The pop star, Madonna, has said that she expects to bring up her baby a Catholic. This is the same Madonna who has made obscene gestures with a crucifix during performances, has called Catholicism "disgusting" and has been denounced by the Vatican. It’s a long shot, but we hope she reconsiders her past attacks on Catholicism [...]
On his April 29 show, Jay Leno crossed the line by saying the following: "Chicago is so in love with pizza that even the Catholic Church is serving up deep dish Communion." The league wrote a letter of protest to the Tonight Show and on May 9 a spokeswoman from the show called Dr. Donohue to [...]
The league complained to World’s Funniest Videos about an April 25 episode which showed a priest in Rome twice dropping the Host while giving Communion to a man; the priest was ridiculed for doing so. The response from the show was unpersuasive: "Under no circumstances did World’s Funniest Videos ever intend to use any material that [...]
Donations made by church members who later become bankrupt may not be seized by the government during bankruptcy proceedings, a federal appeals court has ruled. Relying on provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has determined that contributions given a church by [...]
On May 10, the Columbus Dispatch published an ad by WBNS TV that was blatantly unfair. There was a picture of a woman with her hands folded in a prayer-like fashion, draped with rosary beads. In large letters, the following inscription ran above and below the picture: "We Found Sexual Discrimination In The Most Unlikely Of [...]
In April, the Catholic League was notified about an egregious offense committed against a Catholic priest in California that took place in November 1995. The league intervened in the case and it was favorably resolved. But for several reasons, we have decided not to disclose the actual names of the parties involved or the institutions that [...]
In the June Catalyst, we reported that the Catholic League requested that San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown intervene in a dispute between the city’s Arts Commission and Roman Catholics. The Arts Commission wanted to replace a monument that showed an Indian at the feet of a conqueror with a plaque that read: "With their efforts over [...]
The movie, The Craft, a box office hit this past spring, is the sordid story of four teenage girls who are witches. Even though it has nothing to do with the plot, it just happens that the girls attend an unnamed Los Angeles-area Catholic high school. The girls dress in Catholic school uniforms and wear rosaries around [...]
San Antonio chapter president W. Patrick Cunningham issued a joint statement with the Southwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League and the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation condemning a Ku Klux Klan rally that was scheduled for June 1 in New Braunfels, Texas. It read, in part: "[W]e categorically reject their efforts to spew hatred [...]
by William A. Donohue This is the last issue of Catalyst to be released from the league’s publications office in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. In a move to consolidate, the publications office will move to New York. The Catholic League was founded in 1973 by Fr. Virgil Blum, S.J. A professor at Marquette University, Fr. Blum naturally chose [...]
