B.J. Rudell, a staffer for Congressman Bob Clement of Nashville, Tennessee, has posted via e-mail and the Internet an offensive statement about the pope. In the December 19 edition of The Hotline: Daily Briefing on American Politics, Rudell submitted a list of the "'Top Ten Surprising Confessions Made by the Pope." Included in this "humorous" list [...]
The cover article of the December 30th edition of the New Republic contains a piece by Jacob Heilbrunn that alleges there is a growing war between Catholic and Jewish conservatives. The article, "Neocon v. Theocon," maintains that Catholic intellectuals have alienated their Jewish neoconservative friends by pushing for a Thomistic understanding of American democracy. The piece [...]
Last Saturday, December 14, two shows were aired that treated with disrespect Jesus, Mary and Joseph and generally caricatured Catholic beliefs and traditions. Saturday Night Live and Mad TV were replete with comedic attempts that disparaged Catholicism. In Saturday Night Live, Rosie O'Donnell and Penny Marshall were portrayed as buffoon nuns. The nun played by Marshall [...]
The Catholic League has been inundated with complaints across the country that public school teachers have been diluting the meaning of Christmas while simultaneously trumpeting the meaning of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. It has become commonplace for public schools to teach about Hanukkah but not about Christmas, to display menorahs but not nativity scenes, and to celebrate [...]
Ralph Reed, the executive director of the Christian Coalition, has endorsed a recently released book by John Wheeler, Jr., Earths Two-Minute Warning, that contains passages that disparage Catholicism; Wheeler was the editor of all Christian Coalition publications for five years. Wheeler's book, published by The Leader Company, offers a possible scenario of the end of time. [...]
The city of Chicago is proposing that Good Friday be eliminated as a government holiday; a final vote will take place soon in the City Council. The move is unprecedented as Good Friday has always been given as a government holiday in Chicago. The official reason given for the change is "the increasing diversity of religious [...]
A bill that would secure protection for workers who desire to observe religious holidays without penalty has passed the Senate in Massachusetts and has now passed muster with the Supreme Judicial Court. The legislation awaits passage in the House; Governor Weld has said that he will sign the bill. In February 1995, the Catholic League submitted [...]
