On May 6, Home Box Office aired Priestly Sins: Sex and the Catholic Church. The one hour special focused on the issue of sexual abuse in the priesthood. We were told that the problem is one of "epic" proportions and that the root cause is celibacy. The Catholic League issued the following news release on the film [...]
The New Republic, one of Washington’s favorite liberal weeklies, doesn’t like the Catholic League’s Annual Report on Anti-Catholicism. We thought you’d like to know what we had to say in reply, so here is the text of the letter we sent to the editor: "In your ‘Notebook’ editorial of April 22, you criticize the Catholic League for [...]
There has always been humor and bad taste. Unfortunately, we not only have more bad taste than humor these days, we have a blurring of the lines between the two. To be exact, we have become so accustomed to bad taste that much of it frequently passes as humor. Lots of people don’t like Bill and [...]
by Russell Shaw Is religion a national asset? George Washington certainly thought so. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports...firmest props of the duties of men and citizens," Washington famously declared in his presidential farewell address in 1796. Lately, though, what looked so clear to Washington [...]
by Kathleen McCreary Does anyone think that the Easter Bunny and his cheerful basket full of colored eggs pose a threat to the hallowed principle of separation of church and state? Apparently so, for last year the Scarsdale, N.Y. Board of Education refused to allow distribution of flyers announcing the annual "Easter Eggstravaganza" in its five [...]
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is caught in a crossfire between Native Americans and Roman Catholics. The city’s Art Commission has approved a plaque for public display that blames Catholic missionaries for the deaths of half of California’s Indians. This event stems from the need to relocate an existing monument which depicts an Indian at the [...]
Last November, the Catholic League sent a letter to the president of Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California complaining about a display called, "H.I.V. and You." The poster, which was placed outside the administration office, showed a stern looking cleric (who happened to resemble a bishop) erasing a chalkboard which said, "I will use condoms"; [...]
The movie, The Last Supper, while not offensive to Catholics, nonetheless offended Catholics with its promotional material. The league, responding to many complaints, wrote a letter of protest to Sony Picture Releasing president, Jeffrey Blake. "Our position," said Dr. Donohue, "is unambiguous: the use of religious symbols by profit-making institutions should be treated reverentially, or not at [...]
The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun is a play that ridicules the life of the late singing nun, Jeanine Deckers. It was shown in April and May at the Grove Street Playhouse, in New York’s West Village. The play is vulgar and defamatory of Catholicism. Catholic League president William Donohue saw the play and [...]
The 1996 version of the original French movie, Diabolique, is vintage 1990s fare. In the original film, which was released in 1954, there was no nudity, vulgarity, gore or anti-Catholicism. The latest version has it all. The movie features a plot by the wife and lover of a diabolical man to kill him. In the original, Simone [...]
