The following media outlets have inaccurately reported a comment made by Jeb Bush in his 1995 book, Profiles in Character: Huffington Post; Gawker; USA Today; Buzzfeed; Black Business Now; U.S. News and World Report; Opposing Views; Ring of Fire; Perez Hilton; Addicting Info; Wonkette; Daily Kos; Occupy Democrats; Daily Beast; Salon; CNN News. The meme was broached by Huffington Post in its recent headline, “Jeb Bush: Unwed Mothers Should Be Publicly Shamed.” All of these media outlets mindlessly distorted what Bush said.

Here is what Bush actually said in his book: “One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct.” (Italics added.)

Ironically, this quote appeared in the Huffington Post article by Laura Bassett. That it undermined the title of her article was obvious—at least it was obvious to those who did not share her ideological bias. The other media sources either had similar headlines or made it appear that dads were never mentioned by Bush.

Bill Donohue added the italics to demonstrate how utterly inaccurate it was to say that Bush only addressed moms. Why is this important? Because of the faux “War on Women” campaign that is being waged, oftentimes by those who attack the Catholic Church.

By the way, Bush’s sociological insight is accurate: the loss of stigma attached to unwed mothers and fathers has indeed contributed to a spike in children born out of wedlock.

Sarah Palin, and her daughter Bristol, have rightly slammed the mainstream media for bashing the Duggars as hypocrites while continuing to laud Lena Dunham, the celebrity who sexually molested her own sister. But it’s not just the secular media that are guilty of rank duplicity—it’s hit the Catholic media.

Recently on the front page of the National Catholic Reporter, a newspaper and website which opposes every Catholic Church teaching on sexuality, there was an article by David Clohessy, the director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). He condemned the Duggars because “no one told the police” about Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation of his sisters.

In the 1990s, David Clohessy knew about the crimes committed by a sexual molester but never called the cops. The abuser was his brother Kevin, then a priest.

It gets worse. In a recent article by Clohessy, he slammed Bishop Robert Finn, who previously led the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, for not reporting a disturbed priest who downloaded crotch-shot pictures of fully-clothed girls (there was one non-pornographic photo of a naked girl) to his computer. Yet the founder of SNAP, Barbara Blaine, who works closely with Clohessy, wrote to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners in 2009 pleading with the panel to go easy on Dr. Steve Taylor: he is a former SNAP shrink who was sent to prison for downloading child pornography to his computer.

The hypocrisy is stunning.

The following article written by Bill Donohue was published by Newsmax on June 3, 2015.

Only a cruel person would wish Bruce Jenner ill-will now that he has morphed into Caitlyn Jenner. Hopefully, he is now at peace with himself. Assuming he is, what are the chances he will stay that way? Regrettably, they are not good. Worse, the glamorization of his condition is risky: it will only encourage those who are in rebellion against their nature not to seek professional help.

It is important to clarify what Jenner’s condition is. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, he is not a transgender: he is a transsexual. Gender refers to socially learned roles that are appropriate for males and females; sex connotes a nature-determined status, as exemplified by the two sexes. Gender roles, moreover, typically take their cues from nature; this explains the similarities in the way boys and girls are raised in different cultures. Moreover, boys are more aggressive than girls—in every society—and this has important social and cultural consequences. The reason has everything to do with nature: boys have a higher level of testosterone than girls.

Are transsexuals mentally ill? Until two years ago, the answer was yes. In the 3rd edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published in 1980, those who underwent sexual surgery were seen as suffering from a psychological disorder, often schizophrenia. When DSM-4 was published in 1994, they were also considered mentally ill. But when DSM-5 was published in 2013, they were no longer listed. Instead, it was determined that such persons suffer from “gender dysphoria,” not “gender identity disorder”; the new term refers to an emotionally distressful condition. What changed, however, were mores, not science.

Not everyone is buying into this politically correct interpretation of what is now called transgenderism. Dr. Paul McHugh is former Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Not shy about challenging the conventional wisdom, he is adamant in his conviction that people like Jenner suffer from a mental disorder. What they need, he says, is treatment. He maintains that “the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality.” Also, this sex change experience “can lead to grim psychological outcomes.”

