Bill Donohue comments on a Yahoo Global News story on abortion:

Katie Couric, the Yahoo Global News anchor, recently interviewed an official from a Queens, New York Planned Parenthood facility. The video, “What an Abortion Treatment Room Really Looks Like,” was posted online today, and it is quite interesting. But it does not deserve a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F; rather, it merits an I, for Incomplete.

Three rooms are featured in the video: the waiting, treatment, and recovery room. They are spanking clean. The staff is professional, though for some reason the doctor speaks in vague terms. For example, she speaks about the “procedure,” never explaining exactly what it is. Merriam-Webster defines a “procedure” as “a particular way of accomplishing something or of acting.” It would be helpful if the viewer knew what the doctor was seeking to accomplish. Similarly, we learn that the “procedure” ends with a “termination.” But termination implies a beginning. What was it that began, and how did it begin?

The story deserves an Incomplete grade because it inexplicably ends by showing the recovery room. We never learn the fate of that which was terminated. By way of analogy, if a reporter did a story on “What a Funeral Parlor Room Really Looks Like,” and ended with the body being shown in a casket, it would beg the question, “What happens to the body next?” That would require Part II; it would focus on the gravesite.

We need a Part II to the abortion story. We need to see what happens to that which was terminated. To be specific, what does Planned Parenthood do with the terminated remains? Or to be blunt, “What happens to the body next?”

Ask Yahoo News to do Part II: media@yahoo-inc.com

Bill Donohue comments on a story in today’s Boston Globe

On the front page of the Metro Section in today’s Boston Globe, there is a story about the movie “Spotlight” that smacks of bias and gullibility; the former is driving the latter.

Lisa Wangsness relies on Terence McKiernan of Bishop Accountability for her data. She writes that he told her that “the bishops could have agreed to make lists of abusive priests available nationwide.” Referring to him again, she writes that “More than 2,400 abusive priests nationwide have never been named.”

First, McKiernan is known for making up figures on the fly. A few years ago, after he told a sympathetic audience he was going to “stick it” to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, he accused him of “keeping the lid on 55 priests.” That is a lie. Several times I have personally challenged him to name the names and every time he runs.

Second, the term “abusive priests” is meaningless. Were they simply accused or was there a credible accusation made against them? Were the accusations substantiated or unsubstantiated? Was there a finding of guilt? Wangsness never tells us because it obviously doesn’t matter to her.

Third, what institution, including the Boston Globe, publishes the names of employees who have had an accusation made against them?

Fourth, how does McKiernan know there are 2,400 priests who have never been named? Did she ask him for verification?

Fifth, the figures for the Boston Archdiocese undercut the point that she and McKiernan are making. Indeed, there are more unsubstantiated accusations than there are findings of guilt. To read the data, click here.

Contact: lisa.wangsness@globe.com

Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times, and on one that appeared Saturday in the New York Times:

The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times want the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the religious liberty claims put forth by Catholic non-profits challenging the constitutionality of the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. Both newspapers either underplay or ignore the central issue involved in this case.

The Los Angeles Times says the Obama administration “has offered religious schools and charities that object to some birth control methods a reasonable and respectful accommodation.” It says they do not have to pay for services they deem objectionable: all they need to do is inform the government of their reservations and let insurance companies and the government take it from there. The New York Times says essentially the same thing. But it also slams Catholic organizations for their “well orchestrated assault on the right of women to control their own bodies….”

Both papers miss the central issue involved: The federal government has no legitimate business telling Catholic organizations that hire and/or service non-Catholics that they forfeit their claim as a Catholic entity. The word “catholic” means universal. Therefore, any Catholic group that discriminates against non-Catholics in their social service programs is in clear violation of the very definition of that term.

The Obama team picked up this pernicious definition of what constitutes a Catholic organization from the ACLU. This is at the heart of the objections by the Little Sisters of the Poor: Preposterous as it sounds, the nuns are declared to be insufficiently Catholic because they do not limit their services to Catholics! This is the real assault on women’s rights.

So even if the accommodation were deemed not to be a “substantial burden” on these Catholic groups, the government should have no right to invoke such spurious hiring and servicing criteria in deciding which Catholic groups are legitimate and which are bogus.

To read Bill Donohue’s article about the cover-up of child rape in Hollywood (already posted on Newsmax), click here.

Bill Donohue comments on the way journalists are handling “Spotlight”:

“Spotlight,” which opens today, is being heralded as an example of solid journalism, the kind of movie that should be shown in college journalism classes. Ironically, many journalists who are touting the movie are proving just how lousy they are at their craft.

