Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on his latest effort to bring Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims to justice:

On May 7, the Catholic League contacted every member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. We sought their support for our call to censure Rep. Brian Sims for his unprovoked bullying and his vicious anti-Catholicism.

Sims not only harassed an elderly Catholic woman for praying in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia, and on another occasion he became equally aggressive attempting to intimidate three teenage girls. He even offered $100 to anyone who would identify the girls, hoping to have protesters show up at their house to badger them.

On May 7, I sent a letter in the overnight mail to Rep. Frank Farry, Chairman of the Committee on Ethics, asking him to formally introduce a resolution calling for the censure of Sims.

Sims, who refuses to apologize—it is too late for him to do so now—is a radical LGBT activist who has a history of unethical behavior. He has been investigated for several instances of financial improprieties, ripping off the taxpayers to pay for his junkets.

His latest stunt is far worse. There is no place in public office for any person who bullies innocent women and girls for peacefully exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Accordingly, we are now upping the ante, asking PA House members to support Pennsylvania State Republican Chairman Val DiGiorgio in his quest for a criminal probe. I am also writing to Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner asking him to launch a criminal investigation of Sims; such a probe is currently under review.

U.S. Senator Al Franken was driven from office after revelations of sexual misconduct. What Sims did was worse. Franken’s offenses took place before he was elected to the Senate—Sims committed his offenses while in office. Justice demands that no public official be permitted to get away with such obscene conduct.

Sims should not only resign, he should be investigated for his conduct. If found guilty, he should be given the maximum sentence. He is not a private person—he has violated the public trust by violating the Constitutional rights of four females, placing all of them in danger.

Contact Philly DA Krasner and ask him to investigate Sims: lawrence.krasner@phila.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an obscene video:

Rapper Joyner Lucas is not exactly a household name, but he should be. Not for his singing, but for his thuggery. Lucas deceitfully secured access to a Catholic church, never telling the pastor that he was going to cut a vicious video, “The Devil’s Work.”

The opening scene shows Lucas drinking a bottle of whiskey in an empty church, St. Peter’s in Worcester, Massachusetts, while holding a Bible. That is objectionable enough, but it is nothing compared to what follows.

He then goes into an extended lament over the murder Nipsey Hussel, BIGGIE, Tupac Shakur, Selena, and other performers. He should have stopped there. Instead, he starts cheering for the death of innocent persons. Lucas’ dislike of President Trump, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, and Fox contributor Tomi Lahren leads him to call for their speedy death. Here is a sample of his offensive lyrics.

“I pray you give us back the real ones and try again
Or maybe take the niggas that deserve to die instead
Tomi Lahren run her mouth and then she get defensive
Laura Ingraham laughin’ at death and disrepectin’
I really feel like you should teach them stupid hoes a lesson
Either that or give us back somebody who deserve the blessings”

What makes Lucas’ performance so particularly vile is his depiction of Trump, Ingraham and Lahren on a funeral easel surrounded by flowers; their pictures are prominently displayed.

Lucas’ misuse of a Catholic church shows his anti-Catholicism. By referring to the two women as “hoes,” he flashes his sexism. By calling African Americans “niggas,” he sports his racism. And by making a plea for the sudden death of Ingraham and Lahren, he demonstrates his affinity for terrorism.

That this cruel video has won the applause of Rihanna, garnering over 5 million hits, proves that he is not alone in his sickness.

If this isn’t bad enough, Lucas directs all his anger at God. He blames God for the murder of these troubled celebrities, and is outraged that the Almighty would allow for the premature deaths of Michael Jackson and Trayvon Martin. That’s right, God is responsible, not those who self-destructed.

Contact Lucas’ general manager: djoshi@joynerlucas.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a Pennsylvania lawmaker who threatened an elderly Catholic woman:

We are contacting every member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives asking them to take a vote of censure against state representative Brian Sims.

In particular, we are asking state representative Frank A. Farry, Chairman of the House Committee on Ethics, to introduce a resolution to formally condemn the vicious attack by Sims on an elderly Catholic woman. The Committee on Ethics deals with cases of “misconduct in legislative duties.” What Sims did may also be criminal.

