Bill Donohue comments on the absence of priests on military installations:

There are not enough priests in the military to service all Catholics, which is why the government contracts with members of the clergy to celebrate Mass, baptize children, and the like. But last weekend, many Catholic men and women in the armed forces were denied their constitutional right to practice their religion: non-active duty priests who are hired as government contractors were furloughed due to the partial government shutdown.

The inter-party battles between Republicans and Democrats are of no particular interest to the Catholic League, but the denial of First Amendment rights are. There is absolutely no excuse to deny Catholic members of the armed forces access to their clergy. Worse, the very idea that a non-active duty priest who volunteers to say Mass may be arrested is shocking: this is the kind of thing we would expect from totalitarian regimes.

While both parties are to blame for the shutdown, it is the Obama administration that has decided to war on the civil liberties of Catholics; it has had plenty of practice. It is one thing to deny services that carry no constitutional weight, quite another to censor the First Amendment.

A resolution was passed in the House on Saturday calling on Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to allow these priests to resume their duties. The Senate has thus far done nothing.

Catholics are urged to ask their senators, and Secretary Hagel, to end this disgraceful assault on the constitutional rights of Catholics immediately.

Contact Department of Defense Press Office: OSD.PA.DutyOfficer@mail.mil

Bill Donohue comments on the reaction of a gay group, the New Civil Rights Movement, to a Chicago eatery that is featuring a hamburger topped with a Communion wafer:

Five years ago we protested the desecration of a Communion Host by P.Z. Myers, an anti-Catholic atheist professor. Yesterday, I decided not to protest the antics of Kuma’s Corner, a Chicago restaurant, for serving a burger with a Communion wafer. The difference: Myers secured a consecrated Host and drove a nail through it; the sandwich shop played games with an unconsecrated wafer. While Kuma’s showed disrespect, what Myers did was despicable.

Now I have learned that the New Civil Rights Movement, a homosexual outfit that is ever so sensitive about gay issues, is taking utter delight in the burger spoof. The guys who work there predicted that I would be “stroking out.” Sorry to disappoint, boys. In fact, the only angst I feel is toward people like them. They say that what Kuma’s Corner did risks the wrath of “every Christian born without a tolerance gene or a sense of humor.” I’ll remember that the next time they complain about one of my gay quips.

By the way, I thought tolerance was a function of nurture, not nature. So what is it? A preference or an orientation? Please advise as this is very confusing to a straight guy.

Bill Donohue comments on a Quinnipiac poll released today:

There are more than 78 million Catholics in the U.S. and Quinnipiac interviewed 392 of them. The actual number of Catholics who go to Mass on a weekly basis that they interviewed was 153. Most polls ask self-identified Catholics if they “attend church weekly”; “attend church nearly every week or monthly”; or “seldom or never attend church.” Not this one—there were just two choices: “attend weekly” or “less.” In other words, the poll does not distinguish between those who attend monthly and those who have stopped going—they’re lumped together.

They are lumped together for a reason, and it is a dishonest one: Every poll ever taken shows that the more practicing the Catholic is, the more in line he is with the Church’s teachings. In this poll, 60 percent of the Catholics questioned said they do not attend church weekly. Keep in mind that many of these never attend! To what extent can a person be considered a Catholic if he never practices his religion? About as much as a teetotaler can be considered a boozer.

Last March, Quinnipiac interviewed 497 Catholics; this poll is even worse. The margin of error in the poll released today is plus or minus 5 percent; this is worse than the 4 percent figure in the March poll.

The data on abortion are particularly interesting. It is being reported that 36 percent of Catholics think abortion should be legal in most cases. But the figure drops to 20 percent for Catholics who attend church weekly; it is 45 percent for those who do not. Fully 61 percent of practicing Catholics think abortion should be illegal in most cases, while only 29 percent of non-practicing Catholics think this way. These differences are huge, but don’t look for the media, or Quinnipiac, to trumpet them.

Maurice Carroll, the director of the poll, delights in saying how Catholics differ with the “pulpit thundering” perspective they are offered. Spoken like a man who hasn’t seen a pulpit in decades.

Bill Donohue has written a piece for Newsmax on New York City mayoral candidate, Bill de Blasio. In it he examines the candidate’s radical past and why Catholics should be especially wary of him. To read it, click here.

Six weeks ago, the Catholic League asked its online audience to sign the following petition:

I am requesting that the Obama administration withdraw the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate.

Considering the amount of time and money that has been spent trying to fix the problems that are inherent in this legislation—without a satisfactory resolution—it makes no sense to continue this process any longer. Religious liberty is a First Amendment right that cannot be abridged by any administration or policy initiative. Indeed, it is our most important inalienable right: it is not a bargaining chip that can be traded for some other purpose. That is why I urge the Obama administration to withdraw the HHS mandate.

Bill Donohue comments on the results:

Tens of thousands signed the petition, and today we mailed the names to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. We did not get a chance to contact our mailing list, but the point we wanted to make has been served: Catholics want their First Amendment right to religious liberty respected, and that means dropping the HHS mandate.

We are also contacting the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court about our initiative. They will likely decide the ultimate fate of the HHS mandate, and they need to know the resistance there is in the Catholic community to it. Obviously, one does not have to be Catholic to oppose this draconian edict; many Christians, Jews and others are equally outraged over this violation of religious liberty.

Thanks to everyone who supports this important effort. The fight will continue until justice is served.