Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Twitter’s attack on free speech:

Catholic World Report (CWR) is a respectable Catholic media outlet and a publication of Ignatius Press. On January 24, it received notice from Twitter that its account has been locked for hateful conduct. CWR appealed but lost. What was the alleged hate speech?

CWR journalist Matt Hadro posted the following tweet on January 19. “Biden plans to nominate Dr. Rachel Levine, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who has served as Pennsylvania’s health secretary since 2017, to be HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. Levine is also a supporter of the contraceptive mandate.”

Carl Olson, editor of CWR, said: “It seems evident that Twitter’s focus is the description of Levine as a ‘biological man identifying as a transgender woman.’ Since Levine is ‘transgendered,’ it’s curious as to why Twitter would think it harmful or hateful to note what Levine is ‘trans-gendering’ from or to.”

Olson observes that Twitter is making media outlets “jump through arbitrary and constantly-changing rhetorical and ideological hoops.” It is also “implicitly making CWR admit to hateful or bigoted language, even though such was never the case.”

CWR should stick to its guns. If Twitter can silence such innocuous speech as this, the free speech rights of all Catholic media outlets and websites are in jeopardy. Twitter is a menace to freedom. It needs to be reined in by the Congress.

On January 28, I quoted Pope Francis saying gender ideology is “demonic.” Would that make the pope a purveyor of hate speech? I dare Twitter to silence the Holy Father. Let’s get this settled right now. Meanwhile, ask Twitter to reinstate CWR.

Contact Vijaya Gadde, Head of Legal, Policy and Trust at Twitter: vijaya@twitter.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an attack on the U.S. Bishops:

The National Catholic Reporter has been a fraud since its inception in 1964. Shortly thereafter, local Ordinary, Bishop Charles Helmsing of Kansas City-St. Joseph, ordered it to stop identifying itself as Catholic. It has been insubordinate ever since.

Now, pleased to have a pro-abortion president in the White House who identifies as a Catholic, it is waging war against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), singling out its president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, for special rebuke. For the Reporter, the bishops were too kind to President Trump (who did more to advance religious liberty than any president in American history), and they are too critical of President Biden.

The National Catholic Reporter is now asking Pope Francis to investigate the USCCB. What it really wants is to silence Archbishop Gomez.

The Catholic League stands proudly with Archbishop Gomez and all his fellow bishops at the USCCB. They are not being hoodwinked by the White House occupant who wears his “devoutness” on his sleeve while thumbing his nose at the pope and the bishops. As for the Reporter, it bears as much resemblance to Catholicism as the Mafia does.

Contact Heidi Schlumpf, executive editor at the Reporter: hschlumpf@ncronline.org

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on President Biden’s executive orders handed down today:

On November 12, Pope Francis called President-elect Joe Biden to congratulate him on his electoral victory. He surely thought that the incoming president would make Catholics proud to have one of their own in the White House. One wonders what the Holy Father now thinks of Biden.

On January 28, the White House announced that Biden will issue an executive order that rescinds the Mexico City Policy, the rule that bars U.S. foreign aid to international non-profit organizations that provide for abortion or abortion counseling. This policy was first implemented by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and has been revoked or reinstated by Democratic and Republican administrations, respectively, since that time.

Biden will also ask the Department of Health and Human Services to begin the process of rescinding the Trump administration’s Title X family planning rule; among other things, it denies funds to Planned Parenthood and other abortion mills.

This is not the first time that Biden has departed from Church teachings on life. On January 22, the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris heralded the ruling, saying they were “committed to codifying Roe v. Wade.”

In response, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee (USCCB) on Pro-Life Activities, said, “It is deeply disturbing and tragic that any President would praise and commit to codifying a Supreme Court ruling that denies unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life, under the euphemistic disguise of health services.”

Biden has a real problem with the most basic moral teachings of his professed religion.

On January 20th, his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order allowing males who claim to be female the right to compete with females in high school and college sports; they can also use the same shower facilities.

The chairman of five bishops’ committees, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Religious Liberty, responded by saying this decision “threatens to infringe the rights of people who recognize the truth of sexual differences or who uphold the institution of lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.”