On May 5, Sims recorded himself bullying what he called “an old white lady.” What provoked him? She was praying, with a rosary in hand, in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic. For eight uninterrupted minutes, Sims badgered her, telling her to go pray at home. When she asked him to stop, he followed her around and threatened to make her home address public so that others could harass her.

Two days earlier, Sims tweeted that Planned Parenthood protesters are “racist, classist, bigots,” apparently clueless to the racist origins of the organization. The founder, Margaret Sanger, said her goal was to “weed out” the “undesirables,” by which she meant African Americans.

Sims also went into a protracted anti-Catholic rant. “How many Catholic churches are you protesting in front of? There are 400 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania indicted for child molestation.” This bigot can’t even get that right—two were indicted.

“The amount of mental gymnastics it must take for you to think that you have the right to tell a woman what’s right for her body, and yet you will support a faith that has molested children across the planet.”

Sims does not belong in public office, but he may very well belong in jail.

At the very least, he needs to be censured by his colleagues, including his fellow Democrats. Not to do so would be to send an unmistakable message to Catholics—indeed to people of all religions—that they can be harassed, intimidated, and placed in danger by a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives without ever paying a price for his unconscionable behavior.

Make no mistake about this—this is not simply a Pennsylvania issue. It touches the entire nation.

Contact PA State Rep. Frank Farry and ask him to lead the censure against Sims: Ffarry@pahousegop.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a recent attack on the Catholicism of U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr:

Over the weekend, left-wing nuts picked up on a screed by Frank Cocozzelli in the Daily Kos, home to assorted crackpots. In a piece that was deeply conspiratorial, he tries desperately to convince the reader that U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is a Catholic extremist out to destroy democracy.

Cocozzelli says he was “dismayed with in watching Attorney General William Barr’s performance two days ago before the House Judicial Committee [sic].” Instead of crafting a diligent response, he seeks to portray Barr as having “links” to the “highly secretive, ultra-conservative Catholic group Opus Dei.”

He says the organization “is known for recruiting very influential members, especially those simpatico with culturally conservative causes. To describe its many wealthy and powerful leaders as economic royalists would be an understatement.” (His emphasis.)

Continuing with this conspiratorial tone, Cocozzelli says that Opus Dei members “are not ashamed of the organization’s wealth, but are actually conspicuous about it as evidenced by its new seventeen-story 243 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York headquarters.” That alone should be enough to bring in a SWAT team.

What does this have to do with Barr? Is he a member of Opus Dei? If so, who cares, aside from the kooks who write for the Daily Kos? Cocozzelli says Barr “may be a ‘Supernumerary’ (married member) or simply a ‘cooperator (sympathetic non-member).'” In other words, he doesn’t know. So much for the “link” to Opus Dei.

What is really eating away at Cocozzelli is Barr’s politics. Barr is not a fan of the public schools. Moreover, “in a 1992 address to Bill Donohue’s Catholic League, he called for the imposition of ‘God’s law’ in America. In that same address he went after contemporary supporters of the separation of church and state (‘The secularists of today are clearly fanatics’).”

In point of fact, in 1992 I was a professor in Pittsburgh, so Cocozzelli’s attempt to “link” Barr to me is another failed exercise.

This doesn’t stop Cocozzelli from concluding that Barr’s views prove that “This is precisely why the Attorney General’s Opus Dei links matter.” Reality check: No links were demonstrated. Even if they did, it is a non-starter.

Cocozzelli concludes that Barr is “willing to destroy the norms of both justice and American democracy.” Yeah, he did a great job of proving just that.

Time for this guy to check himself into the nearest asylum.

Contact Susan Gardner, exec. ed.: susang@dailykos.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a skit from the May 4th episode of “Saturday Night Live”:

“SNL” went on a tear against homosexual priests on Saturday. Michael Che Campbell (his father named him after Che Guevara, the Cuban terrorist) made a quip about Pope Francis’ warning against the negative aspects of gossip. Campbell asked, “Did you hear what happened to those altar boys?”

