In October, the confidential priest personnel files of 126 clergymen in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were made public. It was part of a settlement between the archdiocese and lawyers for alleged victims of priestly sexual abuse; the files date from the 1930s.

Here is what Bill Donohue said about this issue in a news release:

“There is so much blame to go around. Among the culprits are the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, some priests, many therapists, some lawyers, some alleged victims and some in the media.

“It is beyond belief that molesting priests were moved from parish to parish when any sensible person in charge would have removed these deeply troubled men from any contact with children. On the flip side, the archdiocese has sold out its priests by turning over personnel files on men who were born in the 19th century, have long ago died and cannot defend themselves from charges which even the archdiocese admits are not credible. So what we have is a garbage pail of information about priests—including those who have been accused of molestation when they were between the ages of two and five—that should never have been made public. Obviously, in current cases of credible accusations of a criminal nature, such files should be turned over to the authorities. But the wholesale dumping of files is an outrageous abuse of civil liberties.

“We know from the files that have been released that in 79 percent of the cases, the alleged victim was male; this comports with the figure of 81 percent cited by the John Jay study of priests nationwide. And we know from the latter study that almost 8 in 10 of the alleged male victims were postpubescent, meaning that the problem is homosexual priests. Yet many in the media continue to lie—they say the problem is pedophilia when the data directly say otherwise. No, homosexuality does not cause molestation, and there are many good gay priests, but the fact remains that most of the problem priests are gay.

“The therapists who said they could ‘fix’ these men are either incompetent or deceitful. Some of the lawyers are hustlers and some of the alleged victims are liars: It is not a coincidence that in the last few years a record number of alleged victims have come forward.

“Get the guilty and protect the innocent. Exercise common sense and have the courage to execute. And stop the lying. That’s my recipe.”

Below are some of the remarks that William Donohue and Kiera McCaffrey made on national television on October 13th:

Bill Donohue on NBC’s “Today”: “Back in the ’60s and ’70s, the sexual revolution, that’s when most of it took place—except for the last few years, where all of a sudden, it goes through the roof. Why? Because there’s a lot of deep pocket lawyers out there trying to hustle these people.

“I’m not saying homosexuality causes someone to be a predator, that would be malicious. But I am saying this: We have a problem within the Catholic Church of some homosexual men who are putting their hands on the kids. They’ve got to be thrown out.”

Kiera McCaffrey on MSNBC’s “Connected Coast to Coast”: “We have some excellent bishops and cardinals who have done a wonderful job and we don’t have the same problems in all areas.

“Bishop Doran reminded his parishioners, his flock, of the words of Jesus: That it would be better for a man to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the ocean than to hurt a child. And he made it very clear that any priest under his watch would not get away with any sort of mistreatment.”

Bill Donohue on MSNBC’s “The Situation”: “In other words, what they’ve done in Los Angeles is to say this: ‘We’ll do anything to get this monkey off our back, and we will expose all priests who have been accused, including those for whom we know the accusation is not credible.’ So they’re not satisfying me. They’re not satisfying the victims, many of whom are professional victims. They’ll never be satisfied.”

Tucker Carlson: “What do you mean professional victims?”

Bill Donohue: “Well, in other words, look, there’s money in this. Who do you think is supporting these victims’ groups? It comes from the lawyers themselves. Forbesmagazine exposed this a couple of years ago. I’m sick and tired of people always saying the Catholic Church never does anything right in this. There are bishops who have done a good job.”

The lead story in last month’s Catalyst was on the despicable line of questioning that Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Dianne Feinstein engaged in when addressing John Roberts. We ended the story by noting that Feinstein contacted us saying she was innocent of the charges we made against her; we also indicated that we weren’t persuaded.

What appears below is Bill Donohue’s reply to Senator Feinstein’s letter. We never heard back from her, so we consider this to be the final say in the matter.

Dear Senator Feinstein:

In your letter of September 19, you said you are writing “to set the record straight about false charges” I made about you regarding your opening statement during the Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be Chief Justice. Unfortunately, you have not set the record straight, so I will.

In my news release of September 12, I criticized you for saying that the Holocaust that took place in Hungary “occurred in the name of religion.” Now it is true that in your oral presentation you did not mention those words. But the fact remains that your office released your opening remarks to the press prior to your presentation with the accusatory words in it. That’s why the Congressional Quarterly and Capitol Hill Press Releases published your offensive remarks under the title, “Feinstein—Prepared Remarks For Roberts’ Hearing.” In short, for you not to mention this in your letter renders your attempt “to set the record straight” an abject failure.

