Today, all government officials in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the ninth segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit (1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, (2) every Catholic lay organization, (3) all Catholic schools and colleges, (4) over 100 Protestant churches, (5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, (6) private schools, (7) public schools and (8) private and public colleges. To read the ad, click here.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

Last week, when Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times wrote about New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s recent comments on religious liberty, she put the term in quotation marks. James Carroll of the Boston Globe read her article (the Times owns his newspaper) and today the angry ex-priest demonstrated his independence by writing a thoroughly predictable column about the Catholic Church and “religious liberty.”

What’s bothering them, as well as the Pro-Choice Congressional Caucus, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, is the resistance being provided by Catholic bishops to the Obama administration’s war on Catholic institutions: the administration is seeking to force Catholic hospitals, universities and other entities to abide by its health care directives that require sterilization and contraceptive services (including abortifacients) in all private plans. The exemption it allows is a sham: to qualify, the Church must stop hiring and servicing non-Catholics (which means it must stop being Catholic).

In a separate, but related, move, the Obama administration is seeking to punish the Church by denying Catholic agencies that fight human trafficking a grant it routinely receives (the Church opposes abortion referrals and the Obama administration demands them).

What’s also driving this assault on Catholics and the First Amendment is fear—the fear that Americans are increasingly becoming pro-life. The Gallup survey from July shows that this fear is empirically based: the public wants new restrictions on abortion.

Couple this fear with the long-standing animus against Catholicism and it’s easy to see why the pro-abortion community is up in arms these days.

Today, all public and private colleges in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30

This is the eighth segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit 1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, 2) every Catholic lay organization, 3) all Catholic schools and colleges, 4) over 100 Protestant churches, 5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, 6) private schools and 7) public schools. To read the ad, click here.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest lawsuit by Rebecca Randles against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

After disturbing, but not pornographic, pictures of young girls were found on the computer of Fr. Shawn Ratigan last December, and after his attempted suicide and diagnosis by a psychiatrist, he was ordered by the Diocese to stay away from children. He didn’t, which is why the cops were summoned last May (though no crime had been committed). In the interim period, Ratigan was invited to dinner by the parents of a young girl, and they are now claiming that he may have taken a picture of her under the table. So they are suing him, Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese for conspiracy to commit fraud. Here’s what happened.

Ratigan contacts the girl via Facebook; her mother starts an email conversation with him; he is invited to dinner; he uses his cell phone under the table appearing to be texting; the parents take their girl to be with him again at an Easter egg hunt; they learn of his arrest; then they sue claiming they are suffering “great pain of mind and body,” as well as “emotional distress” and “loss of enjoyment of life.” It’s time to ask some tough questions about the anonymous plaintiffs.

First, what kind of mother would allow her ten-year-old to have a Facebook page? Second, what kind of mother would invite a total stranger to dinner? Third, what kind of people would file a suit about something they have no proof ever happened? Fourth, since the girl assumedly had her clothes on at dinner, any pictures that he may have taken were not pornographic (if he did take photos, that makes him a creep, but not a criminal). Fifth, if they saw him using his cell phone under the table, why didn’t they confront him, at least for rudeness? Sixth, if they thought he was at least a weirdo, why did they bring their girl to be with him again? Seventh, the alleged “pain of mind and body” and “loss of enjoyment of life” strains credulity.

When we add to this spurious case the fact that it was filed by one of SNAP’s darlings, it reeks to high heaven.

Contact Rebecca Randles: rebecca@rmblawyers.com

Today, all public schools in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the seventh segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit 1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, 2) every Catholic lay organization, 3) all Catholic schools and colleges, 4) over 100 Protestant churches, 5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, and 6) private schools. To read the ad, click here.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest news article by Kansas City Star reporters Judy L. Thomas and Glenn E. Rice on the story involving Fr. Shawn Ratigan:

The Kansas City Star’s latest hit on the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is both contrived and dishonest. It is contrived because the dirt it alleges to have found doesn’t exist. To wit: there is nothing even vaguely unethical about Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, the Pennsylvania psychiatrist who evaluated Fr. Ratigan, and his advisory role to Opus Bono Sacerdotii (OBS). It is dishonest because it continues the cover-up of its ally, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Dr. Fitzgibbons is to be commended, not condemned, for his association with OBS. It is run by two dedicated Catholics, Peter Ferrara and Joe Maher; its founding advisors were two of the most stellar Catholics in the past half-century, Avery Cardinal Dulles and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. The group not only defends the rights of priests, it reaches out to those who have sinned and seek reconciliation. It is a noble enterprise. So to imply that there is something sinister about Fitzgibbons evaluating Ratigan is yellow journalism.

