Free Republic

Leave a Comment Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:Today we erected a life-size nativity scene in Central Park, on the corner of 59th and 5th; it will be up until January 3. Moreover, we did not surround it with secular symbols.Every year we get a permit from the New York City Parks Department to display our nativity scene. We choose Central Park because it is a public forum, a place where concerts, marathons and all sorts of festivities take place. We do not seek to display our crèche on public property adjacent to City Hall, because that is...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on new survey data profiling Catholicism:All we ever hear from the wild-eyed critics of the Catholic Church, including the dissidents within, is that the Church had better "get with it" and change its teachings on abortion, homosexuality and women's ordination. Yet it is precisely those religious institutions that are the most liberal on these issues—the mainline Protestant denominations—that are collapsing. Not so the Catholic Church. Indeed, its numbers are going north while the mainline denominations are going south.The latest findings by the "Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership" project, a collaborative effort with Georgetown University's...

VATICAN ABUSE NORMS RELEASED Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the Vatican's guidelines on sex abuse and the early reaction to it: The three most noteworthy features of the Vatican's new guidelines are (a) its commitment to the due process rights of priests (b) its insistence on cooperation with civil authorities and (c) its restatement of episcopal authority in these matters. It was reassuring to learn that the Vatican says, "The accused cleric is presumed innocent until the contrary is proven." Significantly, the guidelines say that "the prescriptions of civil law regarding the reporting of such crimes to the...

New York City, N.Y., Aug 6, 2010 / 02:59 pm (CNA).- Responding to the Empire State Building's refusal to display lights in honor of Bl. Mother Teresa's 100th birthday later this month, the Catholic League is organizing a protest at the national landmark. Media attention spotlighted the controversy caused by Empire State Building manager Anthony Malkin's refusal of a request by the Catholic League to light the iconic facility with the blue and white colors of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity on August 26.“The Empire State Building (ESB) celebrates many cultures and causes in the world community with iconic lightings,...

Jeanine Pirro provided a textbook demonstration of media bias against the Catholic Church during her stint as a substitute host for CNN Headline News's "The Joy Behar Show on March 29. Pirro never gave her guest a chance to defend the church and interrupted him six times within 1 minute, 59 seconds. Pirro is a former Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney and judge who now hosts the TV program, "Judge Jeanine Pirro." She also appears on network and cable news programs as a legal analyst. First, she stacked the deck. Pirro hosted a panel discussion about the recent allegations that...

Mary E. Hunt, who runs a group called the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), has launched a vile assault on the Catholic Church. The pretext of her article is the decision of the Archdiocese of Washington to discontinue its foster-care program; the archdiocese maintains that as a condition of public funding it would have to compromise Church teachings on gay marriage. In a piece posted on the website Religion Dispatches, Hunt accuses the entire Catholic Church of “bigotry” and says that the Church’s position on gay marriage “is but one among differing Church theologies of sexuality”; she...

A photo of a Nativity Scene the Catholic League erected in New York’s Central Park in December 2009. (Photo courtesy of Catholic League) (CNSNews.com) – The New York City-based Catholic League has erected a life-size Nativity scene at the heart of New York’s Central Park, hoping the display will remind Christians in other cities that such displays are legal.   Placed at the corner of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, the Nativity stands prominently in front of the world’s largest menorah – the eight-armed candelabra used to mark the eight days of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.   First...

Christians should not show timidity in cultural disputes over traditional Christmas songs, displays and Nativity scenes, the head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says. He charges such disputes are contrived by a small set of “mean-spirited people” who wrongly insinuate that many non-Christians are offended by Christmas. Many reports surface each year regarding local governments putting restrictions on traditional Christmas displays, and Christmas 2009 is no exception. A life-sized crèche was displayed for about 50 years in the public square of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. However, this year the display has been banned because one man said he...

"And not just atheists," said Bill Donohue during an August 31st Fox News interview. "I’m talking about people who are disaffected Catholics and Protestants who are mutineers within their own religion, trying to change things." It wasn't just "militant, dogmatic" atheists and "disaffected" Christians that the Catholic League president complained about either. Donohue also had a few choice words for magicians Penn & Teller whose Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!, just ran an episode on the history of the Catholic Church. "This was the most Nazi-like assault,” Donohue said. “The most unrelenting half an hour of bashing I’ve ever...

