Bill Donohue comments on a petition drive against Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph:

Approximately 100,000 persons have signed a petition demanding the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn. It’s a phony exercise.

The petition is found on the website of change.org, home to mostly left-wing activists. Anyone can sign it—you don’t have to be Catholic or from Finn’s diocese. For example, almost 7,400 signatures were sent to the diocese, and all but approximately 150 were from outside the area. Of the signatories online, activists from foreign countries have signed. In short, there is no grassroots rebellion against Bishop Finn.

We know who Bishop Finn’s enemies are: the Kansas City Star and the National Catholic Reporter (both are located in Kansas City, Missouri). They are the real source behind this phony petition drive: Both have been beating the drum calling for Finn to resign. It is not child sexual abuse that angers them, it is where it takes place and under whose purview it is.

There has been an ongoing story in the Orthodox Jewish community of rampant child sexual abuse, intimidation of victims, and a refusal to cooperate with the authorities, yet the Star has never covered this issue and the Reporter has largely ignored it (both publications carry national stories, not just local ones).

Similarly, at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota, child rapists abound and kids are being murdered, yet neither the Star nor the Reporter have anything to say about it. That’s because they are too busy focusing on twisted clergy who take crotch-shot pictures of children fully clothed.

For the past decade, the most important goal of anti-Catholics has been to bring down a bishop. That’s what is behind this petition drive.

Deal Hudson, president of the Pennsylvania Catholics Network, is cited today in a U.S. News blog story on the anti-religious antics of Catholics for Obama.

Bill Donohue addresses this issue:

Should Christians vote for a Jewish Democratic candidate for president? Should they be made to feel guilty if they even gave it a second thought? How would the media react if Catholics for Republicans called prospective voters asking, “How can you support a Jew who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”

The question needs to be raised in light of what Catholics for Obama is now doing: In a scripted phone message, Catholics are being asked, “How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”

The question is obscene. The beneficiary, President Obama, should demand an end to this Mormon-baiting strategy immediately.

Contact:  info@catholicdemocrats.org

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

Last Thursday evening, September 27, I was barred from entering the Edward Tyler Nahem gallery that was hosting the Andres Serrano “Piss Christ” piece.

The gallery said that when protesters tried to push pass the guards, the police were called and showed up to monitor the situation; the same gallery officials said that Serrano went outside to talk to me, but that I refused to engage him. All of this is a lie.

A reporter for the New York Times spoke to Serrano and he admitted that the two of us never met. She called the police and they confirmed that no one from the gallery called them. We had called the police prior to the press conference, and some showed up at 6:22 p.m. after the press conference ended (it began at 5:25 and was over at 6:00 p.m.); this was also after the confrontation in the building’s lobby (it started immediately after the press conference).

So on these two issues—Serrano and me meeting and the cops showing up in response to trouble—the evidence shows that the gallery lied. Still in contention is the gallery’s position that protesters barged into the building; I contend that we sought to enter the lobby but did not force our way past security. To see exactly what happened, click here.

In other words, we are dealing with a prominent gallery in a high-rent district of Manhattan that promotes bigotry, censors its critics, and lies to the press.

To send the gallery a message, contact: info@etnahem.com