Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on the myths, lies and smears presented in “Angels & Demons”:

“The tag team of Dan Brown and Ron Howard would have the public believe that Galileo was a member of a secret society, the Illuminati, and that the group seeks revenge against the Vatican today because of the Catholic Church’s anti-science history. All of which is nonsense.

“Galileo died almost 150 years before the Illuminati were founded on May 1, 1776. Yet Brown’s book says the secret society was founded in the 1500s, and the movie says the same. Even though Brown’s own website admits that the group was founded in 1776, he explicitly says that ‘It is a historical fact that the Illuminati vowed vengeance against the Vatican in the 1600s.’ Howard, for his part, has said in an interview that the Illuminati ‘were formed in the 1600s.’

“So why do they lie? Because their goal is to paint the Catholic Church as the enemy of science, and what better poster boy to trot out than their favorite martyr, Galileo? The ultimate victim, Galileo’s alleged persecution is cited as proof of the Church’s war on reason.

“Had it not been for the Catholic Church, the universities would have died during the Middle Ages. Had it not been for the Catholic Church, the Scientific Revolution would never have happened. After all, science did not take root in South America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia. In took place in Christian Europe.

“Galileo was never imprisoned or tortured. His confinement to house arrest, though unwarranted, was more a function of his arrogance than his ideas: he persisted in presenting his ideas (taken from Copernicus, a Catholic scientist who was never punished) as scientifically accurate, something which scientists of his day scoffed at.

“Why do Brown-Howard persist in their demonization of Catholicism? More on this tomorrow.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue announced today the start of an educational campaign informing the public about the agenda behind “Angels & Demons.” The movie, which opens May 15, is based on the book by Dan Brown. This is the first of several news releases scheduled on this subject:

“Next week we will begin to make available to the public a booklet that I wrote on ‘Angels & Demons.’ It details the myths, lies and smears that are made against the Catholic Church. It also provides evidence of the anti-Catholic animus harbored by those associated with the film.

“Author Dan Brown and director Ron Howard are getting good at this. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was replete with falsehoods presented as fact, and now the tag team is back again delivering a curious blend of fact and fiction. All done at the expense of the Catholic Church.

“Brown-Howard are obsessed with Catholicism. It is not enough to criticize it—they are hell bent on demonizing it. It is not enough to drag out dirty laundry—they invent it. And the fact that they pay absolutely no price for their propaganda shows beyond dispute that anti-Catholicism is the one bigotry Hollywood likes.

“We will have something to say about the lies tomorrow. On Wednesday, we will address the anti-Catholic sentiments of the producers and film crew. Next week we will release the booklet. By the time we are finished with ‘Angels & Demons,’ there should be few who won’t know what the Brown-Howard agenda entails.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as the new secretary for health and human services (HHS):

“Last week, President Obama called Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan to congratulate him on his appointment as the new archbishop of New York, effective April 15. That was a nice statement. But it didn’t cost him anything. His appointment of Kathleen Sebelius—one of the most extreme pro-abortion zealots in the nation—to head HHS was not a nice statement. And it will cost him.

“Catholics do not expect that abortion-rights presidents will go out of their way to choose pro-life Catholics to be in their administration. But they also don’t expect them to go out of their way to offend them. Obama has done just that. As I said last night on the CBS Evening News, ‘She is the champion of abortion rights right through term, and for Obama to choose somebody who sews such division within the Catholic community to head HHS really is an insult to Catholics.’ Indeed, she has been publicly criticized by the last three archbishops of Kansas for her radical views on abortion.

“Sebelius is best friends with Dr. George Tiller, one of the most radical abortion doctors in American history. She has wined and dined him, and has accepted money from him. The fact that he has performed more than 60,000 abortions doesn’t faze her. None of which bodes well given her duties at HHS. Moreover, she has worked against the health-care rights of women: she refused to license abortion clinics in Kansas.

“Sebelius once signed a law that calls for the killer of a pregnant woman to be charged with two murders. Someone should ask her who the other person is.”