The Catholic League gets its share of hate mail but the following letter is particularly graphic. Though the person who sent it supplied us with name and address, we decided not to print this information. But what appears here is the actual text of the letter, complete with its reference to Cardinal John O’Connor:

“What better occasion to greet you again than St. Valentine’s Day, with its theme of love, not to forget that we’re fast upon St. Patrick’s Day. It’s nearly parade time. The gays get to play “In Your Face”, and the Hibernian good old boys hyperventilate about it; not to forget that part of the tradition.

“Better yet, the Supreme Court has kept us fags out of the parade but has reminded us about just how much freedom we have to be participants, albeit from the sidelines. I’ll keep an eye out for you. You recall, I promised to have practiced my public masturbation technique, and that I have done well. But, between now and the parade, it’s cold turkey. I’m saving all my love for you. When it comes to infuriating and inventive disorder, we gays are great at it. And you thought last year’s masturbation routine on the steps of St. Patrick’s was the ultimate. I’ve also reminded your buddy Johnny O about everything the parade has to offer. As for the Supreme Court ruling, be careful of what you wish for. You just might get it.”

In its February fundraising letter, the ACLU accused pro-life forces of “adopting sensational, exploitative and viciously deceptive language. In this case, they did it by shamelessly naming the procedure they are trying to ban a `partial birth abortion.'” The shame is that the ACLU sees the injection of a needle into the brains of partially delivered babies a constitutional right. But what else would we expect of an organization that has auctioned off a free abortion as part of its fundraising schemes?

The Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA) of California has refused to allow the National Association of Catholic Home Educators to place an ad in the program for the CHEA’s July 12-14 program at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. A representative of CHEA has said that Catholics are “sectarian,” not Christian.

The Catholic League has joined with the Family Research Council in requesting a Congressional hearing on the subject of religious harassment. In letters to Senator Orrin Hatch and Congressman Henry Hyde, the league asked that the hearings focus on disturbances of church activities. The league contends that hate crime legislation and other laws affecting religious liberties need to be made comprehensive if the First Amendment rights of the faithful are to be protected.

When the Catholic League learned that the New York City Department of Corrections did not accommodate Catholic prisoners on Ash Wednesday by making available meatless meals, it took its complaint to the Deputy Commissioner of Corrections. Jews and Muslims are offered a special diet on their holy days, and Catholic should be treated just as fairly, the league reasoned.

Upon hearing the league’s case, the Deputy Commissioner granted an apology and pledged to schedule meatless meals throughout the Lenten season.

Don Gross, a staff writer for the Staten Island Advance, wrote a news story on February 16 on how St. Vincent’s Medical Center goes out of its way to accommodate Jewish patients. But in his story, Gross said that a Jewish social worker is employed by the Catholic hospital “to ease the minds of Jewish patients who suddenly find themselves surrounded by the trappings of the Catholic Church–objects that can be strange and even threatening–during a time of extreme stress.”

The league offered the following response:

“It would be instructive to know what Catholic objects are found `threatening’ by most Jews. To insinuate that Jews are threatened by Catholic imagery suggests either a culpabiliity on the part of Catholics or a hypersensitivity on the part of Jews. Which is it, Mr. Gross?”

Catholic League member Barbara Bartolomeo from Dallas, Texas was incensed when she saw a television ad for Southwest Airlines that featured a priest fleeing church in the middle of a confession. The commercial, which was run during the Super Bowl, shows a woman in a confessional describing Southwest’s “Gotta Go” fares and a priest who runs out of the church and jumps on a plane, where he is handed a drink by a flight attendant. Mrs. Bartolomeo registered a complaint, as did several other Catholics.

By the time Mrs. Bartolomeo contacted the Catholic League for assistance, her effort had already paid off: Southwest Airlines had already withdrawn the ad, bowing to public anger.

Our congratulations to Mrs. Bartolomeo and to all those other Catholic League members who act responsibly on their convictions.