Bishop Anthony Fisher OP: Ten Myths about the Catholic Church

This was recorded on the 3 March 2014 at The Commercial Hotel, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.
From xt3.com via CathNews (Audio only).

 Index. Click on topic below. 
1. Rolling Stone's Pope Francis Vs the Real Pope Francis
2. Women. Do women have souls?
3.Treating Gays badly.
4. HIV/AIDS. How the Church killed millions of people.
5. Vatican Wealth.
6. Child Sex Abuse.
7. Past Misdeeds of the Church - Crusades etc.
8. The Church opposed to Science.
9. Sin and Catholic Guilt.
10. Evangelisation and the Responsibility of the Laity.
Questions and Answers.

The Truth Behind the Myth of Tuam's Septic Tank Babies

Thanks to Paul Barry at ABC's Media Watch.

The Young Turks Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur Spread some Anti-Catholic Lies.

A Commentary on another Young Turks Mental Meltdown

Fourteen Lies in Four Minutes.

 

A Summary: Regardless of what the Young Turks'Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur would lead you to believe, Catholic nuns in Ireland didn't stuff the bodies of 800 dead children into a septic tank.

The lies:
1. (0:12). No Ana, the home wasn't shut down because of, as you falsely claim, a significant number of children would die in the home. From page 7 of the Catholic League report, Bill Donohue states that:

"In 1961, the building was falling apart and needed to be renovated. But no funds were available, so it closed. The nuns handed over all the records to the authorities, which today is called the Health Service Executive in Galway. In the early 1970s, the building was demolished to make way for a new housing complex."

 2. (0:20). Really Ana? Who? Who often wondered about the bodies?

3. (0:27). No Ana, Catherine Corless never said she found any bodies of dead babies let alone 800 of them in a septic tank.

4. Again Ana, you're wrong. There is no evidence that dead babies were disposed of in a septic tank. Back in the 1970s a couple of young boys found some skeleton remains (15-20) in what has been variously described as an old concrete water tank, or a crypt.

* (0:44).  Seriously Ana, you're quoting a story for the notoriously anti-Catholic Washington Post on a matter regarding the Catholic Church! That's a bit like asking the Westboro Baptist Church about homosexuality.

5. (1:09). No Cenk, there is no evidence that a lot of these children died as a result of malnutrition. This time quoting from a retraction given by the Associated Press (AP):

"Contrary to the allegation of widespread starvation highlighted in some reports, only 18 children were recorded as suffering from severe malnutrition."

6. (1:19). Cenk, I'm guessing that because you are a person who believes that killing human life within a mother's womb is an acceptable practice, you then have a need to demonize those with a contrary view. But according to historical accounts the nuns provided love and care to these women and children. See pages 9 and 10 of the Catholic League report.

7. (1:23). Again Ana and Cenk, 800 baby bodies have not been found, and even if they are found at some time in the future, so what? That doesn't prove anything other than the fact that 800 dead babies, who died over a 36 year period were buried in a plot on the site where they lived. So what, how is that even a story?

8. (1:29). Oh come on Cenk! Haunted by it? On a positive note, at least you're now bringing in some light relief.

9. (1:41). Really Ana? Have you ever spoken to the parents of these girls who were sent to these homes? How on earth would you know these parents thought their daughters were promiscuous? I'm guessing you got this intimate knowledge from the same people who told you the lie that some Irish nuns dumped the bodies of 800 dead babies into a septic tank!

10. (1:45). Again Ana, how the hell would you even know the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy of these women? You just seem to be making this up as you go!

11. (2:00). Actually Ana, the reports of the day seem to indicate that considering the circumstances at the time, the children were actually well looked after. Again, see pages 9 and 10 of the Catholic League report.

12. (2:12). Again Ana, there is no hypocrisy. The Catholic nuns were pro-life and they dedicated their lives to helping some of the most disadvantaged people in their society at the time -- abandoned single mothers and their children, and all for no material gain to themselves. If, as you say Ana, "these nuns had disdain and hatred for these children born out of wedlock", why did these same nuns dedicate their lives to helping them. You should be praising these nuns, not tearing them down. But then, anti-Catholicism is always hateful and irrational isn't Ana.

