A Catholic high school in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Archbishop Wood, is rewarding students with extra-credit for participating in pro-life demonstrations outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice are going bonkers.

We told the media that we are delighted with the news that pro-life students at the school are getting extra-credit for their noble efforts. “Those who have a financial or ideological interest in promoting the cause of abortion, such as Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice and the Philadelphia Inquirer, are understandably upset,” we said.

Linda Hahn of Planned Parenthood Bucks County said that her clinic has seen “more than a few” students from Archbishop Wood. We responded by asking whether she plans to out them. We took note of the fact that she did not say whether students who attend public, Jewish or Protestant schools frequent her clinic with greater regularity.

Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice said it amounts to “coercion” to give the students extra-credit. In our news release we commented, “She did not say whether it amounts to coercion when pro-choice students are given extra-credit for their efforts.”

We found it more than curious that reporter Matthew Blanchard of the Philadelphia Inquirer described the teacher who is giving the extra-credit, June Littel, as a “morality-class teacher,” and that he called the student club involved in this issue an “antiabortion club.” We informed the media that he was twice wrong. “He did not call the teacher what she is—a theology teacher—and did not call the club by its right name, namely the school’s Pro-Life club,” we said.

It would be great if all Catholic schools rewarded their pro-life students for their efforts.

Not a day goes by at the Catholic League without some lunatic sending us hate mail. Our favorite crackpot mail comes from fringe Protestant groups. They generally tell us that we’re going straight to Hell because we follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. But lest we think they’re against us (why would we think that?), they hasten to add how much they love us. You see, they’re praying for us. Praying we bolt from the Church and join them. They certainly are a patient lot.

Readers of Catalyst know that we have been hounding the Eternal Gospel Church all over the country. Every time this Seventh-day Adventists splinter group takes out a full-page ad in a newspaper attacking Catholicism, we ask the publisher not to promote their bigotry again. In most cases, we’ve been successful in getting publishers to pledge that they won’t accept any more of their ads. Now the Eternal Gospel Church is fighting back.

In a long letter to William Donohue, Pastor Raphael Perez, who heads the group, asks the Catholic League president to stop trying to get their ads spiked. He began his letter this way: “Greetings. Enclosed you will find the free book, entitled, ‘The Anti-Christ’ by Lawrence Nelson….” He was kind enough to send Donohue three other books to grace his office: Darkness Before Dawn, Two Beasts, Three Deadly Wounds & Fourteen Popesand The Vatican Mafia. “Our objective in sending you these other books is to prove to you once and for all that our beliefs do not represent some obscure fringe groups,” he said. To which Donohue opined, “Now if this is mainline Protestantism, we Catholics really are in trouble.”

The Catholic League president said the letter and the books literally left him breathless. Usually he gets no gifts—just obscene letters. After all, it’s not every day that he gets a letter that opens with “Greetings,” and is then told how appreciative he should be upon receiving anti-Catholic books as a gift.

Donohue believes in reciprocity and that is why he sent Pastor Perez a letter of thanks and one free publication: The Catholic League’s 2001 Annual Report on Anti-Catholicism. He was thoughtful enough to direct the good pastor to those pages of the report that lists the anti-Catholic contributions of the Eternal Gospel Church.

If you would like to write to Pastor Raphael Perez, you can do so at Eternal Gospel Church, 5419 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33416.

On March 17, New York’s Jewish Museum opened a controversial exhibit, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art.” Many Jews blasted the museum for displaying artwork they said trivialized the Holocaust; some called for a boycott of the museum. The museum’s curator, Norman L. Kleeblatt, defended the exhibition saying it was supposed to “raise tough questions about commercialization and images that have become icons of the Holocaust.” The Catholic League got involved declaring its support for the boycott.

On February 13, at a meeting of Jewish leaders in Washington, Menachem Rosensaft, an official of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Holocaust Survivors, called for Jewish groups to boycott the Jewish Museum. The next day William Donohue urged Catholics to join the boycott. Here is what he said:

“Usually, it’s Catholics whom the ‘creative types’ in the artistic community like to offend. Now it’s Jews.

