Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida, is hosting an exhibit by Pat Payne, “A Look at Violence in Religious and Sexual Imagery,” that depicts the following:

• Jesus being sodomized
• Jesus with pierced genitalia
• Jesus being masturbated by a woman

The exhibit began February 8 and lasts until March 29.  Catholic League president William Donohue has seen a copy of the WCJB-TV video of the art and released the following comment today:

“This is the Lenten treat that Santa Fe Community College has chosen to present to Christians.  We’re taking our complaint to the president of the college, the school’s trustees and those members of the Florida state legislature whose duty it is to oversee education funding.  We are asking that they use the maximum degree of powers vested in them to deal with hate speech.  We’re also going to give the college some free publicity: we are writing to every parochial and public high school in the Gainesville area letting them know what kind of place the college is.

“Leslie Lambert, chairperson of the Creative Arts and Humanities Department, says of the art, ‘If it causes people to stop and think, and to confirm their own value system or to reevaluate their value system, then I am pleased as an educator.’  I’d be curious to know the content of her own value system.  In any event, if she wants people to stop and think, then why doesn’t she substitute Martin Luther King for Jesus and then explain to African American students that this isn’t hate speech—it’s just about getting people to think.  Or maybe she could donate a portrait of her own mother being sodomized.  That would work.

“The faculty would never demand that the artist and his work be banished from the campus.  No, the only person they would banish is someone caught smoking while viewing the exhibit.”

On the February 12 edition of the “John and Ken Show,” a KFI radio program in Los Angeles, several bigoted remarks were made about Catholic priests.  On February 14, the Catholic League called to verify the comments, but no one responded.  We e-mailed KFI on February 19 asking for verification and were told that the following remarks (among others) were made on the February 12 show:

• “Ten percent of priests are pedophiles and the other 90 percent are equally as guilty because they don’t do anything about it.”
• “I have always heard that men have a calling to the priesthood.  Now we know that the calling is in his pants.”

For several days after our verification check of February 19, the “John and Ken Show” hosts then lied about the Catholic League on the air.  They said we defend pedophile priests and that we have threatened a boycott of the show’s sponsors.  On February 20 and 21, several phone messages were left with various officials at KFI registering our complaint but none was returned.  Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“The folks at KFI are bigots, liars and cowards.  John and Ken would never condemn all gays because some are irresponsible.  Ditto for every single demographic group in the country.  But when it comes to priests, if some are guilty of sexual misconduct, all are.  They compound matters by lying about the Catholic League.  As a result of their lying, we have been inundated with the most virulently anti-Catholic phone messages (thanks for supplying the evidence, guys).  This tells us something about the type of people who like to listen to KFI.  Finally, they are cowards: they refuse to deal with our complaint in a professional manner.  Anytime these guys want to debate me, I’m ready.”

On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Zelman v. Doris Simmons-Harris, the case that involves the Cleveland voucher program.  The Catholic League has filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the constitutionality of the program.  William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, explained why the league’s interest in this issue is so strong:

“In the mid-1990s, a federal court orders the state of Ohio to take over the failed Cleveland schools, citing ‘emergency conditions.’  A voucher program is instituted giving parents up to $2,250 to send their children to a school of their choice.  Most of them choose Catholic schools.  And this leads the ‘friends of the poor’ to sue: they claim this amounts to a violation of the principle of church and state.  But everyone knows that it wasn’t the state of Ohio that chose to send the voucher kids to Catholic schools.  Their parents did.  No matter, the public school establishment will have none of it.  They literally cringe from competition.

“The Catholic League’s friend-of-the-court brief, written by University of Notre Dame Law School professor Gerard Bradley and Princeton University professor Robert P. George, challenges previous court characterizations of Catholic schools as being ‘pervasively sectarian.’  They maintain that the term is loaded with prejudice and has led to decisions that discriminate against Catholic schools based upon a caricature.

“The federal courts have a long and undistinguished record of discriminating against Catholic schools.  The high court is now presented with a case that addresses past inequities and therefore carries landmark opportunities.  It is our hope that the judges seize the moment and reach a decision that provides fresh chances for our nation’s minorities.”

On Tuesday, February 19, Disney will hold its annual shareholder meeting at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut.  In that day’s edition of the Hartford Courant, the Catholic League will run an op-ed page ad asking Disney shareholders to dump its subsidiary, Miramax.

On February 5, Catholic League president William Donohue faxed a letter to Disney chairman Michael Eisner and Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein requesting that they reschedule the opening of “40 Days and 40 Nights” until after Easter.  The movie is about a Catholic, played by Josh Hartnett, who pledges to give up sex for Lent but has his will tested by his ex-girlfriend.