A few days later, Biden issued an executive order repealing President Trump’s ban on transgender persons from serving in the military. He provided no evidence that women who claim to be male will have no effect on real men in their living arrangements and daily operations.

According to Pope Francis, Biden’s policies on transgender persons are not simply in violation of Church teachings—they are the work of Satan. “Gender ideology is demonic!” The pope made that remark to emphasize that gender theory fails to recognize “the order of creation.” Indeed, he even went so far as to say that “gender ideology” was reminiscent of “the educational policies of Hitler.”

Biden’s choice of January 28 to announce his pro-abortion executive orders makes him look like a rogue Catholic. This day marks the National Prayer Vigil for Life. This USCCB event will take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

On Biden’s first day in office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked by a reporter for EWTN about the president’s plans to overturn the pro-life policies of his predecessor. “I will take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic.”

Looks like this “devout Catholic” has no problem stiffing the pope.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on recent calls to deprogram Trump supporters:

The Catholic League, like all advocacy organizations, makes maximum use of its First Amendment right to freedom of speech. To this extent, the increasing calls for censorship of organizations that espouse traditional moral views is worrisome.

We live in a time of unparalleled attacks on free speech, emanating from establishment sources, including the media. One might think that the media, which does not exist without freedom of speech, would be reflexively opposed to censorship, but not anymore. In many cases, those who work in the media are leading the charge to silence what it sees as its opposition.

This is much more dangerous than the McCarthyism of the 1950s: the variety of tactics being advocated today extends far beyond anything the senator from Wisconsin had in mind. For example, calls to deprogram Trump supporters is now one of the most popular strategies for silencing any organization that has praised Trump’s record.

The Catholic League has lauded Trump’s policies on religious liberty. We will continue to do so. But we know that our critics are not content to disagree—they would like to deprogram us, if they could. Though calls for deprogramming are now routine, they began last summer.

Last summer, failed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said those on the left should view Trump supporters, and especially those who worked in the administration, as candidates for deprogramming. A few days later, CNN’s Don Lemon targeted all of those who voted for Trump in 2016. “And I think a lot of people need to be deprogrammed, right now, before they cast their next ballots.”

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich showed his fondness for Stalinist tactics a few weeks before the election. “When this nightmare is over,” he tweeted, “we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.”

After the election, the totalitarians went into high gear, zeroing in on Trump voters. David Atkins, a prominent California Democratic operative, said he knew exactly what he wanted to do, but was unsure how to do it. “No seriously…how ‘do’ you deprogram 75 million people?” He asked, “We have to start thinking in terms of post-WWII Germany or Japan.”

Harvard students, who would never consider themselves to be the unwitting dupes of brainwashing, called for reeducation and moral rehabilitation camps. A Bernie Sanders employee was caught in a Project Veritas sting saying, “we need to send all the Republicans to the reeducation camps.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to “deradicalize” those who were “radicalized” by Trump.

One of the most clarion calls to deprogram Trump supporters came when Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said, “there are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed”; he added that they are members of a ”Trumpist cult.” Former “Today Show” host Katie Couric also voiced her support for deprogramming, arguing the need to deal with those “who have signed up for the cult of Trump.”

An attorney for Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) went too far even for his left-wing employer when he set his sights on the kids. Caught by Project Veritas, Michael Beller announced, “We go for all the Republican voters, and Homeland Security will take their children away. And we’ll put them [Trump supporters’ children] in re-education camps.” He was subsequently fired. He should move to North Korea.

The roots of deprogramming are found in Maoism. Once Mao Zedong seized power in 1949, he moved quickly to launch the first of his “thought control” campaigns. Everyone from intellectuals to housewives were chosen for “self-education and ideological remoulding of the liberated people.”

Under Mao, “thought reform” reached a level the world had never seen before. It was a U.S. foreign correspondent, Edward Hunter, who in 1951 wrote a book, “Brainwashing in Red China,” that detailed the workings of “thought reform.” Ten years later, American professor of psychiatry Robert Jay Lifton wrote, “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.” It became a classic.

