student club that sponsored the event initially tried to present it as an educational activity. After Catholics from across the country expressed their outrage, including two statements by the Catholic League, and intervention from the Archdiocese of Boston, the student club decided to withdraw its sponsorship.

Note: Harvard University’s response to the planned “Black Mass” is chronicled in a separate entry in the Education section of this report.

June
Columbia, MO – A monument dedicated to two Boone County men who died while serving in Operation Desert Storm was installed in 1992 outside the county’s courthouse. The granite slab included their names and an ichthus symbol carved into the stone. After receiving a complaint from Americans United, county officials feared a lawsuit and decided to remove the religious symbol from the privately funded memorial. Unable to alter the stone monument, a plaque that read “Dedicated 1992” was placed over the ichthus.

June 14
Boston, MA – The anti-Catholic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was chosen as the Grand Marshal of Boston’s Gay Pride Parade. The group is made up of homosexual men who dress as nuns. They describe themselves as “a leading-edge order of queer nuns.” As Grand Marshal, they were given a prominent place in the parade and were included in honors and other events that occurred before the parade.

June 19
Washington, DC – Among the counter-protestors at the second annual March for Marriage was a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The man, dressed as a nun, identified himself as “Sister Missionary Position.” He declared that people shouldn’t be allowed to believe in traditional marriage and handed out pamphlets that mocked the mysteries of the Rosary. The pamphlet was titled “Rosary of Five Sorrowful Clerical Errors” and included attacks on Pope St. John XXIII and priests.

June 20
Salina, KS – Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group, sent protestors to picket the funeral of Father Kenneth Walker. Father Walker was murdered while coming to the aid of another priest who was being attacked at their parish in Phoenix. The Westboro Baptist Church has a history of picketing the funerals of soldiers killed at war.

June 26
San Francisco, CA – A “nude activist,” Gypsy Taub, planned to march naked through San Francisco to the National Shrine of Saint Francis. She claimed that Saint Francis was a nudist. The purpose of her naked march was to protest a nudity ban and the treatment of other nudists by the police.

July 3
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) took out a full page advertisement in the New York Times. In the ad FFRF takes out its vengeance on Catholics by trotting out the old canard that Catholics are not independent thinkers (unless they disagree with the teachings of the Church). The occasion for the outburst was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case affirming religious liberty. Here is a sample of its invective:

“DOGMA SHOULD NOT TRUMP OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES. ALL-MALE ALL-ROMAN CATHOLIC MAJORITY ON SUPREME COURT PUTS RELIGIOUS WRONGS OVER WOMEN’S RIGHTS.”

All the Jewish judges on the high court voted in the minority, but only an anti-Semite would conclude that their Jewishness determined their vote. Similarly, only an anti-Catholic would conclude that those who voted in the majority did so because of their Catholicity.

July 15
Orange County, FL – A judge dismissed a Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) lawsuit against the Orange County School District after the school district agreed to allow FFRF to distribute atheist materials to students. FFRF filed the lawsuit after the school district allowed a Christian group to distribute Bibles to students who wanted them.

July 16
Washington, DC – Protestors from Code Pink gathered outside the Capitol building to express their dismay over the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case, and to show their support for the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act which was designed to gut the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The protestors held signs that read “KEEP YOUR ROSARIES OFF MY OVARIES.”

July 19
Searcy, AR – Steven Rose, the owner of Bailey’s Pizza, posted a 10 percent discount on his restaurant’s Facebook page for anyone who brought in a copy of a church bulletin. A week later he received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation alleging that the discount constituted an “act of discrimination” and a violation of the Civil Rights Act. Rose likened the discount to a marketing tool or coupon and refused to end the promotion.

July 22
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is ill-named: it is a gay rights group that often disrespects the human rights of those with whom it disagrees. This burst of intolerance occurred when it attacked David Tyree, the New York Giants’ hero in the 2007 Super Bowl. HRC president Chad Griffin blasted the Giants for hiring Tyree as its Director of Player Development.

Tyree’s sin? He believes, as does most of the world, that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. He also believes that homosexuals can change their orientation; he knows men who have. His sentiments are grounded in his religious convictions. Anyone is free to disagree with him, but to condemn a man for espousing such positions shows contempt for his twin First Amendment rights: freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In short, it is un-American.

July 30
Dissident Catholics at the editorial board of the National Catholic Reporter attacked the composition of the Catholic Church and the Synod of Bishops for being nothing but a “tiny representation of humanity, celibate and exclusively male.” In the eyes of the editorial board of the Reporter “humans are reduced to the level of baboons.”

August 8
Bloomfield, NM – A federal district court judge sided with the ACLU and ruled that a monument of the Ten Commandments had to be removed from the lawn in front of City Hall. The monument was installed in 2011 after a city council vote in 2007 that allowed historical displays on the lawn provided that they were paid for and installed by private individuals.

August 15
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a complaint with the U.S. Navy’s Exchange Command, which is responsible for running base lodges. According to FFRF the Navy’s practice of placing a Bible in guest rooms was a violation of the Constitution and amounted to “a government endorsement of that religious text.”

