Catholic League (U.S.)

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Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
Logo of the Catholic League
Type Roman Catholic Non-profit civil rights organization
Founded 1973
Location New York City, New York
Leader Bill Donohue,
President and CEO
Bernadette Brady, Vice-President
Field Roman Catholic anti-defamation
Purpose Roman Catholic advocacy
Budget USD $2.69 million
(fiscal year 2005)
8 million in reserve[1]
Employees 4[1]
Website www.CatholicLeague.org

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, widely known as The Catholic League, is a Catholic anti-defamation non-profit group in the United States with the stated mission of defending "the right of Catholics...to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination."[2] It has no official affiliation with the Catholic Church.[citation needed]

The Catholic League is known for press release statements about anti-Catholic and anti-Christian themes in the media, through its main public face, League president William A. Donohue. Noted for vocal opposition to movies such as The Last Temptation of Christ, Priest, and Dogma,[3] as well as TV entertainment such as South Park, The View, and highly visible people like Rosie O'Donnell[4] and events like the Folsom Street Fair[5] Donohue regularly makes talk show appearances discussing why he thinks the subject of discussion is anti-Catholic.

Contents

[edit] Organizational overview

[edit] History

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (December 2007)

The League was founded in 1973 by Jesuit Father Virgil C. Blum.[6]

[edit] William A. Donohue

Main article: William A. Donohue

Since 1993 the League has been led by its Board of Directors president, William A. Donohue, who works with a small number of organizational staffers including Kiera McCaffrey, the League's Director of Communications, who has made media appearances for the group as recently as May 2006.[7] In a 1999 New York Times article a reporter noted Donohue is pragmatic in regards to religion, "media savvy" and "steers clear of divisive debates on theological doctrines and secular politics".[8] Adding that Donohue "fans simmering anger with inflammatory news releases, a Web site and newsletter"[9] with "scathing attacks on the blasphemous and the irreverent".[8] In a 2007 interview, Salon Life staff writer Rebecca Traister discussed Donohue with Frances Kissling, former head of Catholics for a Free Choice, who characterized Donohue as abusive and stated she avoided doing media interviews with him for this reason.[10] The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the leadership body of Roman Catholics, issued a press release calling Kissling's group Catholics for Free Choice "an advocacy group dedicated to supporting abortion" that is "not a Catholic organization" and stated it promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church".[11] Kissling also stated "[Donohue] has made it his business to protest every bit of pop culture and politics that doesn't mesh perfectly with his strict views on Catholic doctrine" and added that many have noted that he is a "total media hound".[12] Donohue counters the criticisms against him by pointing out that less confrontational styles of previous League presidents also translated into less productivity and he wants to see an immediate impact from the work he does for the League.

[edit] Operations and organization

The League issues a journal, Catalyst, as well as reports, such as Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, books, brochures and an annual Report on Anti-Catholicism. An array of prominent lay Catholics are listed as members of the Catholic League's Board of Advisors, including L. Brent Bozell III, Linda Chavez, Dinesh D'Souza, Alan Keyes, Mary Ann Glendon and George Weigel.[13]

[edit] Association with the Catholic Church

The Catholic League's office is located within the headquarters of the Archdiocese of New York,[14] and the League often works closely with the Archdiocese; for example, supplying the photographs for its Office of Vocations website.[15]

Many high-ranking Church officials have endorsed the Catholic League. The Archbishops of New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Boston, as well as the Archbishop for the Military Services, are quoted on the Catholic League's website endorsing the League's activities and exhorting Catholics to become members.[16]

[edit] Membership

The New York Times reported that the group had 11,000 total members when Donohue took over the Catholic League in 1993. This grew to 233,333 paid members in 1999, a figure which the League multiplies by 1.5 to account for non-paying members in the households of paying members, resulting in a League estimate of 350,000 members.[17] This 1999 estimate is the last statement about overall membership numbers that the League has made.

