For the past two years, Guinness has invited Sinead O’Connor to sing at its Irish Fest at Randalls Island in New York. The good news is that O’Connor has not sported her usual animosity towards Catholicism. The bad news is that others have.

On June 13, a female singer in one of the bands, Chumbawumba, appeared on stage dressed as a nun with Rosary beads around her neck, shouting, “Any Catholics out there?” During the song, she danced around stage swinging the Rosary Beads while grabbing her crotch and chugging a can of beer. Repeatedly, she used her middle finger to bless herself with the Sign of the Cross. One of our members, Ed Myers, let her have it, and so did his friends. The wonder is why other Irish Catholics didn’t chim in.

The Catholic League is protesting this incident to the coordinator of the event.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in Washington, D.C., has come under fire by several Jewish intellectuals for its unfair depictions of Christianity. Most of the criticism focuses on a 14 minute-movie, “Antisemitism,” which seeks to establish a direct link between the teachings of the Catholic Church and the Holocaust. In the movie, Hitler is identified as “Austrian born and a baptized Catholic,” and is quoted (in a voice-over) saying, “The difference between the Church and me is that I am finishing the job.”

William Donohue recently visited the museum and then released the following comment to the press:

“The Jewish leaders who have protested the Holocaust Museum movie, ‘Antisemitism,’ have done so with courage and conviction: they are also right on the money. The movie is a disgrace. It not only fails to distinguish between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, it erroneously credits Catholicism with the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people. Yet as George Washington University professor Marc Saperstein has written, ‘Nazi texts provide no evidence that the antisemitism of Hitler or Himmler was informed by the Christian characterization of the Jews as Christ-killers, condemned by God because they refused to recognize the messiah. Nazi rhetoric is drawn from different realms.

“Some Catholics have defended the movie, arguing that despite some flaws, it is balanced by a section of the museum that bears tribute to those Catholics who rescued Jews. This is pure nonsense. The section on rescuers in no way singles out Catholics for tribute.

“There are other problems with this museum as well. One would barely know how viciously anti-Catholic the Nazis were. That is why it is irresponsible to try to stitch a knot between Hitler’s baptism and the Holocaust. We are relating our objections to the director of the museum.”

Because the museum director refuses to cooperate, the Catholic League will now join with others, Jewish as well as Catholic, to register our complaints with other parties. This is not an issue that we are prepared to drop. We’ll keep you posted.

Recently, CNN International did a spot on a possible cure for cancer, coming out of Italy. One of our alert members, Father Robert Faricy of the Pontifical University in Rome, didn’t like what reporter Fiona Foster had to say about it, so he fired off a letter. She questioned whether this was “a miracle, or just another Immaculate Deception?”

We are happy to say that Miss Foster had the courage to admit that she was wrong and extended a sincere apology to Father Faricy. CNN showed class and Father Faricy showed the power of the pen.

Why the office of U.S. Patent and Trademark needs an Office of Civil Rights is not readily understood. Why that office has a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual subcommittee is even less understandable. Even more peculiar is why they have a need to sponsor the First Annual Gay Awareness Month Celebration. And all along we thought they worked on patents and trademarks. How silly of us.

The Catholic League could care less about any of this nonsense. But our attention was drawn to the calendar that this office issued announcing the event: it listed, among many other notable persons, St. Paul as a gay man. We called and asked one question: please fax us the evidence.

The initial response was nervousness and an admission that there was no one in the office who could answer that question. When no one got back to us, we pressed again. And again and again. Finally, a queasy PR man called to say that it was reported on the internet that St. Paul was gay and that references of this sort had been made in several books. This was quickly followed by a statement that he recognized that the internet was not necessarily a reliable source. Furthermore, he admitted that he didn’t know the names of any of the books that he cited as proof.

We have a happy ending. St. Paul has already been deleted from the internet listing that advertises this momentous event. And he’ll never again appear in print on the flyers.

Now perhaps they can get back to patents and trademarks. After, of course, they make everyone in the workplace aware that gays exist.

Last month we reported that there was an artist in Seattle who hates Catholicism and uses the most vile imagery imaginable. The same artist has struck again, proving that our imagination is indeed limited.

As described by one of our members, here’s what the latest contribution to art looks like: “Depicts Christ on cross being sodomized by two men, anally and orally, genitals showing, ejaculation, while blood drips from his forehead and hands, semen is present.”

An e-mail from the artist to William Donohue posed the question, “Whose child is Jesus molesting now?” The artist hung Donohue’s name in the window alongside his masterpieces.

