Bill Donohue says liberal Catholics need to explain themselves:

Peter Steinfels, who wrote the obituary on Father Andrew M. Greeley in today’s New York Times, notes that “there was resistance among liberal Catholics to his [Greeley’s] positive findings about Catholic schools.”

This is striking. Steinfels, himself a liberal, is writing about Greeley, another liberal (on most subjects), about the way liberal Catholics react to good news about Catholic schools. Which raises the question: Why do liberal Catholics treat good news about Catholic schools as bad news? Would they prefer they fail?

Steinfels went on to say that Greeley’s “research debunked the received view at the time that Catholics had low college attendance rates. He found instead that white Catholics earned bachelor’s degrees and pursued advanced degrees at higher rates than other whites, and he attributed their success to the quality of education in parochial schools, a controversial assertion in a time of public-school ascendancy.”

Conservative Catholics cheer such news. Apolitical Catholics cheer such news. So what’s wrong with liberal Catholics that they resist such news? Is their craven need for acceptance by secular elites so debased that it drives them to resist good news about Catholic education?

Last December, Ohio State University president E. Gordon Gee explained to the athletic council why the University of Notre Dame wasn’t invited to join the Big Ten: “The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week. You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that.”

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath. I have never met President Gee, but it is clear from what I read that what he said was made in jest. Was it dumb? For someone of his stature, yes. But context and tone matter, as does the frequency of what may be considered an offensive remark: a real bigot is someone who repeatedly, and maliciously, attacks others. Gee is not such a man.

Political correctness has gone too far. Vice President Joe Biden has made his share of dumb remarks, some of which could be considered bigoted. But he is no more a bigot than is the Ohio State University president.

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

We are releasing a booklet today that I wrote, Myths of the Magdalene Laundries, that debunks the conventional wisdom about these Catholic-run facilities in Ireland. Based on the McAleese Report, the Irish government study that was released in February, the booklet examines the origins of the many myths that have surfaced about the laundries.

Virtually all the horror stories that have been told—nuns cruelly torturing and sexually abusing “fallen” women—are lies. Worse, Irish officials, such as the current prime minister, Enda Kenny, continue to misinform the public, even in the face of indisputable evidence. Media outlets, the BBC and the New York Times, in particular, refuse to discuss the McAleese Report, leaving the impression that the falsehoods told by Peter Mullan in his propaganda film, “The Magdalene Sisters,” offers an accurate picture of what happened.

Copies are being widely distributed to the media, Irish historical societies, Irish fraternal and sororal groups, the clergy—including all the bishops—and those who made a donation to cover the costs of publishing and distributing the booklet.

Fair criticism of the Magdalene Laundries, or any other Catholic institution, is not only acceptable, it is welcome. That’s the only way progress can be made. But agit-prop films, and agenda-driven activists and writers, must be challenged. The truth is we’ve been lied to about the Magdalene Laundries, and it’s time to set the record straight.

Copies are available to the public for $5 per booklet; send to Catholic League, 450 7th Avenue, 34th floor, NY, NY 10123.

Bill Donohue comments on the news that “Nuns on the Bus,” a project of NETWORK, a Catholic dissident group, has hit the road again:

The last time “Nuns on the Bus” rolled out of town the bus was almost empty: only two made the entire trip, and never were there more than seven on the (luxury) bus at any one time. Today, they are leaving from Jersey City and will end their magical mystery tour in San Francisco. The gig is being funded by Organizing for Action (OFA).

Interestingly, the website address of OFA is barackobama.com; it was set up earlier this year as a means of implementing the Obama agenda. While the nuns are promoting immigration reform, OFA is also advocating ObamaCare, a component of which is the anti-Catholic Health and Human Services Mandate. But these nuns, who expressly eschew commenting on abortion, are not troubled by such matters.

OFA is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. Unlike conservative groups who previously filed for this status, OFA has not been subjected to harassment. Small wonder. It also helps when a 501(c)(4) launches before applying for tax-exempt status; it has yet to do so. Also, OFA pledges to disclose the names of donors who give more than $250 on its website. It says it will do so on a quarterly basis, but this is untrue: it has been in operation for over four months, but has yet to do so; it says it will make these disclosures “in the near future.”