McHugh’s fears are not unfounded. The majority of those who undergo a “sex change” suffer from an increase in depression. Conversely, the vast majority of those who say they had transgender feelings when they were young, but did not undergo surgical treatment, spontaneously lost those feelings later in life. Also, we know that 41 percent of those who are transgender have attempted suicide—nine times the national average. Those who attribute this condition to transphobia are wrong: in fact, those who are out in the open about their transgender status are more likely to attempt suicide.

Many are saying that Jenner is absolutely happier now that he is “out.” Hopefully, s/he will stay that way. But the likelihood that s/he will is dim. McHugh notes that in a long-term Swedish study released a few years ago, “beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population.”

The widespread elite reaction to Jenner—lauding him as a fabulous role model for others struggling with their nature—is tragically mistaken. It will only serve to convince these troubled persons not to seek the help they need. It has already led some states to ban psychiatric efforts to help these people come to terms with their sex.

Recent conversations about Jenner’s transformation assume that “sex changes” are a reality.

They are not. A male who undergoes surgery can never ovulate or conceive, and a female who makes the switch can never produce sperm. In truth, there is no such thing as a biological sex change.

From a Catholic perspective, all persons possess equal human dignity, and this certainly would include Jenner. But the Church also sees body mutilation as sinful. In 2003, the Vatican released a confidential document to Church leaders about this issue. The text defined transsexualism as a psychic disorder. The fact that most of those who believe they need to change their sex suffer from a dissociative disorder only confirms the wisdom of this document.

We need to have a healthy and honest discussion about this issue. Sadly, those who want to hijack Jenner’s experience and use it to advance their own political agenda are not doing anyone any good. Nor does it help when elite pressure invites the public to think that getting Jennerized is simply an expression of different strokes for different folks. It is not. It is an expression of an underlying psychological problem that demands attention.

Pope Francis did not comment on Bruce Jenner’s transformation, but we are not without clues as to what he may have thought. The pope, like his two predecessors, has spoken directly and quite strongly about the intellectual hollowness of gender theory and gender ideology. These popular strains in post-modernist thought discount, if not deny, the role played by nature in shaping human behavior. Here’s a sample of what Pope Francis has said on this subject:

◦”I ask myself, if the so-called gender theory is not, at the same time, an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards.” (4-15-15)

◦”The crisis of the family is a social reality. Then there are ideological colonizations of the family, modes and proposals from Europe and also from overseas. The error of the human mind that is gender theory creates a lot of confusion.” (3-23-15)

◦On board a flight from Manila to Rome, after he labeled “gender theory” a form of “ideological colonization,” he said: “Why do I say ideological colonization? Because they take, they really take, they take the need of a people to seize an opportunity to enter and grow strong—with the children. But it is not new, this. The same was done by the dictatorships of the last century. They entered with their own doctrine—think of Balilla [Mussolini’s fascist youth organization], think of the Hitler Youth.” (1-19-15)

◦”Let us be on guard against colonization by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological colonization which are out to destroy the family.” (1-16-15)

◦”Gender ideology is demonic!” (1-30-14)

Pope Francis would never demonize Bruce Jenner—s/he possesses the same human dignity afforded all of God’s people. But by branding as demonic the very ideology that justified his transformation, the pope made it clear what he thought of it.

Recently St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt announced that he was resigning from his position.

Both the New York Times and AP reported that Archbishop Nienstedt protected a pedophile priest, Curtis Wehmeyer. But Wehmeyer is not a pedophile: as with almost all molesting priests—more than 80 percent of them—he is a homosexual.

In 2010, Wehmeyer molested two postpubescent boys, 12 and 14, though it wasn’t until 2012 that the mother of the abused boys told a priest about it. She was told to call the cops. She did. Wehmeyer was immediately relieved of his duties, and the Ramsey County Attorney commended Archbishop Nienstedt for doing “the right thing.”

