Bill Donohue

Radical left-wing activists associated with religious organizations have sued the Trump administration on the grounds that his Religious Liberty Commission lacks religious and ideological diversity. They are represented by two far-left entities, Democracy Forward and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The Religious Liberty Commission is charged with documenting incidents of religious bigotry and making recommendations to expand religious liberty. The Catholic League has turned over a trove of documents to the Department of Justice and to Commission members detailing prejudice and discrimination against Catholics.

The lawsuit is led by Rev. Paul Raushenbush, president of the Interfaith Alliance; he is a homosexual Baptist minister who claims to be married to a man, a status that is obviously in violation of Christian teachings.

Joining him are Muslims for Progressive Values, a group that is dedicated to the LGBTQ agenda, even though it is in clear violation of Islamic teachings. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund is also party to the suit; it promotes transgender rights as part of the “liberation movement,” in flagrant violation of Sikh tenets on sexuality. Hindus for Human Rights is the fourth group; it is headed by a Columbia University professor who ignited a protest by Hindus who charged she is “anti-Hindu.”

In other words, these carping critics are not representative of the people they claim to represent. So much for respecting religious and ideological diversity.

Raushenbush, in particular, has no moral standing to lecture the Commission on excluding contrary viewpoints. The Interfaith Alliance excludes traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Orthodox Jews, and most Muslims and Mormons, all of whom are not supportive of the radical pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ worldview.

In short, there is nothing “Interfaith” about the Interfaith Alliance. It is worth noting that two years after it was founded in 1994, the Catholic League was named to its “Enemies List,” a badge of honor I continue to wear on my sleeve.

The biggest beef these activists have is the contention that members of the Commission “have promoted the primacy of a Judeo-Christian world view in the public sphere,” while also contending that “America was founded as a ‘Judeo-Christian’ nation and must be guided by Biblical principles.”

Guilty as charged. It is not an opinion to say that America was founded on Judeo-Christian values—it is an historical fact. Moreover, Christians took many of their moral teachings from the Hebrews, and together the heritage they bequeathed became the foundation of our freedoms. To put it differently, we would not be a free society today had we been founded on the tenets of any Eastern world religion—none has a history of respecting basic human rights. This may sound harsh. So be it. It is the harsh truth.

Christians are sixty-two percent of American society; Jews are two percent; Muslims and Hindus are one percent; Sikhs are less than one percent. Jews, though small in number, occupy a central place in American history given the Judeo-Christian ethos that informs the dominant culture. The same is not true of the other religions, and therefore their quest for equal recognition is unwarranted.

The two organizations that are representing these groups are tied to the politics of the Left. Democracy Forward is part of the Clinton machine. The chairman of the board is Marc Elias, Hillary Clinton’s former general counsel when she ran for president in 2016. It is funded by the Center for American Progress, an organization that is chaired by John Podesta; he was active in senior posts serving both Clintons. He has a history of anti-Catholicism.

Americans United was founded after World War II as Protestants and Other Americans for Separation of Church and State, one of the most anti-Catholic organizations in American history.

These are the people trying to kill the Religious Freedom Commission. Like a nasty fly, they just don’t go away. But unfortunately for them, neither do we.

Bill Donohue

At 9:57 a.m. I called for the ouster of Carrie Prejean Boller from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. I just learned that the Commission chairman, Dan Patrick, gave her the boot at 10:03 a.m. Kudos to him.

Bill Donohue

A half-century ago, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, stunned the delegates when he condemned the 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism. He said the resolution “reeked of the totalitarian mind, stank of the totalitarian state.” He added, “What we have here is a lie.”

The same mindset was on display on February 9 when Carrie Prejean Boller, who sits on President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, told her fellow panelists and the audience that “Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know.” She objected to definitions of anti-Semitism that equated opposition to the state of Israel as an expression of anti-Semitism.

To be sure, it is possible for someone to oppose Zionism yet not be anti-Semitic. But the fact is that those who are activists for the anti-Zionist cause invariably harbor an animus against Jews. And yes, this would include self-hating Jews.

Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism. She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that “Catholics do not embrace Zionism,” is presumptuous and arrogant.

In reply to Prejean Boller, fellow panelist Rabbi Meir Soloveichik said, “This is an incredibly diverse country, and the one thing we should be careful about is speaking on behalf of all members of a religious community, even if one is a member of that religious community. I certainly wouldn’t claim to speak for all Jews on all subjects.”

He is too kind. Her audacity is stunning. I have run the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization for over three decades, and never once have I said that I represent all Catholics. I represent the Catholic League, period. Hopefully, I also represent many others who share my convictions.

Zionism is a movement that promotes Jewish self-determination in a homeland. There are millions of Catholics like myself who, even if they do not identify themselves as Zionists, recognize the Jewish state of Israel. Prejean Boller apparently does not—she is more comfortable showing up at the Religious Liberty Commission wearing a Palestinian flag pin. So telling.

Prejean Boller asked a witness if we should censor 1 Thessalonians 2:15; it spoke about Jews who killed Christ. No, but that passage, like many biblical passages, needs to be put alongside other biblical references, as well as the teachings of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the quote she cites mentions, “The Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets.” (My italic.) It does not say “the Jews killed Christ.”

English warriors killed Catholics in Ireland, but no one blames all the English. Indian tribes killed each other, but no one says all Indians are killers. Rapists are typically men who rape women, but not all men are rapists. Careful scholars recognize these differences—they are not nuances. Prejean is not careful and she is certainly not a scholar.

My good friend Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York, noted, “It should never be said that Christians were responsible for the Holocaust—Nazis were. Blaming Christians would be as unjustified as holding Jews accountable for the death of Jesus.” Well said.

The Religious Liberty Commission should have nothing to do with those who are publicly undermining its mission, nor should it become a platform for those who want to exploit it as a vehicle to further their own agenda. Trump should kick Carrie Prejean Boller off immediately.

Bill Donohue

Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old British citizen and convert to Catholicism, was sentenced in Hong Kong on February 9 to twenty years in prison for protesting human rights abuses in China. He was accused of being the “mastermind” of protests against the Communist regime. He was arrested in 2020 under a new law that restricted freedom of the press, citing his “seditious” articles in Apple Daily, a newspaper he founded in 1995.

Chinese Communist chief Xi Jinping said the conviction has his “strong support.” But his voice was not echoed abroad.

Volker Türk, the chief human rights commissioner at the United Nations, said Lai was being punished for “exercising rights protected under international law.” Elaine Pearson, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said that trials like this send “a message to anyone who dares to criticize the Chinese Communist Party.”

Reporters Without Borders issued a statement saying, “Today the curtain falls on press freedom in Hong Kong.” The Committee to Protect Journalists maintained that “this egregious decision is the final nail in the coffin for freedom of the press in Hong Kong.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentence “an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case.” The European Union slammed what it called the “politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai.” Many leaders in democratic nations, including Taiwan, voiced similar comments. Nathan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident who was imprisoned for his human rights protests, said Lai was an “heroic freedom fighter and my dear friend.”

The Vatican has said nothing.

It is not clear whether Pope Leo XIV will depart from Pope Francis’ policy of appeasement with Communist China. Hong Kong Watch had accused Pope Francis of turning a blind eye to the oppression of Catholics in China, a sentiment shared by Cardinal Joseph Zen, former Bishop of Hong Kong.

In 2024, Ed Pentin, senior Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Register, said that unlike many other countries, “the Vatican has continued its silence on Lai’s plight.” Last year, Anne Hendershott, a sociology professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, wrote that Lai’s tenuous condition “underscores the Vatican’s failure to exercise meaningful leadership in defending justice—serving as a stark reminder of the Catholic Church’s compromised role, with the Vatican retreating instead of defending Jimmy Lai….”

(Pentin and Hendershott serve on the Catholic League’s board of advisors.)

