On November 24, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a front page story on the vote in Ireland to allow divorce. Senior editor Peter Benesh commented on how times have changed for Ireland "and its omnipresent church." He then posed the question, "Should clerical pedophiles be allowed to dictate Irish family values?" Now imagine a senior editor of [...]
A milk ad produced by the Dairy Management Association triggered a critical response by the Catholic League and an apology from the company. The television ad showed a priest making a buffoon of himself in front of a nun while trying to eat cake and access milk from a vending machine at the same time. The [...]
In a survey conducted by USA Today of 20 of the adverstising industry's top ad makers, the Calvin Klein jean ads that generated so much negative publicity last summer was voted the worst ad of the year. It was the Catholic League that led the attack on the ads and that called for a boycott of [...]
The New York Law Journal carried a story on December 18 on the distribution of 1500 Christmas cards to the friends and associates of a New York law firm, Rudolph & Beer. Playing off the name of the firm, the card showed a picture of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dressed as one of the three Wise [...]
The NBC show, Law and Order, seems to have a growing interest in the Catholic Church. In its November 29 episode, it featured a devout Catholic woman who confesses to a priest that she smothered to death her own child and then put the baby in a furnace. Throughout the program, those Catholics who appear to [...]
Michael Eisner, the chairman of Disney, received an unexpected gift from the Catholic League during the holiday season: he was mailed thousands of petitions protesting the Disney-Miramax movie "Priest." Upwards of 100,000 persons signed the petition, letting Mr. Eisner know exactly what they thought of his foray into Catholic bashing. Because of the bad publicity that [...]
Somehow we missed it, but reading about it in TV Guide seemed like we hadn't. Here is how the magazine described the HBO program, "Mr. Show," which aired on November 24: "Spoof of `OJ' trial that finds the Pope eluding officials in the Popemobile and a bloody ring that doesn't fit." Perhaps if the nouveau creative [...]
In an interview with Christopher Buckley in the December 4 edition of the New Yorker, gossip columnist Ann Landers lashed out at Pope John Paul II and the Polish people. After first making a favorable comment about the Pope, Landers remarked, "Of course, he's a Polack. They're very antiwomen." In a carefully worded statement, Landers later [...]
The December 8 episode of the CBS program, "Picket Fences," caricatured Roman Catholic teachings on marriage and sexuality. The show involved the arrival of Pope John Paul II in the fictional small town of Rome, Wisconsin. During the parade, a man is shot. The death is listed as a suicide. However, the Pope testifies in court [...]
Few colleges have not embraced the concept of multiculturalism. In theory, multiculturalism means greater tolerance for the diversity that the nation's many races, ethnic groups and religions bring to our society. But in practice, if often means a curious tolerance for certain types of bigotry: bashing whites, men and Catholics are some of the most prominent [...]
