On October 8, Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry spoke at the Values Voter Summit, a conference sponsored by Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council; there was an array of mostly evangelical speakers. Introducing him was Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor. Following the event, Jeffress made anti-Mormon comments. Then it was revealed that he had previously [...]
When we learned that the NFL was weighing a decision to invite pop singer Madonna to perform at the 2012 Super Bowl, Bill Donohue pressed officials to drop the idea. In 2004, the NFL invited ‘N Sync’s JC Chasez to sing during halftime of the Pro Bowl game. When Chasez said he was going to sing [...]
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK William Donohue “We have been in the throes of the culture war for the past half-century, but never has it been more imperative to buckle your seat belts until now. Quite frankly, the culture war is about to explode.” I wrote those words in Catalyst after Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential [...]
The following article was written by Bill Donohue in response to a recent attack on the Catholic Church published in Rolling Stone magazine: The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church provides grist for the mill to those who harbor an animus against it, so a certain amount of cheap shots are to be expected. But [...]
Catholics have been mobilized in great numbers to respond to imminent threats to religious liberty. The threats come mainly from government, with the Obama administration leading the way. The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, announced in October the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious [...]
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a case that involves the “ministerial exception,” a provision that bars the government from making employment decisions regarding a church’s ministers. The position articulated by Leondra R. Kruger, who represented the Obama administration, was the subject of a revealing series of exchanges with the Justices. After Kruger [...]
Recently David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), gave an interview with Time magazine. What he said was quite revealing. Clohessy explained that it is SNAP’s goal to jail the pope: “We’re not naïve. We don’t think the Pope will be hauled off in handcuffs next week or next [...]
During Pope Benedict XVI’s recent trip to Germany, we took a look at how two different newspapers covered the story. Perhaps the two most premier newspapers in the U.S. and Germany are the New York Times and Der Spiegel, respectively. During the first day of the pope’s trip, the Times’ story focused on the pope’s protesters, [...]
On the last day of September, we pointed out the accusations that were made against priests in that month alone: • A 34-year-old man said he was abused in the 1980s by a priest from Portland, Oregon. • In the same diocese, a 41-year-old woman said she was also abused in the 1980s, adding that this [...]
Several organizations, led by the anti-Catholic group, Catholics for Choice, recently joined hands and sent a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the coverage of contraception and sterilization under Obamacare. Catholics for Choice teamed up with other anti-Catholics—many of whom have been excommunicated from the Catholic Church—to assail the bishops. [...]