13. (2:23). Hang on Cenk. Your original claim was that 800 babies died over a 36 year period from 1925 to 1961. Now, given that Atheists like to continually tell the rest of the world how intelligent they are, how is it you didn't pick up the obvious mathematical error? If two babies died every week for 36 years than that would equal 3744 dead babies. So it's not just the whole theme of your anti-Catholic rant that doesn't compute, neither does your basic math.

* (2:33). Cenk, you can't crap all over anti-abortionists and than suddenly turn round and say you're not. By the way, do you ever say anything critical of those who support the killing of human life in the womb? Ever.

* (2:57). Yes Cenk, those Catholic nuns helping those abandoned women and children probably were with God. If there is a God don't you think God would have wanted people to help those women and children? Of course if there is no God, then there is not moral demands on anyone to care for another human being. Hence your belief that killing a human being through abortion is okay.

* (3:00). Cenk, I'm not sure what crazy interpretations of scripture you're talking about, or what crazy dogma you're talking about, but whatever it was that caused those Catholic nuns to dedicate their lives to help the less fortunate of people, and to do so for no material gain, I think that would be the opposite of crazy.
Now regarding the issue of shaming, yes it can be cruel, but it is also a normal part of societal norms used to discourage unacceptable behavior. And it can be easily argued that historically, having sex outside of marriage was bad for society. Again Bill Donohue addresses this issue well on pages 11 and 12 of the Catholic League report.

14. (3:26). Cenk, It is beyond belief that a rational person could describe a home that provided food and shelter to abandoned women and children as being a trash bin. The reality is that the alternative to these Catholic run homes was indeed living among the real trash bins in the street. And these homes didn't ruin the lives of these women and children, they instead provided a lifeline and support to these women and children who otherwise would have been left homeless and broke with no food or shelter.


* (3:52). Cenk, I'm sure even you can't miss the irony of your last comment. Nearly everything both you and Ana have said over the last four minutes were based on things that simply weren't true.
Don't they have words for that kind of speech! I think it's called BIGOTRY and HATE SPEECH -- The two core components of any anti-Catholic rant.

Additional commentary form other sources:

Australia's left wing public broadcaster, the ABC Media Watch program.
Atheist writer and commentator Brendan O'Neill, from Spiked online.
The Catholic League Report - Ireland's Mass Grave Hysteria.
Extract of Associated Press (AP) retraction regarding report on Tuam home for abandoned mothers.

The 800 Septic Tank Babies That Never Were.

Anti-Catholics are still unhinged.

From Brendan O'Neill at Spiked Online.

The Tuam tank: another myth about evil Ireland.

The Real Philomena

The real Philomena about which a movie was made.
 

Below, Philomena reconciled with the Church 

There was much anti-Catholic hate expressed with the release of the movie Philomena, yet it seems the real Philomena Lee has reconciled with the Catholic Church as can be seen when she meets Pope Francis in Rome.


 

Science Channel Prefers Sci-Fi to Real Science

From the Catholic League.

IS THE VATICAN HIDING ALIENS?

April 8, 2014 by Bill
Filed under Latest News Releases
2014 - April Releases

Bill Donohue from the Catholic League comments on last night’s show, “Unsealed: Alien Files,” that aired on the Science Channel:

The program speculates that “new evidence may prove the Vatican is hiding actual aliens from the public.” Either that or the channel will rename itself the Sci-fi Channel.

The priest who directs the Vatican observatory, Dr. Jose Funes, was interviewed for the program, and he made the rather unexceptional remark that the universe is so huge that “it would be possible that life could evolve the way we know it on Earth.” This is soon followed by a voiceover that says, “Vatican officials have publicly acknowledged the likelihood of alien life. This dramatic reversal of Vatican policy demands an explanation. What does the Church know, or what have they found that causes them to reverse a 2000-year-old teaching?”

While we’re demanding that the Vatican provide an explanation for its “policy” on aliens, I would like to demand an explanation from the Science Channel: Must one be nuts to work there?