“There is nothing creative about ‘designer’ poison-gas canisters, Lego concentration camp sets, digitally altered pictures of a photographer holding a Diet Coke amidst Buchenwald inmates, toylike Hitler cats and handsome busts of that monster Josef Mengele. This is the kind of expression we might expect from some tongue-pierced adolescent hell-bent on a Columbine-styled rampage. It is not what we would expect from legitimate artists. Worse, we would expect that the venue for such rage would be some gallery in the East Village and not a prestigious museum. Moreover, we also object to the cover of the exhibit’s catalog that features a cross morphing into a swastika.

“Dialogue is not the answer. A boycott is. Catholics should take this opportunity to join with their Jewish brothers and sisters and send a message to the officials at the Jewish Museum by joining the boycott triggered by Menachem Rosensaft. Anything that trivializes the Holocaust is offensive and ‘Mirroring Evil’ clearly meets that test.”

The reaction in the Jewish community to the Catholic League’s call for a boycott of the Jewish museum ran from favorable to skeptical. When Roman Kent, chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, was asked about the Catholic League’s decision to join the boycott, he replied, “We did not ask for their support. They came willingly to protest the trivialization of the Holocaust. What objections can I have?”

The Forward, a major Jewish weekly newspaper, ran a front-page lead story on the league’s support for the boycott. “Museum Flap On Shoah Art Pairs Catholics With Survivors,” was the headline of the February 22 edition. The subtitle, “Strange Bedfellows,” was in recognition to the fact that some Jews have been critical of the Catholic League’s defense of Pope Pius XII. When Rosensaft, the organizer of the boycott, was asked what he thought of the Catholic League’s support in light of its continuous defense of Pius, he said, “The fact that we disagree on one issue does not mean we cannot have agreements on others.”

In his interview with the Forward, Donohue did not shy from his support for Pius XII. “While we will continue to defend the record of Pope Pius XII,” Donohue said, “we will be the first Catholic group out of the starting blocks to condemn any event that trivializes the Holocaust.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) did not join the boycott. Its national director, Abraham Foxman, himself a Holocaust survivor due to the efforts of Catholics, was only mildly critical of the exhibition. “It’s premature as long as there are survivors alive who may be offended.”

On the February 12 edition of the “John and Ken Show,” a KFI radio program in Los Angeles, several bigoted remarks were made about Catholic priests. On February 14, the Catholic League called to verify the comments, but no one responded. We e-mailed KFI on February 19 asking for verification and were told that the following remarks (among others) were made on the February 12 show:

“Ten percent of priests are pedophiles and the other 90 percent are equally as guilty because they don’t do anything about it.”

“I have always heard that men have a calling to the priesthood. Now we know that the calling is in his pants.”

For several days after our verification check of February 19, the “John and Ken Show” hosts then lied about the Catholic League on the air. They said we defend pedophile priests and that we have threatened a boycott of the show’s sponsors. On February 20 and 21, several phone messages were left with various officials at KFI registering our complaint but none was returned. On February 22, William Donohue blasted the show in the following news release:

“The folks at KFI are bigots, liars and cowards. John and Ken would never condemn all gays because some are irresponsible. Ditto for every single demographic group in the country. But when it comes to priests, if some are guilty of sexual misconduct, all are. They compound matters by lying about the Catholic League. As a result of their lying, we have been inundated with the most virulently anti-Catholic phone messages (thanks for supplying the evidence, guys). This tells us something about the type of people who like to listen to KFI. Finally, they are cowards: they refuse to deal with our complaint in a professional manner. Anytime these guys want to debate me, I’m ready.”

They took Donohue up on his challenge and on February 25 the Catholic League president went on the air with John and Ken for one hour. It was mostly a waste of time. Ken was okay but John did nothing but scream. John lied profusely. He lied when he said they never accused us of defending pedophile priests. He lied when he said that they invited someone from the Catholic League to come on the show before our news release was sent out (it was after we blanketed the media that they extended the invitation). And he lied when he said we threatened a boycott of their sponsors.

When people resort to filibustering and lying it’s a sure sign they can’t deal squarely with the issue at hand. We will be sure to enter these guys in next year’s annual report on anti-Catholicism.

On February 13, director Constantin Costa-Gavras won the prestigious Berlinale Kamera award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The Greek-born French director won the prize for his latest movie, “Amen.” The film is about a German SS officer who allegedly tells a priest what was happening to the Jews during the Holocaust and the subsequent refusal of Pope Pius XII to do anything about it.

