Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on remarks made by Pope Francis on February 3rd:

Last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo implored Albany lawmakers to “follow the leadership of Pope Francis” by passing the Child Victims Act. Indeed, he wore his Catholic credentials on his sleeve, boasting of his allegiance to the pope on several occasions. He even had an enormous photo of the pope shown on a screen behind him as he ignited the audience.

Cuomo is a fraud. He champions infanticide. Pope Francis sent him a message on Sunday.

Speaking of the unborn, the pope said, “they are children of the entire community, and their being killed in large numbers with the backing of the state constitutes a grave problem that undermines the foundations of the building up of justice, compromising the correct solution for every other human and social problem.”

Then the Holy Father took dead aim at Cuomo’s position. He took the opportunity to offer “an appeal to all politicians, regardless of each person’s faith belief, to treat the defense of the lives of those who are about to be born and enter into society as the cornerstone of the common good.”

Let Cuomo know the pope was thinking about him over the weekend.

Contact: Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, melissa.derosa@exec.ny.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an abortion survival bill blocked by Senate Democrats:

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said yesterday that the Senate “can no longer unanimously condemn murder.”

Ernst was referring to Democrat Sen. Patty Murray’s objection to the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, legislation that would ensure medical care for an infant who survives an abortion; the bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, required unanimous consent.

Murray did the bidding for her fellow Democrats. “We have laws against infanticide in this country,” she said. We did.

When Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator, he pushed hard for legislation that would allow a child who survived an abortion to die unattended by medical staff. Just last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law that allows the child born alive following an abortion to die without any consequences to physicians or the non-physicians who can now perform abortions. Also last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam championed a bill that would permit infanticide.

Even if Murray believes the laws on infanticide are sufficient, why would she—and the Democrats—want to stop a bill that enhances legislation of great moral weight? If a child born alive does not have a right to life, then human rights are a chimera. Why worry about anti-discrimination laws if we begin by discriminating against children at the time of birth?

Murray was chosen to do the bidding of the Senate Democrats because she is a Catholic woman. In 2014, she sported her Catholic bona fides by staying up all night to draw attention to the issue of climate change. But unfortunately for the kids, her Catholic colors did not kick in yesterday. We have reached an alarming level of moral imbecility when politicians are more exercised about changing weather patterns than they are infanticide.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on reaction to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s controversial remarks:

It is a sign of the times that more liberals are upset about the decades-old racist antics of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam than they are his blood-curdling remarks about infants. Whether Northam is guilty of dressing in Klan garb for a yearbook photo is debatable—he seems not to know—but his blackface imitation of Michael Jackson is not. To be sure, his racist behavior is offensive, but his support for murdering innocent infants is far worse.

When asked last week about a bill by Virginia lawmaker Kathy Tran that would allow a woman going into labor to abort her child, the governor, who is a pediatric neurologist, said that in such a situation the child would be delivered, “kept comfortable,” resuscitated, and then, if the mother and her physician decided to end his life, he would be left to die.

When prominent Democrats were asked if they agreed with Northam’s support for infanticide, they demurred, saying they did not have all the facts. The media also played games with these stories, running four-to-five times as many reports on his racist stunts than they did his statements on the child.

In many instances, newspapers such as the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times made scant mention of Northam’s infanticide remarks, yet they were graphic about his racist behavior. Ditto for ABC, CBS, and NBC.

No media outlet was more stunningly obscene than the Washington Post: It ran an editorial yesterday condemning Northam for his racism yet said not a word about his Hitlerian ethics. Looks like their moral compass has crashed.

Here is another way of looking at these issues.

What would the reaction be if instead of his blackface stunt, Northam had dressed in priestly garb that featured him sporting an erection (such an outfit is sold every year at Halloween)? Would those calling for him to resign because of his racism ask him to resign for his anti-Catholicism?

What would the reaction be if instead of okaying the killing of an infant, he okayed the killing of newborn cats and dogs? Would those making light of his support for infanticide be as complacent about his death wish for animals?

Tragically, we know the answers. Such is the state of morality in liberal quarters these days.

Contact Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor: Fred.Hiatt@washpost.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on offensive questioning of a Catholic priest by a Colorado legislator:

A contentious debate over a radical sex education bill in Colorado was made even more so by a transgender legislator’s mockery of a Catholic priest.

The Colorado Catholic Conference opposes the bill, with Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila warning that it would impose “a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum that contradicts human nature,” and would also force public schools to promote abortion.

Testifying against the legislation at a state House committee hearing January 30, Father Daniel Nolan of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Littleton, Colorado said he opposed the legislation “because I do not believe that it addresses the root cause of the bill, that is bullying of LGBTQ youth.”

Presumably, that would be a concern shared by Brianna Titone, Colorado’s first transgender lawmaker. Yet instead of engaging Father Nolan on that point, Titone instead asked him, “As a Catholic priest, are you abstaining from sex?”

When Father Nolan affirmed that he is, Titone followed up with, “You seem to be an expert on the topic. How did you become such an expert on the topic?”

“I hear confessions,” Father Nolan effectively retorted. This led Titone to later belittle the sacrament of Penance in a tweet.

Incredibly, Titone found much of the testimony at the hearing to be “personally offensive.” Yet the legislator apparently saw no problem with directing personally offensive comments at a Catholic priest, or offending Catholics by subsequently tweeting derogatory comments about confession.

Also, as the hearing was about legislation affecting the education of children, most of those testifying were parents. Would they have been justified in asking about Titone’s sex life as it relates to parenting children? Or would the legislator have found that “personally offensive?”

But it’s okay, apparently, to question a priest about his sexual abstinence, in order to try to discredit his testimony.