Bill Donohue comments on New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s edict banning non-essential state funded or state sponsored travel to Indiana:

It is entirely fitting that a governor who previously told Catholic human rights activists to get out of New York would elect to punish the people of Indiana because they want to strengthen their religious rights.

Just last year, Cuomo said that those who defend the civil rights of unborn boys and girls were “extremists” who “have no place in the state of New York.” Perched on his self-created mantle of virtue, our Imperial Governor decided who belongs and who does not. He did not say how he expects to carry out his Diaspora.

Cuomo’s commitment to inclusion obviously stops when it comes to Catholic human rights activists in New York, and now he has extended his punitive reach to the mid-West. Thus has he added to his “Love Me or Leave Me” legacy. 

Bill Donohue comments on reaction to recent jokes about Pope Francis, children, and Bruce Jenner:

Last night, Comedy Central aired a roast of Justin Bieber that was recorded earlier. Comedian and roast-master Jeff Ross arrived on the red carpet dressed as the pope; he was wearing a white robe, a mitre, and carried a staff with Bieber’s face on it. He was accompanied by two women dressed as sexy nuns.

Red-carpet host Sarah Tiana engaged Ross in a conversation, and at one point said to him, “Have a great time at the show, you look amazing, you’re going to be hilarious.” To which Ross replied, “Bless you, Sarah, congratulations on all of your abortions.”

The night before, Jamie Foxx cracked a joke about Bruce Jenner. “We got some groundbreaking performances here, too, tonight. We got Bruce Jenner, who will be here doing some musical performances. He’s doing a his-and-her duet all by himself.”

Making fun of the pope, and joking about children killed in the womb, is standard stuff on Comedy Central, which is why Ross will not pay a price for his antics. Making fun of Bruce Jenner is taboo, which is why Foxx was blasted on social media.

This is America 2015. It’s okay to mock the pope, treat serial abortion as a laughing matter, but not crack a joke about a man who hates being a man.

What is the connecting thread? The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at conception and that God created man and woman. Our cultural elites believe that human nature is a fiction, which is why they reject the scientifically grounded tenets of Catholicism.

Contact Carl Folta, Executive VP, Viacom Communications [Viacom owns Comedy Central]: Carl.Folta@viacom.com

Bill Donohue comments on a court decision ruling that Rhode Island teachers can absent themselves from school to observe Good Friday:

Jewish teachers in Cranston, Rhode Island are allowed to take off on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but Catholics have to teach on Good Friday. This didn’t sit too well with Catholics, so on March 16 they sued. Now the edict, which was issued by school superintendent Judith Lundsten, has been overturned by court order.

As long as teachers submit their request by April 1, they can observe Good Friday, with impunity. A full court hearing will later determine whether teachers can commemorate Good Friday in future years. If the teachers lose, they may have to reimburse the school for the day off.

This issue should never have made its way to the courts. As I pointed out on March 19, “it is not the business of government agents to assess holy days, or religious traditions, by weighing them on their state scale.” That is exactly what Lundsten did: she decided that because Catholics are not required to attend Good Friday services, they should not be allowed to go to Church services during the day.

There was a time when people such as Cardinal John O’Connor had to plead with professional baseball not to have opening day on Good Friday. Now we’ve descended to such a low that Catholic public school teachers have to fight for their right to attend liturgical services on Good Friday. What’s next—requiring Catholic employees to bring a pastor’s note proving they were in church?

Bill Donohue comments on reaction to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA):

The federal RFRA was passed in 1993, and since that time thirty states have adopted their own RFRA, or a variation of it. These laws have not engendered a single act of discrimination against any American, yet when Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed his own state’s law protecting religious liberty, critics went berserk.

“Bill Allows Businesses to Reject Gay Customers” said CNN. ABC-host George Stephanopoulos sounded the same alarms, and pointedly refused to ask Pence about the law’s positive impact on religious liberty. Similarly, at today’s press conference, Indiana’s top two lawmakers were asked many questions about gays, but not religious rights.

Former NBA star Charles Barkley is urging a boycott of Indiana. GenCon, the gaming company, is threatening to leave Indiana, and Angie’s List is putting its planned campus expansion project in the state on ice. The mayors of Seattle and San Francisco are banning city travel to Indiana.

Top hysteria prizes go to Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, actor Ashton Kutcher, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Lupica argued that it was as important to oppose this law as it was to fight for the right of women to abort their babies. Kutcher wondered whether Jews may now be banned from Indiana. And Cook compared the religious liberty law to “Whites Only” signs during Jim Crow.