On the “Nuns on the Bus” website, it lists a job opening for a Field Coordinator. Unsurprisingly, nowhere in the job description does it say anything about a commitment to Catholic teachings. Indeed, the word Catholic doesn’t even appear. The closest it comes is a sentence about the “spiritual side” of the “Nuns on the Bus.” Here is what it says: “On the spiritual side, we need someone who can keep our community as motivated as they were the day the bus rolled into town and to capture that motivation and turn it into action.”

That’s as close as “Nuns on the Bus” is going to get about matters spiritual—never mind Catholic—taking action on behalf of Obama.

Bill Donohue comments on reports of a new Catholic group:

There was a time when we needed a group called Catholic Whistleblowers, but this assembly is a little too late: they missed the boat by a half-century. The homosexual scandal began in the mid-1960s and ended 20 years later. Today, it hardly exists. In 2012, there were six credible allegations made against approximately 40,000 priests. To put it differently, if someone said in 1955 that we must do something about polio, just after the approval of the Salk vaccine, we’d think him nuts.

One might think that a group called Catholic Whistleblowers would blow the whistle on bishops who are shielding molesting priests. But they can’t even name one. The best they can do is mention the arrest of Father Michael Fugee in Newark for violating a judicial order. In the 12 years since his case was thrown out of court—for groping a teenager while wrestling in front of family members—there have been no complaints. No matter, this is all about getting Archbishop John Myers, not Fugee.

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability is responsible for forming the new group. If she is in earnest, she can begin her whistleblowing exercises by finally naming the 55 predator priests that her entity says Cardinal Timothy Dolan is hiding. She knows the accusations are a lie.

Sr. Maureen Turlish is another member, and she is known for calling allegations made against priests in the Philadelphia grand juries as “facts,” even though more than 20 of them are patently untrue. Fr. James Connell, now a hero to victims’ groups, was himself charged with covering up for the worst molester in the history of the Catholic Church in America. Fr. Thomas Doyle believes that Jesus Christ did not found the Catholic Church, and that the Mass is composed of “magic words.” Robert Hoatson, a former priest, picketed the building where the Catholic League is housed wearing a sign, “Cath. Lg. Opposed to Jesus.”

What a motley crew. They are fighting a war that is long over. Though it is not easy to do, it is time they let go. Let the healing begin.

Bill Donohue issued the following remarks today:

There are two scandals going on in Philadelphia, and both involve injustices done to the Catholic Church. One is legal, and the other is journalistic.

The legal scandal involves the prosecution of three Catholic priests, and one Catholic layman, in a case so incredible that it would be turned down as too fictional a script for a TV crime show. The other involves the Philadelphia Inquirer’s decision to keep the public in the dark about this case.

The statement that I wrote was submitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 14, 2013; it was to run as a two-page ad on May 20. On May 15, we were told that a decision was made by those “at the top” not to run it; when we asked for an explanation, we were told there would be none.

By turning down the ad, the newspaper forfeited $58,000, not an insignificant sum, especially for a paper that filed for bankruptcy in 2009. It suggests that those “at the top” would rather forego the money before ever disseminating a defense about the way three Catholic priests, and one Catholic layman, were treated in court.

One of the reasons why these Catholic men were treated so unjustly is the failure of the Philadelphia media, led by the Inquirer, to raise serious questions about what happened.

The Inquirer can stop us from running this statement as an ad in its newspaper, but it cannot stop us from blanketing the print and electronic media in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Nor can it stop us from getting it into the hands of every parish in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. We are also going national with this story.

To read the ad that the Inquirer does not want you to read, click here.

Contact Philly Inquirer exec. ed. Stan Wischnowski: swischnowski@phillynews.com

Bill Donohue has written a piece for Newsmax explaining, for the first time, how the IRS targeted the Catholic League right after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. The lawyers who triggered the complaint did so at the behest of a left-wing activist who worked for a George Soros-funded organization; Donohue has the proof. The same activist sought to get Donohue thrown off TV. To read his article, click here.

Bill Donohue comments on the way New Jersey newspapers and politicians are reacting to cases of clergy sexual abuse:

A priest gropes a teenager 12 years ago while wrestling and is told not to be around minors unless supervised. He breaks the agreement. Here’s how New Jersey newspapers and politicians responded.