The Catholic League's 2003 statement about membership claimed 15,000 members just in Nassau and Suffolk counties of New York.[18]

Annual donations entitle members to home delivery of the print version of Catalyst, the group's monthly journal, which is also available for free on the Catholic League's website.

[edit] Political alignment

The Catholic League claims political neutrality which is mostly required of non-profits. The website states, "The league wishes to be neither left nor right, liberal or conservative, revolutionary or reactionary."[13] The League sometimes affiliates itself with liberal causes espoused by the Catholic Church; for example, they criticized the anti-illegal-immigrant group, the Minutemen, for opposing a San Diego priest's facilitation of employment for Latino immigrants and for condemning the Church as a whole in public statements about the matter.[19]

The Catholic League also condemned conservative megachurch pastor and televangelist John Hagee for anti-Catholic hate speech and called upon the McCain presidential campaign to renounce this bigotry.[20]

[edit] Activities

[edit] Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust

See also: Pope Pius XII#The Holocaust

The Catholic League sells Pius XII and the Holocaust: A Reader, a work which defends Pope Pius XII against accusations of silence during the Holocaust. The book's contents are also available for free at the League's website.[21] The question of Pius XII's relationship to the Holocaust is a complex issue that is still debated by many mainstream historians, and there is much evidence that he was not only not silent, but actually fought hard to save Jews. James Bogle in the Salisbury Review (2007) points out that Pius XII in fact saved over 800,000 Jewish lives. Dan Kurzman author of "A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII" writes that Hitler wanted to seize the "Jew-loving" pope and move him to Liechtenstein.

[edit] Film Goya's Ghost

A 2007 Catholic League review of the film Goya's Ghosts, a movie dealing specifically with the Roman Catholic Church's Inquisition of heretics decried the film for portraying "cruel and vengeful" priests who are "hungry for blood". The Catholic League granted that the "general subject of the Inquisition itself is not a problem" and that "certainly grave sins were committed by leaders of the Church during that time, and this is not something that should be forgotten by Catholics or anyone else." What the Catholic League objected to was that "the viewer is not provided with one redeeming member of the clergy."[22]


[edit] Criticism

Donohue and the Catholic League have been criticized by some fellow Catholics, who have accused them of being overly sensitive in the identification of anti-Catholicism.[23] Jesuit priest James Martin, the associate editor of the Catholic magazine America says the Catholic League “frequently speak(s) without seeing or experiencing what they are critiquing, and that undercuts their credibility.” Martin blames the League for promoting “the idea that the Catholic Church is unreflective.”[24]

Donohue has often allied himself with conservative Protestants who have expressed more anti-Catholic sentiments than some of Donohue's secular targets. At a 2005 event entitled “Justice Sunday,” advertised as “a rally to portray Democrats as being against people of faith,” Donohue shared the stage with Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler.[25]

The Catholic League's monthly newsletter, Catalyst, publishes a "Hatemail" section, which includes letters from former Catholics who decided to leave the Church after seeing William Donohue on television.[26]

[edit] In Popular Culture

South Park adult cartoon portrays the League as overly zealous and has a scene where Donohue has both Jesus and the Pope arrested for ostensibly going against the Church.
South Park adult cartoon portrays the League as overly zealous and has a scene where Donohue has both Jesus and the Pope arrested for ostensibly going against the Church.[27][28]

The 2007 South Park episode "Fantastic Easter Special" repeatedly criticizes the League as overly zealous, portraying Donohue personally as attempting to take control from Pope Benedict XVI. Donohue orders Jesus killed for defying the Church, and, upon Benedict's insistence that "I'm pretty sure killing Jesus is not very Christian", has Benedict imprisoned for being "soft and weak".[27] After the South Park "Cartoon Wars" episode aired, Donohue had called South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker "little whores" for not resigning over the Cartoon Network's censorship of Muhammad, while still making money by mocking Jesus.[28] In the "Fantastic Easter Special" episode, Donohue calls Stan and Kyle "whores."