It gets better. Evidence of alien life, we learn, is available in the “Vatican secret archives.” But thanks to the Science Channel, it is a secret no more. “The Vatican secret archives is approximately 52 miles of shelving we’re told, and over 32,000 archives.” The guy who said this did not disclose who told him this “secret,” but who needs evidence? Then a voiceover gets really melodramatic: “But the secrets hidden within the Vatican can’t stay buried forever. Now new evidence may prove the Vatican is hiding actual aliens from the public.” That’s right—they can’t play “hide and seek” forever. Send in the Navy SEALS.

The program also claims that skulls with elongated heads and small faces, resembling aliens, were found in 1998 under the Vatican Library, but that access to the site has been denied. A voiceover asks, “Could these skulls be the remnants of aliens who once lived in the Vatican?” Either that or the Vatican employs coneheads to work in its “secret” archives.

Laurie Goodstein only interested in Sex Abuse if it's Catholic

Continue Reading at The Media Report

Pope Lauds Benedict For Abuse Response

From the Catholic League

Pope Francis (Left) with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Bill Donohue comments on remarks made today by Pope Francis on the sexual abuse scandal:

No one has done more to check the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church than Pope Benedict XVI, but he receives very little credit for doing so. That is why what Pope Francis said today matters: he singled Benedict out for his yeoman efforts. “Benedict XVI was very courageous and has opened a new way.” Because of Benedict, he said, “the Church has done much, perhaps more than all the others.”

Pope Francis is twice right. Long before Benedict became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, called for swifter and stronger procedures to punish molesting priests. That was in 1988. In 2001, he was given exclusive jurisdiction over these matters, and in 2003 he was awarded the power to police priestly sexual abuse. When he became pope, he made it more difficult for practicing homosexuals to enter the priesthood, the net effect of which has been a sharp decline in the number of abuse cases.

In his interview today, Pope Francis said, “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more, and yet the Church is the only one that is being attacked.” The pope was obviously referring to the highly politicized, and maliciously conceived, United Nations report on the Vatican’s response to this issue.

Pope Francis not only speaks truth to power, and to the people, he tells it like it is to those who selectively rally to his side. Yesterday, his comments condemning anti-Catholicism were, as I predicted, all but ignored. His remarks today lauding his predecessor will similarly be given short shrift. Such is the politics of the left, religious as well as secular.

New York Times Turns a Blind Eye to Child Sex Abuse

From the Catholic League

Yesterday, the New York Post ran a story titled, “Brooklyn DA Releases Names of 46 Convicted Child Sex-Abusers Who Terrorized the Orthodox Jewish Community From Within”; this covered a four-year period. This alarming story was not reported either yesterday or today in the New York Times. Take note: there haven’t been 46 credible accusations made against 40,000 priests in the United States in the last four years.

Peter Mullan and the Myth of the Sisters and the Magdalene Laundries

The McAleese Report shows that anti-Catholic film, Magdalene Laundries, is based on nothing but Peter Mullan's lies. 

From the Catholic League:

The man behind “The Magdalene Sisters” is Peter Mullan. The Irish writer and director said he got the idea for the movie by watching the 1998 TV film, “Sex in a Cold Climate.” That was a 50-minute documentary that described the lives of four women who lived and worked at the laundries. It made a big splash at the time, especially because it featured  Phyllis Valentine, a woman who said she was interred in the laundries because she was deemed “too pretty” by the nuns.

If, of course, it were true that the nuns rounded up “pretty girls” for placement in the laundries, that would indeed be a big story. It would also suggest that other such cases must have surfaced by now (unless we are prepared to believe that Valentine was the only “pretty girl” encountered by the nuns). But they haven’t: only Valentine has made this claim. In her case, we know that at age 15 she was moved from the orphanage where she was raised to the laundry. Such a transfer was standard practice, whether the girls were homely or pretty. By the way, the laundry was literally next door to the orphanage. It should come as no surprise that not a single nun who worked at either the orphanage or the laundry was asked to verify the “pretty girl” tale.