Lifton fingered two key elements of “thought reform.” The first was “confession, the exposure and renunciation of the past and present ‘evil.'” The second was “re-education,” or the “remaking of a man in the Communist image.” To cite one example, young Chinese students had to confess how wrong they were to respect their parents—they were forced to denounce them. That set the stage for their re-education.

Do people like Katie Couric have any idea what they are promoting when they call for deprogramming? Do they know that there is nothing more totalitarian than having government send in agents to police our minds?

The Catholic League will never yield in its fight for freedom of speech. We need all the allies we can get.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue explains what led to the Capitol riot:

Any investigation of the Capitol riot on January 6 must start by asking what provoked these men and women to act. While thousands showed up, roughly 200 of them managed to enter the Capitol. That small portion of Trump supporters must be held accountable, but we can’t get to the bottom of this until we understand why most of the crowd—the non-violent ones—were there in the first place.

What fueled the anger of this mob were many things, among them being the passive reaction of the ruling class to the wave of violence that encapsulated American cities in 2020. The police were told to stand down and prosecutors refused to hold the rioters accountable. When Americans saw their flags being burned, cops attacked, stores looted, and police stations set on fire—with no pushback—they knew the anarchists were winning. What they witnessed was a total collapse of authority.

It was worse than this. Mobs took sledgehammers to statues of American icons, and trashed historic landmarks. The anarchists, most of whom were white, took great delight in sticking it to the American people. Religious symbols were also targeted. Catholic churches, schools and graveyards were vandalized, and statues of saints were toppled. All of this was done with impunity, week after week, month after month.

The decision by Democrats in urban areas to allow their cities to be destroyed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters must be investigated. City mayors, city councils and city prosecutors—along with their counterparts at the state level—must be held accountable for their role in fanning the flames. They set the stage for January 6. Did they really think there would be no pushback?

Democrats act as though the origin of the Capitol riot rests with Trump and his supporters. But choosing to focus exclusively on the rioters is myopic. It would be like focusing exclusively on the black rioters of the 1960s without ever addressing the social and economic conditions that inspired them to act. If the reason why blacks rioted in the 1960s was in response to long-standing grievances, why is it so implausible to believe that the Capitol riot was in response to long-standing grievances in the white working class community?

One part of the probe must explain why the white working class has been demonized by the ruling class. To be specific, those who work in the media, the entertainment industry, colleges and universities, Big Tech and Wall Street have long exhibited an animus against these Trump supporters. We need to get to the origins of their pathology.

The ruling class shares a strong anti-Christian bias. Throwing around terms like Christian Nationalism are designed to marginalize Christian voters, suggesting they are engaged in some kind of conspiracy to take over the nation. This is all madness, but it is a madness embraced by pundits and the media.

Many of the working class are veterans, and are proudly patriotic. But patriotism is seen as provincial by elites, if not worse. Of course, most of those in the ruling class have never served a day in their life. Many are embarrassed by their country, which is why smashing American symbols and burning the American flag doesn’t bother them.

The working class is acutely aware of how the ruling class sees them. When they are called “Nazis” by TV commentators, and when their president is compared to Osama bin Laden by Democratic congressmen, it incenses them. That few in authority call out these lunatics for their lies is just as bad.

What really gets under the skin of blue-collar workers is the sight of white privileged men and women joining Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters in burning down our cities. To cite one example, it is nauseating to watch young white brats, at least half of whom are women, leave their tony Brooklyn neighborhoods so they can take over bridges and tie up traffic. None had a permit to protest and none practiced social distancing norms.

To sum up, the root cause of white working class fury is traceable to how the Left destroyed our cities while the ruling class looked away; this is still going on in Oregon and Washington. The fact is that leading Democrats in major urban areas nurtured a year-long culture of violence, and it was this reality that played a major role in enticing Trump supporters to swing into action. Moreover, not once in the four days of the Democratic National Convention did anyone even make reference to the anarchists.