Finally, it is always important to distinguish between those who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust and the Nazis.

We have no agenda against Senator Feinstein, but we will not tolerate deceit from anyone. Had she simply said that the accusatory words—”occurred in the name of religion”—-were deleted from her final script, the issue would have died.

After Bill Donohue appeared on the “Today” show on October 13, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) went bonkers. Its president, Neil G. Giuliano called Donohue’s comments about the role of homosexuals in the sexual abuse scandal “baseless, defamatory [and] calculated to fuel anti-gay sentiment.” He provided no evidence to support his baseless charge.

During the interview, Donohue cited the John Jay Report that was commissioned by the bishops on this subject. The scholars found that the vast majority of the boys who were molested were postpubescent, meaning that they were the victims of homosexual behavior. Therefore, GLAAD is wrong to cry discrimination—they are only compounding the problem by lying about the role of gays in the scandal.

GLAAD also posted on its website an alert asking its members to e-mail the “Today” show demanding that Donohue not be invited back on the show. We’re glad that GLAAD isn’t happy about the show.

Fernando Ferrer is running for Mayor of New York City against the incumbent, Michael Bloomberg. Ferrer is Catholic and Bloomberg is Jewish, but unlike Ferrer, Bloomberg isn’t running away from his roots. Ferrer, who defends abortion-on-demand as much as Bloomberg, recently tried to hide the fact that he’s Catholic. Why? Our guess is he didn’t want to draw attention to his religion lest he offend the well-funded pro-abortion types in the city who might still give him a few bucks.

Now we’ve heard of Catholics who wear their religion on their sleeve, but Ferrer seems to want to hide his inside his collar. At any rate, we couldn’t take his phoniness and so let loose with the following news release:

“Freddy (as he affectionately calls himself) Ferrer is all over the New York news for advertising himself on his website as a product of public schools when, in fact, he went to Catholic schools from K-12. When asked about this yesterday, all he could say was that it was ‘nonsense’ to say he lied about his schooling. What he still could not do was to say that he went to Catholic schools, and his revised website makes no reference to his parochial education either.

“This is not the first time that Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer has turned his back on Catholics. In 1996-97, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani floated the idea that one way to stem overcrowding in the public schools was to send students to Catholic schools, the Faker went mad. No doubt he would be just as mad to learn that his challenger, incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a contributor to the Catholic Schools Foundation.

“Freddy-the-Faker will not only do nothing for Catholics, he has the gall to say he’s been exploited by the Catholic Church. In 2001, he said that the most ‘personally wrenching’ issue he ever faced was supporting gay rights, adding that ‘the pummeling I was getting from my own church on that issue was just incredible.’ Really? A Lexis-Nexis search on this subject turns up nothing. Indeed, the only time he has been criticized for anything dealing with gay rights was when he refused to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Fifth Avenue, and I was the one who nailed him. By contrast, Bloomberg marches in the parade and he’s Jewish!

“When an anti-Catholic bigot threw elephant dung on a portrait of Our Blessed Mother and had it displayed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Mayor Giuliani and the Catholic League protested. But Freddy-the-Faker said nothing, except to sue Giuliani for withdrawing funding for the museum. And in 2001, when Bloomberg endorsed the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in the public schools, the Faker went ballistic. Makes you wonder: Who’s Catholic? Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer or Mike Bloomberg?”

Bloomberg is expected to win easily against Ferrer. Either way, traditional Catholics lose.

The Catholic League did not take a position on John Roberts as a nominee for the Supreme Court, and we are taking no position on Harriet Miers. Our sole concern is that all nominees are treated fairly with respect to their religious affiliations.

When Roberts was attacked for his Catholicism, we struck back at his offenders. We did the same when Miers came under attack for her Christian background. In both instances, the bigots didn’t wait 24 hours before they unloaded. Our response to them was just as quick, as evidenced by our news release of October 5. Here is what we told the media:

“The anti-religious secularists on the Left are more concerned about keeping abortion-on-demand legal and keeping our society free from religious influence than any other issues. It is what defines them. Imbued with hate, they are already targeting the Christian status of Harriet Miers. And when it comes to hate, few can match the vitriol of Mollie Ivins, the syndicated columnist from Texas.

“In her tirade against Miers, Ivins doesn’t so much focus on the high court nominee’s credentials as she does her religion. Her screed, titled, ‘The Unification of Church and State,’ is revealing because it accurately conveys her deepest worry: namely, that a committed Christian may actually be appointed to the Supreme Court. ‘Miers, like Bush himself,’ Ivins notes, ‘is classic Texas conservative Establishment, with the addition of Christian fundamentalism.’ In case one doesn’t know what Ivins means by that, she helpfully accommodates: ‘What I mean by fundamentalist is one who believes in both biblical inerrancy and salvation by faith alone.’ By which she really means—LOOK OUT—THIS DAME IS DANGEROUS.