What we like about this latest incident is its clarity of purpose: even the Catholic League’s most ferocious critics might have a hard time explaining away this one. But our newly expanded imagination informs us that some may not struggle at all.

The Times Herald Record, a newspaper that covers Orange County, New York, wants the Catholic Church to change and shut up. Here’s the evidence.

In an editorial, the Times Herald Record took the Catholic Church to task for its rules governing qualifications for the priesthood: it wants women priests and married priests. Indeed, it even compared these Church rules to a fictitious ancient tradition that allowed country folk to determine by lottery who should be stoned to death. To top it off, the editorial asked area Catholics to call the newspaper registering their view on whether priests should be allowed to marry.

Imagine, just for a moment, an editorial blasting Orthodox Jews for its rules governing qualifications for the rabbinate. And imagine asking local Jews what they think about such rules. Keep imagining.

Interestingly, some local Catholics didn’t care for the newspaper’s voyeurism and let them have it. In reply, the editors said they had every right to stick their nose in the Church’s business because “the Catholic Church is a highly political institution.” They then cite the Church’s teachings on abortion, birth control and domestic partnership as proof that even non-Catholics must deal with the consequences of the Church’s efforts.

Of course, the case could be made that Catholics must live with the consequences of the efforts of atheists, secularists and bigots, but that wouldn’t be fair: the Times Herald Record would then have to look at itself in the mirror. And that wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

Novelist John Irving was recently asked a hypothetical question: what would he outlaw? His response was “Visits to the country by the pope, unless he stops proselytizing. When he says that abortion is ‘an abominable crime, a senseless impoverishment of the person and not of society itself,’ he’s just blowing more right-to-life hot air; he should be pelted with ripe tomatoes.”

Actor Bruce Willis has announced that he’s a big fan of Louis Farrakhan. Right in line with this thinking is Willis’ comment that “Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms.” He added that “Catholicism and Christianity” are for the birds.

Both of these comments make us feel secure. If this is the level of intellect possessed by our adversaries, we have nothing to worry about.

The Catholic League remains steadfast in its conviction that James Hormel should not be tenured as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. Our position is based on Hormel’s refusal to disavow his support for the anti-Catholic group, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, not his sexual orientation. Unfortunately, his supporters have tried to skirt the anti-Catholic charge by focusing exclusively on the man’s gayness.

In the pages of the Los Angeles Times, Dianne Feinstein of California and Robert Torricelli of New Jersey chose to frame the issue this way: “Should a man be denied the opportunity to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg because he is gay?” To which we answered, “No.” But we also said that no one should be appointed to such a post if he were anti-Catholic. Similarly, an editorial in the Savannah Morning News refused to deal with the anti-Catholic charge.

Had Hormel not made a political issue of his sexual orientation in the first place, he might not have been placed in the position of offering commentary on a Gay Pride Parade that featured an anti-Catholic group. He and his supporters should deal with this issue instead of engaging in political obfuscation.

There must be some strange appetite out there for the commercial abuse of nun-like characters. The latest is a video game called “Sister Mary Lascivious.” An ad for this game appeared in the June issue of Ultra Gamplayers, a video game magazine by Imagine Media. It showed an illustration of a gun-waving, scantily clad buxom nun. Alongside the graphic was the following:

“A woman of faith and wheels, the only thing that Sister Mary prefers to high speed, vehicle-based combat is converting non-believers to her own special brand of religion. Although her swim wear is unorthodox, Sister Mary tries to find fun in the sun as often as she can. Besides, black makes me thinner, Don’t you think?”

We didn’t find much humor in this, nor did we notice that any other religion was selected for such “humor.” We registered our concerns with the publication and have asked them to withdraw the ad from future issues.

Readers will recall that in March, our lead story dealt with the anti-Christian and anti-Semitic incidents that took place at the New Paltz campus of the State University of New York (SUNY) last year. The incidents occurred during a conference on “Revolting Behavior: The Challenges of Women’s Sexual Freedom.” The conference featured a sex-toy sale, masturbation workshops, explicit discussions of sadomasochism, lesbian sex, as well as shots at Christians and Jews. Under attack from many quarters was SUNY-New Paltz president Roger Bowen, a staunch defender of the conference.

Though Dr. Bowen obviously can’t tell the difference between the Playboy Mansion and a college campus, he is a hero to some: the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has made Bowen the recipient of its 1998 Academic Freedom award. Not bad for a guy who is a cross between Louis Farrakhan and Pee Wee Herman.