It was Nienstedt who got the priest removed. Under his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Flynn, Wehmeyer made sexually suggestive remarks to two men, 19 and 20; he was sent for counseling. Two years later, while Flynn was still in charge, he was found cruising in an area known for gay sex. In 2009, with Nienstedt at the helm, he got a DUI. If Nienstedt made one mistake, it was not dumping Wehmeyer sooner.

Ever since Nienstedt criticized the gay movie, “Brokeback Mountain,” he has been a marked man. The Star Tribune, the St. Cloud Times, Minnesota Public Radio, the New York Times, as well as an array of wayward priests, Catholic journalists, former Catholics, and unethical lawyers, have been out to get him. Just recently, Fr. Mike Tegeder said it was a good sign that Nienstedt resigned; Tegeder supports gay marriage.

Nienstedt’s sin is that he is an orthodox Catholic. How does Bill Donohue know? When Nienstedt took over the Diocese of New Ulm in 2001, he made public the names of eight priests who were credibly accused of molesting minors, only one of whom was there when Nienstedt took over. He did what his predecessor, Bishop Raymond Lucker, would not do. Lucker was loved by Nienstedt’s critics. Similarly, when Nienstedt took over from Flynn, he had to deal with two molesting gay priests.

Nienstedt was twice accused of inappropriate touching, and twice the charges proved false. He is a good man who was unfairly treated.

A few weeks ago, reports were flying around the Internet that Pope Francis is now promoting divorce as “morally necessary.” The pope recently said at the weekly General Audience that “there are cases in which separation is inevitable. Sometimes it can become even morally necessary, precisely when it comes to subtracting the weaker spouse, or small children, from more serious injuries caused by arrogance and violence, by humiliation and exploitation, by extraneousness (non-involvement) and by indifference.” (Bill Donohue’s emphasis.)

The pope was not exactly breaking new ground. In 1992, the U.S. bishops issued a statement, “When I Call For Help” that was even more pointed.

“Finally,” they said, “we emphasize that no person is expected to stay in an abusive marriage. Some abused women believe that church teaching on the permanence of marriage requires them to stay in an abused relationship. They may hesitate to seek a separation or divorce. They may feel they cannot re-marry in the Church. Violence and abuse, not divorce, break up a marriage.” Well said. Yes, it is not divorce that breaks up an abusive marriage, it is the abuse itself.

The media have a duty to report what the pope, and the bishops, say, and not what they want them to say.

A couple of weeks ago, several Catholic bashing remarks were made on nighttime TV.

On June 6, Showtime ran a rerun of an earlier “HAPPYish” show that featured Ellen Barkin saying that Jesus and Lazarus were lovers. To which Bradley Whitford replied, “I thought it was Judas who f***ed Jesus.”

On June 7, John Oliver spoke about the confessional on his HBO show. He said to the priest, “What do you mean is there anything else? I don’t know—I masturbated into a kiwi fruit.”

On June 7, “HAPPYish” featured Steve Coogan of “Philomena” fame praising Jesus for being a marketing genius by launching a “We’ll save you” campaign. Coogan offered as an example of what Jesus said, “We’ll even save your d****.”

On June 9, a reair of “Tosh.0” on Comedy Central had one of its characters opine, “You know I’m not fond of stained glass. When I was an altar boy a priest licked my ass.”

On June 9, there was an exchange on the Comedy Central show “@Midnight” about cigarette smoking and shooting up with drugs. If you shoot up at church, said a contestant, “you’ll get a thumb up your ass from yours truly.” This was followed by similar remarks, ending with Sean Donnelly saying it happened to him because he’s “Irish Catholic.”

On June 10, Dr. Drew’s HLN show had a panel discussion about student conduct in a Christian school. After Drew made a sarcastic remark about such schools, a panelist answered in kind, “Because a Catholic school raises kids right.” To which Drew said, “Well, the Duggars taught us that, of course.” [Note: the Duggars are not Catholic.]