Editor's Note: The movie "Angels and Demons" is considered a financial flop in the United States. It must be noted 70% of revenue generated by Hollywood films derives from foreign viewership. See: http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/ -- JMZ Disparaging the Catholic Church is the real purpose of the latest Dan Brown/Ron "Opie" Howard movie “Angels and Demons.” Bill Donohue, President of the anti-defamation Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights www.catholicleague.org is demanding a disclaimer as the team who produced "The DaVinci Code" uses the same confusing mix of "fact and fiction" to spin a suspenseful conspiracy tale revolving around a secret ...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue reacts to President Obama’s choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court: When John Roberts was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, left-wingers accused President Bush of “Playing the Catholic card.” When Samuel Alito was selected by Bush, these same critics sounded the alarms over the prospect of a “majority” of the Supreme Court justices being Catholic. One would think that the selection of yet another Catholic to sit on the high court would drive these folks right over the edge. But for some reason, Sotomayor’s Catholic credentials don’t...

In his address to the 2009 graduating class at the University of Notre Dame, President Barack Obama said yesterday that he supports conscience rights for healthcare workers. “Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion,” he said, “and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.” Catholic League president Bill Donohue applauded the president: Last August, the Bush administration strengthened the conscience rights of healthcare workers in a new set of guidelines issued by...

Bill Donohue saw “Angels & Demons” today. Here is his take: The movie is so spectacularly stupid that it blunts its anti-Catholic elements. But there are problems, nonetheless. In the movie, the Catholic Church is said to have murdered members of the Illuminati, of which Galileo was a member. In real life, the Catholic Church never laid a hand on any member of the secret society and Galileo died almost a century and a half before the Illuminati were founded. In the movie, even Church officials admit that the Illuminati have reason for revenge, when, of course, this is pure...

On her radio show of April 24, Dr. Laura Schlessinger engaged a caller on the subject of priestly sexual abuse. Dr. Laura said she was “stunned” that the penalties for abuse “were not more severe.” She continued by saying, “So because of that I no longer, you have not heard me in all these years tell anybody to send their kids to Catholic school, where in the past I did that all the time.” Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows: “I will not lose faith in Dr. Laura simply because she is not up to speed on this...

Ron Howard, director of “Angels & Demons,” the movie version of Dan Brown’s book by that name, attacked Catholic League president Bill Donohue yesterday on the Huffington Post. Referring to a booklet on the movie that Donohue authored, “Angels & Demons: More Demonic than Angelic,” (click here) Howard wrote: “Mr. Donohue’s booklet accuses us of lying when our movie trailer says the Catholic Church ordered a brutal massacre to silence the Illuminati centuries ago. It would be a lie if we had ever suggested our movie is anything other than a work of fiction….” Howard also said that “most in...

“Why would any Catholic organization take money from a man like George Soros? Because legitimate sources of revenue aren’t available? And why would Soros have any interest in funding Catholic groups? He doesn’t give the Catholic League any money, and if he offered, I would refuse it. “The reason Soros funds the Catholic Left is the same reason he lavishly funds Catholics for Choice, the pro-abortion group that has twice been condemned as a fraud by Catholic bishops: they all service his agenda, namely, to make support for abortion rights a respectable Catholic position. On October 17, Denver Archbishop Charles...

Bill Donohue may not be tired of the culture wars–or internecine Catholic wars. The head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is often over the top in denunciations of anti-Catholicism, real or perceived, and of other Catholics who Donohue sees as not toeing the proper Catholic line. But even Donohue may have outdone himself, and done in his own organization, if his latest press release prompts an IRS investigation. The May 2 release is “Catholic Dissidents Advise Obama,” and it draws down on Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Committee, which includes several Commonwealers, such as Cathleen Kaveny and...

NEWS ALERT! Bill Donohue will appear on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" on Friday, October 26 at about 8:15 a.m. to discuss the Miller Beer boycott.

In the past five weeks, the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” has ridiculed priests six times and the pope once; all of the priest jokes were sexual in nature and painted priests as molesters. ·   June 18: Robin Williams gets into an extended diatribe about priests as pedophiles·   June 20: Leno cracks a joke about priests as pedophiles·   June 21: Leno makes a joke about a drunken pedophile priest·   July 12: Leno ridicules the pope for restating Catholic doctrine on salvation·   July 18: Leno portrays all priests as pedophiles·   July 23: Leno jokes about priests using the Harry Potter books as “bait” to lure kids·   July 23: Leno...

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” ran a show on May 18—repeated throughout this week—that began with an attack on the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and then devolved into an assault on Catholicism: “And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I'll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me—I don’t know how she got past the guards—and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in...

