Planned Parenthood of New York and Catholics for a Free Choice blasted Archbishop Edward M. Egan of New York yesterday for his Sunday homily urging Catholics to vote for those “who share our commitment to fundamental rights for the unborn.”  The Archbishop’s appeal was also made in the form of a letter he sent to all parishes in the New York Archdiocese.

Commenting on the criticism of the Archbishop was Catholic League president William Donohue:

“There is a cruel irony in the lecture Archbishop Egan received from Planned Parenthood of New York and Catholics for a Free Choice.  Both organizations have spent the entire fall campaigning for pro-abortion candidates and have never uttered one word of criticism at those ministers and rabbis who have allowed their churches and synagogues to become a playground for Republicans and Democrats seeking election.  Now they have the nerve to criticize Archbishop Egan for simply exercising his freedom of speech.

“Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice have something else in common: both have their origins in bigotry.  Planned Parenthood was founded to promote the eugenic ideal of limiting the African American population and Catholics for a Free Choice was founded as an explicitly anti-Catholic organization.  Neither has any moral authority to advise any Catholic leader on any subject.

“What’s really bothering the pro-abortion lobby is Archbishop Egan’s willingness to engage the culture.  They’d better get used to it.”

Last Friday night’s episode of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect” triggered a record number of complaints to the Catholic League.  The discussion was Halloween and how it relates to paganism.  The show’s host, Bill Maher, commented how “Christianity is grafted on paganism”; media critic Holly McClure agreed.  Actor Guy Torry then remarked, “Halloween was started in the Catholic Church,” a quip denied by McClure.  The most important exchange occurred next.

McClure: “We are so ignorant on the whole reason why we do it [celebrate Halloween].  We just go along like sheep to the slaughter.”

Maher: “Which is the perfect description of religion itself.  I mean, what is scarier than drinking the man’s blood every Sunday?  That’s not a spooky ritual?  Here kids, drink his blood and eat his body.  Like that’s not pagan?  What can be more pagan than that?”

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, issued the following statement today about this episode of “Politically Incorrect”:

“The relentless assault on Catholicism that emanates from ‘Politically Incorrect’ suggests an animus against Roman Catholicism that is deep-seated.  We will ask our members to flood the offices of ABC with phone calls, faxes and letters.

“Thus far, Olivia Cohen-Cutler, the new vice president of Broadcast Standards & Practices at ABC, has shown little interest in addressing the anti-Catholic virus that Bill Maher willfully spreads on his show.  It is time she acted responsibly by directly confronting this issue.”

There were at least eight famous contributors to Hillary Clinton’s fundraising event at Roseland Ballroom last night who have a record of Catholic bashing.  Here is the evidence:

• Ben Affleck played in the anti-Catholic movie, “Dogma,” and admitted that “The film is definitely meant to push buttons”
• Molly Shannon is best known for her crude portrayal of a Catholic school girl on “Saturday Night Live”
• Jon Stewart made offensive remarks about the pope on the February 22, 1999 edition of the “Daily Show”
• Nathan Lane played “a Catholic priest who cruises the altars for quickies” in a 1995 movie called “Jeffrey”
• Dennis Leary made obscene jokes about Christ and defamed the Catholic Church in his 1997 “Lock-N-Load” show on HBO
• Cher is soon to release an anti-Catholic song called “Sisters of Mercy”
• Whoopi Goldberg insulted the pope on the September 26, 1997 edition of “20/20”
• Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax distributed the anti-Catholic film, “Priest,” and produced the Catholic-bashing movie, “Dogma”

Catholic League president William Donohue voiced the league’s concerns today:

“Hillary Clinton is not responsible for the Catholic-bashing record of her fundraising friends, but she is responsible for running with them.  These are not just some anonymous contributors—they are among her best friends.  Is there anyone who believes that she would run in the same circles with those who mock blacks, Jews or gays?  As far as Catholics are concerned, there is literally no difference between the gang of eight that stuffed her coffers last night and the John Rockers of this world.   But we won’t ask her to return the cash: we’d rather just get the word out about who her real friends are.”

Anti-school choice activists in Michigan have now resorted to lying in their effort to stop the voucher initiative, Proposal 1, from winning on November 7.

Television ads, run by “ALL Kids First!”, show a disabled child in a wheelchair featuring the statement, “private schools are allowed to reject disabled students like Angelica.”  But as the Michigan Catholic Conference has said, “this is a deliberately false statement and represents a new low in political campaign advertisements in Michigan.”  What gives support to this charge is the Michigan law that bars discrimination against persons with disabilities independent of whether the school is public or private.