The sooner we get on with a serious investigation—not the kind of political farce being considered—the sooner we can prevent the kind of mayhem that took place on January 6 from ever happening again.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on what happened at a pro-life Mass on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:

In the 1930s, Nazis routinely invaded religious services at synagogues. There have been many copycat events in the United States since that time, most of which have taken place in Catholic churches. The latest incident took place on January 22, the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand.

The venue was St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio. While Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan was celebrating a pro-life Mass, a group of protesters stormed the cathedral. They held up pro-abortion signs and chanted anti-Catholic slogans, leaving Catholics in attendance in a state of shock.

Bishop Brennan thanked the Columbus Police for acting swiftly to restore order and before anyone was hurt. He also expressed his admiration and thanks to those who endured this event.

There are two major stories here. One is the decision by anti-Catholic protesters to crash the Mass; the other is the media blackout.

One TV station, 10WBNS (the local CBS affiliate), covered this story. One local paper, the Columbus Dispatch, made mention of what happened. Catholic News Agency, LifeSite and Breitbart also did a story on the protest. That was it.

Where were the major media outlets in Ohio? Where was the Associated Press? Where were the cable TV news stories?

When a Nazi-like event takes place in 2021, and the media respond with a yawn, it means either they don’t care what happens to Catholics or they find it vaguely amusing. That would be the generous view.

A less generous interpretation would be that the church busting was deserved. The media are on a roll demonizing what they call White Christian Nationalists, an ill-defined group of people who are allegedly seeking to take command of America. So when fascists crash a Catholic Mass—especially one that honors pro-life Catholics—it is hard for the media to get worked up about it.

A recent poll shows that less than half the public trusts the media. That lack of trust is a function of distorted news stories, instances when editorializing is substituted for hard news. It is also attributable to glaring instances of omission. Add what happened at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Columbus to the latter list.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the death of Larry King:

Larry King was perhaps the greatest interviewer of all time. Unlike today’s cable news hosts, Larry came to the table without cue cards. There were no canned questions prepared by a producer, no teleprompter to lean on for support. Most of all, Larry listened.

Larry asked a question and the guest answered. The next question was based on what the guest said. It was a conversation. He would listen attentively to what was said and would then dig deeper. And so on.

Sounds fairly simple. But it isn’t. Larry’s gift was to make his guests feel relaxed, getting them to open up about matters they would usually be reluctant to reveal. He was never confrontational. This explains why he could secure guests who would never go on with any other host.

The rap on Larry was that he was a “soft ball” interviewer. That is grossly unfair. It would be more accurate to say he didn’t insult his guests the way so many commentators do today. His job was to draw his guests out—not to put them in their place.

Beginning in the late 1980s, I had the pleasure of being his guest for many years. Indeed, it was those appearances, including interviews I did on “Crossfire” and the “Phil Donahue Show,” that eventually brought me to the attention of the Catholic League; clips of my segments were previewed by the search committee charged with selecting a new president and CEO in 1993.

Larry and I often spent time together after the show, and I got to know a man who did not seem to have a bad bone in his body. He once told me that of all the great people in the world whom he would like to interview, his number-one choice would be the pope (meaning Pope John Paul II).

Larry King was one of a kind. May he rest in peace.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the initial success of efforts to protect religious liberty in North Dakota:

Yesterday, I sent a letter to the North Dakota legislature regarding SB 2180. This legislation would break the seal of the confessional and is nothing more than a direct assault on our faith. However, thanks to the support of our members, the sponsors of this bill have come to feel the ire of the Catholic League, and the viability of the legislation is in peril.

Not long after receiving my letter, one of the North Dakota House co-sponsors, Rep. Michael D. Brandenburg, sent me an email stating he will no longer support the bill and intends to vote against it. Rep. Brandenburg’s heroic decision to reverse course and stand with those who support religious liberty delivers a severe blow to this anti-Catholic legislation and harms its ability to become law.

Anyone who has the courage to admit they were wrong and take steps to make things right is worthy of recognition. I would like to thank Rep. Brandenburg for doing just that.

However, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. As we have seen with other attempts to break the seal of the confessional, to truly kill this bill will require sustained pressure on those who would attack our sacraments.

Now is the time to turn up the heat on the remaining sponsors of this legislation, and I would like to ask you to contact the remaining four co-sponsors of this bill:

Sen. Judy Lee – jlee@nd.gov
Sen. Curt Kreun – ckreun@nd.gov
Sen. Kathy Hogan – khogan@nd.gov
Rep. Mary Schneider – mschneider@nd.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a threat to religious liberty in North Dakota:

We’ve been down this road before: state lawmakers seeking to bust the seal of the confessional. At every juncture, when Catholics push back—we have played a major role in every instance—they win. North Dakota is the latest state to consider a bill that would eviscerate the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation.

To read my letter to North Dakota lawmakers, click here.

Contact State Sen. Judy Lee: jlee@nd.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on how African American youth are being upended by their so-called allies:

There is no racial or ethnic group in American history that has made significant socio-economic success without first believing in their ability to do so. Most of them faced bias and discrimination at one time or another—some more than others—but all of them overcame adversity by plugging away, refusing to let the forces of bigotry get the best of them. That is why it is obscene to see the so-called allies of African Americans sell them a narrative that effectively immobilizes them, leaving them wallowing in victimhood.

Ben & Jerry’s has paired with Colin Kaepernick to promote the most destructive environment imaginable for African Americans to negotiate. If they intentionally sought to disable blacks, they could not do a better job than their recently launched endeavor. I stumbled upon their effort quite by accident.

While walking to work the other day, I noticed a huge billboard sponsored by Ben & Jerry’s outside Penn Station. It sported a big portrait of Kaepernick with his fist clenched featuring the inscription “I Know My Rights” in large letters. This is a marketing strategy for a new Ben & Jerry’s dessert, one that feeds into Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp project; the latter makes available online for purchase such items as “I Know My Rights” t-shirts, socks, hoodies, wind jackets, track pants and handbags.

For many years, I taught African American students, both at the elementary and collegiate level, and was personally involved with them in after-school programs and athletic events. I know the hardships that many of these students endured and how they struggled to overcome them. I also saw them succeed in Catholic schools. They succeeded in large part because they were not coddled, not indoctrinated into a cult of victimhood. Indeed, much was demanded of them, and most rose to the occasion.

The worst thing we can do to black students is to convince them of their inefficacy, or their inability to take command of their lives. It is psychologically debilitating. That is what Ben & Jerry’s and Kaepernick are doing. By instructing black youth to focus exclusively on their rights, saying not a word about responsibilities—either to themselves or society—they are enfeebling them, rendering them hopeless.

Beating up on whitey may yield ephemeral pleasure, but it is no prescription for success. When George Floyd was killed, the ice cream makers and the retired athlete jumped on the bandwagon, arguing that what happened was the result of systemic racism and white supremacy. Both called for the police to be defunded; Kaepernick called for the prisons to be emptied as well.

It is not easy to see how Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp is to succeed by adopting these proposals. Included in his “10-Point System” are such goals as “You Have the Right to be Safe” and “You Have the Right to be Alive.” He needs to go into Chicago on a weekend night, bullhorn in hand, and tell the black community that these outcomes can best be achieved by getting rid of cops and jails.

Ian Rowe is a black scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who for the last decade ran a network of public charter schools in the South Bronx and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Last month he wrote an article that nicely sums up why minority students succeed or fail.

“The American dream is premised on the idea that a young person can become an agent of her or his own destiny. This can only happen if vital mediating institutions like strong families, schools and faith-based organizations demand excellence, and shape the character of this rising generation to build self-sufficiency and resilience.”

Furthermore, Rowe notes that “a growing number of young people are being led to believe that structural barriers around race, class and gender have rigged the system against them, and that they are powerless to compete at the highest level because of immutable characteristics like their race.”

He is absolutely right. And for this outrageous condition we can thank the likes of Ben & Jerry’s and Colin Kaepernick. Ultimately, they and their ilk are doing far more damage to African Americans than the Klan could ever hope for.