Calling for the resignation of the priest’s boss, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, are the following: the Newark Star-Ledger, the Asbury Park Press, Sen. Joseph Vitale, Sen. Barbara Buono, Sen. Stephen Sweeney, and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle. This wasn’t good enough for The Record: it called upon lawmakers to tax church property.

An Orthodox rabbi forces an 11-year-old boy to have sex, and over the course of two years he molests him in the woods, in a storage room, in his car, and in the basement of a synagogue. The boy’s father, a rabbi, brings this to the attention of a prominent rabbi in the Lakewood Orthodox community, seeking justice in a rabbinical court. Nothing is done. No cops are called. This goes on for two years. The boy is taken to a therapist, but she also refuses to notify the authorities. The boy’s father finally reports this to law enforcement, and for this he is punished by his community, loses his job, and is forced to move his family out of state. Yesterday, the raping rabbi pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the boy.

None of the newspapers or politicians who called for Archbishop Myers to resign have said a word about the raping rabbi.*** None has called for a lawsuit against the Jewish leaders who protected the raping rabbi. None has even identified who the “prominent rabbi” is in Lakewood who allowed this to happen. And none has called for lawmakers to tax the property of synagogues. They are too concentrated on the groping priest. ***The Asbury Park Press ran an editorial on May 7 condemning what happened. We regret the error.

The disparate treatment can only be called corruption. These editorial writers and politicians are an absolute disgrace. Their credibility is shot.

Contact the person who started this journalistic malpractice, Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger: tmoran@starledger.com

A series of legal problems attendant to a civil suit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has led Catholic League president Bill Donohue to call for an official investigation into the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office.

On May 9, Donohue sent a letter in the priority mail to Anthony P. Sodroski, Disciplinary Counsel-in-Charge of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, requesting an investigation into the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. Donohue said, “What needs to be settled is whether someone from the office of D.A. Seth Williams will be receiving a referral fee for his work in connection with the ‘Billy Doe’ civil suit against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia [Billy Doe v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia, et al., No. 110702430 (Phila. County Ct. of Common Pleas)].”

Enclosed in the mailing was a copy of the transcript that quotes an exchange between alleged victim “Billy Doe” and attorney Michael J. McGovern; the discussion centers on the D.A.’s office securing an attorney for “Doe.”

Donohue ended his letter by noting the following: “You should know that we are pursuing other avenues of redress in this case. Never in my 20 years as president of the Catholic League have I seen a more egregious series of legal misconduct stemming from one case. All I am asking from you is cooperation in this particular matter.”

Donohue offered this comment today:

The Catholic League is not walking away from this issue. From what I have learned from the crackerjack reporting by Ralph Cipriano, the public has been kept in the dark on many aspects of what really happened to three Catholic priests and one Catholic layman. That is about to change. Stay tuned.

Bill Donohue comments on media coverage of the 2012 Annual Report on priestly sexual abuse; the audit was done by StoneBridge Business Partners, and the data were gathered by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA):

The report on sexual abuse, part of an annual audit, is available on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Apparently, almost no one has read it. Not a single secular newspaper in the United States reported on it.

On May 10, I issued a news release saying that “since nearly 100 percent of our priests did not have a credible allegation made against them last year [there were six out of approximately 40,000 priests], this should be picked up by the media. But it won’t be. Look for the story to get buried.”

I was wrong—it wasn’t buried—it wasn’t covered at all. Aside from a few blog posts, and a piece by States News Service, that was it. Why did the newspapers ignore it altogether? Because the news was good news, that’s why. Had it been bad news—a spike in abuse cases—it would have been front-page news. But because CARA found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004,” the story was deep-sixed.

There is bias by omission, as well as by commission. This is clearly a case of the former. Does it matter? Of course. By not telling the truth, the media help to feed the sick appetites of people like Bill Maher: on his May 10 HBO show, he took another shot at the Catholic Church, saying it welcomes “predators.” The titans at Time Warner (the parent company of HBO) obviously allow Maher to vent his bigotry, aided and abetted by newspapers which refuse to tell the truth. It’s a very sick nexus.