c. 1997 Religion News Service
NEW YORK _ William A. Donohue, flanked by a breathtaking view of Manhattan’s East Side, smiles gleefully as he recounts the recent victories in his crusade against”Catholic-bashing.” He chuckles as he recalls sending overnight-mail threats of a lawsuit to the homes of Yonkers school board members, who quickly withdrew plans to stop funding the busing of students to Catholic schools. He smirks as he describes an apology from an”arrogant”district attorney from Oregon, who secretly taped a prisoner’s confession to his priest. He virtually bubbles as he calls the lawyer for Dr. Jack Kevorkian”a jerk.””We’ve been criticized for hitting hard,”Donohue acknowledges. But then adds his own self-description:”I would say we are responsibly aggressive. If you are not responsible, you have no business putting a Catholic label on an organization, but if you are not aggressive, you have no business calling yourself a civil rights organization.” Donohue, 49, has been executive director of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights since 1993, but in his three-and-a-half-year tenure he has transformed the organization into a juggernaut of Catholic defense. Its membership, he says, has jumped from 11,000 to 250,000 families on the back of heightened publicity and an aggressive direct-mail campaign.
Donohue agrees that Catholics have little to fear in modern America when it comes to workplace or other personal persecution. Quick to point out that he isn’t paranoid, however, he said that a”cultural elite”on U.S. college campuses, and in the movie industry and news media have a tendency to downplay attacks on Catholics. “When African-Americans, Jews, gays and others in our society are unfairly attacked, there tends to be tremendous support from the media,”he said.”When Catholics are attacked, it seems to be taken with a ho-hum approach, if not with endorsement.” Donohue has been criticized by some targets who say he hits below the belt. And despite tapping the anger of Catholics who feel victimized by a double standard of tolerance, his aggressive tactics haven’t won many vocal supporters in the Catholic hierarchy.
Bill Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S. Catholic Conference, had trouble finding someone at his organization who would comment on the league. But in a prepared statement, he said,”We appreciate the alertness of the league to the way the church’s image is often demeaned in the media and in the public discourse in general.” Donohue concedes that some priests grumble privately about his tactics, but he said he’s never been”called on the carpet”by the church hierarchy. His office is located on the 20th floor of the New York Catholic Center, the same floor as the office of Cardinal John O’Connor, but a spokesman was quick to point out that the league pays rent.
Donohue said he believes he represents a majority of the nation’s 60 million Catholics. Liberal voices aren’t so sure. “I see him more as someone the media turn to for juicy comments from the right wing,”said Linda Pieczynski, national president of Call to Action, a liberal Catholic group.”I don’t see much of substance he’s doing.” The sword Donohue wields in defense of Catholics is the very mass media he blames for much of the bashing. His press releases keep faxes humming in the newsrooms of America, and on TV or radio talk shows he’ll ask supporters to let their voices be heard.
In many cases, he has prompted hundreds of telephone calls to beleaguered department stores, college presidents and corporate offices. His most highly publicized plea was for a boycott of Walt Disney for distributing”Priest,”a movie whose portrayal of homosexual and noncelibate Catholic clergy angered many Catholics. The company won’t discuss the impact, but the effort soon won the backing of another large religious group, the Southern Baptist Convention, and last summer Disney appointed a Jesuit priest to its board of directors.
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