New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to march in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  When his press secretary, Edward Skyler, was asked about the mayor’s appearance at an event that excludes gays from marching under their own banner, he said, “The mayor believes the best way to change an organization is to do so from within.”

Catholic League president William Donohue replied as follows:

“Who does Michael Bloomberg think he is?  If he wants to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, fine.  But he should do so by respecting the house rules of the parade’s organizers.  Gays are treated the same way pro-life Catholics are treated: both are banned from marching under their own banner but neither is excluded from marching, per se.  If Bloomberg doesn’t agree with the courts on this issue, then he should stay on the sidelines and state his reasoning.

“This issue revolves around three liberties: freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of religion.  Regarding the latter liberty, it is outrageous that a government figure would seek to subvert an Irish-Catholic organization’s autonomy (hasn’t Bloomberg heard of separation of church and state?).  Indeed, Bloomberg’s interest in marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade so he can change the will of the parade’s organizers is manipulative and unethical.  That is why he should do as he did last year and pull a no-show.”

Last evening, the season premiere of the ABC show, “The Job,” depicted a detective dressed as a priest and a stripper dressed as a nun; it was not disclosed until the end that the “hot nun” is actually a stripper.  The “nun” was shown stripping in front of one of the male detectives while three other detectives (two male, one female) watched her from behind a two-way mirror.

There was another scene where the “nun” put her foot on the crotch of one of the male detectives while being interrogated.  This was followed by a scene where she puts her foot on the crotch of a female detective.  The detective “priest” was shown abusing the confessional by seeking to squeeze information from a penitent known to have stolen money from the collection basket.  An actor who is cast as a real monsignor is then depicted as being more concerned about his own reputation than he is about the detective who misrepresented himself as a priest in the confessional.

Catholic League president William Donohue remarked as follows:

“We knew ‘The Job’ would be vintage Catholic bashing before we saw it and here’s why: a) the producer and star is Denis Leary, who has made several contributions to anti-Catholicism b) it aired on ABC, which has also made several contributions to anti-Catholicism c) the premiere was dubbed ‘Sacrilege,’ which means it had to be anti-Catholic because no other religion is treated sacrilegiously on any network and d) advance reviews of the show in several newspapers tipped us off.

“Verne Gay of Newsday said it best when he commented that while the show is funny it ‘will come as little consolation to practicing Catholics and other upright citizens.’  He also got it right when he said this proves how ‘desperate’ ABC is for a hit.  Ditto for Disney, the slumbering giant that owns the network.  We expect ‘The Job’ will make another contribution to ABC’s already clogged toilet before too long.”

There was a cartoon by Don Wright that appeared in the January 16 edition of the Palm Beach Post that led to a flurry of complaints by local Catholics.  Many called us or faxed us the cartoon.  The cartoon, available on the newspaper’s online site, shows a woman sitting in a chair pondering what is a cruel caricature of Catholic Church teachings on sexuality.  Here is what she says:

“For women, sexual conduct is always closely monitored.  The Catholic Church tells me what I can or cannot do with my body.  Truly unforgiving.  Absolutely no compromises.  Unless, of course, you’re a pedophile.”

At the behest of Catholic League president William Donohue, the league’s director of communications, Patrick Scully, called Randy Schultz, editorial page editor of the Florida daily, asking for an apology.  “There will be no apology because there is nothing to apologize for,” said Schultz.  He added that the cartoon was simply a “critique” of the Church’s “policies.”  When asked by Scully whether he knew of any Don Wright cartoons that looked critically at Judaism or Islam, Schultz said,  “I find your question repulsive.”

William Donohue sent the following remarks to Schultz’s colleagues in the media all over Florida:

“So Randy Schultz finds it ‘repulsive’ to ask whether his newspaper merely looks critically at Judaism or Islam, but finds it perfectly acceptable to justify anti-Catholicism.  In doing so, he makes a point the Catholic League has been making for years: many of our cultural elites, who consider themselves absent of even a trace of bigotry, have a tolerance for anti-Catholicism that is rivaled only by their intolerance for anti-Semitism.  Schultz digs himself in even deeper when he pretends that the Wright cartoon was simply a ‘critique’ of Church ‘policies.’  It would be more accurate to say it was a vicious attack on Catholicism.  But to admit that would be to admit to bigotry and that is not something Schultz has the courage to do.”