The Bibles, which had been donated to the Navy, were removed from the guest rooms. However, after the Bibles were removed several groups and many veterans expressed their outrage with the decision. This led to a reversal of the policy and the Bibles were returned to the rooms while the Navy considered creating a formal policy on the matter.

August 20
Liberty, IN – The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Indiana state officials objecting to a statue of a solider kneeling on one knee by a cross. The monument for veterans and those who had lost their lives in battle was set to be installed in the Whitewater Memorial State Park. The monument was donated and no public funds were used in its creation.

August 20
Brevard County, FL – A member of the Central Florida Freethought Community applied to deliver the prayer or invocation at a meeting of the Brevard County Board of Commissioners, however the commissioners voted not to allow the atheist to do so. The board said the prayer “typically invokes guidance for the County Commission from the highest spiritual authority, a higher authority which a substantial body of Brevard constituents believe to exist.” The atheist group did succeed in delivering the invocation at five other meetings throughout Florida.

August 25
Jackson, MS – The American Humanist Association sent a letter to the Jackson Public School District demanding that all religious activity, including prayers and sermons, be eliminated from within the district. The request came after a faculty member complained that a Christian reverend delivered an invocation at a faculty convocation. The minister was accused of praying and making biblical references in his remarks.

August 28
Midlothian, TX – Two dedication plaques at Mt. Peak Elementary School and Longbranch Elementary School were covered up because they contained references to God. Both plaques read “Dedicated in the Year of Our Lord 1997 to the Education of God’s Children and to their Faithful Teachers In The Name of the Holy Christian Church – Soli Deo Gloria.” The school district’s superintendent decided to cover the plaques after receiving a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

August 28 – September 25
Danielsville, GA – Two atheist organizations wrote to the Madison County School District complaining about a new stone monument outside the football stadium at Madison High School. First on August 28, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote calling the statue “divisive and illegal” because it included two biblical verses.

The American Humanist Association followed up with their own letter on September 25. They were particularly outraged that since the monument had been installed earlier in the year, the student-athletes had developed a tradition of touching it for good luck before their games. They demanded that the monument be removed or that the religious inscriptions be removed, despite the fact that they are etched into the stone. The school district said that it would investigate its options.

September
The Council for a Strong America (CSA) pressured Catholic educators to adopt Common Core, bashing the Cardinal Newman Society, a respectable Catholic education not-for-profit, for opposing Common Core in the process. CSA received $1.7 million from the Gates Foundation to promote Common Core, however its Florida office hammered the Cardinal Newman Society for making “strident attacks” on the program. CSA wanted to compromise the independence of Catholic schools in deciding for themselves whether to accept or reject Common Core.

September 2
Creech Air Force Base, NV – An atheist airman refused to take the Air Force’s reenlistment oath because it contained the phrase “so help me God.” The American Humanist Association threatened a lawsuit if the airman was not allowed to reenlist without omitting the phrase or without the opportunity to take a secular oath.

September 3
State College, PA – Following a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Penn State removed the Bibles from guest rooms at the Nittany Lion Inn and Penn State Conference Center Hotel.

September 17
Orlando, FL – Kathleen Oropeza is the president of Fund Education Now, a Florida activist group that is anti-school voucher, anti-charter schools, anti-testing, and pro-union. Her outfit filed a lawsuit contending that the state constitution mandates “high quality” public education, and that funds distributed to other schools deprive public schools of the monies they need to succeed. The state circuit judge handling this case was Angela C. Dempsey, a Catholic. Oropeza wanted Dempsey to recuse herself because of her alleged bias.

Oropeza’s claims are not only without merit—they smack of bigotry. Dempsey was accused of supporting Catholic Charities, speaking at Catholic schools, and contributing to Catholic causes. This is a classic case of religious profiling. Oropeza’s gambit is also ethically and legally objectionable.

September 18
Madison, WI – The Supreme Court of Wisconsin responded to the 2011 grievance filed by the Catholic League against attorney Rebekah M. Nett. We asked that she be investigated for making stridently anti-Catholic remarks against United States Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher, and others. As a result of the Catholic League’s complaint she lost her license for a year.

The formal complaint we lodged cited the following:

• Nett filed a memo written by her client, Naomi Isaacson, which said, “Across the country the court systems and particularly the Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota are composed of a bunch of ignoramus, bigoted Catholic beasts that carry the sword of the church.”
• The memo called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “a Catholic Knight Witch Hunter.” [Note: Dreher is not Catholic.]
• The memo called one bankruptcy trustee “a priest’s boy,” and another a “Jesuitess.”
• For her part, Nett called Dreher and other court personnel “dirty Catholics,” adding that “Catholic deeds throughout the [sic] history have been bloody and murderous.”

September 21
Oklahoma City, OK – There was to be a “Black Mass” performance at the Oklahoma City Civic Center on September 21, using a consecrated Host. But on August 21, after Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley succeeded in getting a judge to issue a restraining order, on the grounds that the Host had been stolen, the attorney for the Satanic group returned the Host to a Catholic priest. The archbishop then dropped his lawsuit.

