Anti-Catholic bigotry has reared its ugly head in the New York City mayoral campaign and the Catholic League quickly called the source of the defamatory comments to account.
During a radio show Ms. Ronnie Eldridge, a New York City Councilperson (and wife of columnist Jimmy Breslin, a world-class Catholic basher), remarked that Rudolph Giuliani was “suspect” as a candidate because of his Catholic school education.
League president Bill Donohue immediately issued a news release calling Ms. Eldridge’s remark “a scare tactic” that was “designed to influence voters by drumming up fears about the nefarious effects of a Catholic education.
“We thought that we had long since passed the day when attendance at a parochial school disqualified a candidate for public office,” Donohue said.
Donohue concluded by noting the Catholic League is the largest Catholic civil rights organization that “defends the right of Catholics lay and clergy alike – to participate in American life without defamation or discrimination.”
Ms. Eldridge sent an apology to Mr. Giuliani but not before the story hit the New York media. The New York Post headlined he story “Jab at Rudy sparks fire & brimstone.” The League made it clear that it was not seeking to boost Guiliani but was far more concerned about “Catholic-bashing.”