William Donohue immediately issued the following news release:

“There is no difference between Catholicism and Nazism. That is the message of ‘Amen.’ Lest anyone doubt this to be true, consider the movie’s poster, as designed by Oliviero Toscani: it shows a Catholic cross blended with a red swastika on a black background. With good reason did the French bishops blast the poster for its irresponsibility.

“Everything connected with the movie is pure propaganda. First, while there was a real-life SS officer by the name of Kurt Gerstein, the Jesuit priest whom he allegedly spoke to is pure fiction: he never existed (this is not contested by anyone). Secondly, the movie is based on the book, The Deputy, by Rolf Hochhuth. His book, which was the basis for his play, started the fiction that Pius did nothing to save the Jews. Thirdly, as anyone who has tracked Toscani’s work for Benetton knows, the man is a notorious anti-Catholic. Fourthly, Costa-Gavras, who is one of Europe’s most politically-inspired directors, is guilty of propaganda when he says, ‘no one historian said he [Pius XII] saved so many people or saved anyone.’ I guess he never heard of John Toland and Sir Martin Gilbert, two of Europe’s top historians: Toland says no one saved more lives than Pius and Gilbert’s latest book thanks the pope for what he did.

“To associate Catholicism with Nazism is worse than bad history. It’s dangerous because it suggests nothing has been learned. Which means history could repeat itself.”

Catholic bashing is nothing new to “South Park,” so when the new season began March 6 we braced ourselves for more trouble. What we didn’t expect was that the bashing would begin even before the first show aired.

Days before the new season began, a promo aired showing a young woman in the confessional. With trepidation in her voice, she said to the priest: “Forgive me, Father. It’s been two months since our last meeting, and the visions have not yet stopped. Eternal damnation, the Anti-Christ, and people with asses where their faces should be. Oh, Father, are these signs of the Apocalypse?” It continued in this vein.

We sent the following comment to the media:

“Whoppi Goldberg made Catholics laugh at her light-hearted antics in ‘Sister Act.’ Unlike Goldberg, ‘South Park’ creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker habitually cross the line. They are not so much interested in poking fun as they are in lashing out.”

To write a complaint about “South Park” write to Larry Divney, president and CEO, Comedy Central, 1775 Broadway, NY, NY 10019.

Last month we ran a story on our protest of the movie, 40 Days and 40 Nights. It features a young Catholic who gives up sex for Lent and is tempted by his ex-girlfriend. When it opened March 1, most reviewers hammered it for being a lousy flick. A few brave souls slammed it for being anti-Catholic as well. No one was better than Joel Siegel of the show, “Good Morning America.”

Siegel said “I expect soft porn and gross out, but one scene shocked me.” He was referring to the scene where a priest kisses a nun in full habit. “The kind of anti-Catholic libel the Ku Klux Klan used to spread,” is how he described it.

“Good Morning America” is an ABC show and 40 Days and 40 Nights is a Miramax production. Disney owns both ABC and Miramax. Which makes Joel kind of special. Go Joel! We thanked him for his support.

New York gubernatorial hopefuls Andrew Cuomo and Carl McCall refused to march in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, saying they would only participate when members of a gay group are allowed to march under their own banner. Senator Charles Schumer, who has skipped the parade since the flap with the gay group began, also refused to march. Senator Hillary Clinton, who did not march last year but did so the year before, decided she would march this year.

We told the media what we thought of those who refused to march. Here is the text of our remarks:

“Andrew Cuomo and Carl McCall cite a lack of ‘inclusiveness’ in deciding to skip the parade. Apparently, their desire for inclusiveness does not extend to Irish Catholics in New York. Besides, their excuse is phony. Any gay or lesbian is welcome to march in the parade. But just as no right-to-life group is allowed to march under their own banner, neither can the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO). New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller is also invoking the bogus ‘inclusiveness’ excuse. Cuomo may be the biggest loser of them all. He claims to be Catholic, wants the Catholic vote, yet turns on his own when it comes time to take a stand.

