Bill Donohue defends the Archdiocese of Hartford:

• Jacob Doe claims he was molested in the early 1980s by a priest, Father Ivan Ferguson, who died in 2002.
• Doe had until 1988 to file a lawsuit, but he never did.
• In 1991, the statute of limitations was amended to 17 years.
• Doe had until 2003 to file a lawsuit, but he never did.
• In 2002 the statute of limitations for civil cases was extended to 30 years; it was made retroactive.
• In 2005, the Archdiocese of Hartford paid $22 million in a settlement with 43 people who claim they were molested by Fr. Ferguson and other priests dating back to the 1960s. Doe was not one of the parties that sued.
• Doe files a lawsuit in 2008 after the statute of limitations was changed in 2002.
• In February 2014, a jury awards Doe $1 million.

There is something wrong with this picture. It is no wonder that lawyers for the archdiocese argue, among other things, that making the statute of limitations retroactive for sexual abuse cases in 1991 and 2002 violates the civil liberties of their defendant.

It is particularly disturbing to read the editorial in the New Haven Register that invokes Pope Francis’ humble approach to sexual abuse, and his critical remarks on materialism, as a lever to criticize the archdiocese. According to its logic, the pope would counsel dioceses not to defend their interests, even in the face of palpable injustice. This is absurd. It is also a twisted reading of the pope’s thoughts on these issues.

Just as disconcerting is the lack of honesty on the part of the Connecticut media: none mention that the amended timeline on the statute of limitations only applies to kids molested in private [read: Catholic] schools—it does not apply to kids raped in public schools.

There is nothing “Christian” about being a piñata for those who want to hold the Catholic Church to a different legal standard. The archdiocese is right to contest this travesty of justice.

Bill Donohue comments on the Holy See’s reply to a report issued earlier this year by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child:

The Holy See took this U.N. committee to task on three levels: the international body does not understand the reach of the Holy See’s authority; it unjustly involved itself in canon law; and it advanced positions on parental rights and sexuality that are unacceptable.

The U.N. committee does not understand the difference between the Holy See, the Vatican City State and the universal Catholic Church. While the Holy See’s “religious and moral mission” is universal, it is a mistake of monumental proportions to conclude that it therefore has universal juridical authority. It is important to recognize that “the Holy See does not ratify a treaty on behalf of every Catholic in the world, and therefore, does not have obligations to ‘implement’ the Convention within the territories of other States Parties on behalf of Catholics, no matter how they are organized.”

The Holy See criticized this U.N. body for the way it “plunged into canon law,” improperly equating this juridical system with that of other member States. Importantly, it emphasized that canon law is a “complex unity of divine positive law, divine natural law and human law.”

On the issue of parental rights, the Holy See took the U.N. committee to task for disregarding the text of the U.N.’s Convention: the text affirms parental rights, yet the committee holds that the U.N. has a right to instruct member states on “sexual and reproductive health” issues. In effect, it is telling the Catholic Church to change its teaching on abortion. And by lecturing the Church to align itself with contemporary “gender” issues, and matters of sexual orientation, it is also showing its contempt for the Church’s autonomy.

In short, those who wrote the U.N.’s report on the Holy See haven’t a clue how the Catholic Church operates. Moreover, they unjustly injected themselves into the internal affairs of the Church.

Bill Donohue comments on the way Common Core is being promoted:

The implementation of Common Core in New York State, one of the first states to adopt it, is an abject failure: academic achievement is regressing. Whatever merits it may have, its most vociferous proponents are out of line when they try to strong-arm Catholic schools into accepting it.

The Council for a Strong America (CSA) is pressuring Catholic educators to adopt Common Core. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t doing so at the behest of its benefactor, the Gates Foundation, or if it weren’t bashing the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), a respectable Catholic education non-profit, for opposing Common Core. But the fact is that CSA has received $1.7 million from the Gates Foundation, and its Florida office is hammering CNS for making “strident attacks” on the program. God forbid that Catholic schools exercise their independence by rejecting Common Core.

A little more than half of Catholic dioceses have accepted Common Core, and some are having misgivings about doing so. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops observes that the Catholic education community is split on its utility, noting that it was “developed for a public school audience,” and “is of its nature incomplete as it pertains to the Catholic school.”

Bill and Melinda Gates have spent upwards of $200 million promoting Common Core, so a lot is at stake. But instead of having the results speak for themselves, those pushing Common Core—and there is no end to the lobbyists, activists, researchers, unions, think tanks, and politicians who have been paid to get on board—have from the beginning acted more like salesmen than educators. To wit: five respected scholars on the Validation Committee of Common Core refused to sign off on the final version because it was being promoted as a done deal before the committee had a chance to provide its input noting certain deficiencies.