Catholic League president William Donohue voiced his concerns today:

“There are no taboos in the portfolio of the anti-school choice forces in Michigan.  They have distorted the truth, promoted anti-Catholicism and have now resorted to out and out lying.  Instead of making their case on the merits of the voucher plan, they engage in demagoguery in order to scare the dispossessed from claiming their rights.  Indeed, their interest in the well being of the handicapped is on a par with their interest in the poor: they will exploit both groups in order to protect their monopoly.

“Ironically, the same forces which today feign concern for the handicapped were the very ones who lost in 1993 in their bid to stop public funds from being spent on handicapped children who attend sectarian schools; the Catholic League was proud to file an amicus brief in Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District on behalf of the handicapped.

“It is bad enough to work against the poor and disabled without also lying about it.  It is time the leaders of the anti-voucher movement took a course in character education.  But not in a public school.”

Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) today released the results of a survey of Catholic voters.  Catholic League president William Donohue read the survey and commented as follows:

“Belden Russonello & Stewart, hired by Catholics for a Free Choice to do its survey, is not a disinterested research firm: in 1999 it was described before a House subcommittee as a ‘Democratic’ firm.  Now it is an axiom in sociology that virtually any result can be elicited in a survey if the questions are cooked to deliver, and that is exactly what happened here.

“For example, in her news release on the survey, Frances Kissling, president of CFFC, boasts that 66 percent of Catholics support legal abortion and 70 percent believe that Catholic bishops should not use the political arena to advance their moral opinions.  But what she didn’t say undercuts the points she wants to make.

“The data of her own survey show that only 6 percent of Catholics agree with abortion law as it is accepted today.  In other words, only 6 percent agree with the statement that abortion should be morally acceptable in all circumstances; fully 61 percent say that abortion should never be acceptable or should be acceptable only in rare circumstances.  But no one would know this by reading Kissling’s selective look at the data.

“Similarly, questions like, ‘Do you think Catholic Bishops should use the political arena to advance their moral opinions?’, is loaded to elicit a predictable response.  Now if it were asked, ‘Do Bishops have the same free speech rights as everyone else to address moral issues?’, the results would be markedly different.

“Kissling has said that her goal is to ‘overthrow’ the Catholic Church.  Though she will fail, her motives color everything she does, including her dishonest summaries of her contrived surveys.”

Primus St. Croix, the man who has confessed to destroying five religious statues in the Diocese of Brooklyn, was sentenced today to five years probation.

The Catholic League has requested New York Senator Charles Schumer to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether St. Croix can be prosecuted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act of 1994.  The law, while primarily aimed at protecting free access to abortion clinics, also makes it unlawful for anyone who “intentionally damages or destroys the property of a place of religious worship.”  Senator Schumer has agreed to do so.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, spoke for the organization today:

“On Sunday we learned that a mural on the wall of an intermediate school in Brooklyn must be painted over because school authorities object to a painting of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.  This morning we learned that a man who smeared white paint over a dung-laden portrait of the Virgin Mary at the Brooklyn Museum of Art may be sentenced to a year in jail and required to pay a $1,000 fine.  And this afternoon we were informed that an illegal alien who admits to crushing statues of the Virgin Mary and other Catholic symbols is being given five years probation.  Taken together, these three incidents suggest that there is something very sick going on in this country, and there is something especially perverse going on in Brooklyn.

“The Catholic League commends Senator Charles Schumer for agreeing to ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate this matter further.  It is important that this act of hate not be treated lightly.”

The Internal Revenue Service has agreed to investigate whether the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John Corzine occasioned an infraction of IRS rules regarding church and state matters.  The Catholic League also registered a complaint against Vice President Al Gore but was told that there was nothing the IRS could do about his recent bid to win the support of black ministers.

Last Sunday, Hillary Clinton made a tour of black churches seeking to win the favor of the congregations she addressed.  In one particular instance, Rev. Darlene McGuire of Emmanuel Baptist Church in the Bronx, actually compared Clinton opponent Rick Lazio to Satan:  she urged the crowd to sing, “I told Lazio, get thee behind, victory today is mine” (Lazio’s name was substituted for Satan’s).

On April 18, the leaders of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey endorsed John Corzine in his Senate bid.  Through his charitable organization, Corzine had previously given $25,000 to the group.