“There’s more. She later says that Miers’ church ‘states on its website that it believes in biblical inerrancy, full immersion baptism, original sin and salvation dependent entirely upon accepting Jesus Christ. Everyone else is going to hell.’ She then proceeds to trot out JFK on separation of church and state, the one Catholic anti-Christian bigots love to cite.

“What is truly remarkable about this is that Miers has said nothing about her religion (she was born Catholic and later became an Evangelical Christian) to provoke Ivins. Moreover, the Interfaith Alliance, American Atheists and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights have already urged senators to beware of Miers.”

There is a vast difference between the way our society treats the internal matters of the Catholic Church and the way it treats other religions.

For example, what were once regarded as internal matters for Catholics to resolve are now being treated as public matters. So it is that everyone, regardless of religious affiliation, is now opining on the wisdom of celibacy and gays in the priesthood. Such gossip can be read in newspaper editorials and opinion pieces in magazines; it can also be heard on talk radio and TV. But when it comes to other religions, especially Muslims and Jews, a different rule applies.

For example, Ramadan began October 4, yet no survey was taken asking John Q. Public whether he approved of the Ramadan practice of abstaining from sex during daylight. Moreover, there were no talking heads on TV or radio who ridiculed Muslims for their “sexual hang-ups.”

Two Jewish holidays were observed in October as well. Yet there were no op-eds, and no roundtable discussions questioning the rationality of celebrating Rosh Hashanah or the rituals attendant to Yom Kippur.

Recently, the New York City Fire Department hired its second Muslim chaplain. The imam, Intikab Habib, does not believe that Muslim men bombed the Twin Towers; he thinks it was a conspiracy. Those firefighters who learned about this travesty and complained to their superiors were initially rebuffed on the grounds that this was a Muslim issue. Fortunately, when the public became aware of this incredible hire, the imam was forced to resign. This was never really just a Muslim issue, though there were some city authorities who tried to cast it that way.

Last year, an Orthodox rabbi in New York, performing a religious ritual, sucked the blood from the penis of three baby boys after they were circumcised. In doing so, he transmitted herpes to all of them, and one of them died. Initially sued by city authorities, the lawsuit was recently withdrawn and the Department of Health announced it will not make its medical investigation public. This is considered a Jewish issue.

Commenting on the disparate treatment afforded the three religions, Bill Donohue told the press, “It’s time Catholics told the meddlers to mind their own business.”

There is hardly a school left anywhere in the country that isn’t touting the virtues of tolerance and diversity. Unfortunately, when it comes to the subject of religion, these values are often noticeably absent. It would be more accurate to say that intolerance—not tolerance—governs the way many schools behave when matters religious are front and center. All of the following stories are taken from news accounts over the last few months.

A teacher was fired from a public school in San Diego because she played a song that had the word “Christ” in it. The teacher, who had been at the school for five years, was told that her after-school dance class offended a school clerk when the employee reportedly heard the word “Jesus” mentioned in a song (it was actually “Christ” that was on the recording). The teacher was told by her school supervisor that “the name of Jesus was offensive.” Days later she was fired for reasons unrelated to this incident. The teacher has acquired the services of a top-notch law firm.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and two portraits of Jesus have been on display for at least 50 years in a junior high school in Anna, Illinois. Now they’ve been put in storage. Instead of fighting Americans United for Separation of Church and State, school officials wouldn’t spend the money to defeat the censors in court.

In the July/August Catalyst, we mentioned that an eight-year-old girl from Frenchtown, New Jersey wanted to sing a religious song in a school talent show but was prohibited from doing so by school authorities. Well, we have some surprising news: even the ACLU thought this was going too far and has joined the lawsuit on the side of free speech.

Left-wing bigots are busy censoring speech in higher education as well. A freshman at Victor Valley Community College in southern California was given an “F” for mentioning “God” in one of her papers. The student, a middle-age mother, was told by her instructor, Michael Shefchik, that the name God (which she dropped 41 times in a paper titled “In God We Trust”) would “offend others in class.” She is receiving legal help from a civil rights group.

Florida Atlantic University is giving a course in its Lifelong Learning division called, “The Unholy Trinity.” The course is being advertised as one that addresses various symbols that allegedly divide people against each other, but in reality is being used to attack the Catholic Church. It is being taught by a playwright with no background in history. Fortunately, a professor emerita from Westfield State College in Massachusetts has arranged to monitor this one for us.