To say Mullan hates Catholicism would be an understatement. His comment that “There is not much difference between the Catholic Church and the Taliban” is unqualified. Anyone capable of saying the  Catholic Church is a terrorist organization can be trusted to portray it that way. So when he says that “The film encapsulates everything that is bad about the Catholic Church,” he is simply telling the truth. That was his goal, and he succeeded. He sought to throw as much mud as he could, and hope that at least some of it would stick. Mullan is so riddled with hate that he contends, “The worst thing about the Catholic Church is that it imprisons your soul, your mind and your d***.” This is the man whose depiction of the Church is taken at face value by movie reviewers.

Continue Reading at The Catholic League.

Another Anti-Catholic Publicity Stunt Fizzles

International Court Case Against ex-Pope Fizzles

New York, 13th June 2013, Rachel Zoll, AP.

The International Criminal Court has rejected a longshot request by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, told attorneys for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that "there is not a basis at this time to proceed with further analysis."

"The matters described in your communication do not appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the court," a court official wrote in a May 31 letter to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the nonprofit legal group that represents the victims. The legal organization released the letter Thursday.

Jeffrey Lena, the U.S. attorney for the Vatican, had called the 2011 request to the court a "ludicrous publicity stunt."

Continue reading at The Seattle Times.

More from the Catholic League.

The Usual Suspects Exposed Again

From Gerard Henderson's Media Watch Dog

Issue 174, 15th March 2013

CAN YOU BEAR IT? – A SPECIAL POPE-FOCUSED EDITION

●  Chris Geraghty Casts The First Stone

Meet Chris Geraghty.  Aged circa 74, Mr Geraghty has not had the most newsworthy life. He was a Catholic priest who left the priesthood at age 38 to get married.  He subsequently became a solicitor, then a barrister and then a judge.  At the pinnacle of his career, your man Geraghty obtained the prestigious position of Judge of the NSW Compensation Court and District Court.

Normally, you would think that so brilliant a clerical and legal career would warrant, say, a brief self-published memoir. But no. Chris Geraghty has written three volumes devoted to his life and times.  An autobiographical trilogy, no less.

First there was Cassocks in the Wilderness followed by The Priest Factory followed by Dancing With The Devil: A Journey from the Pulpit to the Bench. According to Nancy’s calculations, there should be time for final missive-possibly titled “My Ultimate Life: From Womb to Tomb”. [Great. I would just love to review this in The Holy Name Monthly – if it still exists. – Ed].

On Wednesday, Chris Geragthy appeared on ABC Radio 702’s Mornings with Linda Mottram  to discuss the Pope and all that – along with a priest and a laywoman. It was not long before the retired judge spoke about child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Let’s go to the transcript:

Linda Mottram : To pick up Chris’s point, the big issue in everybody’s mind – Catholic or not – around the world is the sex abuse scandals and how the Church has, or has not, handled it. Suggestions that the Church is moving forward on this. But Chris, I think you would argue that it’s made very little progress on this. Would you?

Christopher Geraghty :  Look, I think that it’s been a disaster really. The present Pope did very little. He had the opportunity to do it and he did very little. And when he was the offsider to Pope John Paul II, he did very little then too.

So Chris Geraghty is critical of Benedict XVI for doing very little to confront child abuse in the Church when he had the opportunity to do so.

But, what did (then) Fr Geraghty do about child sexual abuse in the Church when he had the opportunity to do so? You can be the judge.  This is what Chris Geraghty told Linda Morris over a beer in the Royal Ascot Hotel Paddington in 2012.  Linda Morris’ profile of Geraghty was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 14 July 2012 on the occasion of the publication of Dancing With The Devil:

Geraghty has his own confession to make, admitting he never passed on to police or to his superiors information about a sexual relationship between a well known priest and one of the seminarians in his care. There were extenuating circumstances. Geraghty was sexually naive and the student spoke to him on condition of silence. Geraghty advised him to confront the priest, Father Vince Kiss, and to end the relationship, which had been going on since he had been about 12, and assisted him in “his search for a new life”. The two later renewed their friendship when the victim, a headmaster at a state school, came forward to testify against Kiss.