The Scandal That Has No NameYesterday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released the 2006 report on clergy sex abuse. Addressing this issue is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:  “Rachel Zoll of Associated Press did her usual fine work, but because most of the news was good, her piece was either ignored or drastically reduced by most newspapers. Here are some of the key findings:  ·        Of the 635 credible accusations made in 2006, 71 percent of the alleged cases took place between 1960 and 1984. Only 2 percent occurred in 2006. ·        Most—71 percent—of the accused are...

Wednesday's South Park, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone parodied the Catholic League's Bill Donohue as a power-hungry Catholic Church official who overthrows Pope Benedict and jails Jesus for going against the Church. On last night's Scarborough Country, Donohue reacted to the show in a very surprising way given his track record of over-exaggerated outrage and violent rhetoric. "Maybe I do come across too tough on TV. I thought it was hilarious and our staff thought it was hilarious. I said, listen, I said I have no defense except I'm gonna go with it." Donohue's official statement can be found...

The folks at "South Park" take no prisoners. Consider Wednesday's episode, which went after Bill Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Donohue has been a severe critic of the animated series on Comedy Central. The episode mixed Easter and "The Da Vinci Code" in typically wacky fashion. The plot involved the current pope and Jesus. The story ended with Jesus cutting Donahue in half with a flying ninja blade. In other recent controversies, Donohue has called the co-creators of "South Park," Matt Stone and Trey Parker, whores and cowards.

The media turn two hate-spewing leftist bigots into victims of nasty misogynists. Amanda Marcotte, one of two vitriol-spewing anti-Christian bloggers hired by the John Edwards presidential campaign, resigned on February 12, 2007.  Liberal media reported that Marcotte was “driven out” of her job by Catholic League President Bill Donohue. Last week, Donohue issued a press release detailing some of Marcotte’s anti-Christian bigotry. Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly also gave the story lots of airtime. Donohue also called for Edwards to fire the other anti-Christian blogger, Melissa McEwan, who infamously referred to President Bush’s “wing-nut Christofascist base” in a blog entry. (McEwan...

WASHINGTON — In response to John Edwards' refusal to fire two staffers for "intolerant" Web postings, the president of the nation's largest Catholic civil rights group said he will launch a campaign next week to point out "the double-standard that [Edwards] is the kingmaker of." Bill Donohue, president of the conservative-leaning Catholic League and the first to call on the Democratic presidential candidate to fire the bloggers, told FOXNews.com that he is not satisfied with Edwards' decision to scold — but not can — the staffers.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday that he was personally offended by the provocative messages two of his campaign bloggers wrote criticizing the Catholic Church but that he is not going to fire them. Edwards issued a statement about the fate of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, two days after the head of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights demanded that they be fired for messages they wrote before working on the campaign. The Edwards campaign distributed written regrets from the two women, who stressed they were writing on personal blogs. Edwards said in the statement...

Two bloggers hired recently by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards were criticized Tuesday by a Catholic group for posts they had written elsewhere on the Internet. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded that Edwards fire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. "John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots," Donohue wrote in a statement. "He has no choice but to fire them immediately." The Edwards campaign declined to comment. McEwan and Marcotte did not respond to e-mails requesting a response. Donohue cited posts that...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue discusses the way Christmas is being celebrated on college campuses this year: “At Missouri State University, the Office of Multicultural Student Services does not list Christmas as part of its December celebrations: but it does list Kwanzaa, which unfortunately they think is spelled Kwanza. They celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from mid-September to mid-October; October is Gay and Lesbian Month; and Native American Heritage Month captures November. But no Christmas—just “Kwanza.” “At SUNY Buffalo, they celebrate a Holiday Carnival which includes ‘a Hanukkah table, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day [this is a Canadian holiday], St. Nick’s Day and...

At Brandeis Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky a teacher asked her students to make a Christmas tree out of paper; it was put on her bulletin board. But when a Jewish teacher said she was offended, she complained to the principal, Shervita West-Jordan, and got her wish. According to a news report, “She, and the teacher who complained, were bothered by the fact that the tree was made up of hands which represented all the students in the class.”  Both the teacher and the principal were angry over the words, “Santa’s Helpers,” that were placed over the tree. “Of course,...

