A potential showdown between the Catholic League and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was avoided when a highly controversial issue that we addressed was quickly resolved. Our effort was clearly worthwhile given the happy ending. The problem began on June 7, when Kris Fuhr, vice president for marketing at Provident Films (owned by Sony) [...]
Pop-singer Madonna kicked off her "Confessions" tour in Los Angeles by offending Christians and drawing more attention to herself. Between her political statements and oral sex jokes, Madonna found the time to don a crown of thorns, hang from a mirrored cross and croon her ballad "Live to Tell" in front of a screen flashing images [...]
The editorial of June 16 taking the Catholic League to task for its New York Times op-ed page ad ("Spin without end in abuse scandal") is simply wrong on the facts. On p. 29 of the 2005 annual Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, it says that 81 percent of [...]
By William A. Donohue Every now and then, I read a book I wish I had written. Such a book is Patrick M. Garry's Wrestling with God: The Courts' Tortuous Treatment of Religion. For those interested in how the courts have twisted the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty into an unseemly mess, this is the book [...]
On June 15, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich fired Robert J. Smith, one of his Metro transit authority appointees, because Smith said that "Homosexual behavior, in my view, is deviant." Smith, who stressed he is a Roman Catholic, said that his characterization reflected his beliefs and were made after hours on a cable TV show. Ehrlich branded [...]
A report on the June 19 "World News Tonight" led viewers to think that eight women are about to be ordained as Catholic priests in the U.S. The story covered the election of the first female presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church. Then came the following: "Most evangelical denominations and the Catholic Church steadfastly refuse to [...]
On June 15, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said that Pope John Paul II once told scientists that "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God." The news story said that Hawking did not say [...]
When "The Da Vinci Code" opened in India, the film opened with a disclaimer. So much for the argument that Sony couldn't accede to the Catholic League's request to put a disclaimer in the movie without jeopardizing its artistic integrity. The movie's opening was delayed in India for one week due to negotiations between Sony Pictures [...]
The June edition of Smithsonian, the magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution, featured a lengthy article by James Carroll, notorious for his venomous attacks on the Church. Bill Donohue wasted no time in addressing the matter of an anti-Catholic article running in a government publication. Below is the text of the letter he sent to the [...]
In the last issue of Catalyst, we mentioned that Bill Donohue had written a letter to Dr. John M. Lilley, president of Baylor University, wanting to know what Lilley found so funny about a male student who dressed up as a pregnant nun; a photo of the "nun" appeared on the front page of The Lariat, the [...]