“I don’t feel remorseful about it I don’t feel guilty, but I do feel diminished. I’m regretful I was not more worldly wise, I wasn’t more informed, I wasn’t more educated; that I was never aware of the possibility that priests could be paedophiles as they were; and how to deal with it. If I’d known then what I know now and dealt with it aggressively, Vince maybe would not have interfered with a number of other boys and caused them untold trauma.”

So there you have it.  This week, Chris Geraghty used the facilities of ABC Metropolitan Radio in Sydney to bag Benedict XVI for doing “very little” to confront child sex abuse.  But Chris Geraghty neglected to mention the fact that, when confronted as a priest with one case of paedophilia, he did nothing at all.

Can you bear it?

------------------------------

●  God Fails to Deliver an ABC-Compatible Pope – to the Disappointment of Paul Collins, Michael Rowland and Bev O’Connor

What a wonderful sight to see Paul Collins, a former Catholic priest of a liberal bent who is much loved by the ABC on ABC 1’s News Breakfast, at St Peter’s Square yesterday – just after the new pope was elected. Dr Collins (for a doctor he is) called it for the Cardinal Archbishop of Genoa.  It took Lisa Millar in Rome and News Breakfast co-presenters Michael Rowland and Beverley O’Connor some time to realise that the position had gone to the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Then Mr Rowland and Ms O’Connor commenced to express surprise and disappointment that the College of Cardinals had chosen Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who opposes abortion and same sex marriage, to succeed Benedict XVI. It seems that the News Breakfast  team was so busy hoping for a liberal pontiff that they forgot that the Catholic Church is a conservative organisation which is opposed to abortion and same sex marriage.  Can you bear it?

------------------------------

● Phillip Adams on Kerry & Geraldine and Left-Liberal Company

While on the topic of the ABC’s coverage of the Papal Conclave, it’s notable that the public broadcaster trends to only hear the views of those who depict themselves as liberal or progressive Catholics.  Like Paul Collins and Geraldine Doogue – both of whom are currently in Rome.

On 27 February 2013, Phillip (“I was a teenage Stalinist”) Adams spent a full hour interviewing Paul Collins on ABC RN’s Late Night Live. In this interview:

▪ Adams mockingly referred to Cardinal George Pell as “our mutual friend”. Soon after, Collins said that Pell is in “the minority”.

▪ Collins mockingly said that the late B.A. Santamaria “will probably be listening” to the interview.

▪ Adams then mockingly referred to “Saint Gerard of Henderson” and then laughed loudly at his own joke.

▪ Collins then put the entire blame of the Labor Split of the mid 1950s on to Santamaria.

▪ Adams then proclaimed:

Phillip Adams:  This is “The Catholic Hour” on Radio National. Of course, the ABC is chocka with Catholics.  I don’t see why Gerard Henderson doesn’t understand that. He thinks the ABC is full of unreconstructed Stalinists but he’s overlooking St Kerry of O’Brien and St Chris of Uhlmann and of course most notably St Geraldine of Doogue.

In fact, Gerard Henderson has said that the ABC is replete with disillusioned Catholics and alienated ex-Catholics who disagree with the Church’s teachings on sexual morality.  That’s why the public broadcaster’s coverage of the Papal Conclave was so beholden to The Tablet’s  left-liberal critique of the Vatican.  And that’s why virtually all the ABC’s commentators on the Conclave got the eventual outcome so wrong. Can you bear it?

------------------------------

● Peter Munro’s Invincible Ignorance on Lent

Last Saturday, The Age’s Paul Munro wrote an uncritical profile on the Catholic priest – and Cardinal Pell critic – Fr Bob Maguire – about the Pope and all that. Maguire is much loved by critics of the Vatican.  This is how Paul Munro describes his lunch with Fr (“call me Bob”) Maguire:

It’s a Friday in Lent and the Catholic priest, known on TV and radio simply as Father Bob, orders a ham, spinach, mushroom and onion frittata with a side salad from the Let Me Be Frank cafe, in South Melbourne. I select a similarly sacrilegious BLAT sandwich. It’s big and tasty but perhaps not worth damnation.

