It didn’t take long before the world embraced Pope Francis. The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the new leader of 1.2 billion Catholics was greeted with applause around the globe, but nowhere was it more apparent than in Latin America. Ten days before the election, Bill Donohue was quoted in the Los Angeles [...]
Thomas Monaghan, a member of the advisory board of the Catholic League, prevailed in federal district court against the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. On March 14, Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff of the Eastern District of Michigan granted a Motion for a Preliminary Injunction against enforcement of the HHS mandate. Monaghan and his [...]
William A. Donohue The lead story in this edition of Catalyst covers the effusive praise heaped on Pope Francis, and the warm reception he received from leaders of other religions. But we would be remiss if we didn’t address the explosion of hatred that the papal transfer engendered. All of the following comments were made within [...]
Bill Donohue The Catholic Church has many teachings that touch on public issues, and it’s only fair that they be subject to critical analysis. But it’s hardly too much to ask that its critics substantiate their charges. Unfortunately, the tendency of the media to swing wildly became commonplace once it was learned that Pope Benedict XVI [...]
No sooner had Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio been elected Pope Francis when the Los Angeles Times started reporting on his alleged “timidity” in fighting Argentina’s dictatorship during the Dirty War, 1976 to 1983. The newspaper also cited the rap that he was “too quiet” during this period. Similarly, the New York Times is saying that the [...]
Pope Francis has captured the good will, indeed the love, of millions around the globe, and the response is hardly confined to Catholic circles. However, his critics are emerging, though none with any luck. Sex is always a good subject for Catholic haters. Their goal—sex without consequences (kids and diseases)—is threatened when religious leaders counsel the [...]
MSNBC contributors E.J. Dionne and Katrina vanden Heuvel both said they wanted to see a nun named as the next pope. No they don’t. They certainly wouldn’t want Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life. Nor would they want Mother Mary Assumpta Long of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The [...]
Author Paul Elie was one of many dissident voices in the New York Times following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. His parochialism allows him to assume all Catholics shared his discontent. “Resignation,” he said, is “what American Catholics are feeling about our faith.” He should speak for himself—most of us don’t share his Commonweal affliction. Elie has [...]
A recent Sally Quinn piece in the Washington Post managed to be wrong on just about every level, beginning with the Church’s “child sexual abuse scandal.” The scandal didn’t involve children—less than 5% of victims were prepubescent. Typical offenses involved “inappropriate touching” of postpubescent males. It was a homosexual scandal that ended a quarter century ago: [...]
In the New York Times, Hans Küng, an embittered ex-Catholic theologian, criticized Pope Benedict XVI for having irritated “the Protestant churches, Jews, Muslims, the Indians of Latin America, women, reform-minded theologians and all pro-reform Catholics.” Küng blames then-Cardinal Ratzinger for hiding abuse cases, and cites “Vatileaks” as a problem. He claims two of the major scandals [...]