Jimmy Lai became a human rights advocate after the Communists squashed the pro-democracy movement in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Appeals are now being made by influential heads of state to void his sentence. The Holy See should do the same.

Bill Donohue

Representatives of the clergy from several religions were present at the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani. But no Catholic priest was there.

Representatives of the clergy from several religions were present at Mamdani’s Interfaith Breakfast on February 6. But no Catholic priest was there. Significantly, the UJA-Federation of New York, the New York Board of Rabbis and the Anti-Defamation League, all of which had previously sponsored this meeting, declined to do so this year.

The mayor of New York City traditionally attends the installation of the new archbishop of New York, but Mamdani—who was invited—ghosted the event. The installation began a few hours after the Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library; it is a short walk up Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

He could easily have been there. Instead, he attended to business as usual.

One in three New Yorkers are Catholic, making them the largest faith community in the city. Mamdani’s professed interest in diversity and inclusion obviously hits a brick wall when it comes to Catholics. He wants nothing to do with them.

He is already in trouble with Jewish New Yorkers. He blames Israel, not Hamas, for the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, and to this day he says Israel has no right to exist. This explains why he wants to cripple the Israeli economy by supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. To top it off, he is purging his administration of Jews who are pro-Israel, replacing them with Jews who are anti-Israel.

His animus against Catholics is not as clear cut. But given his rabid support for abortion, gay marriage and transgenderism (including the child abuse inherent in sex-reassignment surgery for minors), it makes sense that he wants nothing to do with Catholics either.

Mamdani has been in office for just over a month, and already he is signaling to Catholics that they are not welcome. He is also telling Jews that either they side with him in bashing Israel, or they, too, can take a walk.

This is shaping up to be something serious, the likes of which New Yorkers have never experienced. Stay tuned.

Contact Mamdani’s Deputy Communications Director, Lekha Sunder: [email protected]

Bill Donohue

The church invasion that took place at Cities Church on January 18 in St. Paul, Minnesota was a flagrant violation of constitutional law, federal law and common decency. It is the kind of behavior associated with totalitarian regimes, not democratic polities. Yet the outcry from all quarters—government, religious, civic, educational, the media—has been miniscule. To say this is a bad omen is a gross understatement.

The purported cause for action was to register disapproval of David Easterwood, one of the pastors of this Southern Baptist church; he heads the local office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Those who want to voice their opinion about any member of the clergy associated with any religion have a First Amendment right to do so outside the house of worship. No one has a right to disrupt church services and harass its congregants. To do so violates the “free exercise of religion” provision in the First Amendment, the congressionally passed Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) of 1994 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

The FACE Act makes it illegal to injure, intimidate or interfere with those seeking to exercise their religious liberty right at a place of worship. The Klan Act makes it illegal to terrorize people or to deprive them of their constitutional rights through intimidation or force.

Nine of the 20-40 church invaders are being charged with entering the church “in a coordinated takeover-style attack,” and for engaging in “acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.” The indictment, filed in the Federal District Court of Minnesota, alleges that “the pastor and the congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship services,” and had to flee out of fear for their safety.

One of the defendants, William Scott Kelly, a.k.a “DaWokeFarmer,” disrupted the church service by screaming, “This ain’t God’s house. This is the house of the devil.” He got in the face of a mother and her two young children, chiding her for not supporting the church invasion. He said to child congregants, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell.”

Much has been made of the presence of Don Lemon. The former journalist and failed CNN pundit (he was fired for sexist behavior and remarks, as well as lousy ratings), claims he was a disinterested observer, and not part of the organized protest. “I’m not a protester, I went there as a journalist.” Inside the church, he said, “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.”

The indictment says otherwise. Lemon met at a shopping center with all the other defendants to make plans about invading the church. He did not just stumble on the scene of the crime. Instructions were given by Nekima Valdez Levy-Armstrong and another female on how the operation would be conducted once inside the church.

