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NEW YORK — Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s positive reaction to this week’s decision by organizers of New York’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade to allow gay groups to march under their own banners initially drew charitable responses in many Catholic Church circles. But it didn’t take long for conservative church critics to turn. After initially signaling his grudging acceptance, William Donohue of the Catholic League came back with a revised view when he realized that more than one gay group could be allowed to march in the future.

Take note all ye cultural fascists out to annihilate Christmas: The Catholic League has a nativity scene on public property in New York City, right in Central Park. We deliberately put it on the corner of 59th and 5th so that New Yorkers taking the 5th Avenue bus downtown can’t avoid seeing it. Indeed, it’s impossible to miss. Next to it will be the world’s largest menorah, a religious symbol that some dunce lawyers still think is a secular symbol. “Every year we get a permit from the New York City Parks Department to display our life-sized crèche in Central...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on new survey data profiling Catholicism:All we ever hear from the wild-eyed critics of the Catholic Church, including the dissidents within, is that the Church had better "get with it" and change its teachings on abortion, homosexuality and women's ordination. Yet it is precisely those religious institutions that are the most liberal on these issues—the mainline Protestant denominations—that are collapsing. Not so the Catholic Church. Indeed, its numbers are going north while the mainline denominations are going south.The latest findings by the "Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership" project, a collaborative effort with Georgetown University's...

A photo of a Nativity Scene the Catholic League erected in New York’s Central Park in December 2009. (Photo courtesy of Catholic League) (CNSNews.com) – The New York City-based Catholic League has erected a life-size Nativity scene at the heart of New York’s Central Park, hoping the display will remind Christians in other cities that such displays are legal.   Placed at the corner of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, the Nativity stands prominently in front of the world’s largest menorah – the eight-armed candelabra used to mark the eight days of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.   First...

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League – a group that exists to promote Bill Donohue, er, prevent “virulent anti-Catholicism” – is leading a protest against Jerry Springer: The Opera, which will be performed at Carnegie Hall on January 29th and 30th and stars Harvey Keitel as Springer. The show chronicles Jerry Springer’s adventures in hell, where he's forced to host an outrageous talk show whose guests include Adam and Eve, Mary, Jesus, and, as his crowd “warm up” man, Satan. Donohue’s dutifully parsed the script and excerpted all the blasphemous material, which may not be the best tactic because...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on some of the remarks being made about Father Gabriele Amorth’s recent interview on Vatican Radio: “Various forums on the Internet are alive with chatter over Father Amorth’s August 27 interview. Father Amorth is a Pauline priest who works as an exorcist in the Diocese of Rome. In the interview, he said, ‘I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed by the devil.’ Furthermore, he asserted that the ‘horrors’ committed by Stalin and Hitler also demonstrate that ‘they were possessed by the devil.’ Unfortunately, some are now reading these remarks as Father...

September 28, 2005 OPEN LETTER TO BARBARA WALTERS The following is Bill Donohue’s letter to ABC personality Barbara Walters: It seems you have a problem with the Catholic Church.  On the September 22 episode of “The View,” you read a selection from the Catholic Catechism on homosexuality that you found disagreeable.  To be precise, you wondered aloud what the Church meant by saying homosexuality was an “objective disorder.”  To the approval of your co-hosts, you further added that celibacy was “unnatural” or “supposedly” so.  Moreover, co-hosts Meredith Vieira, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Joy Behar piled on by speaking in the most disparaging way...

CBS PETITIONED TO PROBE SHOWTIME Catholic League president William Donohue explained today the league’s strategy for dealing with Showtime, the cable network that recently aired a hate-filled episode of “Penn and Teller”: “On May 23, 24 and 27, Showtime’s ‘Penn and Teller’ aired the ‘Holier Than Thou’ episode that has so enraged Catholics, as well as people of all faiths (click here). The obscene assault on Mother Teresa, her Missionaries of Charity and the Catholic Church was arguably the most vicious anti-Catholic fare ever shown on television in the United States. An excerpt of this show was sent to 350...

On May 26, the Catholic League will hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m. outside the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway and 46th Street in New York City. The press conference will address the vile assault on Mother Teresa that Showtime aired this week in its “Holier Than Thou” episode of Penn and Teller; Showtime is owned by Viacom. The timing and venue of the press conference is intentional: at 2:00 p.m., the 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Viacom will begin. Catholic League president William Donohue wrote a news release today that explains the seriousness of this issue. A...

New York, May. 25, 2005 (CNA) - Los Angeles Times op-ed writer Robert Scheer has distorted the truth about the Catholic Church and homosexuals, says Catholic League president William Donohue.In his recent column, Scheer says the Catholic Church is “one of the most sexually repressed institutions in human history” that is responsible for a “horrific drumbeat of child molestation revelations” led by a new Pope who is “a longtime leader of vicious church attacks on ‘evil’ gays.” Scheer also accuses Pope Benedict XVI of scapegoating the media. “Scheer is wrong on all counts,” says Donohue.“It is not the Catholic Church’s...