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b 2005 Form 990 from the IRS. Guidestar (9 May 2006). Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  2. ^ "About Us" page on the Catholic League's website [1]
  3. ^ Penhollow, Steve Director Kevin Smith calls himself a devout Catholic and says his latest comedy, Dogma, is "pro-faith, pro-Catholic, spiritually uplifting.", The Journal Gazette
  4. ^ barbara walters — House Mom to Bigots. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Retrieved on 2007-08-22. (from internet archive)
  5. ^ Catholic Group Urges Boycott of Miller Brewing Co. Over San Francisco Fair Sponsorship. Fox News (September 27, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  6. ^ "About Us" page on the Catholic League's website [2]
  7. ^ Transcript of CNN's Showbiz Tonight episode, aired 8 May 2006 [3]
  8. ^ a b Hu, Winnie (2 November 1999). An Outspoken Church Defender. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-11-29."Mr. Donohue, 52, a former sociology professor who lives in Mineola, N.Y., took over the 11,000-member Catholic League in 1993 and reinvigorated it with his personal blend of religious pragmatism and media savvy. Although he supports the church's teachings on life-and-death issues like abortion and the death penalty, he steers clear of divisive debates on theological doctrines and secular politics."
  9. ^ Hu, Winnie (2 November 1999). An Outspoken Church Defender. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-11-29."Mr. Donohue fans this simmering anger with inflammatory news releases, a Web site and newsletter, The Catalyst, that condemn everything from Miramax movies to tasteless jokes about nuns. Every other month, he requests donations for a large ad or some other project. He writes personal notes to those who give more than $250."
  10. ^ Traister, Rebecca (13 February 2007). Bill Donohue vs. The World (Especially Women): Frances Kissling, head of Catholics for a Free Choice, talks about the right-wing activist who forced the John Edwards campaign to part with one of its bloggers.. Salon.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-29.
  11. ^ U.S. Catholic Bishops - Office of Communications
  12. ^ Traister, Rebecca (13 February 2007). Bill Donohue vs. The World (Especially Women): Frances Kissling, head of Catholics for a Free Choice, talks about the right-wing activist who forced the John Edwards campaign to part with one of its bloggers.. Salon.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-29.
  13. ^ a b ”About Us” page on the Catholic League's website [4]
  14. ^ “An Outspoken Church Defender,” New York Times, 2 November 1999 [5]
  15. ^ Photo credits viewable at http://www.archnyvocations.org/site/staywithuslord.html
  16. ^ ”About Us” page on the Catholic League's website [6]
  17. ^ “An Outspoken Church Defender,” New York Times, 2 November 1999 [7]
  18. ^ “The Battle is Joined Over Bishop Murphy,” New York Times, 3 August 2003 [8]
  19. ^ "San Diego Minutemen Gin Up Catholic Bashing", Catholic League website, 10 July 2007 [9]
  20. ^ Catholic League: McCain's Next Move
  21. ^ "Pius XII and the Holocaust, A Reader" at the Catholic League's website [10]
  22. ^ "Film Set In Inquisition Goes Too Far", The Catalyst, September 2007 [11]
  23. ^ "Donohue's crusade: tilting at the wrong windmill - Catholic League for Religious and Civil Liberties head William A. Donohue", column by David R. Carlin, Jr., Commonweal, May 23, 1997 [12]
  24. ^ “An Outspoken Church Defender,” New York Times, 2 November 1999 [13]
  25. ^ “Justice Sunday Preachers” The Nation online, 26 April 2005 [14]
  26. ^ "Hatemail," December 2004 Catalyst [15]
  27. ^ a b The Raw Story | Catholic group fires back at leader's depiction in South Park parody
  28. ^ a b ‘South Park’ takes on own network over ban, MSNBC.com, April 18, 2006

[edit] External links