We have no interest in grading Common Core, but we do object to the tactics being used by its paid advocates to whip Catholics into line.

Bishop Frank Dewane, who leads the Diocese of Venice in Southwest Florida, is under fire by local dissidents. Defending him is Catholic League president Bill Donohue. To read his account, click here.

Bill Donohue comments on a decision by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin responding to a complaint we lodged against attorney Rebekah M. Nett:

In a letter to the Catholic League dated September 18, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin responded to the 2011 grievance we filed against Rebekah M. Nett. We asked that she be investigated for making stridently anti-Catholic remarks against U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher, et al.

The formal complaint we lodged cited the following:

• Nett filed a memo written by her client, Naomi Isaacson, which said, “Across the country the court systems and particularly the Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota are composed of a bunch of ignoramus, bigoted Catholics beasts that carry the sword of the church.”
• The memo called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher “a Catholic Knight Witch Hunter.” [Note: Dreher is not Catholic.]
• The memo called one bankruptcy trustee “a priest’s boy,” and another a “Jesuitess.”
• For her part, Nett called Dreher and other court personnel “dirty Catholics,” adding that “Catholic deeds throughout the [sic] history have been bloody and murderous.”

Our grievance against Nett was initially taken up by the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation, but when the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility filed a petition for disciplinary action against Nett in the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Wisconsin court deferred judgment until Minnesota concluded its case. The conclusion: Ms. Nett’s Wisconsin law license has been suspended for a period of one year.

While it is gratifying to learn that Nett has been disciplined, the punishment is too light. No matter, Ed Koch, the former Mayor of New York City, must be looking down on us with a smile. He strongly supported our case against Nett.

Bill Donohue comments on a survey by the Pew Research Center on the issue of which values are the most important to transmit to children:

Ideologically, liberals and conservatives agree that responsibility is the most important child-rearing value. But when it comes to the importance of teaching religious faith, the ideological divide is wide: those who are consistently conservative value this attribute as much as responsibility, but those who are consistently liberal place the least value on it.

To be exact, 81 percent of the former think it is especially important to teach children about religion, but only 26 percent of the latter feel the same way. Among those who are consistently liberal, 42 percent are religiously unaffiliated, compared with only 6 percent of those who are consistently conservative.

Disaggregating by education yields striking results. College graduates, as compared to those with some college and those with a high school education or less, are less likely to stress obedience, religious faith, and being well-mannered. Interestingly, college graduates score the highest on teaching empathy to children, but they score the lowest on teaching the value of helping others. Which raises the question: What is the social value of empathizing with the plight of others if it is not coupled with actually doing something about it?

We know from previous data that those who are the least charitable are the most liberal and the most secular, and that those who are the most willing to give to others—in terms of donations, voluntarism, and giving blood—are people of faith. In terms of social capital, then, it is in society’s interest to abet religion. It is the faithful who contribute the most to others, even if their liberal-secular counterparts feel the best about empathizing with their plight.

The tax code which rewards people of faith for making contributions to their church and synagogue is not only rational, it makes sense to increase the benefits.

Bill Donohue speaks to the latest attempts to control the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade:

The parade committee’s decision to allow a cherry-picked NBC gay unit to march in the 2015 parade has triggered an onslaught of applications from other gay groups, as well as new attempts to wrest control of the parade.

These efforts were given more fuel when parade committee vice chairman John Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University, announced that he was “enthusiastic” about sitting down with Brendan Fay to discuss his interest in marching in 2016. Fay is a gay activist who was an official in DignityUSA, a radical dissident Catholic gay group that works to undermine the Church. He says he is married to a man.

Applying to march in the 2015 parade are Irish Queers, St. Pat’s for All, the Lavender and Green Alliance, and gay groups within established non-gay organizations. Also, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced on Monday that it has applied to march.

HRC is the nation’s largest gay group, one that is highly critical of the Church’s teachings on sexuality. In July, it berated the New York Giants because it hired David Tyree to be its new Director of Player Development (he is the Giants’ hero in the 2007 Super Bowl). Tyree’s crime? He supports marriage as the union between a man and a woman. HRC has also lashed out at Francis Cardinal George for defending what it considers the Church’s “discriminatory” policies against homosexuals. It is important to note that one of HRC’s biggest sponsors is Diageo, owner of Guinness; it is a “Platinum Partner.”