Glaring through the window is the gothic bluestone of Saints Peter and Paul, Father Bob’s parish church for 38 years until his forced retirement in 2012. Shouldn’t Catholics be abstaining from meat today, I ask. ”Nah, not pinko leftists,” he says, his mouth full of food. ”He’s gone now, I can do what I like … I haven’t had a bloody omelette in years.”  ”He” being Benedict XVI, now merely Pope Emeritus Benedict I after retiring as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

It seems that both Mr Munro and Fr Maguire are invincibly ignorant of the Church’s rules with respect to Lent.  First, there is no longer a requirement that Catholics abstain from meat during Fridays in Lent. Second, a breach of such a rule – if it still existed – would never amount to “damnation”.  Third, it’s unlikely that Benedict XVI ever gave a toss about what Fr Maguire had for lunch.  Why would he? Can you bear it?

------------------------------

● Charles Waterstreet’s Invincible Ignorance on Papal Infallibility

The Sun-Herald’s Charles Waterstreet obviously knows as much about the doctrine of Papal Infallibility as his fellow columnist Peter FitzSimons.  That is, nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

This is what Mr Waterstreet wrote in his column last weekend:

When the rest of the Western world has long decided that absolute rule by monarchs should give way to the more democratic methods of elections, the Catholic Church maintains that not only should there be a solitary ruler, the Pope, but that on many matters he is infallible. The reports dubbed ”Vatileaks” included the findings of an investigation by a three-cardinal commission of inquiry headed by Spanish cardinal Julian Herranz Casado. They proved just how fallible 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI had become. The Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, stole and leaked Vatican correspondence that depicted the bitchery and witchery going on under the prominent nose of the pope.

This comment is hopelessly wrong.  The doctrine of Papal Infallibility only applies when the Pope, speaking on behalf of the Church, binds Catholics on a matter of faith or morals.  The doctrine was last invoked over six decades ago.  Charles Waterstreet’s comments are invincibly ignorant. Can you bear it?

------------------------------

▪ The Guardian-on-the-Yarra Bashes George Pell – Without Evidence Of Course

Last Monday, The Age’s religion editor Barney Zwartz wrote yet another attack on Cardinal Pell – under the heading “Tainted Pell out of race after lobbying”. The Zwartz piece commenced as follows:

Cardinal George Pell, tainted by sex abuse scandals, has no chance of becoming the 266th pope after Australian critics campaigned to publicise allegations that have long dogged him to Italian media and voting cardinals, according to Australian commentator Paul Collins.

Barney Zwartz and his left-liberal mates at “The-Guardian-on-the-Yarra” love nothing more than bashing mainstream Catholics like George Pell.  They care little that many Catholics, and other mainstream Christians, buy and advertise inThe Age.

These are the facts:

▪ George Pell has never been “tainted by sex abuse scandals”. Nor has he been “long dogged” by personal allegations against him.

▪ There was one allegation made against Cardinal Pell in 2002 concerning an event which allegedly occurred in 1961, when Pell was 19 and the male complainant was 12.

▪ The matter was investigated by former Victorian judge A. J. Southwell who found that he was not satisfied that the complaint had been established.

▪ Writing in The Age on 14 June 2010, Barney Zwartz acknowledged that Pell had been “cleared” of any offence by “a retired non-Catholic judge”.

The full details of this matter are discussed in Tess Livingstone’s book George Pell (Duffy & Snellgrove, 2002). The matter was never referred to Victoria Police.  George Pell gave evidence under oath before the Southwell Enquiry which had the status of a royal commission.

Yet Barney Zwartz claimed that Cardinal Pell has been “tainted by sex abuse scandals” despite previously acknowledging that this is not the case. Can you bear it?

Progressive Artists Show Their Hypocrisy Again

“PISS CHRIST” COMING TO NYC
From the Catholic League, 21st September 2012

Bill Donohue comments as follows:

On September 27, the Edward Tyler Nahem gallery in mid-town Manhattan will host an exhibit, “Body and Spirit: Andres Serrano 1987-2012,” that features Serrano’s “Piss Christ” piece; it shows a crucifix submerged in a jar of his own urine. The exhibit ends October 26.