New Republic editor Martin Peretz was quoted in the Jan. 13 Sunday Times of London as saying Pope Pius XII was “an evil man.”  His charge is based on a piece by Daniel Goldhagen in the Jan. 27 edition of the magazine that blames Catholicism for the Holocaust.  Catholic League president William Donohue replied to both men today:

“Ask any American who were the evil men of the last 100 years and the names of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and bin Laden roll off their lips.  Ask Martin Peretz and he answers Pope Pius XII.  Never mind that this pope has been credited by Jews all over the world (e.g. Pinchas Lapide, Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, as well as dozens of Jewish organizations) with saving more Jews than any other person, Peretz, following Goldhagen, is convinced he was ‘evil.’  Could it be that he came to this conclusion because he is riddled with guilt?  After all, he inherited a magazine that bowed to Hitler.  Dorothy Wickenden, a writer who previously worked for Peretz, has written that ‘The New Republic counseled fatalism and restraint in the face of Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco.’  Now had the magazine’s editors followed the lead of the Catholic Church, perhaps more Jews would have been saved.

“As for Goldhagen, he finds incredulous the idea that without anti-Judaism in the Church, Nazism would never have existed.  This shows his naiveté: the pseudo-scientific racism and exterminationist policies of Hitler were born of a particular set of historical conditions having nothing to do with Catholicism.  But to those engaged in witch-hunts, a careful examination of these factors is nothing but a distraction.

“Goldhagen likes his history black and white.  His previous work, one that was widely discredited by serious scholars, sought a wholesale indictment of the entire German nation.  His new scapegoat is the Catholic Church.  But what separates him from the cottage industry of Pius’ critics is his thinly veiled hatred of Catholicism from top to bottom.  Indeed, his enfeebled attack on the Catholic Catechism demonstrates that it is the theology he despises most.  Which is why Goldhagen is nothing more than a Jewish version of Bob Jones.”

Catholic League president William Donohue addressed this issue today:

“Two months ago we called for the Nebraska legislature to censure state senator Ernie Chambers for the anti-Catholic remarks he made when a voucher bill was being debated. Now he’s moved from anti-Catholic rhetoric to anti-Catholic behavior. Yet he remains undisciplined. Chambers’ bigotry is also directed at whites and Jews. Consider this:

• On December 30, 2001, one of Chambers’ constituents publicly charged that the state senator’s recent memo on lead paint and children ‘reeked of racism and hatred.’
• On December 21, 2001, the Omaha World-Herald published a bigoted letter by Chambers who wrote of ‘Pampered, snooty white men such as George Will.’
• On March 8, 2001, Chambers’ habitual references to ‘the white man’ got him tagged as ‘one of the biggest racists in Omaha.’
• On January 13, 1996, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Omaha’s Temple Israel openly criticized Chambers for his ‘anti-Semitic remarks’ and for his association with Louis Farrakhan.
• On Christmas Eve, 1992, Nebraska state auditor John Breslow, who is Jewish, accused Chambers of making a ‘Hitler-like caricature’ of him.

“If Chambers were white, he would have been censured long ago. But it’s not too late to treat him as an equal. That’s what we will request.”

Beginning tonight, Get Real Art Gallery in New York will feature the work of artist Paul Richard.  Besides depicting Jackie Onassis in a Kotex Light Days Panty Liners ad, Pope John Paul II is portrayed with a gerbil.

Catholic League president William Donohue offered the following remarks today:

“I did a Nexis database search on Paul Richard and all I could find was a reporter by that name who works for the Washington Post.  When I researched the Get Real Art Gallery, I wound up with nothing.  Which tells me that this is a no-name artist pawning his stuff off on a no-name gallery.  But given the content of his ‘installation’ (I’m learning art lingo these days at the Catholic League), I’m surprised the Brooklyn Museum of Art didn’t snatch it up first.

“In any event, that a Greenwich Village gallery would feature kotex and gerbils is unexceptional.  What ever happened to portraits of apples?  Boring though they were, they at least didn’t want to make you barf.”

COPIA officials at the Napa, California museum are insisting that it is “misinformation” to say it has received millions of dollars in public funding; they admit to receiving only a $50,000 grant.  Indeed, the Catholic League has been accused of “lying” about the money.  The league’s protest is directed at a display of figurines that show the pope and nuns defecating and has created quite a furor.  In another development, Robert Mondavi, the museum’s largest private benefactor and chairman of its board of trustees, has entered the fray.