Top duplicity prizes go to Senator Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. Schumer slammed the Indiana RFRA law, but in 1993 he voted in favor of the federal RFRA, warning that unless it were passed, “the practice of using sacramental wine, wearing a yarmulke, kosher slaughter and many other religious practices all could be jeopardized.” Clinton’s husband signed RFRA into law.

It’s not clear what is worse—the demagoguery or the phoniness.

Bill Donohue has written a letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert commenting on legislation signed yesterday by Indiana Governor Mike Pence that affirms religious liberty.

Emmert is alleging that the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act would abridge the rights of homosexuals, though he provides no evidence to support this claim. Consequently, he is threatening to pull all future NCAA events from Indianapolis. Indianapolis is home to next week’s Final Four basketball tournament; it is also home to the NCAA’s headquarters.

Donohue tells Emmert that if he does not change his position, he has “a moral obligation to raze all of the lavish buildings that comprise the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis and set up shop someplace else.”

To read Donohue’s letter, click here.

Bill Donohue comments on remarks made by Georgia State Representative Jason Spencer about the Archdiocese of Atlanta:

Georgia is considering a bill, the Hidden Predator Act, that would lift the statute of limitations for two years on civil suits filed against alleged sexual abusers. It is rightly being opposed by the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations.

As Catholics have seen over and over again, when state legislatures suspend the statute of limitations, they almost never apply to the public schools, even though that is where most of the molestation occurs. Georgia is no different. So we know what the agenda is.

One of the Georgia lawmakers who favors the bill is Rep. Jason Spencer. But he is not content to voice support for it—he is waging a bigoted anti-Catholic campaign against the Atlanta archdiocese. In recent days he has repeatedly branded the archdiocese a “pro-child predator special interest group” that is part of the “child sexual predator lobby.”

Rep. Spencer is a Republican conservative pro-life legislator who belongs to a Christian interdenominational church. But his Christian affiliation obviously does not stop him from promoting anti-Catholicism.

Rep. Spencer should apologize to Catholics. He should also be sanctioned by his colleagues for his bigoted remarks. Accordingly, we are contacting Spiro Amburn, Chief of Staff for House Speaker David Ralston asking for Speaker Ralston’s leadership on this matter. We encourage all Catholics to do the same.

Contact: spiro.amburn@house.ga.gov

Bill Donohue comments on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s remarks condemning anti-Semitism at a Simon Wiesenthal Center awards dinner on March 24:

“We’re gonna have to get as organized as the Mafia,” Weinstein said. “We just can’t take it anymore. We just can’t take these things. There’s gotta be a way to fight back.” He was given the Humanitarian Award by Christoph Waltz, who praised him for making movies that made Jews proud of their heritage.

I join Weinstein in condemning anti-Semitism. But before I am prepared to issue a joint statement with him, he needs to first condemn anti-Catholicism and pledge not to contribute to it again.

In 1995, Weinstein and his brother, Bob, offered us “Priest,” a film featuring nothing but miscreant priests. In 1999, we were treated to “Dogma,” where the audience learned of a descendant of Mary and Joseph who works in an abortion clinic. In 2002, they released “40 Days and 40 Nights,” a film that ridiculed a Catholic for giving up sex for Lent. Also opening in 2002 was “The Magdalene Sisters,” a movie that smeared nuns. In 2003, “Bad Santa” opened for the holidays; Santa was cast as a chain-smoking, drunken, foul-mouthed, suicidal, sexual predator. In 2006, “Black Christmas” made a predictably dark statement about the holiday. In 2013, they released “Philomena,” a tale of malicious lies about Irish nuns and the Church (Harvey lobbied hard last year for an Oscar, but came up empty). In real life, Philomena Lee was a teenager who abandoned her out-of-wedlock son, and who, because of the good efforts of the nuns, was adopted by an American couple.

Anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism should both be condemned, without equivocation. Condemning one but not the other is irresponsible, though it is fashionable to do so.

Bill Donohue comments on school choice as a key electoral issue:

The embarrassing record of many public schools, especially in the inner city, is responsible for the growth of charter schools. While charter schools are a good alternative to traditional public schools, they are no substitute for Catholic schools. And nothing would benefit Catholic schools more than school vouchers. In New York State, vouchers are not even discussed anymore. Instead, an Education Tax Credit (ETC) is seen as the favored alternative to public schools, and its fate appears doomed.

Today’s editorial in the New York Times is classic: it opposes the ETC because it might benefit parochial schools, but it supports the Dream Act because it benefits “undocumented students,” meaning those who are here illegally.