It is true that heterosexual priests rarely act inappropriately with altar girls, so Campbell is right not to indict straight men for the behavior of homosexuals. But even if homosexual priests are largely responsible for the sexual abuse of minors—they account for more than 80 percent of the cases—it smacks as homophobic to keep bringing this up.

Contact Lauren Manasevit, press manager for “SNL”: lauren.manasevit@nbcuni.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on remarks by an Alabama legislator:

Alabama state Rep. John Rogers is against the death penalty—for those who have been convicted of murdering someone.

But he believes in the death penalty for innocent unborn children—on the incredible supposition that they might grow up to be violent criminals 15 or 20 years later.

“Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or kill them later,” he told the Alabama legislature earlier this week, as he spoke in opposition to a bill protecting the unborn. “You bring them into the world unwanted, unloved, then you send them to the electric chair. So you kill them now or you kill them later.”

Rogers’ hypocrisy knows no bounds. In 2002, speaking against the death penalty, he lectured pro-lifers: “If you are against abortion, you ought to be against the death penalty.” 

But the obverse, in his view, doesn’t hold. While many pro-lifers do oppose capital punishment, Rogers, while opposing the execution of convicted criminals, believes innocent unborn children should be executed, for crimes they might commit if they are permitted to be born and grow up.  

In 2002, arguing for changes in Alabama’s death penalty law, Rogers declared, “We need to at least give a man a chance to prove that he is innocent.” But unborn children targeted for abortion—who clearly are innocent—don’t get that chance. They are presumed to be headed for a life of violent crime, and thus can be killed—should be killed, in Rogers’ view—before they can grow up and prove to be productive, law-abiding citizens. History is literally filled with the stories of people who, having grown up in terribly deprived, destitute, neglected or abused circumstances, went on to make inestimable contributions to the common good.

Since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 1,494 executions in the United States. During that same time, there have been upwards of 40 million babies aborted. Does Rogers really believe, if abortion had not been legal, that we would have had anywhere near 40 million executions over the last 43 years? If not, that’s an awful lot of innocent lives destroyed to get at the relatively few who might have become criminals—and whose lives Rogers would have fought to protect if they did commit violent crimes. 

Pro-life people are of course aghast at Rogers’ callous remarks. But many abortion supporters are upset as well, for a different reason. They know that Rogers has ripped the mask off the human carnage that is abortion.

Rogers fully acknowledges the brutal truth—that every abortion kills an innocent, living human being. We appreciate his honesty, even as we deplore his cold-hearted embrace of that killing. In calling it what it is, he is far more truthful than most abortion supporters.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a column in the Washington Post:

Pete Buttigieg, unlike most of his Democratic competitors, is not shy when talking about religion. His problem is that no one knows who his audience is.

When it comes to matters of sexuality and the family, Buttigieg can’t persuade traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, orthodox Jews, and most Mormons and Muslims, that he is right. His rejection of marriage, properly understood, and his celebration of abortion rights, will not get him one of their votes. So he is trying to appeal to the “religious left.”

The “religious left,” however, is almost indistinguishable from the secular left: their socialist vision is what conjoins them. The problem for Buttigieg is that many in the secular camp are militants, and they don’t want to hear his “God-talk” routine.

Evidence of his problem can be seen in an op-ed column by Kate Cohen in the Washington Post. She is drawn to Buttigieg in many ways, but she has one nagging problem with him: She is an atheist—and an angry one at that—and he is a Christian.

Cohen hates the way Buttigieg equates religion with morality. She prefers a morality without religion, arguing that morality is an individual attribute.

She is badly educated. Religion is first and foremost an expression of morality. This is true even of those religions which have very different tenets. While it is true that individuals may have their own moral compass, no society can exist without a moral consensus. This is Sociology 101. Good luck trying to craft a moral consensus that is not grounded in religion.

Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia are all prime examples of nations that have tried to establish a moral consensus without religion. Indeed, they crushed religious institutions. Their record is drenched in blood.

Buttigieg has his work cut out for him. He has already alienated many people of faith and now his quest for the “religious left” is also turning people off. Not a good sign.