Most of these people are jerks, so it would have been a waste of time to register a complaint with them. But Dr. Drew should know better.

Many celebrities will do anything to show how utterly welcoming they are of men and women who are in rebellion against their own nature—they applaud every time someone gets Jennerized. But when it comes to Catholics, that’s a different story. Indeed, they are obliged to be bigoted.

During the Critics’ Choice Television Awards on A&E that aired a couple of weeks ago, Charlize Theron said of Seth McFarland, “By the age of 9, he was drawing a comic strip for the local paper. One features a character taking Communion and asking, ‘Can I have fries with that?’ He got an angry letter from the local priest, and he knew the path he would take. He and that priest spent the next three years in a loving monogamous relationship.”

During “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” the host made the following remarks on his HBO show: “The Irish vote was widely celebrated, with one depressingly predictable voice of dissent.” He added, “Ok, settle down a little, Catholic Church. Remember, you’re an organization whose ‘victories for humanity’ include the Crusades, forced adoptions, and running a wildly successful international pedophile exchange program.”

Ridiculing the Eucharist is always a below the belt offense—there is nothing comedic about it. Smearing the Catholic Church—or any other religious institution—is always wrong, and it is particularly despicable when the smears are based on ignorance and lies.

Surely the corporate boys and girls in communications at these two media outlets enjoyed hearing from you.

During a recent episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, host Bill Maher said Christians have no basis to complain about being defamed or discriminated against because they constitute a majority of the nation. “Seventy percent of the country is Christian, not to mention every president we’ve ever had,” he said. He also said that “conservatives who constantly whine that Christianity is under attack from liberals have to explain why there are over 300,000 churches in the U.S. but only 400 Whole Foods.”

According to Maher’s logic, Africans in South Africa who lived under apartheid had no basis to complain because they constituted more than 90 percent of the nation. What matters is not the demographics of the population but whether the nation’s elites are working to undermine the norms and values of the majority. If the political and cultural elites bear an animus against the majority, that is not without consequence.

Anyone who thinks that Christian bashing is not alive and well—at the federal, state, and local levels—is delusional. That it thrives in cultural institutions such as the arts, education, the entertainment industry, and the media is indisputable.

Maher can verify the accuracy of Bill Donohue’s position by accessing the Catholic League’s annual reports on anti-Catholicism, news releases, and monthly journal, Catalyst; all are available online. Indeed, he will find there are dozens of entries that bear his name.

Recently, a court hearing was heard before a New York State judge that considered the rights of chimpanzees.

Steven M. Wise is the president of the Nonhuman Rights Project and he believes that apes should be granted identical rights to most humans. Bill Donohue said most humans because his expansive idea of rights does not extend to unborn children. Whether it extends to unborn apes is not known. He is, of course, a professor.

Wise was taken seriously by State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe. Too bad she didn’t question him about a comment he once made comparing his son to an ape: “I don’t see a difference between a chimpanzee and my 4 1/2 year-old son.” Having not met his son, Donohue will just have to take his word for it.

Wise wants to liberate Hercules and Leo, two chimps, from Stony Brook University; they are being studied there by a researcher. He did not say whether they should be able to matriculate at Stony Brook, or whether they should be allowed to pay in-state tuition. More important, he says the chimps possess “bodily liberty.” Which begs the question: Why doesn’t a child who is living in his mother’s womb possess this right?

Curiously, the rights of the unborn are not mentioned on Wise’s website. But he has been quoted elsewhere saying, “There are many reasons to support the argument that a woman should have the legal right to an abortion.”

In Wise’s mind, the Catholic Church is the enemy of human rights. He teaches, by the way, at St. Thomas Law School, a Catholic institution. So who is his champion of human rights? Peter Singer. Singer believes that it should be legal for parents to kill their disabled newborn children. He also believes that bestiality should be legal because “sex with animals does not always involve cruelty.” He is, of course, a professor (at Princeton).

Donohue had some advice for Wise: He should keep Singer away from Hercules and Leo.