On the January 7 “Tom Leykis Show,” a nationally syndicated radio show that originates in L.A., COPIA spokeswoman Holly Krassner accused Catholic League spokesman Patrick Scully of “lying” when he asserted that the museum has benefited from millions of dollars of public funds.  Moreover, several newspapers printed the museum’s charge that the league is spreading “misinformation” about its funding.

Nancy Light, Mondavi’s VP for public relations, is saying that while Mondavi was not involved in the selection process, “The [Mondavi] family supports COPIA’s commitment, as an artistic institution, to presenting the creations of its contributing artists without censorship.”

Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:

“According to Napa Sentinel reporter Harry V. Martin, ‘A $70 million loan was negotiated by the State of California, and which even the Napa Valley Register confirms in its January 5 article.’  And this doesn’t count millions in local public funding.  So who’s lying?

“As for Mondavi, I have personally defended him for a week, saying he no doubt wasn’t involved.  However, now that he is, he’ll have to do better than say he opposes censorship.  So do we which is why we never asked for the offending items to be removed.  But we do want to know whether he personally approves of his museum’s defecating pope and nuns.”

Featured at an exhibition at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, is a display of figurines that depicts the pope and nuns defecating.  Since the Catholic League protested on January 4, Catholic volunteers at the museum have quit and several local Catholic groups have cancelled events.  But museum officials are justifying the display by arguing that it is an acceptable tradition in Catalonia, Spain, to offer such fare; the artist who is responsible for this work, Antoni Miralda, is from Catalonia.

Catholic League president William Donohue reacted as follows:

“According to the latest AP article on this story, it is a Catalonian tradition to display figurines that depict famous people defecating; they are known as caganers.  What was not said is that this tradition doesn’t travel very well.  Ironically, the multicultural purists who populate the artistic community never tire of lecturing the public on the need to respect the cultural heritage of other countries.  Yet somehow these rules are suspended when applied to importing artwork from abroad that offends Americans at home.  In short, who cares what passes as acceptable in the scatological circles of Catalonia?  This is our country. Thus, Miralda and his apologists are obliged to respect our traditions.

“The director of the Toy Museum in Catalonia, Josep Maria Joan, has characterized critics of Miralda’s work as ‘intolerant.’  This is what we would expect from someone who has been collecting caganers for over 40 years.  His addiction has obviously messed up his judgment.

“On the hunch that someone who sees the Miralda masterpiece might be tempted to imitate the caganers, we are sending a pooper-scooper to COPIA director Peggy Loar.  We previously sent a pooper-scooper to the Brooklyn Museum of Art after dung was thrown on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother.  If this keeps up, we’ll have to make a bulk order.”

COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, a museum in Napa, California, is the venue of an exhibition entitled, “Active Ingredients.”  One part of the exhibition shows the work of Antoni Miralda, a Catalonian artist.  In a display that features figurines of famous people, Miralda chose to depict the pope and nuns defecating (also shown defecating are Santa Claus and Fidel Castro).

COPIA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution “dedicated to exploring the distinctively American contribution to the character of wine and food in close association with the arts and humanities, and to celebrating these as a unique expression of the vitality of American life, culture and heritage.”  The museum, which opened November 18, 2001 (the same day “Active Ingredients” opened), is the brain-child of noted vintner Robert Mondavi; he made a donation of $20 million to launch the “Raising the Dough” campaign.  The state of California contributed $70 million and another $4 million came from local tax money.  “Active Ingredients” runs through April 22.

Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:

“Artists.  California.  Alcohol.  That’s a bad mix.  What you see is what you get—the pope and nuns defecating.  It gets better.  Want to learn their take on this?  When we asked COPIA’s executive director, Peggy Loar, to explain what Miralda is up to, she dutifully e-mailed us her response: ‘These figurines symbolize the cycle of eating and fertilization of the earth, which is a requisite for future existence.’  Now I get it: to show his appreciation of Mother Earth, Miralda had to show the pope and nuns defecating.  But why couldn’t he have chosen the Lone Ranger and Tonto instead?  Or better yet, just Tonto and a few of his Indian buddies?  Wouldn’t that be a more earthy statement of the kind we’re supposed to believe Miralda wants to convey?  In any event, it’s nice to know that Peggy has previously won the Smithsonian Institution’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service.  She sure has brought her exceptional spin skills to COPIA.”