On another front, attempts are being made by gay activists, left-wing groups, and gay politicians to wrest control of the parade permit from the parade committee. They are pressuring New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to give them the permit, but so far their efforts have failed. This is just the beginning—look for more attempts to crash the parade over the next six months.

Bill Donohue comments on an attempt to force a Catholic judge to recuse herself from a case because she is Catholic:

Kathleen Oropeza is the president of Fund Education Now, a Florida activist group that is anti-school voucher, anti-charter schools, anti-testing, and pro-union. Her outfit has filed a lawsuit contending that the state constitution mandates “high quality” public education, and that funds distributed to other schools deprive public schools of the monies they need to succeed. The state circuit judge handling this case is Angela C. Dempsey, a Catholic. Oropeza wants Dempsey to recuse herself because of her alleged bias.

Oropeza’s claims are not only without merit—they smack of bigotry. Dempsey is being accused of supporting Catholic Charities, speaking at Catholic schools, and contributing to Catholic causes. Oropeza did not say whether Dempsey blesses herself with holy water while exiting church on Sunday (that would have been the real clincher).

Looks like Oropeza fails her own guilt-by-association test. For example, the case could be made that she should step down from running an education lobby. Why? Because she participated in the Save Our Schools March in Washington, and one of the key speakers at that event was Jonathan Kozol: he is an education guru who embraces the kind of indoctrination that Communist nations like China and Cuba have perfected.

Oropeza attended Orange County Public Schools and Florida State University. After trying to follow her logic, she has convinced me that the Florida education system is a mess. However, the remedy is not more funds for public schools, but less for them and more for Catholic schools.

Contact Kathleen Oropeza: kathleen@fundeducationnow.org

Bill Donohue comments on the Catholic League’s boycott of Guinness:

We are now half-way to St. Patrick’s Day, and many will be tipping a few in anticipation of the March 17, 2015 parades and celebrations. For several reasons, the Guinness boycott must continue.

First, we should remember that this corporate bully tried to shove its secular agenda down our throats by punishing the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade for not allowing gays to march under their own banners in 2014; it pulled its sponsorship. Its goal, which is supported by its friends at Irish Central, is to sever the religious moorings of the parade.

Second, it announced its boycott on the eve of the parade, swindling pub owners to stock up on its stout before pulling the trigger.

Third, even though a gay group will be marching in the 2015 New York parade, Guinness is not promising to renew its sponsorship: it wants more homosexual units to march before getting on board again. If it were to succeed, it would turn the parade into a diversity free-for-all, thus eviscerating its Catholic heritage.

Guinness has no monopoly on St. Patrick’s Day anyway. It’s time we sent them a message and told them to get lost.

Contact Alix Dunn at Diageo, parent company of Guinness: Alix.Dunn@diageo.com

Bill Donohue comments on why the Catholic League is joining the protest of “The Death of Klinghoffer,” the opera that is inspired by the tragic death of Leon Klinghoffer [click here for info]:

The Catholic League will bring a contingent to the protest of “The Death of Klinghoffer” on September 22, opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s new season; the first performance of this opera is scheduled for October 20. We are joining the protest partly out of solidarity with our Jewish friends, many of whom are feeling the wounds of this propaganda exercise; we are also enraged that the opera falsifies history.

The facts are not in dispute. In 1985, PLO barbarians picked out an innocent elderly Jewish-American passenger on the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, shot him in the face and then threw him and his wheelchair overboard. Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel, was the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations at that time, and he correctly identified the guilty parties. “It [the hijacking and the murder] was carried out with the full prior knowledge and approval of the PLO chairman” [Yasser Arafat].

Predictably, Arafat lied about his role. He charged that the hijacking was aimed at “covering up the terrorist crime and open piracy of Israel, in conjunction with the United States, to destroy the PLO headquarters and assassinate PLO leaders.” Indeed, he claimed that this event was part of a “conspiracy mapped out to liquidate the PLO.”

This matters because those associated with the opera have repeatedly said that they chose to be “neutral,” giving “voice to all” by not “taking sides” in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. But not all sides have an equal claim on the truth. Moreover, when it comes to the Klinghoffer episode, the only morally legitimate side to take is the Jewish side. Consider what a terrorist in the opera, Rambo, sings to Klinghoffer: “You are always complaining of your suffering but whenever poor people are gathered they can find Jews getting fat. America is one big Jew.” This isn’t being neutral—it’s being obscene. I urge Catholics to be at the rally on Monday.