National Geographic

"Before the New York State legislature decides whether to ratify homosexual marriage, it would be nice if one of the lawmakers were to ask what in the world is going on in the gay community. [snip] Between 2007-2009, there was a 6 percent decrease in gay men using condoms. Furthermore, homosexuals account for 60 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV infections each year; in addition, 60 percent of gays who have syphilis also have HIV. Moreover, 85 percent of gays with syphilis continue to have sex. The lawmakers need to ask gay leaders to testify about this issue." - Catholic League blowhard and pedophile defender Bill Donohue.

Catholic League blowhard and pedophile defender Bill Donahue reruns the same-old tired lies.

The threats to religious liberty are not hypothetical. A New Mexico photographer who refused to photograph a gay couple's commitment ceremony was forced to pay the couple's attorney's fees; Christians in New Jersey who objected to allowing a gay union ceremony in their privately owned facility have had their tax-exempt status stripped; a psychologist from Georgia was fired after she declined to counsel a lesbian about her relationship. And so on. In other words, there are real concerns that if gay marriage passes in New York, religious liberty will be jeopardized. That is why if this bill passes, it is imperative that religious rights be firmly locked in from the get-go. And it is nothing if not bizarre to insist that marriage be extended to two people who are positively disqualified by nature, and nature's God, from starting a family.

NOTE: Donahue rakes in over $400,000 annually as his salary for writing these blog posts for the Catholic Church.

"The Presbyterian Church now joins the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Episcopal Church in allowing practicing homosexuals and lesbians to become members of the clergy. It also has something else in common with these mainline Protestant denominations: it is collapsing. In the case of the Presbyterian Church, it has lost more than half its members since the 1960s; the other denominations are also in free-fall.

"Liberal Christians, including liberal Catholics, have no explanation for this outcome. They never tire of saying how we need to relax the strictures for ordination—allow women clergy, ban celibacy, permit practicing homosexuals—and bingo, watch for a sharp increase in both vocations and membership. Well, they won on policy, but they got their clock cleaned on numbers. Orthodoxy works, both theologically and sociologically, but that’s not something liberals will ever figure out." -Catholic League blowhard Bill Donahue, on the Presbyterian Church's move to allow openly gay clergy.

Catholic League blowhard Bill Donahue takes a moment off from defending pedophiles to attack Lady Gaga over her new single, Judas, in the video for which she plays Mary Magdalene. The clip will be released (ta-DAH) on Easter Sunday.

The Catholic League today published a full-page ad in the New York Times in which blowhard Bill Donohue blames the church's pedophilia scandals on homosexuality. An excerpt:

The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let’s get it straight—they weren’t children and they weren’t raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though this is, it is not rape). The Boston Globe correctly said of the John Jay report that “more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.” In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia.

When the National Review Board, a group of notable Catholics, issued its study in 2004, the team’s chief, attorney Robert S. Bennett, said that “any evaluation of the causes and context of the current crisis must be cognizant of the fact that more than 80 percent of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature.” One of the members, Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins, has said that “This behavior was homosexual predation on American Catholic youth, yet it’s not being discussed.” By the way, the figures after 2004 haven’t changed—eight in ten cases involve homosexuality. Worldwide, the Vatican estimates that 60 percent of the cases are same-sex, 30 percent are heterosexual and 10 percent involve pedophilia.

Read the entire ad.

Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue's war with the New Hampshire GOP is escalating, as today he threatens to sue them for libel.

Never in the nearly 18 years I have spent as president of the Catholic League have I seen more totally irresponsible statements issued by the lawmakers in any one state. While some Republicans—and all of those attacking the Catholic League are Republicans—are merely upset with our criticism of Rep. Bettencourt, two have clearly crossed the line. Rep. Lynne Ober wrote the following to us in an e-mail: "I agree that it is certainly unfortunate that the Catholic League chooses to harbor a person who helped pedophiles continue abusing children." Rep. Andrew Manuse wrote this missive: "I am now considering a bill to remove the Church's tax exempt status in New Hampshire, for you have clearly shown that you no longer want it." I have a challenge for the two of them. Why doesn't Ober take the next step by personally accusing me of harboring a person who helped pedophiles continue to abuse children? Organizations can't sue for libel, but individuals can. Why doesn't Manuse go right ahead with his bill to remove the Church's tax-exempt status? We'd love to present his e-mail in court.

Popcorn. Recliner. Feet up.

New Hampshire House GOP leader D.J. Bettencourt is under fire for calling Bishop John McCormack a "pedophile pimp" after the cleric demonstrated against proposed budget cuts for social services.

