Bill Donohue comments on Macy’s treatment of a military veteran:

Army Specialist Kayla Reyes had returned home after a year-long deployment in Afghanistan when she applied for a job at Macy’s Fresno, Calif. store in 2014. Having also had past retail experience, she seemed an excellent candidate for employment.

But Macy’s hiring manager treated Reyes’ military service as a disqualifier!

Having been “over there (Afghanistan),” Reyes says she was told, “you wouldn’t really know how to approach people.”

“Once a customer’s in your face, you wouldn’t know how to do it. You wouldn’t know how to react,” she recalls the hiring manager telling her.

Of course, once this disgraceful episode was made public, Macy’s PR machine kicked into action, and a message was posted on Facebook assuring one and all that Reyes had, in fact, been offered a job.

“Correct,” the Afghanistan war veteran wrote in response. “A few weeks after the interview and after this story went viral, I did receive an email for a job there.” She turned it down.

As we’ve been reporting for weeks (click here), Macy’s bends over backwards to accommodate transgender agitators, even firing employees who voice religious objections to men using women’s bathrooms. Yet they balk at hiring a well-qualified military veteran, insulting her in the process, until they are shamed by public exposure into offering her a job.

Contact Tracy Davis, Media Relations Manager: tracy.davis@macys.com

Bill Donohue comments on an anti-religious freedom bill in California:

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez is sounding the alarm about SB 1146, the bill we recently warned would gut the religious identity of faith-based colleges and universities in California.

In a joint statement (click here) with Bishop Charles Blake of the 6 million member, worldwide Church of God in Christ, Archbishop Gomez warns that under the so-called “Equity in Higher Education Act,” religious schools that receive state funds or whose students receive state aid would be forced to adopt practices “contrary to their beliefs and teachings.”

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, would mandate bathrooms based on “gender identity” rather than male-female.  It would require that married dorms be opened up to same-sex couples. It “even has the government setting guidelines for what ‘religious practices’ and ‘rules for moral conduct’ will be acceptable,” Bishops Gomez and Blake write. It could restrict a school’s ability to teach its religious faith or require student attendance at worship services, and it could be used to require that gay and lesbian clubs and activities be allowed on campus.

This goes way beyond the issue of gay and lesbian rights. It is clearly an effort to use that agenda to attack and weaken the moral foundations of Christianity.

It would also gravely weaken faith-based institutions financially, by forcing them to either compromise their moral principles or incur costly litigation to fight the bill’s anti-religion mandates. And it would especially hurt low-income and minority families, millions of whom, throughout California, utilize faith-based colleges and universities and depend on financial assistance to be able to do so.

This bill, which has already passed the California State Senate, is scheduled to come before the Assembly Appropriations Committee August 11. For more information about this issue, and a list of 40 influential Assembly members who can affect this bill, click here.

Bill Donohue comments on the Philadelphia District Attorney’s ongoing vendetta against Monsignor William Lynn:

For the third time, the Pennsylvania court system has tossed out the unjust conviction of Msgr. William Lynn over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against other priests. And for the third time, the Philadelphia District Attorney vows to pursue the discredited case. Today, a judge has set a date—May 1, 2017—for yet another trial, even though Msgr. Lynn has now served all but two months of his minimum three year sentence for a conviction that has been repeatedly reversed.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the trial court “abused its discretion” in allowing evidence unrelated to this case. But D.A. Seth Williams, in a clear abuse of his prosecutorial discretion, “is just hell-bent on trying this case,” as Msgr. Lynn’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, noted. Msgr. Lynn has “done 33 months along with 18 months house arrest for something the Superior Court has now ruled was an unfair trial,” Bergstrom points out. Yet, “for some reason” Williams “continues to want to beat up on this guy.”

From the start, this case has been a flagrant anti-Catholic witch-hunt, perpetrated by Williams, his predecessor Lynne Abraham, and others. (Click here to read the shocking details.) One would think they would by now be satisfied that they have extracted their pound of flesh from this innocent man. But such is their maniacal hatred for him and the Catholic Church he serves, that they will not give up—no matter how many times the courts tell them what should have been obvious from the start: that they have no legitimate case, and never did.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Msgr. Lynn. That he has been treated unjustly is beyond dispute.

Bill Donohue comments on Macy’s selective commitment to “diversity”:

Recently, we reported on Macy’s firing of a Catholic employee for simply holding a religious belief that differed with Macy’s policy of allowing crossdressing men to use the women’s restroom (click here). Nor is this the first time that Macy’s has discriminated against people of faith in the name of “diversity”.