Journalists for the following media outlets got their facts wrong:

New York Post; The Daily Commercial; Associated Press; Wall Street Journal; Boston Globe; National Catholic Reporter; Vanity Fair; Los Angeles Daily News; Christianity Today; RogerEbert.com; New Yorker; New York; Observer; Chicago Reader; timesofmalta.com; The Verge; baretnewswire.org; SLANT; Paste; avclub.com; filmcomment.

Whether through laziness or ignorance, all of these sources misrepresented the facts by saying the problem was pedophilia. As the John Jay College of Criminal Justice researchers pointed out, less than 5 percent of the molesting priests were pedophiles. They found that 81 percent of the victims were male and 78 percent of them were postpubescent. That means the abusers were homosexuals.

Not to admit this is an expression of journalistic malfeasance, the kind that ought to be discussed in the classroom.

Bill Donohue comments on a lawyer featured in “Spotlight”:

Stanley Tucci plays church-suing attorney Mitchell Garabedian in “Spotlight,” the film that opens tomorrow about the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese. Tucci, who has never met Garabedian, calls him “the unsung hero” of this story. He also says the lawyer “cares about these victims.”

It is too bad Garabedian cares not a whit about priests who have had their reputations ruined by false allegations. For example, in 2006 Garabedian sued Fr. Charles Murphy for inappropriately touching a minor; the girl said the incident occurred 25 years earlier. On the eve of the trial, the woman dropped her suit. In 2010, Garabedian sued Fr. Murphy for allegedly fondling a man 40 years ago. The accuser was deep in debt and his credibility was questioned even by his own family! After a six month probe by the archdiocesan review board, the priest was exonerated.

When Fr. Murphy died in 2011, he was a broken man. Brian McGrory wrote about him in the Boston Globe saying that what Garabedian did was “a disgrace.” After reading the story, I called Garabedian to see if he had any regrets about pressing charges against Fr. Murphy. He went ballistic: He started screaming like a madman accusing the archdiocese of operating a “kangaroo court.” I asked him to calm down but he would not. Indeed he made sweeping condemnations of all Boston priests.

A few weeks after my phone call, Garabedian spoke at a conference held by SNAP, the professional victims’ group. “This immoral entity,” he said, “the Catholic Church, should be defeated. We must stand up and defeat this evil.” This is not the voice of reason—it is the voice of a hater.

Two days ago, Garabedian was asked on a WGHB 2 show, “Greater Boston,” whether things are any better now in the Boston Archdiocese. “They’re worse,” he replied.

All the data prove that Garabedian is dead wrong. That’s why he offered no evidence. He is no “unsung hero” and his witch-hunt against some innocent priests is indefensible.

Bill Donohue comments on an article posted yesterday by Crux:

Margery Eagan has a long history of ripping the Catholic Church, but her latest salvo shows how utterly unhinged she has become. Her article, “The Church’s Sexual Abuse Crisis is Not Over,” is posted on Crux, a website that reports on Catholic news.

Eagan is delighted that the movie “Spotlight,” which opens Friday, will keep the scandal in the news. [For my analysis of this issue, click here.] She lobs many bombs, her biggest being, “This crisis is not over. Children are not yet safe.”

Her evidence? She offers one anecdote from the U.S. and a few from other countries. That’s it. That’s all she has. Never does she deal with the fact that in the last 10 years exactly 8.4 credible accusations were made against an average of 40,000 priests in any given year.

If this is evidence of a crisis, what would Eagan call it when over 100 Orthodox Jewish rabbis from one New York City borough—Brooklyn—have been brought up on child rape charges in recent years? What would she call it when public school teachers and coaches are regularly being arrested for molesting minors? To top it off, the rabbis instruct their people not to report these crimes to the police—they have their own courts! And molesting teachers are routinely assigned to administrative tasks for years before finally being dismissed; many keep their pensions.

Eagan, and many on the Catholic left, want the public to believe that their children are in danger of being molested by a priest. This is sheer fear-mongering, the kind of demagoguery that feeds anti-Catholicism. Every honest student of this subject knows that the heyday of the homosexual crisis was 1965-1985. It is therefore dishonest to argue that Catholic kids are still not safe. They are safer in Catholic schools than they are just about anywhere. The “crisis” is in Eagan’s head.

Contact: margery.eagan@cruxnow.com

Bill Donohue comments on disparate treatment of priests:

The media are pushing “Spotlight,” the movie that opens on Friday about the Boston Globe team that exposed priestly sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese prior to 2002. But there is little interest in this issue when non-Catholics are implicated in such crimes. As recent cases show, many courts around the nation evince disparate treatment as well.