When we learned of this scheduled performance, we issued a news release on July 2 calling attention to what a “Black Mass” entails. We quoted directly from the website of the Satanic group: “The consecrated host is corrupted by sexual fluids then it becomes the sacrifice of the mass. The blasphemy remains intact along with corruption of the Catholic Mass.” The person who was to lead this obscene event was Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender.

Daniels’ group, Dakhma of Angra Manyu, still held a satanic event at the civic center, but without the consecrated Host they were unable to stage a real “Black Mass.” Daniels also had to make other modifications to the planned ritual “so that a public viewing can occur without breaking Oklahoma’s laws based on nudity, public urination, and other sex acts.”

Note: The event was held at the Oklahoma City Civic Center, a public venue. See the government section for information about the City’s response to this event.

October
Washington, DC – A wave of crazed Protestant activists attacked Catholic churches in Washington and Maryland. They shouted anti-Catholic slogans with bullhorns, passed out vile literature attacking the teachings of the Catholic Church, harassed parishioners going to Mass—they even stormed churches prior to the beginning of Mass.

Aside from the Washington Post, the media expressed no interest in this story. Why is that? Were those on the left unmoved because they greet anti-Catholicism with aplomb? Were those on the right unmoved because they do not want to rupture the Catholic-evangelical relationship? Neither reason is persuasive. Bigotry must be condemned, and this is doubly so when the basic right to attend religious services without intimidation is jeopardized.

It is sad but true that there are still pockets of anti-Catholicism in the Protestant community, especially among those aligned with conservative causes. No alliance in the culture war is worth looking past this problem and that is why Catholics need to stand fast against attempts to brush instances like this aside.

October 23
Denver, CO – Catholics for Choice, a pro-abortion organization, launched a campaign against a proposed amendment that would include unborn human beings under the definition of a child in the Colorado criminal code. Catholics for Choice misrepresented itself as to imply that they were speaking on behalf of the Catholic Church against the amendment. The Colorado Catholic Conference, comprised of the state’s bishops, responded saying that Catholics for Choice “does not speak for the Catholic Church” and they “work to mislead the public.” The bishops further state “when it comes to statistics, Catholics for Choice only chooses those findings that agree with their dissent from Church teaching” and “it is our hope that one day Catholics for Choice will take the time to acquaint themselves with basic Catholic teachings.”

November 3
The American Humanist Association announced that it joined with 51 other member groups of the Coalition for Liberty and Justice to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor urging the federal government to ensure coverage for contraceptives following the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. In issuing their press release about the letter, the American Humanist Association included an image of birth control pills next to a rosary.

November 4
Mt. Vernon, TX – The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a formal complaint over a “pervasive religious endorsement” in the Mt. Vernon Independent School District. Among the issues FFRF protested were quotes painted in the hallways at Mt. Vernon High School. One quote from Ronald Reagan read “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Another quote attributed to Thomas Paine said “Reputation is what men and women think of us, character is what God and angels know of us.”

November 20
Grand Haven, MI – The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote to city officials requesting that a 48-foot cross be removed from a piece of public property on Dewey Hill. The city manager responded noting a local policy established in 2013 that made Dewey Hill a ‘free speech zone’ and therefore welcomed any kind of religious display. The ADL would not reveal who filed the complaint and the City refused to remove the cross.

A new group, “Remove the Grand Haven Cross,” was formed specifically for the purpose of protesting the cross. Members of that group revealed that they had contacted the ADL.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State also objected to the cross and requested to install displays on Dewey Hill promoting atheism, pro-choice and gay rights issues.

December 8
Clarksburg, WV – The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) objected after the Harrison County Commissioners voted to appropriate $1000 towards a social function hosted by the Catholic Immaculate Conception Men’s Group. The event featured a performance by John Angotti, a Christian musician who provides “inspirational music and faith witness to all ages.” The men’s group had raised about half of the $3000 needed for the event when the commissioners voted to help cover the costs. FFRF sent a letter to the commissioners demanding that they rescind the donation and recover the funds from the group.

December 16
Louisville, KY – In September, Fr. Ronald Domhoff was placed on administrative leave after he was accused of sexually molesting a minor. In December he was cleared of all charges and returned to active ministry. What happened in the interim is the real story.

The accuser said he was molested between 1985 and 1989 at a local Catholic high school. The priest was investigated and subsequently cleared by the Louisville Metro Police Department Crimes Against Children unit. The archdiocese conducted two investigations: one by the Sexual Abuse Review Board and one by a private investigator. Both exonerated the priest.

Here is what the Valencia, California law firm of Owen, Patterson and Owen said when Fr. Domhoff was charged: “Our client is willing to share details of his abuse with the press in order to encourage other victims to come forward.” Attorney Gregory Owen added, “These monsters must be found and punished.” The law firm asked other alleged victims to contact them, not the police.

As it turns out, the monsters who should be punished are these lawyers. The Archdiocese of Louisville contacted the accuser asking him to provide the details that his lawyers promised, and neither he nor his attorneys provided a scintilla of evidence.