National History Day* (NHD) has a nice ring to it, but like so much going on in higher education, it has been infected with the virus of political correctness. In its flier for its next contest (June 11-15, 2006), Taking a Stand in History: People, Ideas and Events, it says the following: “The student might choose an NHD topic involving a situation where a person or group failed to act. For example, what were the circumstances leading to Pope Pius XII’s decision not to oppose Adolph Hitler before and during World War II?”

The person in charge of this operation is Cathy Gorn, Executive Director, National History Day, 0119 Cecil Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (phone: 301-314-9739). The following comments, written by Bill Donohue, were contained in a letter he wrote to her trying to set the record straight. You may want to use some of these points in your letter to her:

“Quite frankly, this is outrageous. What is presented as a matter of historical fact is, in fact, nothing more than a contentious position taken by some students of the issue. It was not for nothing that the New York Times ran two editorials during the war praising the Vatican for opposing Hitler. Here is what the Times said on Christmas Day, 1941: ‘The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas.’ One year later, the Times wrote: ‘This Christmas more than ever he [Pope Pius XII] is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.'”

Donohue went on to say how ironic it is that that there is a new book by Northwestern University professor and noted journalist, Laurel Leff, that is highly critical of the silence that marked the reaction of the New York Times to the Holocaust. That this book should appear just before the publication of Rabbi David Dalin’s work, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, is even more ironic. Yet it is the Catholic Church, not the New York Times, that National History Day mentions for being silent during the Holocaust.

None of this is by accident—it’s all by design. The movement to erase any last vestige of our religious heritage from public life is gaining ground among our cultural elites and in the courts. They may sing the virtues of tolerance and diversity, but their actions betray their words. If these little totalitarians get their way, they will censor every religious expression on the grounds that some might be offended. That they offend the rest of us seems not to matter.

Anti-Catholic bias infects all sectors of society, but nowhere is it more hypocritically evident than in the hallowed halls of academe.

*NB: For updated information on National History Day, please click here.

Very Reverend Philip Eichner is the chairman of the board of directors of the Catholic League, and he is also the president of Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, Long Island. He, and the school’s principal, Brother Kenneth Hoagland, made a decision recently that caught the attention of the media worldwide: they decided to cancel the senior prom.

In his letter to the parents of the students, Hoagland stressed that the prom “is so much beyond our control that it is mere tokenism to put our name on it.” He added that the school would no longer “assume moral and legal responsibility for something that has a life of its own independent” of the school. We are “willing to sponsor a prom,” he said, “but not an orgy.”

Father Eichner and Brother Hoagland put much of the blame on the parents. “It would not have gotten this far if a significant portion of parents, either explicitly or tacitly, did not accept it or tolerate it,” Hoagland said. Specific instances of excess were cited. He also hit on the effects of materialism: “Aside from the bacchanalian aspects of the prom—alcohol/sex/drugs—there is a root problem for all this and it is affluence.” He specifically mentioned that “The prom has become the occasion of conspicuous consumption—from dress, to limousines, to entertainment.”

Literally thousands of people, from all over the country, contacted Kellenberg to express their opinion about this matter: the correspondence ran about 9-1 in support of the decision to cancel the prom. Below is a partial list of media outlets that ran this story:

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), 10-20
“The O’Reilly Factor” (Fox News Channel), 10-19
Fox News, 10-18, 10-19
The Guardian (London), 10-18, 10-19
Channel 1 (Long Island) 10-19
“Good Morning America” (ABC), 10-18
CNN News, 10-18
Black Hills Pioneer (South Dakota), 10-19
MSNBC News, 10-18
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City), 10-18
CBS News, 10-18
ABC News, 10-18
Relevant Radio, 10-18
National Post (Canada), 10-18
BBC (Britain), 10-18
New York Daily News, 10-18
Huntsville Times, 10-18
Crosswalk.com, 10-18
PhillyBurbs.com, 10-18
Chicago Tribune, 10-17
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10-17
MTV.com, 10-17
Seattle Times, 10-17
“Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees” (CNN), 10-17
“The Situation with Tucker Carlson” (MSNBC), 10-17
“The Situation Room” (CNN), 10-17
CNN News, 10-17
CNN Daybreak, 10-17
Rocky Mountain News (Denver), 10-17
Associated Press, 10-16
Monterey County Herald, 10-16
New York Times, 10-16
Associated Press, 10-15
Sun-Sentinel (Florida), 10-10
Newsday, 9-29;9-30; 10-10;10-11;10-14;10-18