Last Saturday, Al Gore called black ministers from Air Force Two saying, “I’m asking you in your sermons to do the work of the Lord here on earth.  I ask for your help in getting the message out urgently tomorrow.”  The IRS noted that only if the ministers acted on the vice president’s request by endorsing him would there be any possible violation of IRS rules.

Catholic League president William Donohue explained why the league contacted the IRS:

“Whether any law has been violated by those ministers who have been asked to do the bidding of Hillary Clinton, John Corzine or Al Gore is not for the Catholic League to decide.  But it is our business to make certain that an equal playing field is achieved for the Catholic clergy.  That is why we are pressing these issues—all of them involve outrageous abuses of power and smack of a double standard.”

Yesterday, in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Primus St. Croix pleaded guilty to destroying five religious statues in the Brooklyn Diocese.  Judge Anne Feldman accepted his guilty plea and is expected to sentence St. Croix today; she has indicated that he will be given five years probation.

At yesterday’s hearing, Lance Ogiste, the district attorney’s executive assistant, said, “The people are asking for a sentence of two and one-third to seven years.  The defendant terrorized not only Brooklyn but all New York City and not only Catholics but people of all religious faiths.”  The district attorney’s office is currently investigating six other crimes of a similar nature; the 12 suspects may be connected to a religious group lead by St. Croix, who is a Rastafarian.

Catholic League president William Donohue is asking that stronger action be taken:

“Either St. Croix should be deported or there must be a federal investigation of this matter.  St. Croix is an illegal alien who can be deported for pleading guilty to these crimes.  That is exactly what should happen.

“However, since this is unlikely to occur, the Catholic League will call on U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to apply the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act of 1994, a law passed by the 103rd Congress.  Though this act was primarily aimed at securing abortion rights, it also contains a provision making it illegal to intentionally damage or destroy the property of a place of religious worship.

“It is not in dispute that St. Croix is mentally competent to stand trial.  Indeed, he even promised yesterday that when he is released, he will continue his crusade to get Catholics to ‘get rid of’ religious statues.  This is not the voice of someone who admits to wrongdoing.”

Primus St. Croix, the man who used a sledgehammer to destroy statues at five Brooklyn Catholic churches, is about to be placed on five years probation.  Under a plea bargaining agreement, St. Croix will serve no time behind bars.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, voiced his concerns over the pending agreement:

“Thanks to a news release by State Senator Seymour P. Lachman, we learned that Primus St. Croix ‘will get little more than a slap on the wrist.’  Senator Lachman, who is also a distinguished scholar, is right to say that ‘The desecration of religious statues is disgraceful.’  That is why it is imperative for Supreme Court Justice Anne Feldman to deliver a more punitive, and therefore more appropriate, sentence.

“As evidenced by this case, one of the problems with hate crimes legislation is its blatantly political nature.  Had St. Croix gone on a rampage destroying busts of Martin Luther King, he might have been treated differently.  No matter, what needs to be done in this case is to send a strong message to anti-Catholics that acts of violence will not be tolerated.  This cannot be done unless St. Croix has the book thrown at him.”

Beginning today, People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is launching an advertising campaign that shows The Shroud of Turin along with the words, “Make a Lasting Impression—Go Vegetarian.”  The international campaign, which will originate in Turin, Italy, argues that Jesus was a vegetarian; it begins on the eve of the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.  Many Catholics believe that Jesus was wrapped in The Shroud of Turin.

Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:

“PETA wants the world to believe that eating meat is immoral.  To that end, it seeks to appropriate symbols held sacred by Christians all over the world.  But this latest campaign is a misappropriation: it hijacks Catholic imagery in service to a secular crusade.

“In July, PETA dropped its ‘Jesus Was a Vegetarian’ campaign after the Milwaukee-based Priests of the Sacred Heart registered a complaint; it was the priests’ Sacred Heart imagery that PETA was abusing.  Now PETA is back, this time ripping off The Shroud of Turin to make a political statement.

“PETA has a track record of offending Catholics.  In 1996, the Catholic League went after the animal rights group for slandering Boys Town.  In that instance, PETA was upset with the Catholic institution for doing research on animals, and in the course of doing so, engaged in a ‘malicious libel’ against the famous home for troubled boys.  In 1997, PETA continued its war on Boys Town when one of its members dressed up as Satan while screaming from the roof of the hospital.

“If PETA were as ethical in dealing with Catholics as it is in dealing with cats, there wouldn’t be any problem.  It’s time they took an ethics course taught by someone who knows the difference between the sacred and the profane, as well as the difference between mice and men.”