When he was first arrested, Rabbi Gabriel Bodenheimer was charged with three felony counts of a first-degree criminal sexual act and one count of first-degree sex abuse for alleged oral and anal sex with a 5-year-old child; he was looking at 25 years in prison. On Monday he was told that he would not serve a single day in prison: he was put on probation for three years. This story was not only ignored by the big media outlets, it received no coverage in the New York Times, even though the child rape took place in a New York City suburb.

In May 2014, Michael Travis, an assistant softball coach at a Nebraska high school was arrested for sexually assaulting two softball players; two more alleged victims came forward in December. This past August he cut a deal with prosecutors: he pleaded guilty to simple assault and was told he would not have to register as a sex offender or spend a day in jail. It received little media coverage.

Last June, Terrence Boone Johnson, a track coach from Utah was arrested for forcible sexual abuse of a teenage girl; it was a second-degree felony. A few weeks ago his one-year jail sentence was suspended and he was put on probation. The media were generally disinterested.

A few weeks ago, papers were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that a teacher at a West Harlem public school sexually assaulted up to six students; school officials ignored the allegations. Adiyemi Prowell is scheduled to be sentenced next month, and parents say they have been told by prosecutors he’s expected to be put on probation. The New York Times gave this case no coverage, though it is a local story.

If any of these accused men had been a priest, both the media and the courts would have acted differently. This is not even debatable.

Bill Donohue says Halloween remains fodder for anti-Catholics:

Halloween is not quite over, at least for some of those who use the day to take shots at Catholics. There is nothing obscene about dressing up dogs in clerical and nun garb, but it is still meant to ridicule Catholics. When the pictures are still up on Facebook several days after Halloween, on the page of a Lutheran bishop, it makes us wonder whether there is more than ridicule at work. Note: We have subsequently learned that Bishop Rinehart did not post the offensive photo himself: it was shared to his Facebook Timeline by a third person without his knowledge. Why it took us to bring this to his attention before he took it down we do not know.

One dog is dressed as Pope Phinneas, and the three nuns are named Sister Phoebe Josette, Sister Coco Chanel, and Sister Cookie Rose. The pictures were up as late as November 4 on the page of Rev. Michael Rinehart, bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in America.

While Bishop Rinehart merits attention because of his status, some really vile anti-Catholic statements deserve to be mentioned. Jinny Neiswanger and her husband own Cattlemen’s Saloon in Rogue River, Oregon, and last Saturday they came to a Halloween party dressed as a pregnant nun and a priest. Regarding the latter, a photo showed the priest with a child dummy pressing his face against his groin.

According to one news account, outside a home in Parma, Ohio the owners featured “a bloody corpse hanging from a tree, a body impaled on a stake and a body crucified upside down.” Outside a home in Somerset, Massachusetts the owners depicted Christ on the Cross, substituting a pumpkin for his head and straw for his body.

On the website spirithalloween, a costume was sold featuring a pregnant nun and a priest with an erection. I asked an official who works there, Trisha Lombardo, about this matter. “In particular,” I said in an email, “I was interested in purchasing an Imam costume that features him with an erection. You know, one very much like your ‘Happy Priest Adult Men’s Costume.’ Please advise. Many thanks.” For some unexplained reason, she never replied.

Bill Donohue comments on the survey of religion released today by the Pew Research Center:

The latest Pew survey provides an exhaustive look at religious attitudes and trends in 2014, yielding comparisons with its 2007 study. It found that 9 in 10 adults believe in God and that three-quarters say religion is at least “somewhat” important in their lives.

Overall, however, the nation is becoming less religious: 23% now have no religious affiliation, led by youth. While the faithful may not embrace this trend, they might welcome the fact that 56% of Muslims—as compared to 51% of the public—say that religious organizations focus too much on rules. Not a good sign for those who want sharia-type laws.

If there was any doubt that party affiliation and ideology are not identical, this survey proves it. By a margin of 44% to 37%, more Americans identify with the Democrats than the Republicans. Yet 36% say they are conservative and only 24% identify as liberal; 33% prefer the moderate label. Moreover, 51% of Americans would prefer a smaller government providing fewer services, while 42% choose the opposite.

The religiously affiliated are split on support for gay marriage—46% to 46%; nationwide, 53% favor and 39% oppose. It is worth noting, however, that only 24% “strongly favor” same-sex marriage. Pew reports that “Slightly more than half of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all (20%) or most (33%) cases, while fewer say it should be illegal in all (16%) or most (27%) cases.” To put it differently, this means that 8 in 10 Americans oppose the current law that okays abortion for any reason and at any time. It also means that 60% (33% + 27%) say abortion should be restricted by law.

Three-quarters of adults believe that religion protects and strengthens morality in society (the figure is higher among believers), and 55% say more people having children without getting married is a “change for the worse.” No wonder only 14% say their church should “adopt modern beliefs and practices.” That’s quite an indictment. Are the elites listening?