Serrano has said that “Piss Christ” was “meant to question the whole notion of what is acceptable and unacceptable.” There is not much to question: decent people know it is unacceptable. But in elite cultural circles, anti-Christian art is not only acceptable, it is laudatory. Just don’t offend Muslims. To wit: this week a disrespectful French cartoon of Muhammad was not shown on any of the network or cable TV news shows.

In 2006, when the Danish cartoons that angered Muslims appeared, not only were they not shown on the networks or cable, newspapers all across the nation refused to do so. In fact, the leading newspapers echoed the position of the New York Times: it said it was wrong to publish “gratuitous assaults on religious grounds.” Yet this same newspaper, in the same article about the Danish cartoons, reproduced the “dung on the Virgin Mary” artwork that was shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Sensation” exhibition in 1999! To show how acceptable anti-Christian art is, three days after “Sensation” opened, Christie’s sponsored a “Piss Christ” print exhibit.

“Piss Christ,” which dates back to the late 1980s, wouldn’t matter as much to Christians in 2012 if it weren’t for the supine statements offered by the Obama administration in the wake of an anti-Islamic video. Never before have Americans learned how deeply offended our elites are by anti-religious fare. If only we could believe them. When have they ever condemned anti-Christian movies or art?

I will be there on Thursday with a contingent from the Catholic League. Details to follow next week.

Obama and Vatican Spokesman Loose the Plot

Tim Minchin - !@%# his Pope Song

Comedian Tim Minchin will be in Brisbane in March. Like many comedians he's sometimes funny and sometimes a complete tosser. Minchin's "Pope Song" shows just how ugly the comedian can be. The "Pope Song" is a completely unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict XVI filled with one lie after another. Given Tim Minchin declares himself a fan of Richard Dawkins one shouldn't be surprised at his difficulty with facts.

Tim Minchin's "Pope Song" with a running commentary can be seen below.
Click the "YouTube" or expansion button for a better view. Warning - much swearing.



Of course there is no credible evidence that the Pope is guilty of anything Minchin accuses him of. So why write the song, if not to give expression to his own bigoted anti-Catholic feelings.

Numerous articles defending Pope Benedict against the attacks from the likes of Tim Minchin can be found here.

Courier Mail Continue Their Hate

Double click image for larger view

The Courier Mail continues to show its dislike of the Catholic Church and in particular the Papacy. The Courier Mail thinks a sign from the Protest the Pope Rally, which is factually wrong in 3 out of 4 of its statements, is one of the best protest signs for the year 2010.

SMITHSONIAN HOSTS ANTI-CHRISTIAN EXHIBIT

MORE STUPIDITY FROM THE USUAL SUSPECTS
November 30, 2010. Catholic League (USA)

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is currently hosting an exhibit, "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," that features a video that shows large ants eating away at Jesus on a crucifix. The exhibit is replete with homoerotic images.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

According to Penny Starr of CNSnews.com, David C. Ward, co-curator of the National Portrait Gallery, says the video, "A Fire in My Belly," is one of the "masterpieces" of this exhibit. We call it hate speech. Perversely, there is a plaque at the entrance to the exhibit that says the Gallery is committed to "the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America's promise of equality, inclusion, and social dignity." Somehow Christians didn't make the cut.

The creator of this "masterpiece" video is dead of AIDS. But he did not die without blaming society for his self-destructive behavior. David Wojnarowicz said, "When I was told I'd contracted the virus, it didn't take long for me to realize that I'd contracted a diseased society as well." Who did he blame? Besides some politicians and government workers, he fingered "those thinly disguised walking swastikas that wear religious garments over their murderous intentions." So Father John did it.

At least Wojnarowicz bared his soul. Ward just spins. Like others who have attacked Christians before with their "art," he says the ants crawling all over Jesus represent "the lack of attention to Christian teachings." So the ants are actually giving Christians a wake-up call! How thoughtful.

It does not matter that private sources funded this exhibition: the majority of the money afforded the Smithsonian Institution comes from the taxpayers. Accordingly, I am writing today to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees asking them to reconsider future funding.

From Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

UPDATE: Smithsonian Pulls Exhibit.

