Once upon a time, Catholics were viewed by many Americans as barbarians storming the gates of American civilization, and one would suppose that anti-Catholic bigotry was the original justification for the founding of the Catholic League. But severe institutional drift may have undercut the League's raison d'etre.

A press release issued today from the progressive Catholic activist group Catholics United For The Common Good suggests one possible explanation for such silence in the face of loud anti-Catholic bigotry by charging some American Catholic leaders with prioritizing a GOP-centric political agenda slavish adherence to laissez-faire free market economics, over human needs and the wellbeing of the Catholic church.

What Does the Catholic League Do?

When slanderous assaults are made against the Catholic Church, the Catholic League hits the newspapers, television, and radio talk shows defending the right of the Church to promote its teachings with as much verve as any other institution in society. [ from The Catholic League's about us web page

"Chocolate Jesus" was a menace to Catholics everywhere it seemed, judging by the behavior of Bill Donohue at least. "Give me their names!", bellowed the Catholic League leader, on Anderson 360 Degrees, upon hearing mention of two Catholic priests who might support public display of the chocolate sculpture of crucified Jesus and while Catholic writer and activist Frank Cocozzelli described Donohue as a "self styled Grand Inquisitor", South Park launched a biting satire depicting the Catholic League head as a power crazed thug who lusts to usurp the papacy and would boil opponents alive and serve up the results, as "rabbit stew", for Catholic tourists visiting the Vatican. In response, Donohue complained "I have no idea why `South Park' creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker caricature me as a heartless thug. In any event, I stand convicted and have no defense".

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth there is real anti-Catholicism.

Pastor Hagee Blames Catholic Church For Holocaust, Ignores Protestant Role

"Are the Jews the Christ killers? We will watch the poison fountains of anti- Semitism flow out of the mouths of the early Roman Church fathers that planted the seeds of hatred that produced a demonic harvest in Hitler's holocaust." - John Hagee, writing for the February-January 2006 edition of Hagee's Cornerstone Ministries newsletter, describing his upcoming book, now published, "Jerusalem Countdown"

"Hagee related how in the Crusade of 1096, a Roman Catholic army herded 969 Jewish men, women and children into a synagogue and burned them alive. They called themselves an army but they were in fact murderers and rapists. The Crusades were horrific for the Jewish people....

Hitler's holocaust, Hagee said, was a blueprint "that was really drawn by the Roman church. He did not do anything differently. He only did it more ruthlessly, and on a national scale." - from the Greenville, South Carolina Times Examiner, by Thomas C. Hanson, March 5, 2007, describing Pastor John Hagee's address before an audience of over 1500 people gathered for a "Night To Honor Israel" event

Breakfast With Hitler ?

In a press release today, Catholics United For The Common Good has issued a press release chastising the political partisan nature of Catholic leadership involvement in the "National Prayer Breakfast" recently profiled in Harpers Magazine, in a piece entitled "Jesus Plus Nothing" by journalist Jeff Sharlet.

Now, one might think that William Donohue would have warned Americans Catholic leaders away from participation in the National Prayer Breakfast ; not just because of the alleged politically partisan nature of the institution but also because the organization known as "The Fellowship", which has hosted the "prayer breakfast" for decades now, has been headed by leaders who, according to Sharlet, have espoused admiration for fascist and totalitarian 20th Century leaders known to be responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent civilians. It might seem in line with William Donohue's role as guardian and protector of American Catholicism to warn against Catholic participation in the "National Prayer Breakfast" because that might feed the sort of allegations, of Catholic anti-semitism, that Pastor John Hagee has been making in speeches at "A Night To Honor Israel" events organized by his new lobbying group, CUFI, that supports the politics of the Israeli far right.

In his speeches and writing, "Christians United For Israel" founder Pastor John Hagee has repeatedly blame the Holocaust on the Catholic Church and even assert the Vatican provided the "blueprint" for the Holocaust.

So, why hasn't the Catholic League made any statements denouncing Pastor John Hagee's revisionist, anti-Catholic allegations that place responsibility for the Holocaust solely on the Catholic branch of Christianity while completely omitting the complicity of Protestant denominations in allowing the Holocaust to happen, the enthusiastic participation of much of German Protestantism in the proto-fascistic Deutsche Cristen movement, and the role played by world-renowned Protestant theologians in excusing growing anti-semitism during the rise of the Nazis or even in writing theological justifications for anti-semitic legislation ?

Frank Cocozzelli writing on Pastor John Hagee's new book "Jerusalem Countdown", takes Hagee to task for blaming Roman Catholicism for the Holocaust in spite of the fact that, accordoing to Coccozelli, "there were certain Catholic clergy-as there were certain Protestant clergy-who worked hand-in-hand with the Nazis, but they did so without Vatican approval. In fact, the Vatican soon became disillusioned with Hitler as her own clergy were being arrested and put on trial. On March 14, 1937 Pope Pius XI issued Mit Brennender Sorge which clearly criticized the Nazi regime for its "pagan cult of race."".

William Donohue, who is "quick to complain about the lack of Christmas trees or religious songs not being sung during school pageants" charges Coccozelli, has been "hiding" from Pastor John Hagee's overt anti-Catholicism. Was the Catholic Church guiltless ? Hardly, as Cocozzelli sums up:

Was there Vatican negligence concerning Jewish suffering during the Holocaust? Could Pius XII have been more active in protecting European Jews? Absolutely. But for Hagee to charge that Vatican was scheming with Hitler to exterminate the Jews of Europe is more than dishonest. And if Donohue were the least bit vigilant, he would be confronting Hagee instead of hiding.

