At the request of the Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Rev. Msgr. William P. Fay, the USCCB’s general secretary, has written a letter to Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Terry McAuliffe protesting the DNC’s listing of an anti-Catholic group in the “links” section of its website. This comes at a time when the Catholic League has been conducting an ad campaign for several weeks against the DNC for its association with the offending group, Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC).
In his letter to McAuliffe, Msgr. Fay stressed that the bishops’ conference has publicly said that CFFC is not a Catholic organization and that indeed it works against the teachings of the Church. He cited the May 10, 2000 statement by Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, then head of the bishops’ conference, taking CFFC to task for misrepresenting itself as a Catholic group. Msgr. Fay not only asked McAuliffe to remove CFFC from its website, he requested that the DNC add the USCCB’s website (www.usccb.org) to its “links” section.
Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:
“Bishop Gregory continues to exercise exemplary leadership and the letter by Msgr. Fay to Terry McAuliffe lays the issue on the line with moral clarity. It is outrageous that either major political party would help to legitimize a positively illegitimate organization like CFFC. Its head, Frances Kissling, has long been an open enemy of the Catholic Church. Were it not for the largesse bestowed upon her by wealthy adversaries of the Church, CFFC would collapse tomorrow. It is the Warren Buffetts of this world that keep her afloat; the Buffett Foundation is one of Kissling’s most generous donors.
“Our ad campaign will continue and we will not quit until the DNC breaks all ties with Kissling. If the DNC wants to try to stiff the bishops, as well as millions of Catholics, it will pay a dear price.”