Archbishop Dolan’s Critics Freak Out

November 17, 2010, Catholic League (USA)

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the way some of the critics of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan are reacting to his election yesterday as the new head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

NPR is worried that Archbishop Dolan is "overtly conservative," and Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times is fretting about his "confrontational approach." Dissident Catholics are upset as well: New Ways Ministry says the vote "sends an ominous message"; Call to Action also sees his election as "ominous"; Sr. Maureen Fiedler says "we now have our very own Catholic version of the 'Tea Party' movement"; DignityUSA concludes that Dolan's election means the hierarchy is "out of step" with Catholics. Similarly, the Human Rights Campaign, a gay secular group, says the vote means the hierarchy is "out of step." Not to be outdone, the website of the Tucson Citizen accused Dolan of evincing an "arrogant" attitude in winning (it is true that he was caught smiling).

SNAP, the professional victims' group, opines that Dolan's "winning personality obscures his terrible track record on abuse." Marian Ronan of Religion Dispatches says his election is "not a good sign," and her colleague, Sarah Posner, concludes—and this really is ominous—that "the bishops are targeting families with loved ones who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender." The Internet site Lez Get Real calls Dolan "the Vatican's spin-doctor," and the website of Time has a headline which reads, "More Bad News for Obama 2012: Catholics Elect Dolan." Edgeboston.com picked up the AP piece, but chose to give it a new headline: "Catholic Bishops' Vote to Mean Harder Church Stance Against Gay Families." And atheist Susan Jacoby is sweating over the fact that Dolan will be treated by the media "as if he is the voice of all American Catholics." She needs to get used to it.

Now it is tempting to conclude that some in the asylum have escaped. More likely, it means these are not good times for those who have sought—in many cases their entire adult life—to turn the Catholic Church, and America more generally, upside down and inside out. They gave it their best shot, but they lost. Maybe it's time they retired.

Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights

Dutch journalist threatened with torture, death following letter condemning abortion

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman. DEN BOSCH, Netherlands, November 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)

Pro-life journalist Mariska Orbán de Haas says that she has received hundreds of death threats and more than ten threats of torture following the publication of an open letter she wrote to a pro-abortion parliamentarian asking her to reconsider her position on the subject.

The letter, which was addressed to Representative Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert and published in the Katholiek Nieuwsblad (Catholic News), was written in response to Hennis-Plassschaert's angry reaction after receiving a plastic fetal model from Catholic bishop Everard de Jong. The bishop had sent the models to Hennis-Plasschaert and all other members of the Dutch House of Representatives.  He also included a letter in which he asked the representatives to stop the killing of the unborn in the face of impending budget restrictions, pointing out that defunding "bloody abortion clinics" would save money and help preserve future generations who could care for the elderly.

After Hennis-Plasschaert called the letter from the bishop "disgusting," Orbán wrote to her publicly, pointing out that both she and Hennis-Plasschaert have experienced the suffering of miscarriages, and that the fetal model she received from Bishop De Jong would resemble their lost children at the time of their deaths.

Continue reading at Life Site News.

JAY LENO NEEDS NEW SCRIPT

 November 11, 2010


Image by Lee Stranahan

Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking Catholics to provide Jay Leno with some new script. He explains why:

Last night, Jay Leno did what comes natural to him—he bashed Catholicism for the umpteenth time. His scriptwriters handed him a few lines about one miscreant priest, and he took the opportunity to hype the case further by lying about what happened. The priest was charged with ripping off his parish to pay for his online porn habit, but this wasn't good enough for Leno. He wanted to implicate the entire Catholic Church. So what did he do? He said "the Church transferred him to another parish that has free WiFi. Yeah, so that's nice." Leno lied about the transfer; he did so because his goal was to indict the Church.

In the event Leno wants to practice diversity, we have some new script:

· In the news this week is the story of a woman being sentenced to death under Islamic law in Pakistan. Her crime? She is a Christian.

· Last week, Oprah Winfrey was in the news for featuring a discussion with adults who were sexually abused by Episcoplaian priests in their youth.

· This week it was reported that 17 Jews have been charged with stealing $42 million from Holocaust survivors; the money was financed by the German government.

Imagine how much fun Leno could have with script like this! He wouldn't even have to lie about any of it to get a good laugh.

From the Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights