For 16 of the 36 years the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has been in business, it’s been headed by William Donohue. In that time Bill Donohue has put his own distinctive mark on this feisty anti-defamation organization, on the Catholic Church in the United States and on American culture as a whole. No small achievement, to say the least.
What does Donohue do? Here is a sentence from a recent League news release quoting its leader: “The real story here is not the corruption of Harvard — that’s old hat — the real story is the pre
sident of the United States choosing a morally challenged anti-Catholic homosexual to join his team.”In case you wonder, that was Donohue’s trademark way of protesting President Obama’s choice of one Kevin Jennings as the administration’s “safe schools czar.” Among other things, it turned out, Jennings was a member of a homosexual activist group called ACT UP and donor to an ACT UP display featured at the Harvard art museum. In case it’s slipped your mind, it was ACT UP which in a notorious 1989 incident disrupted Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and desecrated the Eucharist.
It’s hardly a surprise that Bill Donohue, holder of a doctorate in sociology from New York University and a former college professor, is not universally liked. There are two obvious reasons. One reason is his take-no-prisoners way of expressing himself. The other reason is that he gets his facts straight. Take my advice: If you are thinking about signing up in the culture war, be sure to join Donohue’s side.
But make no mistake — this is not a mean man. Friends of Bill Donohue (full disclosure: I count myself among them) know him as a kind and gentlemanly fellow. Trash the Catholic Church, however, and beware. Donohue in action plays rough.
A few zingers drawn from his new book “Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America” (Faith Words, $21.99) may serve to suggest the flavor of the man:
— On the people whom he gently terms “radical secular activists”: “That they have absolutely nothing to offer in the way of an alternative social order not only reveals their intellectual bankruptcy, it explains their rage. This is the revenge of the nihilists.”
— On college administrators who take steps to suppress religious expression on their campuses: “Some college officials are totalitarians.”
— On old-line Catholic dissidents who keep up their complaints about the Church year after year: “What would make them happy? It’s not clear even the dissidents know at this point. ... They could join another religion, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.”
“Secular Sabotage” is chock-full of anecdotes drawn from skirmishes in the culture war. Bill Donohue and the Catholic League have played a high-profile role in many of these. If your dudgeon is low and your blood needs to boil, read this book.
Many Catholics deeply admire Donohue, seeing him as a gutsy and effective champion of the Church in the face of rampant anti-Catholicism. Others find him an embarrassment or worse — too loud, too outspoken, a spike in the wheels of Catholic surrender to the culture of secularism.
Count me in the first group. In a devastating chapter on Catholic “self-sabotage,” Donohue writes of those Catholic church-wreckers of the ‘60s and ‘70s who “gave it their best shot and they lost. ... It’s up to the rest of us to clean up the mess they left behind.”
Bill Donohue is working hard at that. We all should.
Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.
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9 comments:
The headline asks if Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is "effective and gutsy" or a "Catholic embarrassment."
For me, he is a necessary, effective and gutsy Catholic embarrassment because, other than Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Tobin, we have no other Catholic spokesperson willing to take on the secular media as effectively as he does. Even Bruskewitz (sp?) seems more silent than usual and Raymond Burke was taken away.
When we have a sufficient number of clergy and laity speaking up with clarity and authority, we will no longer need Bill Donohue raising cane. But he is now serving a solid purpose.
We may not like him but not even EWTN has a spokesperson who takes on the secular media the way Donohue does. Raymond Arroyo tries but he wears no collar and comes across like Regis Philbin. He is not the right person to deal effectively with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann.
Father Mitch Pacwa has begun recently to address certain "controversial" issues before he begins interviewing the docile guests he has on his program but he does not respond to the insults of the secular media the way Donohue does. Mother Angelica was more outspoken than anyone currently "live" on EWTN. Perhaps the Jesuits will not let Fr. Pacwa say all that he thinks. He's capable of saying much more with intelligence and Chicago-bred "candor."
We need Bill Donohue whether he gives us GERD or not. He's loud because he is a soloist defending the Catholic Church in the U.S.A. against the secular media. Not an easy assignment.
Donal Mahoney
Mr. Shaw seems to think that the only Catholics who really have an issue with Mr. Donohue are dissident Catholics. I am an orthodox Catholic and I think he is an embarrassment or worse to the Church. While I don’t doubt his good intentions, I believe his tactics are harmful and do not reflect the teaching of our Lord in the Gospel.
For some reason, Mr. Donohue believes the Church should be treated the same as any other organization or religion. But not only did our Lord say the Church would be persecuted and mocked for the truth, He said that our response should be to rejoice and be glad. And He doesn’t say “rejoice and be glad internally, but externally make sure everybody knows how angry and outraged you are!” No, the whole point is that Jesus is showing us a fundamentally different way to act than the world. So far I’m not seeing how Mr. Donohue is acting any different than the world. His whole career and his whole organization is built on outrage. Mr. Shaw says that friends of Mr. Donohue know him as a “kind and gentlemanly fellow.” I don’t doubt that, but how do his enemies know him? Does not our Lord command us to love our enemies? Sure, that love may mean tough love, but not usually as Jesus shows us throughout the Gospels in the tender and compassionate way he treats sinners. Really, he only gets “rough” with the Pharisees and like hypocrites. St. Paul says in Romans that it is “God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.” Mr. Donohue has forced himself into a mold that only allows him to react to the enemies of the Church with outrage and biting, stinging barbs, which is really not all that different from the way our enemies treat us. The issue is not how Mr. Donohue conducts himself privately. The issue is the public witness and example he gives of Christ and the Church. The reason so many people are bitter towards the Church is because they have only encountered Christians who excoriate them and criticize them for their sinfulness yet never stop to extend friendship and mercy. The people Mr. Donohue attacks are individuals and cannot just be lumped together and labeled as “morally challenged” people even if they very well may be. And behind every organization that has exhibited “anti-Catholicism” whether its NBC, Hollywood, or Walgreens, are real people whose only image of conservative Christians is often that of anger and self-righteousness. Mr. Donohue only reinforces this stereotype. Instead I offer St. Peter’s example of how we are to give witness: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with GENTLENESS and RESPECT, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Amen.
Actually, Christ said we would be mocked and that we should rejoice and be glad. When Christ saw His Father's House mocked, His anger was violent and not at all joyful.
Yet when He was crucified He opened not His mouth.
We are to rejoice at personal persecution and yet defend Holy Mother Church like the soldiers of Christ we were made at confirmation.
Bill Donohue never defends his own person, we can only imagine what he has suffered personally, but we will never hear about it. Hate crimes against Catholics are up 20% thanks to our outspokeness in moral issues, and you can be sure Dr Donohue is at the front lines of the hate.
The reason he was hired to head the Catholic League, is that at the end of one particularly heated argument regarding the Boy Scouts banning homosexual troop leaders on TV, Bill flashed his Cheshire Cat grin. He had given the argument his best, but he did not hate his opponent.
We need to stop confusing righteous anger at blasphemies like the Madonna with elephant dung, with self serving vitriol when our pride is insulted. They are two different things.
A few things. We Catholics acknowledge there are values in the means we use to achieve a goal. People often have high ideals, but lapse in the means they utilize to achieve them.
Unlike Russell Shaw, I do not know Mr Donohue. I see and read some Catholic League literature. I know Mr Donohue feels aggrieved at the handling of Christmas. I think his perspective is a bit light and off-kilter. That's not reason to condemn the man, but it does give me pause on the completeness of his being informed.
Donohue's defense of Deal Hudson's misbehavior with a college co-ed rings alarm bells for me. While I appreciate a person's loyalty to friends, attacking a victim for being a "drunk" was tragically poor judgment on his part. When your friends screw up, sometimes it's better to keep silent in public and render a choice tongue-lashing in private. We know Mr Donohue got that episode half-wrong, at least.
As a liberal loyal Roman Catholic I would take personal exception to Mr Donohue's commentary as related here. It doesn't even satisfy OSV's own protocol for commentary.
In response to Leticia, I would agree that there is a place for righteous anger. But like I said, Jesus was only "rough," or showed righteous anger to the pharisees and religious hypocrites, that is those who claimed to be holy and in the service of God but who in reality were not.
Jesus' anger at the money changers in the temple was an example of this. Jesus' anger was not so much at the money changers themselves as it was at the Jewish religious leaders who allowed such an abomination to take place. There are certainly calls throughout Scripture to those who are faithful to God to react with righteous anger against those who claim to be part of the people of God, yet are really wolves in sheep's clothing.
Jesus' example however is not to show anger to sinners in the world, i.e. the tax-collectors, prostitutes and such. It was no doubt through the kindness that Jesus showed to these people, and the reputation he had for mercy, that led so many of the people who led sinful lives in the gospels to repent. Similarly, Mr. Donohue is often dealing with individuals who are not necessarily committing a public act of blasphemy but who are simply acting like the unsaved sinners they are. The only difference is that they happen to be in the public spotlight.
