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Bill Donohue

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William A. Donohue
Born (1947-07-18) July 18, 1947 (age 76)
Manhattan, New York, USA
OccupationPresident of the Catholic League

William A. Donohue (born July 18, 1947 in Manhattan, New York), has been the bigoted president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States since 1993. It claims to be the largest Catholic civil rights organization in the United States. He is known for his public statements on matters that the Catholic League believes relate to the defamation of and the civil rights of Catholics in particular and Christians in general.

Biography

William A. Donohue began his teaching career in the 1970s working at St. Lucy's School in Spanish Harlem. In 1977, he took a position as a college professor teaching at La Roche College in McCandless, Pennsylvania. In 1980 he received a doctorate in Sociology from New York University (NYU).[1]

His first book was The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union and he became associated with the conservative Heritage Foundation where he is an adjunct scholar. His books on the ACLU made him one of the group's most prominent critics and firebrands.

While Donohue was in college in New York, Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded the Catholic League to counter Anti-Catholicism in American culture. Blum died in 1990; in 1993, Dr. Donohue became the director of the organization. Under his direction, the organization has become far more prominent and vocal.

Donohue publishes The Catalyst, the Catholic League journal. He serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars. He serves on the board of advisers of the Washington Legal Foundation, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Catholics United for the Faith, Ave Maria Institute, the Christian Film & Television Commission and Catholic War Veterans. He has received several awards from the Catholic community and was voted one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century in a survey of Catholics conducted by the internet site, Daily Catholic. He received the 2005 St. Thomas More Award for Catholic Citizenship from Catholic Citizens of Illinois.

The Catholic League is registered as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. In 2006, according to its Form 990, its revenue was $16,590,333, and Donohue's salary and benefits amounted to $343,420.[2]

Activities

William Donohue has made a name for himself fighting what he perceives as discrimination against and defamation of Catholics and Catholicism. In doing so he has gone after a diverse array of public figures, from individuals such as Christopher Hitchens, and even businesses such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Miller Brewing Company, to institutions such as Bob Jones University.

In addition, Donohue has criticized political and social commentator Bill Maher, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], controversial singer, songwriter, and comedian Jessica Delfino, [10][11] comedian Louis CK, [12] singers Joan Osborne [13][14][15][15] and Marilyn Manson, [16] the television shows Nothing Sacred, [17][18] [19][20] and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation[21] Kevin Smith's film Dogma, [22] The Golden Compass, [23].[24].[25].[26][27][28][29] and artist Cosimo Cavallaro, [30]

Donohue is a staunch defender of Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ. On the December 8, 2004 broadcast of Scarborough Country, in a discussion of the film Donohue claimed, "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the Messiah." This statement was called anti-Semitic by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on that same show. Donohue defended this statements as follows: "In short, I did not single out secular Jews as some have said. Nonetheless, I do regret using the verb "controlled", and that is because it suggests that there is some kind of cabal among secular Jews. That's nonsense. But is there a segment of the secular Jewish community that is anti-Catholic? Absolutely."

He has criticized Christmas cards sent by U.S. President George W. Bush using the term "Holidays" instead of "Christmas" on the White House"[31], as well as Mike Huckabee’s use of what Donahue claims is Christian imagery for campaign purposes[32]

Moreover, he has protested employment discrimination against Catholics, in the case of a woman required by her supervisor to remove the Ash Wednesday ashes from her forehead[33] and he has also spoken of the crisis over sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests as "a homosexual scandal, not a pedophilia scandal".[34][34][35]

Donohue characterised as "hysterical" the response to the Ryan Report, the result of a lengthy inquiry in to the abuse of children in Ireland over decades, arguing that because not all abuse was performed by priests, and that not all abuse detailed was rape, that the report headlines indicating that Catholic priests conducted child abuse including rape were misleading.[36][37]

Parody

On April 4, 2007, South Park parodied Donohue in the eleventh season episode "Fantastic Easter Special" as a power-hungry official of the Catholic Church who overthrows the Pope and sentences Jesus ("The Jew") to death for going against him and contradicting Catholic belief. In the show, the fictional Donohue calls Stan and Kyle, "whores". Subsequently, Jesus kills Donohue.

