Yearly Total The Vatican announced that more than 260 Catholic priests and religious were murdered around the world in 1994. The civil war in Rwanda — in addition to killing tens of thousands of laity — claimed the largest number: three bishops, 101 priests and 64 nuns. Elsewhere, missionaries were killed in India, Uganda, Algeria and [...]
2/16/94 Kalamazoo, MI – Stephen Hilker, a Ph.D. candidate at Western Michigan University, walked into his public administration class with the ashes he’d received earlier that day (it was Ash Wednesday). In short order, his teacher, Dr. Ralph Chandler, began an extensive diatribe against Catholics, including an effort to debunk several "myths" which happen to be central [...]
2/24/94 Marlboro, NJ – The League protested a restraining order placed on a newsletter published by Karen and Vincent Bove detailing the alleged apparitions taking place on a monthly basis in Marlboro, New Jersey. The decision was made in conjunction with a ban on the vigil itself, wherein the judge banned attendance at the vigils due to [...]
1/7/94 ABC-TV, "Prime Time Live" ran a piece on the Catholic Church and annulments. Included in the piece were interviews with disaffected women and alienated priests. Without any substantiation whatsoever, Diane Sawyer opened the segment by saying that annulment was one of the most divisive issues in the Catholic Church today. The league wrote to the show [...]
2/16/94 LaGrange, GA – Detective Marc Clay, a member of the Police Department of LaGrange, Georgia, was suspended by Captain Randy Dye, Chief George Yates, and Lt. Barbara Price for refusing to remove the ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday. Despite the fact that none of Clay’s co-workers registered a complaint, Clay was suspended on the [...]