In Matthew 5, in the beatitudes when Jesus calls us to rejoice and be glad I don't believe he is speaking just to how we as individuals should react to our own individual persecution. I think He is also calling the Church to show joy as a corporate body in the face of persecution, because it is a witness to the world. This doesn't mean we don't ever defend ourselves and give answers to the accusations that are thrown at us. I did not mean to convey the idea that we should never stand up boldly and vocally defend the Church. But it always must be as well with a spirit of gentleness and respect which St. Peter commands us to exhibit to those who even maliciously speak against us. If we as a Church show to the world this attitude in the midst of their mockery they indeed will be "ashamed of their slander" as St. Peter says. Mr. Donohue can still make his points and speak the truth without showing what appears to be such obnoxious contentiousness, as it would especially appear to be to his opponents.
Also, because of the Church's intimate union with Christ as His body, we know we will undergo a severe time of persecution as a whole Church in union with our Lord's passion. We know this will happen in the last days. While we can't know for sure if we are in those last days, we can be pretty sure since our Lord calls us to be aware of the signs of the times. Few would deny that the Church on a global scale is experiencing an unprecedented rise in persecution and mockery. So I think the example of silence in the face of persecution that our Lord shows is the best parallel to where the Church is at today, and the example we need to learn from the most.
While I can acknowledge that there may be certain times for outrage towards the world, I think that unless it is coupled with a meek and respectful spirit it will not be ultimately effective. Perhaps Mr. Donohue has done more good than I realize and I do not wish to heap undue criticism upon him. Yet I believe he needs to reevaluate the manner in which he responds to those whom he disagrees with even if he means no harm or disrespect.
People seem to read what they want into John 2:13ff, yet the texts in my two Bibles (RNAB & JB) don't mention "anger" in the text at all. The disciples recall "zeal," which if you check your footnotes refers to Psalm 69. Read that psalm and you will find more of an allusion to persecution and the Passion than righteous anger.
Robert is quite right that Jesus seems to only show anger to the self-righteous. Anger is a dangerous thing for us mortals to indulge in. I suspect Mr Donohue's loyalty and tenacity would be better served in a more peaceable context.
The in-your-face John the Baptist types are my kinda guys, and Bill Donohue fills that role very well. There's a time to use the carrot and there's a time to bring out the stick.
I've had a run-in with Mr. Donohue myself, the kind that makes me think he's an embarrassment to the Church.
Some years ago (around 1996, I think) I got a free copy of Catalyst, the Catholic League's magazine, in the mail. Reading it from cover to cover, I got the general impression of a great deal of mean-spiritedness in Mr. Donohue's comments.
What took the cake for me was his railing against a particular anti-Catholic cartoonist. Donohue printed an angry letter from this man, who claimed that the magazine had reprinted one of his cartoons without permission, and went on from his sense of outrage at this to more general accusations against the Church for hypocrisy, dishonesty and every other sin you can name.
In his reply, also printed, Donohue made no reference to the accusations. Instead, for reasons beyond understanding, he called the author a "coward."
I wrote a letter to Donohue, telling him that from the tone of his comments, I thought he was doing more harm that good to the Church, and to the soul of this person in particular. Most of all, he was obliged in all honesty to reply to the accusation of copyright theft one way or the other, with an apology if it was true.
"If this person had no reason to trust the Church before," I said, "he certainly doesn't now. Is this the way Jesus would have acted?" I also said I wouldn't be contributing any money to the magazine.
I got a letter in reply from Donohue, berating me in very intemperate language, and announcing that the Church "is not a therapy session."
I still think I was right. And I have not contributed to the Catholic League yet.
I have been a member of the Catholic League since 1996 and I am thankful for the leadership of Bill Donohue. I have experienced anti-Catholicism in the workplace and I objected to it. I had to get "loud" in objecting by contacting the human resources department because the perpetrators thought their actions were funny. The HR people brought some sobriety to the situation and the ignorant were instructed, which is a good thing. The incident involved co-workers portraying all Catholic priests and nuns in a very negative stereotypical way, which is not the truth. This happened on company property during work hours with management present. Such stereotypes also increase the hostility toward Catholic workers and negative consideration when it comes to wages and promotions. The cross really came after I stood up for the truth, in the form of retribution. That is what happened to me. As well as dealing with the media, the Catholic League assists Catholics in standing up for fair and equal treatment in the workplace, which is justice. God bless Bill Donohue.
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