Donohue took the episode in good humor. He has a still from it of him wearing the pope's miter displayed on his office wall, and describes the plot as "I take over the church and give it some guts"."[38]

References

  1. ^ Official bio
  2. ^ "Form 990" (PDF). Guidestar.org.
  3. ^ Catholic League's 2003 Report on Anti-Catholicism
  4. ^ Bauer, Gary Bill Maher, Bigot Apr. 28, 2008Human Events
  5. ^ Limbaugh, DavidPersecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity p. 292 (2003 Regnery Publishing) ISBN 0895261111
  6. ^ Bill Maher wants a brawl Catholic League January 7, 2008
  7. ^ HBO BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT, April 11, 2008
  8. ^ http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=QD4wk8xi83E
  9. ^ “Religulous” is More Absurd than Hateful, Catholic League, September 30, 2008
  10. ^ "Christmas Season Marked by Obscenities" Catholic League Press Release, December 19, 2006
  11. ^ "NYC Artist Responds to Catholic League's Attack" Jessica Delfino Press Release, December 21, 2006
  12. ^ Opie and Anthony
  13. ^ Donohue's campaign against pop singer Joan Osborne
  14. ^ Grammy Nominee Joan Osborne "Relishes" conterversy, The Catalyst Vol. 23, No. 3, April 1996
  15. ^ a b Paul Moses "'One Of Us' - dad listens to daughter - religion and Joan Osborne's hit pop record". Commonweal. June 14, 1996. FindArticles.com. 11 December 2007. [1]
  16. ^ Journal of the Catholic League January-February 2001
  17. ^ Nothing Sacred Episode Guide
  18. ^ Donahue, William Catholic League's 1997 Report on Anti-Catholicism, Catholic League, 1997
  19. ^ Top 100 Catholics of the century, Daily Catholic, Vol. 10, No. 164, August 31, 1999
  20. ^ Seal, CynthiaHollywood's treatment of Catholicism, San Francisco Faith, November 1997
  21. ^ CSI to viewers: Real crime is respecting life,Catholic League, November 4, 2005
  22. ^ Croft & Reiter, The Fix, Salon.com Jan. 23, 2004
  23. ^ "Film Sells Atheism To Kids; Major Protest Launched". CatholicLeague.org. October 9, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
  24. ^ Alona Wartofsky (2001-02-19). "The Last Word". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-10-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ Mary McSweeney (2007-10-13). "Catholic League condemns 'The Golden Compass'". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-10-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ David Byers (2007-11-27). "Philip Pullman: Catholic boycotters are 'nitwits'". The Times. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  27. ^ Catherine Donaldson-Evans (2007-10-29). "Christian Groups Claim Pro-Atheist 'Stealth Campaign' in Nicole Kidman Fantasy Film 'The Golden Compass'". Fox News. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  28. ^ "Is 'The Golden Compass' Too Anti-Christian, or Not Anti-Christian Enough?". New York Magazine. 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  29. ^ Chris Kaltenbach (2007-10-24). "'Golden Compass' draws ire of the Catholic League". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  30. ^ CNN interview on youtube.com.
  31. ^ Davis, Matthew Lines drawn in battle over Christmas, BBC News, December 10, 2005
  32. ^ Edwards, David (2007-12-18). "Catholic League president slams Huckabee for 'subliminal' cross ad". The Raw Story. Retrieved 2008-11-26. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  33. ^ Workplace Discrimination Checked in San Diego The Catalyst, Volume 24, Number 3, April 2005
  34. ^ a b Creager, Cindi NBC's Today Provides Platform for Defamatory Anti-Gay Attacks, GLAAD Alert, October 14, 2005
  35. ^ Anthony, N.Y. Bills Would Require Clergy to Report Abuse, Poughkeepsie Journal, June 20, 2005
  36. ^ http://www.atheistmedia.com/2009/05/bill-donohue-denies-catholic-church.html
  37. ^ HYSTERIA OVER IRISH CLERGY ABUSE, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 20 May 2009, retrieved 31 May 2009
  38. ^ Vitello, Paul (May 15, 2009). "A 'Marine' for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved May 15, 2009.

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