A "silent night" as carolers told to stop singing at skating show RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- A high school choir was asked to stop singing Christmas carols during an ice skating show featuring Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen out of concern the skater would be offended because she's Jewish. A city staff member, accompanied by a police officer, approached the Rubidoux High School Madrigals at the Riverside Outdoor Ice Skating Rink just as they launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and requested that the troupe stop singing, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday. Cohen, the 2006 Olympic silver medalist and 2006...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue released the following statement today on the Christmas wars: “The secular crusaders who want to neuter Christmas say ad nauseam that the reason why we have to give more attention to holidays other than Christmas is due to the increasingly diverse composition of our nation and the world. But it is a hoax: the evidence is just the opposite. “According to Boston University professor Stephen Prothero, America now has more Christians than any other nation in history (Christian Science Monitor, 12-23-03). ‘In terms of religious background,’ writes Hoover Institution scholar Dinesh D’Souza, ‘America is no...

Hate speech is typically the first line of attack employed by bullies, but bullies become emboldened when eliminationalist rhetoric is tolerated, and that societal acceptance can lead to far worse things. I've previously covered hate speech - see Enough Hate Spech To Stun An Ox, and Hatecrime.org has an extensive collection of hate speech targeting homosexuals. Suprisingly - or not - at least one individual whose statements are featured in that archive ( and also in collections of antisemitic rhetoric ) is also leader of a prominent Christian right group that claims to fight against anti-Catholic bias and discrimination who...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote a letter today to the members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the Smithsonian magazine and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.  His letter, available here, concerns an article in the June edition of the Smithsonian by James Carroll titled, “Who Was Mary Magdalene?”    Donohue summarizes his position as follows:   “James Carroll has a long record of seeking to discredit the historical record of the Catholic Church so as to impugn its credibility today on issues that have...

A reader of the Window wrote asking me to explain why I found The Da Vinci Code anti-Catholic. That's a fair question, since as she pointed out, I didn't supply any examples.Anyone doubting my word can consult the film's co-producer, John Calley. He told The New York Times (9/7/2005) that the movie was "conservatively anti-Catholic" but not "destructively so."   I wonder if Mr. Calley sought any expert opinions on what would be destructive to the Church, or if he considered himself qualified to make that call. Why did he reject the request for a disclaimer at the beginning of...

A leading Catholic activist is telling Christians their worries, building for months, over yesterday's release of "The Da Vinci Code," have been wasted on an "inane," "slumbering," "anti-climatic" movie that "fails to persuade" and flounders more on its poor quality than its anti-Catholic theology. Bill Donohue "This was one of the most inane films I have ever seen," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, after viewing the movie on opening day. "It takes forever to get going, and even when it finally does, it fails to sustain the momentum," he said. "Indeed,...

"Da Vinci Code” director Ron Howard has said there would be no disclaimer in the film labeling it as a work of fiction – and Catholic League President Bill Donohue is deeply disturbed by Howard’s stance. "The book which the film is based on begins with three ‘facts,’ all of which are malicious lies, yet Ron Howard says no disclaimer is needed because ‘this is a work of fiction,’” Donahue said in a statement. "He is disingenuous.” As Donahue points out, the following got a disclaimer in a fictionalized TV show or film: Asians: "Year of the Dragon” Blacks: "Birth...

The Catholic League, a civil rights group, is fuming mad over comments made by talk radio star Michael Savage last week. In a broadacst on March 28, Savage, the nation's third most listened to radio talk show host, slammed the Catholic Church for helping to organize recent mass protests of illegal immigrants. According to a transcript published by the Catholic League, Savage said: "It is a pig story! It’s animal farm all over again. And also make no bones about it, it’s the greedy Catholic Church that was behind it because the people of America walked away from the molesters’...

March 30, 2006 MICHAEL SAVAGE(S) CATHOLICISM Here is what radio talk-show host Michael Savage had to say on March 28 about the Catholic Church’s response to the immigration issue: It is a pig story! It’s animal farm all over again. And also make no bones about it, it’s the greedy Catholic Church that was behind it because the people of America walked away from the molesters’ dens and they need to bring in people from the Third World who are still gullible enough to sit there and listen to the molesters…the Roman Catholic Church was behind this, the Roman Catholic...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on the news that Isaac Hayes has quit “South Park” because of an episode that attacked his religion, the Church of Scientology: “It is nothing short of amazing to read that ‘South Park’ co-creator Matt Stone is now charging Isaac Hayes with ‘intolerance and bigotry’ for not complaining earlier about all the shows ‘South Park’ did ‘making fun of Christians.’ Forget about Hayes—the real issue here is the two-faced, super-bratty response from Stone. For him to lecture Hayes on intolerance and bigotry is on the order of John Gotti lecturing Curtis Sliwa on...