Lemon told his livestream audience that congregants were “frightened,” “scared,” and “crying,” saying their response was understandable given that their experience was “traumatic and uncomfortable.” Perversely, he admitted that this was the purpose of the invasion. He also tried to intimidate the pastor and obstructed congregants from leaving the church. In short, he was an active participant in the church invasion.

The list of politicians, all Democrats, and civil rights organizations, all left-wing, that have nothing but contempt for the right to worship is astounding. This should be the lead story in every media outlet, yet it is being treated as a side story. To read a sample of these responses, click here.

Notice that none of them even give a nod to the egregious violation of the “free exercise of religion.” They are framing this as purely a free speech issue when it is first and foremost a matter of religious freedom. But religious liberty has never been of any interest to the Left, and many have actively sought to disable it.

In response to this incredible assault on religious liberty, the Catholic League is embarking on a four-prong campaign:

• We are asking the public to support Rep. Buddy Carter’s House Resolution 1026, condemning the church invasion
• We are contacting President Trump’s Religious Freedom Commission asking them to make this issue a priority
• We are contacting the Department of Justice asking them not to back off in their efforts to bring the offenders to justice
• We are asking President Trump to support funding for enhanced police protection of Christian churches

In our correspondence with the Religious Freedom Commission, the Department of Justice and President Trump, we will stress the fact that almost all homicides that have occurred in recent times in houses of worship have been in Christian churches.

In a study released by two criminologists studying violence against houses of worship in the United States between 2000 and 2024, it was found that “Ninety-seven percent of deadly incidents occurred at Christian churches.” This settles the issue—Christian haters are a major threat that demand immediate attention.

Offer your support of the House Resolution by contacting the chief of staff to Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA): [email protected]

Bill Donohue

When we think of volunteers, we think about men and women who give of themselves for the benefit of those in need. Neighborhood volunteer firefighters, those who work for free in hospitals, many of those who give blood—there is a long list of noble causes served by volunteers. Some of those causes were later institutionalized—the March of Dimes started as a voluntary organization.

That is why New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s idea of “volunteers” is bogus: he is assembling a well-organized band of left-wing activists to impede law enforcement, under the false pretense of recruiting volunteers.

On January 15, members of the New York City Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) met at the New York headquarters of the Communist-tied The People’s Forum to discuss mobilizing a “rapid response” team—an army of 4,000 activists to stop the presence of ICE in the city. The members discussed plans to train 2,000 DSA members, and 2,000 non-DSA members. The meeting was run by the Immigrant Justice Working Group of the NYC-DSA.

NYC-DSA regularly holds what they call “Know Your Rights” training sessions, the purpose of which is to teach activists how they can defend themselves in interactions with ICE. In a “Know Your Rights Training & Rally” held in December, it sought to provide more information on its “Rapid Response Priority Organizing Project,” and to teach DSA members how they “can plug into citywide networks supporting our communities through coordination, resource sharing, trainings, reporting, and relationship-building.”

One of those running these training sessions is Leemah Nasrati. She is a member of the Immigrant Justice Working Group and serves as a pro-bono attorney for Catholic Charities in New York.

In terms of vetting and recruitment of non-members, the “rapid response” team will need to be cleared through a DSA encrypted messaging service. DSA members are recruiting in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, such as Bushwick and Jackson Heights.

Regarding funding, little has been said about who exactly is funding the cost of this “rapid response” project. NYC-DSA relies almost exclusively on member dues for its funding; the dues range from $15/month to $50/month. In addition, the national level of DSA has a program in which members can donate up to three percent of their income. Dues from all chapters are given to the national headquarters; the funds are then allocated back to the local chapters based on the size of the chapter and the average percentage contributed.

As mentioned, NYC-DSA hosted their meeting at The People’s Forum, a group with ties to Communist China. It describes itself as “a political education and cultural center” that “aims to support and provide space for movements and organizations to build unity across historic lines of division here and abroad.” Its meeting rooms are adorned with photos of known terrorists, such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

According to the Capital Research Center, the People’s Forum is a “self-described Marxist socialist group” that “plays a central role in pro-terrorism networks linked to the Chinese Communist Party.” It was involved in organizing several pro-Palestinian protests, most notably protests at Columbia University and the City University of New York. It is heavily funded by Neville Roy Singham, an extreme left-wing billionaire who has ties to Communist China. He is referred to as a “Marxist comrade” by The People’s Forum.