Catholic League president William Donohue remarked as follows: “The storm is about to hit. For the most part, anti-Catholic bigots and the disaffected dissidents within the Church have been quiet. What they have been waiting for is about to happen: the week between the end of the mourning and the beginning of the conclave is upon us. And that means the Left is ready to explode. “Consider what we’ve heard already. Amidst the mostly favorable coverage by the media of Pope John Paul II, he has been branded as follows: an authoritarian who seeks to silence dissent; the enemy of...

It was a surprise to NBC in 1992 when "Saturday Night Live" aired pop star Sinead O'Connor ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II and crying "Fight the real enemy!" But now NBC has aired a planned, scripted episode of a sitcom that attacks not the Pope, but Jesus Christ Himself. The Feb. 22 episode of the painfully unfunny new sitcom "Committed" made a mockery out of the sacrament of the Eucharist. As William Donohue of the Catholic League explained about the show: "By far the most offensive scene occurs when [male characters] Nate and Bowie accidentally flush...

New York, Mar. 01 (CNA/CWNews.com) - William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, has said Newsweek magazine should "pull the plug" on columnist Christopher Dickey after Dickey suggested in an article that Pope John Paul II (bio - news) continues to impose his will on the Catholic Church by his "stubborn" will to live. Dickey's article in the "Periscope" section of the March 7 edition of Newsweek is titled "He Has Willpower-- But No 'Living Will.'" Dickey said, "Even as the aged pope's body shuts down in the late stages of Parkinson's disease, his will...

 March 1, 2005   “JERRY SPRINGER” BETTER STAY IN BRITAIN  The Catholic League has been monitoring plans to bring “Jerry Springer: The Opera” to Broadway for some time, but has refrained from saying anything because the initial plans were scrapped.  However, it is being reported today that if the producers can come up with the cash, they will bring “Springer” to Broadway in spring 2006.  Here is what others have said about the show: The opera "contains up to 8,000 profanities and features tap-dancers dressed as Ku Klux Klan members and a showdown between Satan and a diaper-wearing Jesus." Amidst...

During the February 22 episode of the NBC-TV sitcom, “Committed,” two non-Catholics are mistakenly given Holy Communion at a Catholic funeral Mass.  Nate, who is Jewish, and Bowie, a Protestant, don’t know what to do with the Eucharist, so they make several failed attempts to get rid of it.  For example, they try slipping it into the pocket of a priest, dropping it on a tray of cheese and crackers, etc.    At one point, the priest, who is portrayed as not knowing the difference between the Host and a cracker, goes to grab the “cracker” from a tray...

An episode of the NBC sitcom "Committed,” featuring two characters who flush a Communion wafer down a toilet, has created a firestorm of protest among Catholics. During the February 22 broadcast, two non-Catholics are mistakenly given Holy Communion at a Catholic funeral Mass. As recounted by the Catholic League: "Nate, who is Jewish, and Bowie, a Protestant, don’t know what to do with the Eucharist, so they make several failed attempts to get rid of it. For example, they try slipping it into the pocket of a priest, dropping it on a tray of cheese and crackers, etc. "At one...

December 29, 2004 CATHOLICS AND JEWS TARGETED WORLDWIDE IN 2004 Catholic League President William Donohue released the following remarks today: “Anti-Catholicism in the US is the predominant focus of the Catholic League. But we are not oblivious to what has been happening to Catholics in other parts of the world. Specifically, the rise of anti-Catholicism in Europe and the Arab nations is very disturbing. Moreover, it is not for nothing that these two regions continue to display an abiding hatred of Jews. “Through the noble efforts of people like A.M. Rosenthal, Americans have learned of Christian persecution in Arab lands,...

 December 23, 2004  ATHEISTS DESERVE THEIR OWN HOLIDAY—NOTHINGDAY  Catholic League president William Donohue released the following comments on the Christmas wars today:      “Robert Tiernan, a spokesman for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, is demanding that atheists be represented in next year’s Parade of Lights in Denver.  He wants a ‘winter solstice’ float instead of a Christian one.  He deserves better.   “Atheists deserve to have their own holiday—Nothingday—the purpose of which would be to honor what they believe in, which is absolutely nothing.  Nothingday would be held on the day of the winter solstice and would be...

Catholic League president William Donohue commented today on some disturbing responses to Christmas: “In San Francisco, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a band of characters the Los Angeles Times affectionately calls a group of ‘queer nuns,’ has been bashing Christmas all month. In Minneapolis, gay-themed Christmas bashing has been happening at the Hennepin Center for the Arts and the Brave New Workshop. To understand why this is going on, consider what one New Hampshire non-Christian said when asked about Christmas celebrations in the schools: ‘It’s offensive to those who don’t celebrate it.’ Better yet is Phil Goodstein, a Denver historian...

An honored friend, charging that there has been anti-Semitism on the air, sends along the offending transcript, and I read through MSNBC's Scarborough Country (for Dec. 8) and found some noisy people discussing Hollywood. The question before the house: Will The Passion of the Christ win the relevant Oscar, or will it be Fahrenheit 9/11? The seven guests of Pat Buchanan, who was the mc that evening, included a rabbi (Shmuley Boteach) and the president of the Catholic League (Bill Donohue). The Catholic League ("The Nation's Largest Catholic Civil Rights Organization") fashions itself after the Anti-Defamation League of the Jewish...