Bill Donohue is asking Creators Syndicate to drop columnist Jamie Stiehm after her article yesterday; it was picked up by US News and World Report (click here to read it):
“The Catholic Supreme Court’s War on Women” is the title of what is perhaps the most bigoted attack on Catholicism that has appeared in decades by any mainstream media outlet. What set Jamie Stiehm off was Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision to stay the Health and Human Services mandate from taking effect January 1.
Sotomayor is referred to as “just a good Catholic girl” who “put her religion ahead of her jurisprudence. What a surprise, but that is no small thing.” The Justice’s decision “brings us to confront an uncomfortable reality,” Stiehm writes. “More than WASPS, Methodists, Jews, Quakers or Baptists, Catholics often try to impose their beliefs on you, me, public discourse and institutions.” She then lists, as a happy exception, Nancy Pelosi. Sotomayor, by contrast, “is selling out the sisterhood.”
“Catholics in high places of power have the most trouble, I’ve noticed, practicing the separation of church and state,” Stiehm says. “The pugnacious Catholic Justice, Antonin Scalia, is the most aggressive offender on the Court, but not the only one.” Now it seems that Sotomayor “has joined the ranks of five Republican Catholic men on the John Roberts court in showing a clear religious bias when it comes to women’s rights and liberties. We can no longer be silent about this.” (My italics.)
Stiehm also indicts “the meddlesome American Roman Catholic Archbishops” who “seek and wield tremendous power and influence in the political sphere.” Moreover, “The rock of Rome refuses to budge on women’s reproductive rights and the Supreme Court is getting good and ready to strike down Roe v. Wade….”
This is a throwback to the most anti-Catholic vitriol of the 19th century. Creators Syndicate should drop Stiehm immediately. More on this later.
Contact David Yontz, managing editor: dyontz@creators.com