I say the ETC “might” benefit parochial schools because it is not certain whether they would (it is not the same as a tuition-tax credit which would benefit parents). It appears that the big beneficiaries would be super-rich individuals and corporations: they would get a rebate of 75% to 95% on their state income tax for gifts, and they would effectively decide where the money goes (public schools can be selected, as well as parochial ones). Poor Catholic schools would hardly benefit, which is why a voucher program is still needed.

Presidential candidates need to be explicit about this issue. Common Core has nothing to do with school choice, charters have nothing to do with helping Catholic schools, and ETC-type policies do not accomplish what vouchers do. Hillary Clinton, who is vague on Common Core, charters, and ETC options, is not vague on vouchers: she opposes them.

In 2006, Clinton, then a New York Senator, explained her position: Vouchers would allow parents to send their children to the “Church of White Supremacist” or the “School of the Jihad.” I’m not making this up (click here for the evidence). No candidate should be allowed to skirt this issue, never mind demagogue it.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue has good news:

On December 15, 2011, I filed a formal complaint with the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility in St. Paul, Minnesota against attorney Naomi Isaacson for making a series of patently anti-Catholic remarks. The case was referred to the courts in Wisconsin, where Isaacson is also licensed. On March 20, 2015, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin suspended her for one year and ordered her to pay $6,600 in court costs.

Below is an excerpt of Isaacson’s bigoted comments that trigged the complaint:

• She called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher [who is not Catholic] “Popess Dreher” and “a secret Catholic Knight Witch Hunter.”
• She called U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis O’Brien a “dastardly Jesuit.”
• She called the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee a “mindless numbnut [who] would follow church orders with a vengeance.”
• She accused judges and trustees of conspiring to liquidate the company’s assets “for pennies,” saying the proceeds will go “to members of the Catholic Church.”
• She referred to a contempt-of-court order by Judge Dreher saying, “We may as well flush her papal bull order down the toilet.”
• She said the court “is an arm of the church to force the minority to be converted or face the consequences just like during the Dark and Middle Ages.”
• She called one trustee “Grand Inquisitor.”
• She said Judge O’Brien converted the case to Chapter 7 “on papal orders.”
• She accused the Church of bringing illegal immigrants to America “so their population can outrun that of the Protestants and they can turn the country into another Spain.”
• She said: “The Catholic Church has millions of Jesuits working undercover around the country to fulfill the church’s agenda. They give orders, pull the strings, and their puppets like Nancy Dreher jump like zombies.”

Last September, we succeeded in getting her equally anti-Catholic lawyer, Rebekah Nett, suspended for a year. Sweet justice. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who supported our case, must be looking down from heaven with a smile.

Bill Donohue comments on Bill Maher’s HBO show of March 20:

Maher introduced Gerald Posner, author of a critical book on the Catholic Church. Posner commented on those who administered the concentration camps, saying that “three-quarters of the Nazis were Catholics. Several were also Lutherans. But the hierarchy was all Catholic.”

Posner, who has been accused of serial plagiarism, needs to walk back this malicious charge. Consider the following: “It should never be said that Christians were responsible for the Holocaust—Nazis were. Blaming Christians would be as unjustified as holding Jews accountable for the death of Jesus.” Here’s another chestnut for Posner to ponder: “The fundamental responsibility for the Holocaust lies with the Nazi perpetrators. Not with Pope Pius XII. Not with the church. Not with the teachings of the Christian faith.”

The author of the first comment was New York City Mayor Ed Koch; Marc Saperstein made the second one. These Jewish men knew the difference between those who were nominally Catholic, and those who were committed Nazis. Moreover, Hitler was no more a Catholic than Koch was: he was excommunicated latae sententiae, which is the penalty that automatically follows acts of a very serious moral nature.

According to Posner’s reasoning, Jews should also be blamed for working with Hitler. Bryan Rigg found a German army personnel document listing 77 high ranking officers “of mixed Jewish race or married to a Jew.” Two were generals, eight lieutenant generals, five major generals and 23 colonels. Hitler personally approved the “arianization” of the 77 Nazi officers of Jewish descent. But as Rigg points out, these “Jews” did not consider themselves Jews. Ditto for “Catholics” who served Hitler.

Maher, of course, is not interested in a serious discussion about this issue. He is content to simply smear Catholicism.

Contact Keith Cocozza, Senior VP Communications, Time Warner:
Keith.Cocozza@timewarner.com