Before being named bishop of Manchester in 1998, McCormack served as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where the Catholic sex abuse scandal began and where he was in charge of investigating sexual misconduct allegations. In 2002, McCormack averted unprecedented criminal charges against the New Hampshire diocese by agreeing that it had harmed children by moving abusive priests from parish to parish. "Would the Bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the 'vulnerable?'" Bettencourt wrote. "This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a rain coat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone."

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue is predictably outraged: "As president of the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am contacting every member of the New Hampshire House calling for a Resolution of Censure. House Majority Leader David J. Bettencourt has had plenty of time to retract his vicious assault on Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack and refuses to do so. Therefore, it is only fitting that he be censured for his invective."

RELATED: Bettencourt has already earned the scorn of the Christian right for saying that a repeal of same-sex marriage should not be among his chamber's priorities. That prompted NOM to brand him "an enemy of the family."

The Catholic League is pissed at Macy's for the above display window promoting Showtime's upcoming series, The Borgias, which was "written by an atheist who hates the Catholic Church." Bill Donohue: "Why Macy's would want to pick a fight with Catholics during the Lenten season is not known, but that it has is certain." Wikipedia's entry on the Borgia family, one of whom became Pope, notes: "They have been accused of many different crimes, including adultery, simony, theft, rape, bribery, incest, and murder." Which is the real reason Donohue hates seeing the series promoted.

The Book Of Mormon is in previews has opened and reviews are coming in.

Andrew Sullivan:

This is an almost classically traditional musical score, each song unique, but united and woven together in show-stopping finales. Their blend is of subversive material filtered through tradition and sincerity. There is no cynicism here. Yes there is General Butt-Fucking Naked. There is an African woman called Neosporin. There is a fantastic send-up of Bono; a lovely dig at Johnnie Cochrane; some rudely sodomized frogs; and a baptism that sounds like sex. But there are also moments of unexpected poignancy, as when an African woman discovers that she has in fact been deceived. It is the best thing they have ever done - musically, theatrically, comically

New York Times' Ben Brantley:

This is to all the doubters and deniers out there, the ones who say that heaven on Broadway does not exist, that it’s only some myth our ancestors dreamed up. I am here to report that a newborn, old-fashioned, pleasure-giving musical has arrived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, the kind our grandparents told us left them walking on air if not on water. So hie thee hence, nonbelievers (and believers too), to “The Book of Mormon,” and feast upon its sweetness.

Catholic League's Bill Donohue:

"In December 2008, the outgoing Bush administration opposed a French resolution at the U.N. General Assembly on the issue of homosexual rights because it feared that the loosely worded document might make it difficult for American states to reject gay marriage. The Holy See concurred, saying that terms like 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' were contentious because they 'find no recognition or clear and agreed definition in international law.' Thus, they would ineluctably create 'uncertainty in the law.' [snip]

"Now the Obama administration has chosen to adopt the identical terms in its declaration. The ultimate difference between the Obama administration and the Vatican lay in their respective approaches to homosexual marriage: the American government has repeatedly shown no interest supporting efforts to maintain the traditional understanding of marriage. At stake is the right of nations which reject homosexual marriage to maintain their standards without undue pressure from those which embrace it. And that is exactly what will happen if overly broad language is adopted." - Catholic League president Bill Donohue, denouncing today's action by the Obama administration.

"The man who made the vile video died of AIDS. Had he followed the teachings of the Catholic Church on sexuality, he would be alive today. Instead, he blamed the Church. [snip] It was not the Catholic Church that killed the artist, David Wojnarowicz: it was gay activists, many of whom are in the artistic community. They were the ones who demanded that the bathhouses be kept open, even as their brothers were dying left and right. To exploit this tragedy any longer is sick. Catholicism is the answer, not the problem." - Catholic League president Bill Donohue, complaining that those Jews at the New York Times are exploiting the Smithsonian censorship scandal.

Yesterday it was reported that in 1997 the Vatican ordered Ireland's bishops not to report pedophile priests to the police. In response, today Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a typically bizarre rant about Jews, liberals, and the New York Times.

Last month, several media outlets ran a story on how a rabbinical court in Brooklyn ordered its 10,000 members not to report crimes to the police. Not among those reporting on it was the New York Times. Moreover, this same newspaper has consistently opposed a law in New York State mandating that crimes involving the sexual abuse of minors be reported to the police if the law applies equally to public, as well as private, institutions; it only backs mandatory reporting for private institutions. The reason there is no mandatory reporting about these crimes in New York State is because the New York Civil Liberties Union and Family Planning Advocates (the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood) have successfully killed such legislation. So who wants mandatory reporting for everyone? The Catholic bishops want it—it's the liberal media and liberal activist groups who don't.