In 2011 Natalie Johnson, an African American employee at Macy’s San Antonio Rivercenter department store, was fired after she told a crossdressing man he could not use the women’s changing rooms. In justifying the firing, Macy’s cited its policy of “diversity and inclusion.” Johnson pointed out, however, that that policy also protects against religious discrimination, and should have prevented Macy’s from firing her for her religious beliefs.

It didn’t, because as demonstrated once again in this case, Macy’s rather narrow view of “diversity and inclusion” does not include accommodating employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs. Instead, they are to be punished for those beliefs.

Macy’s various media representatives must continue to hear from us on this. Today, we focus on media relations director Orlando Veras.

Contact: orlando.veras@macys.com

Bill Donohue comments on Pope Francis’ latest remarks condemning “gender ideology”:

Speaking with Polish bishops last week, Pope Francis pulled no punches in rejecting the notion that “everyone can choose their gender.”

“This is terrible,” he said bluntly. “Today in schools they are teaching this to children—to children!” He said this is part of the “ideological colonization” that “influential countries” are trying to impose on the world.

“We are living in a moment of annihilation of man as image of God,” the pope said. “God created man and woman, God created the world this way, this way, this way, and we are doing the opposite.” He told the Polish bishops, “We must think about what Pope Benedict said—’It’s the epoch of sin against God the Creator.'”

Thus did Pope Francis, not for the first time, reject political correctness in order to speak boldly and truthfully about the destructiveness—to children, to families and to society—of “gender ideology.”

We await—surely in vain—affirmation of the Pope’s remarks from mainstream media and Catholic dissidents who are selectively enamored by papal comments they find useful to their agenda. We won’t be holding our breath.

But his words are sure to be welcomed, across the world, by all who affirm the laws of nature and nature’s God.

Bill Donohue announces a new campaign:

Anyone who has been following our work knows that Macy’s engages in thought control (click here). This contempt for our most basic right—the right to believe what we choose—cannot go unanswered.

Starting tomorrow, we will commence a new campaign against Macy’s: over the next several weeks, we will roll out the evidence—issuing a few press releases each week—detailing Macy’s shameful history of intolerance.

It is important that those who receive our statements contact the Macy’s media executive named on our releases. We will provide their email address, but we count on you to follow through.

We are not going to drop this issue—too much is at stake. Indeed, we have even bigger plans down the road. We will raise the funds necessary to launch a national campaign, and when we are finished, Macy’s sterling reputation will be history.

This campaign will not be called off until justice is done. The ball is in Macy’s court.

Bill Donohue comments on Naomi Schaefer Riley’s blog post on today’s Washington Post site:

Naomi Schaefer Riley posits a “Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing” in which Catholic schools in North America, after a sordid history of “physical, sexual and emotional abuse” of Native American children, are now finally trying to do them some good. The piece is woefully lacking in both supporting data and context.

Riley cites apologies by Popes Francis and Benedict XVI for mistreatment of Native Americans. This is in the Church’s long tradition of humility and asking forgiveness for sinful behavior. But she ignores the rest of what Pope Francis said in that 2015 statement: that it’s also important to remember the many bishops, priests and laity who were often found “standing alongside the native peoples or accompanying their popular movements even to the point of martyrdom.”

One such person—St. Junípero Serra—was canonized by Pope Francis in recognition of his lifetime of heroic missionary work with Native Americans in California, and his efforts to protect them from the abuses of Spanish colonial authorities. (To read my account of his life and work, click here.) This is another part of Catholic tradition that Riley ignores: the natural law tradition that finds the Church consistently upholding the sanctity and dignity of every human person.

Riley substitutes carefully selected anecdotes for any real documentation of systemic abuse, and offers no context comparing treatment of Native Americans in Catholic schools with their treatment in society. For example, she blames Catholic schools “at least in part” for suicides among Native Americans, without examining how mistreatment in the wider culture may have contributed to making suicide sadly endemic among Native Americans. And she distorts as “forced assimilation” the efforts of Catholic schools to help Native Americans adapt to that wider culture, rather than be destroyed by it.

Riley praises these same Catholic schools for their spectacular successes today in educating Native American children. Which begs the question: Would Native American parents risk sending their children to a school system that they believed had a long history of systemic abuse? It is insulting to suggest that they would.

Contact Naomi Schaefer Riley: naomisriley@gmail.com

Unmasking Mother Teresa’s Critics, Bill Donohue’s latest book, will be coming out August 18. Published by Sophia Institute Press, it is timed for release just a few weeks before Mother Teresa is to be canonized on September 4. The book directly confronts those whose unfounded criticisms of Mother Teresa are sure to resurface in media accounts leading up to her canonization.

The current issue of Legatus magazine features a piece by Bill about the book, and his purpose in writing it. To read it, click here.