“The Catholic League spent three weeks calling Senator Schumer’s office, trying in vain to find out if he would participate. For him to stay home is rank hypocrisy. Schumer has skipped the St. Patrick’s Day parade since the ILGO controversy began more than ten years ago. Yet he had no problem marching in the ‘Salute to Israel’ when organizers of that event had a similar ban on gay groups marching under their own banner prior to 1999. Why does he respect the house rules of the ‘Salute to Israel’ parade but not the ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ parade.

“Come election time, New York Catholics and indeed all New Yorkers will take note of these politicians’ intolerance of Catholic beliefs in the organizing of the St. Patrick’s Day parade.”

The fact that these politicians continue to snub Catholics while cozing up to homosexuals is indicative of just how much our culture has changed. There was a time when no public office holder would dare offend Catholics. But it’s never too late to turn things around which is why we keep this issue alive.

Within the space of 48 hours, Bill Maher attacked Catholic priests in a way the Ku Klux Klan couldn’t match.

On March 6, on “Politically Correct with Bill Maher,” comedian Jimmy Kimmel mocked the Immaculate Conception by saying, “God has a penis.” When the audience reacted with nervous laughter, Kimmel offered, “Oh, like He doesn’t? How do you think we got Jesus?”

Then Kirk Franklin chimed in with, “See, that’s why we gotta move people away from religion. I think religion is one of the worst things that ever happened to America.” Franklin, a black musician, then attacked the Eucharist by complaining “gotta take the cracker.” To which Maher replied, “Gotta take the cracker from a cracker.”

Things got worse on March 8. Maher led the attack on Catholicism and some of his guests participated as well. He exploited the problem of priest pedophilia in the Church in an extended segment. Here is a sample of what he said:

• “Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics.”
• “I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests].”

The lone guest who challenged Maher was Jason Jones of Human Life International. When he commented that this problem was not prevalent in Europe or South America, Maher shot back, “You’re right. In African countries they rape the nuns.”

In our news release, we said the following:

“Bill Maher has been attacking Catholicism for years, and this explains why the Catholic League is now at a breaking point with him. It seems ‘the Catholics’ (a telling use of words) are always causing him pain. It was also revealing to note that when challenged, he moved from blaming all priests for molesting young boys to raping nuns. Perhaps this is what he means by diversity.”

On March 8, William Donohue personally wrote to Olivia Cohen-Cutler, vice president of Broadcast Standards and Practices, to see if someone at ABC is willing to intervene. He told her, “Maher is out of control. This isn’t humor—it’s anti-Catholicism of the most vicious kind. If ABC does nothing to tone him down, we will make public our next move. And nothing will deter us from pressing this issue until Maher knocks it off.”

Donohue told Cohen-Cutler that he would be glad to meet her in New York next time comes east. In the meantime, please write to her at ABC, Inc., Broadcast Standards and Practices, 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521-4536.

When The Drudge Report website reported that CBS was giving serious consideration to replacing David Letterman with Howard Stern, we immediately responded with a threat to boycott the show’s sponsors.

William Donohue told the media on March 6, “CBS is out of its mind if it thinks it can get away with moving Howard Stern into the Letterman slot without a fight.” He then laid bare his strategy: “If they are bold enough to make this move, here’s what I promise to do. I’ll organize scores of organizations that have had it with Stern for all kinds of reasons and then we’ll decide on one sponsor to boycott. We won’t go after CBS per se because it’s impossible to boycott a network with any effectiveness. We won’t go after all the sponsors at one time because that is also ineffectual. But if everyone targets the same sponsor at the same time, we’ll win. And then we’ll decide on a second sponsor to nail, and so on.”

Donohue pointed out that the league was still angered by what Stern did on June 30 last year. That was when he and sidekick Robin Quivers joined with porn star Rebecca Lord in attacking all priests as pedophiles. He did this on E! Entertainment. We then asked U.S. bishops to join us in a boycott of Miller Brewing, Stern’s biggest sponsor, and many did.

“This time we’re better prepared,” Donohue said. “This time we’re going to organize the biggest boycott of them all. We’re anxiously awaiting their decision and if CBS goes with Stern, we will announce in the coming weeks the names of all the organizations that are participating in the boycott. Once the sponsors are known, we’ll decide on which one to boycott.”

Page Six, the celebrity page of the New York Post quoted Donohue as saying, “This boycott will work because no one in the entertainment business has angered Americans across the board more than Howard Stern.” Lucky for CBS they decided to stay with Letterman.