Some movie critics have already noted the vulgar content of the film and have questioned the propriety of opening the show during Lent.  It is rated R for “strong sexual content, nudity and language.”  It is precisely because the film is scheduled to open during Lent (March 1) that Donohue requested the opening be postponed until after Easter.

On February, 6 a New York newspaper reported that Miramax had turned down the request.  Hence, the decision to appeal to the Disney shareholders via the Hartford Courant.

In 1995, the Catholic League protested the Miramax-distributed movie “Priest” and succeeded in getting the film’s opening bumped from Good Friday.  In 1999, following a Catholic League protest, Disney succeeded in getting Miramax to find another distributor for “Dogma.”  Now the Catholic League is asking Disney’s shareholders to support our effort in getting Disney to dump Miramax once and for all.

A Catholic high school in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Archbishop Wood, is rewarding students with extra-credit for participating in pro-life demonstrations outside a Planned Parenthood clinic.  Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice have registered their objections.  Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:

“We are delighted with the news that pro-life students at Archbishop Wood are getting extra-credit for their noble efforts.  Those who have a financial or ideological interest in promoting the cause of abortion, such as Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice and the Philadelphia Inquirer, are understandably upset.  Wait till they find out what we’re going to do.

“Linda Hahn of Planned Parenthood Bucks County has said that her clinic has seen ‘more than a few’ students from Archbishop Wood.  She did not say whether she plans to out them.  Nor did she say whether students who attend public, Jewish or Protestant schools frequent her clinic with greater regularity.

“Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice says it amounts to ‘coercion’ to give the students extra-credit.  She did not say whether it amounts to coercion when pro-choice students are given extra-credit for their efforts.

“Reporter Matthew Blanchard of the Philadelphia Inquirer describes the teacher who is giving the extra-credit, June Littel, as a ‘morality-class teacher,’ and calls the student club involved in this issue an ‘antiabortion club.’  He is twice wrong.  He did not call the teacher what she is—a theology teacher—and did not call the club by its right name, namely the school’s Pro-Life club.

“The Catholic League will now work with Archbishop Wood to enhance its pro-life work and will urge Catholic schools across the nation to adopt its strategy.  We will also consider awarding cash grants to those students who distinguish themselves in their pro-life efforts.”

At a meeting of Jewish leaders in Washington yesterday, Menachem Rosensaft, an official of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Holocaust Survivors, called for Jewish groups to boycott New York’s Jewish Museum because of its upcoming exhibit, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art.”  The exhibit will open March 17.  It features a number of controversial works that has upset many Jews.

Catholic League president William Donohue urged Catholics to join the boycott today:

“Usually, it’s Catholics whom the ‘creative types’ in the artistic community like to offend.  Now it’s Jews.

“There is nothing creative about ‘designer’ poison-gas canisters, Lego concentration camp sets, digitally altered pictures of a photographer holding a Diet Coke amidst Buchenwald inmates, toylike Hitler cats and handsome busts of that monster Josef Mengele.  This is the kind of expression we might expect from some tongue-pierced adolescent hell-bent on a Columbine-styled rampage.  It is not what we would expect from legitimate artists.  Worse, we would expect that the venue for such rage would be some gallery in the East Village and not a prestigious museum.  Moreover, we also object to the cover of the exhibit’s catalog that features a cross morphing into a swastika.

“Dialogue is not the answer.  A boycott is.  Catholics should take this opportunity to join with their Jewish brothers and sisters and send a message to the officials at the Jewish Museum by joining the boycott triggered by Menachem Rosensaft.  Anything that trivializes the Holocaust is offensive and ‘Mirroring Evil’ clearly meets that test.”

Director Constantin Costa-Gavras won the prestigious Berlinale Kamera award yesterday at the Berlin International Film Festival.  The Greek-born French director won the prize for his latest movie, “Amen.”  The film is about a German SS officer who allegedly tells a priest what was happening to the Jews during the Holocaust and the subsequent refusal of Pope Pius XII to do anything about it.

Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“There is no difference between Catholicism and Nazism.  That is the message of ‘Amen.’  Lest anyone doubt this to be true, consider the movie’s poster, as designed by Oliviero Toscani: it shows a Catholic cross blended with a red swastika on a black background.  With good reason did the French bishops blast the poster for its irresponsibility.

“Everything connected with the movie is pure propaganda.  First, while there was a real-life SS officer by the name of Kurt Gerstein, the Jesuit priest whom he allegedly spoke to is pure fiction: he never existed (this is not contested by anyone).  Secondly, the movie is based on the book,The Representative, by Rolf Hochhuth.  He is the same person who started the fiction that Pius did nothing to save the Jews (the myth began when he wrote a play—in short, a fictitious account—in 1963, The Deputy).   Thirdly, as anyone who has tracked Toscani’s work for Benetton knows, the man is a notorious anti-Catholic.  Fourthly, Costa-Gavras, who is one of Europe’s most politically-inspired directors, is guilty of propaganda when he says, ‘no one historian said he [Pius XII] saved so many people or saved anyone.’  I guess he never heard of John Toland and Sir Martin Gilbert, two of Europe’s top historians: Toland says no one saved more lives than Pius and Gilbert’s latest book thanks the pope for what he did.

