Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a Democratic National Convention (DNC) event hosted by Catholics for Choice (CFC):
If the Ku Klux Klan were hosting a panel discussion on racial relations at the Republican National Convention, the Republicans would rightly be condemned for doing so. But no price will be paid by the Democrats for allowing the most notoriously anti-Catholic organization in the nation, Catholics for Choice, to host a panel on religious liberty. “Keeping the Faith in the Democratic Party: Protecting Religious Liberty for Everyone” is scheduled to meet between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. today.
Catholics for Choice (formerly Catholics for a Free Choice) is not simply a pro-abortion group: it is decisively anti-Catholic. Twice condemned by the bishops’ conference, its stated goal, according to its previous head, Frances Kissling, is to “overthrow” the Catholic Church. The current president, Jon O’Brien, has been equally vicious in his statements against Catholicism. He has been preoccupied this year opposing the religious liberty campaign organized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Thus the perversity of having him command a panel discussion on religious liberty at the DNC.
In 1995, Marjorie Reiley Maguire, who for years worked closely with the leadership of CFC, branded it “an anti-woman organization” staffed by people who never go to Mass. Lavishly funded by the likes of the Ford Foundation, it would collapse if it had to rely on Catholic contributions—or even non-Catholic individuals—for support.
Speaking at today’s event will be activists from a CFC-organized umbrella group, the Coalition for Liberty & Justice. Several of the groups that comprise this entity have hijacked the Catholic label in service of their anti-Catholic agenda. They include: CORPUS, DignityUSA, New Ways Ministry and the Women’s Ordination Conference. An array of radical left-wing groups with a history of Catholic bashing will also be on hand.
In other words, the DNC’s idea of religious liberty means welcoming anti-Catholic bigots to deliver their message of hate.
