When news stories surfaced on the way the IRS was selectively targeting conservative and religious groups, Bill Donohue decided the time had come to reveal his story. Just weeks after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Donohue was notified by the IRS that the Catholic League was under investigation for violating the IRS Code on [...]
Old-time rock star David Bowie made a splash with his new video that accompanies his song, “The Next Day.” The video is strewn with characteristic excess: one priest bashes a homeless man, while others are busy hitting on women; self-flagellation is depicted; a dancing gal with bleeding hands makes a stigmata statement; and a customer is [...]
William A. Donohue The collectivization of guilt, and the individualization of merit, is a common media trick, especially when covering Catholics. For example, if there is a wayward cop, and he is Catholic, look for the reporter to cite his religious status. “Patrick McGillicudy, a former altar boy, was arraigned today on charges of police brutality.” [...]
The following statement, written by Bill Donohue, was submitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer to run as a two-page ad. It was scheduled to run on May 20. But after giving us all the information, and after we pledged to pay them $58,000, we were turned down May 15 by those at the top, without explanation. They [...]
A survey done by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), an institute at Georgetown University, shows how utterly absurd it is to maintain that the Catholic Church continues to have a problem with the issue of priestly sexual abuse. Of the nearly 40,000 priests in the United States, there were 34 allegations made [...]
A priest gropes a teenager 12 years ago while wrestling and is told not to be around minors unless supervised. He breaks the agreement. Here’s how New Jersey newspapers and politicians responded. Calling for the resignation of the priest’s boss, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, are the following: the Newark Star-Ledger, the Asbury Park Press, Sen. [...]
No organization in the nation today has less of a problem with the sexual abuse of minors than the Catholic Church. But one would never know that by listening to late-night talk show hosts, and the likes of Bill Maher. They would have the audience believe nothing has changed. One reason they continue with sweeping generalizations— [...]
In April, Colm Toibin’s book, The Testament of Mary, became the subject of a Broadway play; it opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre. There is no question that Toibin is a gifted writer, but it wasn’t easy to see who was going to be drawn to this play, even if it ran for only 12 weeks. [...]
The Pew Research Center’s report “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society” is an impressive work, based on surveys conducted between 2008 and 2012 in 39 countries. Over 38,000 interviews were conduct- ed in over 80 languages. It examines the social and political views of Muslims worldwide, asking the respondents whether they believe that sharia (traditional [...]
In a segment titled “God and Hitler,” Gordon Robertson (son of Rev. Pat Robertson), hosted a discussion on the Catholic Church’s response to Hitler. Several errors of fact were made. 1) It is wrong to paint Hitler as a Catholic. Though he was baptized, he excommunicated himself, latae sententiae, when he sought, in his words, to [...]