“To associate Catholicism with Nazism is worse than bad history.  It’s dangerous because it suggests nothing has been learned.  Which means history could repeat itself.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District has removed nearly 300 books from its library shelves that it deems offensive.

In December, copies of The Meaning of the Holy Quran were donated to the school district by a local Muslim foundation.  This particular version of the Koran, published in 1934, contains footnote passages that label Jews “arrogant,” “illiterate” and “men without faith.”  After a history teacher complained, the books were pulled from library shelves.  A committee of history teachers, Jewish leaders and officials from the donating foundation will now review the books.

Catholic League president William Donohue has offered to help resolve the controversy.  Here is what he said today:

“I have written to Roy Romer, the superintendent of schools, and to the eight members of the school board, offering the services of the Catholic League.  What I would like to do is threefold: a) conduct a training seminar on the meaning of the First Amendment for all area faculty and administrators b) provide an historical overview of the consequences of state-sponsored censorship in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China and c) allow a Catholic League staff member to examine their library holdings for anti-Catholic books; we would then ask that these books remain on the shelves as testimony to tolerance.

“The American Civil Liberties Union defends books that show how to make an A-bomb.  People for the American Way defends books that are patently obscene.  The American Library Association defends hard-core pornography on the Internet and even opposes the use of filters that keep  little children from being exposed to it.  But not one of them has objected to the book banning going on in Los Angeles.  That’s why the Catholic League’s offer is so irresistible.”

President George W. Bush spoke of the need for tolerance and community service at today’s National Prayer Breakfast.  He took particular note of those New York firefighters who risked everything to save people inside the World Trade Center on September 11.  Bush said they “were not confused about the difference between right and wrong.”  He also called the nation to prayer by emphasizing the “good that has come from the evil of September 11.”

Catholic League president William Donohue praised the president for his remarks:

“The only people who will find fault with the President’s National Prayer Breakfast speech are those who have a phobia about religion or those who are hostile to it.  Catholics have a special reason to be proud of what President Bush said because the overwhelming majority of firefighters who lost their lives in the Twin Tower bombing were Catholic.  Make no mistake about it, it was their Catholic upbringing that allowed them to be neither confused about the difference between right and wrong nor phobic about religion.

“While these Catholics are deserving of no special attention—those who risked their lives and had no religion were just as heroic—it is high time their religious roots were at least acknowledged.  After all, every time some ex-altar boy gets arrested, or some Catholic is arrested for spying, or some ex-Catholic who becomes a Muslim and then a traitor to his country, his religion is given high profile by the media.  Yet all we learn of the firefighters’ religion is that they were buried in a Catholic church.  What we should be learning is what made these Catholics tick.  This would make a great piece for ‘60 Minutes’ but somehow we doubt it would interest them.”

The New York State Senate approved a bill on February 5 requiring all health insurers to cover contraceptives.  It made an exception for those religious institutions where most of the people who work there and most of the people it serves share that religion.  This was considered a compromise measure to appease the objections of New York Bishops.  But it did not succeed: Edward Cardinal Egan criticized the bill for trampling on the first amendment rights of Catholics.

Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“It is not easy to understand how it can reasonably be said that the Senate has worked out a compromise with Catholics.  Either the lawmakers believe in conscience clauses or they don’t.  It will not do to say that Catholic organizations can practice their doctrinal prerogatives save when most of the people who work there or are served by them are non-Catholic.  As everyone knows, Catholic schools in the inner city provide a quality education to a largely African American population.  Should school administrators lose their religious rights because too many of these kids are Protestant?  This would never pass constitutional muster.

“Apparently, the lawmakers have not considered the implications of their decision.  For example, it is well known that some Catholic colleges employ a mostly non-Catholic faculty.  One way around this bill would be to institute a quota system that gives preferential treatment to Catholic applicants, thus ensuring a Catholic majority.  And have the lawmakers considered this: Catholic institutions could opt out of providing prescription coverage altogether and instead offer a cash grant to employees to pay for prescriptions of their choice.

“It is not too late for lawmakers to rethink this bill.  Failing that, Governor Pataki should veto it.  If he doesn’t, it will set the stage for forced coverage of abortions—the goal of NARAL, this bill’s prime backer.  This, in turn, may lead to the elimination of all health care coverage by Catholic institutions.  Then cash grants will be extended even further.  Is this the legacy our officials want to be tagged with?”