There is something manifestly, monolithically humourless about Roman Catholicism, even among other awesomely po-faced organised religions. Something stern and fearsome and unbending. You don't trifle with Roman Catholics. They've been around longer than you have, chum, and they've got the Pope on their side. South Park on the other hand, has been around for nearly eight years, so roughly 1992 years less than Roman Catholicism. It is an adult animated series which from its first episode gleefully set about upsetting people in the name of satire. And in the name of just being incredibly offensive. But the intelligent, philanthropic, sober...

Catholic League Not Amused By ‘VILE’ Leary Special By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Updated: 12:15 AM EST The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has put Worcester homey Denis Leary on its Naughty List and the religious group is demanding that Comedy Central ax future showings of his “vile special” “Denis Leary’s Merry F#%$in’ Christmas.” “Hate speech dressed in humorous garb is still hate speech,” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue. “Leary is obviously bedeviled by some disorder but nothing excuses this crap.” In the Yuletide yukfest, the “Rescue Me” star has a...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue remarked today about last night’s episode of “South Park” (it will run again for the next three nights): “A ‘South Park’ character gets a DWI and is ordered to attend AA meetings.  Told about the 12-step program, he concludes that he needs a miracle to cure him.  The plot then focuses on a statue of the Virgin Mary who is ‘bleeding out her ass.’  The Vatican dispatches a cardinal to investigate and he is sprayed with blood when he walks behind the statue.  He then declares this to be a miracle, which draws even more people. ...

RIGHT-WINGER BLASTS O'REILLY RABID radio host Michael Savage is whining that he has been banned from the Fox News Channel after he dissed Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. The controversial conservative — who was fired by MSNBC in 2003 after referring to a caller to his show as "a sodomite" who should "get AIDS and die" — recently burned more bridges by calling O'Reilly a "Leper-Con who poses as a conservative" and Hannity "another Republican bootlicker who began as a Rush [Limbaugh] understudy" on his "Savage Nation" radio show. Savage claims that he's been bumped off four scheduled appearances on...

MATTHEWS: Christopher, what do you think should have been the federal role in this case? CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: there‘s no role for anyone in this case, because there isn‘t a life, unfortunately, to save. Mrs. Schiavo is dead and has been for some time. . . . . We don‘t have bodies. We are bodies. When the brain is gone, you are gone. No physician who‘s attended her in any capacity has said that she‘s anything but totally brain-dead. She‘s not disabled. She‘s gone. DONAHUE: She is not brain-dead. She is brain-damaged. . . . HITCHENS: No. DONAHUE: . . ....

For John Kerry, this religion thing is a problem. On the one hand, he wants to appeal to Dem elites who tend to be (let's face it) more secular than not. On the other hand, he doesn't want to offend the vast majority of voters who consider themselves religious folk, especially black and Hispanic Democrats. Unlike George Bush, John Kerry has to straddle not only the difference between his base and the swing vote on religious themes, but a radical difference in taste between key constituents of the Democrat Party. A June Time magazine poll, for example, showed just 7...

STEM CELL ISSUE REACHES A HOT POINT   The day before former President Ronald Reagan died, 58 senators sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to permit embryonic stem cell research.  The senators are now insisting that with the death of President Reagan, the issue has taken on greater urgency. They cite the support that Nancy Reagan has shown for this type of research.   Catholic League president William Donohue cautions against any change in the current rules even as the issue reaches a hot point:   “Senator Orrin Hatch, an advocate of embryonic stem cell...

The public debate over abortion was critical in a resurgent anti-Catholicism in the mid-1960s. With the cooperation of media, abortion became an ongoing battle waged in a war of words based on anti-Catholicism. The issue was quickly defined as Catholicism and its role in public life, rather than abortion itself. Pro-life representatives who happened to be Catholic would be grilled on their religious faith, rather than on their position on abortion. When the Catholic Church hierarchy took a strong stand on abortion, it found itself the target, rather than the position espoused. Quickly, the public issue of whether or not ...

Crisis Brings New Mission He wants all bad priests sent packin' William Donohue is in his office high above W. 34th St. and he's speaking in a mood of furious hope. He's a big, burly, passionate man, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which he created a decade ago to combat anti-Catholic slurs or cases of Catholic-baiting. The original conservative mission has changed. Now he is serving as one of the most intense voices looking for salvation from the sexual squalor that has engulfed the official church. The Rev. Andrew Greeley has called this mess...