In other words, Mamdani is falsely claiming to organize volunteers. He is doing nothing of the sort: he is assembling hard-core activists, with ties to Communist-affiliated groups so they can disable ICE. It is naïve to think otherwise.

Contact Mamdani’s Deputy Communications Director, Lekha Sunder: [email protected]

Bill Donohue

The difference between the secular and religious Left is infinitesimal—they have more in common than what separates them. The latest example is the positive response from Americans United for Separation of Church and State to the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York City, and the negative response from the National Catholic Reporter to J.D. Vance’s defense of ICE.

Americans United was founded in the 1940s as an expressly anti-Catholic organization. The Reporter is a dissident paper founded in the 1960s that  rejects the Church’s teachings on marriage, the family and sexuality.

Americans United never gets excited when a Catholic, Protestant or Jew takes office, but now that Mamdani is running New York, they are in a state of eudemonia. Why are they so happy? Because he has no use for Catholics or Jews? That’s not what they say, but they sure don’t hold him accountable for his bigotry.

Mamdani represents religious diversity, they say, which is why they are so glad. Actually, there is little evidence that he is a practicing Muslim—he rejects many core Islamic teachings. No matter, anything that departs from our Judeo-Christian roots is something Americans United likes, and that explains why they heralded his decision to take the oath of office twice—on two different Qurans.

What is fascinating about Americans United is its discovery of anti-religious bigotry. This needs to be qualified: it has never complained about anti-Catholic bigotry, and has indeed been a major contributor to it. The only anti-religious bigotry it objects to is not even bigotry—it objects to criticism of Muslim politicians such as Mamdani, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

What a lousy choice. None of their heroes has condemned the October 7, 2023 slaughter of 1,200 innocent Jewish men, women and children. Indeed, Mamdani blamed Israel, not Hamas. Omar and Tlaib have a long record of incendiary comments bashing America and Israel, and Ellison recently justified the invasion of a Christian church by anti-ICE zealots.

The Reporter is up in arms over Vice President J.D. Vance for criticizing the maniacs who have taken to the streets of Minneapolis trying to stop law enforcement from doing their job. It never once addressed the root cause of the controversy, namely the decision by President Biden to allow 15 million people to crash our borders, taking advantage of our schools, hospitals and welfare system, some of whom have murdered, raped and robbed.

Astonishingly, Vance is slammed for criticizing those agitators who are doxing ICE agents, as if it is okay to publicly identify where these men and women live. Worse, their family members are being outed as well, setting the table for harassment, or worse. And the Reporter has the gall to condemn Vance for choosing MAGA over Jesus. No, he is choosing to do his job, and that has nothing to do with rejecting Jesus.

The Reporter is delighted to quote a woman who called Alex Pretti a “martyr of charity.” Was he expressing his charity when he spat at ICE agents and smashed their trucks a few days before he was shot? We know that when he was shot he bought a gun to the “protest” and was carrying 63 bullets. Was he there to do charitable work? Whether or not he should have been shot will be determined by an investigation, but it is downright absurd to call him a martyr. He was an agitator who sought a confrontation with law enforcement.

“It is time for Catholics to choose who our master is. Do we serve Donald Trump? Or do we serve Jesus?” Too bad they didn’t ask Catholics that question when Biden was promoting abortion, disparaging marriage, sanctioning child-abuse (e.g., transgender operations on minors), and encouraging illegal aliens to invade the United States.

Americans United and the National Catholic Reporter are cut from the same cloth. Their allegiance is not to religious liberty—it is to a radical agenda that undermines the moral foundations of American society. If only they were honest about their true intentions, they could at least be admired for that. But they fail on that count as well.