William A. Donohue In early October, within a period of 24 hours, two prominent secular media outlets, and one prominent religious media outlet, ran stories on the Catholic Church that were classic examples of journalistic malpractice. Motive is hard to determine: Were the reporters incompetent or malicious? Maybe both. From what we learned from two of [...]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has issued a 185-page report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church committed by priests, deacons, seminarians, and nuns. The Attorney General's office reviewed more than 2,000 files on priests who worked in Missouri since 1945. It also read the files of more than 300 deacons, seminarians, and nuns. News reports [...]
When the two mass shootings took place in August, it was distressing to listen to all the chatter about Republicans and Democrats being blamed for what happened. Most of the talk is pure bunk. At the heart of the problem are what I call the three "B's": beliefs, bonds, and boundaries (see my book The Catholic [...]
William A. Donohue The Pew Research Center released the findings of a new survey recently on Catholic clergy sexual abuse. Most were predictable, but some were not. The survey found that 8 in 10 Americans say that Catholic clergy sexual abuse is an "ongoing problem," while only 12% say that these problems "happened in the past [...]
Many Democrats running for president endorse reparations to African Americans because their ancestors were enslaved. Before we go any further, I want to know how much I owe Oprah. The idea of reparations for African Americans is seriously flawed. Some argue that if the Japanese received reparations, why shouldn't blacks? It is true that in 1988 [...]
William A. Donohue Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has released a lengthy essay on the roots of clergy sexual abuse that is illuminating and courageous. It is illuminating because he shows how forces inside and outside the Church came together to create the problem, and it is courageous because he speaks the truth about matters that are [...]
William A. Donohue When I was in the Air Force, in the late 1960s, I became interested in politics. It was a turbulent time, and this was certainly true of California, where I was stationed. My first political leanings, some may be surprised to learn, were liberal-left. That didn't last long. When I was discharged, I [...]
Bill Donohue To be sentimental about certain things in life is not only normal, it is admirable. But sentimentalism is different. One of the definitions found in The Free Dictionary defines it as "excessive indulgence in sentiment or emotionalism, predominance of feeling over reason and intellect." That is not admirable. Indeed, it can be perilous. This [...]
William A. Donohue The average detainee in Guantanamo Bay has more rights than the average accused priest in America does today. Those who doubt this to be true can begin by naming all of the left-wing activist organizations and civil libertarian groups that are defending the rights of accused priests. By contrast, accused Muslim terrorists in [...]
The week before the U.S. bishops convened in Baltimore, I wrote an article warning the bishops to be careful when listening to the laity for advice. Some are responsible, I said, and some are an utter disgrace. After the conference ended on November 14, I issued another statement, detailing the irresponsible ones. Should the bishops listen [...]