The Star adds to its corrupt reporting by dishonestly covering up for SNAP. There is a psychiatrist who is unethical—indeed is a convicted sex abuser—and he is the long-time SNAP advisor, Dr. Steve Taylor. Taylor is in prison today for doing something not attributed to Ratigan: he downloaded child porn from his computer. Barbara Blaine, the founder of SNAP, came to his defense and wrote to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners pleading with them not to strip Taylor of his license. Yet the Star has never once told its readers about this story.

This is vintage Star reporting on the Catholic Church.

Contact Judy L. Thomas: : jthomas@kcstar.com

Benetton has a new “UNHATE” ad campaign that digitally alters photos of world leaders to make it appear that they are kissing. There is one showing President Barack Obama kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao, and one depicting French President Nicolas Sarkozy kissing his German counterpart, Angela Merkel. After the Vatican disapproved of the one featuring an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing an Egyptian imam, the ad was pulled.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed this today:

The damage that Benetton did is done—the offensive photo of the Holy Father and the imam is posted on the Internet. Benetton has a history of not only being edgy, but of being anti-Catholic and vulgar: in 1995, its magazine Colors featured Christmas holiday ads promoting such gifts as a bull’s testicles and a metal instrument used to abort unborn children. The Catholic League quickly condemned Benetton at the time.

Benetton gets no points for withdrawing the pope-imam ad. It knew what it was doing, and we know from past experience what its intent was. What is particularly striking about all this is that the ad campaign was launched to promote tolerance. Guess its hatred of Catholicism is so strong that even appeals to tolerance cannot stop it from fostering intolerance.

Contact Adrianna Rizzi at Benetton’s New York PR office: arizzi@benetton.it

Today, private schools in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the sixth segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit 1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, 2) every Catholic lay organization, 3) all Catholic schools and colleges, 4) over 100 Protestant churches and 5) Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups. To read the ad, click here.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com

Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn has agreed to meet on a monthly basis with Clay County prosecutor Daniel White to discuss any potential cases involving the sexual abuse of minors; this will be ongoing for five years. In return, he will not face prosecution on a misdemeanor regarding the behavior of Fr. Shawn Ratigan, who was under his employ.

Still to be settled are the misdemeanor charges brought by the prosecutor in neighboring Jackson County.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on this today:

In an ideal world, there would have been no charges whatsoever: there was no complainant and no violation of law. Quite unlike the Penn State situation, where alleged victims have come forward, no one has come forward in this case. Prosecutors have to be careful not to set the bar too low, because otherwise they will need an army of attorneys to police cases of suspected molestation that occur in public, as well as private, institutions.

The Catholic haters are already fuming. David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), says, “Nothing deters white collar crime like jail time, and nothing exposes a cover-up like a trial. But neither is happening.” But there was no crime and there was no cover-up: the Diocese contacted the authorities after Fr. Ratigan violated its own strictures; it even asked for an independent investigation.

Not only was there no cover-up, the only reason anyone knows anything about this case is because the Diocese voluntarily decided to call the cops. This is quite unlike the situation where Clohessy refused to call the police in the 1990s when he learned that his own brother was a child molester. It is Clohessy who belongs in jail—he has never paid for his cover-up, yet he has the audacity to point fingers at Bishop Finn, an innocent man.

Contact Clohessy: SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Today, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith groups in the Kansas City, Missouri area are being sent copies of the Catholic League ad that the Kansas City Star refused to run on October 30.

This is the fifth segment of the Kansas City area to receive the ad that the Star would like to censor. Previously, we hit 1) every Catholic church, as well as all the nuns, order priests and brothers, 2) every Catholic lay organization, 3) all Catholic schools and colleges and 4) over 100 Protestant churches. To read the ad, click here.

Contact Star publisher Mi-Ai Parrish: mparrish@kcstar.com