Beyond Cocozzelli's critique, however, lies an entire realm of culpability that Pastor John Hagee neglects to mention in his exegesis of blame in "Jerusalem Countdown" and in speeches but which has been well documented and even chronicled by documentary film makers : the complicity of German Protestant Christianity in the Holocaust. Indeed, three of the greatest Protestant theologians of the 20th Century, Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus, and Emmanuel Hirsch, became enthusiatic supporters of Hitler, and their role has been addressed in a 1985 study by historian Robert P. Ericksen in a Yale University Press work entitled "Theologians Under Hitler" [link to review of book] and video documentarist Steve Martin's 2005 documentary " buy the same name, "Theologians Under Hitler", translates the story to visual media. A review by Ethics Daily:

A new documentary, “Theologians Under Hitler,” examines how three prominent men of faith came to ally themselves with the Nazi party during the 1930s and 1940s. Producer-director Steven D. Martin spends 64 minutes dissecting how respected German theologians of the day embraced Adolf Hitler’s ideology and spun it for the German people. “During the darkest days of the 20th century, three of the church’s greatest teachers—Paul Althaus, Gerhard Kittel and Emanuel Hirsch—gave their full support and allegiance to Adolf Hitler,” says the narrator at the beginning. “This program will examine their stories in an attempt to discover what went wrong.”

For John Hagee to flatly ignore this history and place blame solely on the Catholic branch of Christianity even to the extent of accusing the Roman Church of establishing the "blueprint" for the Holocaust is revisionism in the extreme, and the charge amounts to a major, unwarranted theological attack. Where were William Donohue and the Catholic League ?

Oh NO! Mr. Bill !

So, what does the Catholic League really Do ?

If Donohue and the Catholic League can't manage to rebut such historically unwarranted attacks that give Protestant Christianity a pass for the Holocaust and seek to foist all the blame on the Catholic Church, what exactly is it that they spend their time doing ?

An April 11, 2007 press release [see appended text] from a progressive Catholic activist organization decrying Catholic leadership participation in the politically partisan, GOP centric "National Prayer Breakfast" suggests an answer to that question ; for some Catholics, support for the Republican Party now overrides concern for anti-Catholic bigotry. Evidence for that charge is not hard to come by. The Catholic League and its head William Donohue, charged with defense of the Catholic faith in America, ignored explicit charges from high profile fundamentalist leader John Hagee, heaping blame for the Holocaust heavily upon Roman Catholicism. The charge relies on dubious revisionist historical interpretations and gives Protestant Christianity a pass regardless of historical fact.

Recent criticism from writer Jeffrey Feldman underlines the heavily politicized, partisan nature, even to the extent of violating the law, of the Catholic League under William Donohue's leadership:

The IRS document Organizational Test - IRC 501(c)(3) (link opens PDF file) states explicitly that an organization with this tax exempt status cannot intervene in a political campaign.

Despite the legal restrictions on his organization, Donohue appears to be using the Catholic League to campaign against John Edwards bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President, in particular the IRS strict prohibition for 501(c)(3)'s on "issue advocacy" as a form of political  intervention.

William Donohue and the Catholic League, in giving high profile anti-semitic and anti-Catholic speech a pass while launching fussilades of gay bashing rhetoric, undercut their own defense of Catholicism while feeding the worst sort of  anti-catholic social stereotypes. Frank Cocozzelli, who has written extensively on Donohue and the Catholic League, sums things up:

Bill Donohue and the Catholic League behave in ways that are radically out of synch with basic Christian ideas. Instead, they appear to be more of a partisan political attack squad, currying favor with, and financed by the superfluously wealthy and powerful. As the League's spokesman, Donohue is vulgar, hypocritical and a racist. Nevertheless, the lazy mainstream media treats him as a legitimate identifier of, and responder to anti-Catholicism.

Falling far short of being a model of tolerance and dignity, Donohue furthers the bigot's claim that American Catholics are crude, intolerant and anti-intellectual. Indeed, his approach to social tolerance smacks more of the anti-Semitic rants of Father Charles Coughlin in the way he fingers "Hollywood Jews" as social problems....

As a Catholic, I compare the League's work with that of its Jewish counterpart, the Anti-Defamation League. Its web page reveals an organization that speaks out against anti-Semitism in a dignified manner. There are no thinly veiled partisan attacks upon candidates of a specific politically partisan philosophy. And most of all, while sometimes controversial, there is no hateful language.

[ for more of Frank Cocozzelli's writing, on William Donohue, The Catholic League, and the Catholic Right, see Cocozzelli's ongoing series at Talk To Action ]

******

Catholics United For The Common Good Press Release

Catholics United Questions Partisanship of National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

Urges D.C. Archbishop Wuerl to use Keynote Speech to Draw Clear Lines Between Catholic Church and the GOP

Washington D.C. - Catholics United for the Common Good expressed grave concerns today over the partisan nature of the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, to be held in Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 13.  The Prayer Breakfast's entire board of directors has ties to Republican candidates, party apparatus, and affiliated organizations, and its partisan agenda is underscored by President George W. Bush's perennial appearance at the event.  Catholics United is also asking keynote speaker Archbishop Donald Wuerl to use his remarks to dispel any attempt by political operatives to suggest his participation indicates a close alliance between the Church and the Republican Party.

 "Let's be honest, this event would be more accurately labeled the `Republican Catholic Strategy Breakfast'.  Its organizers have a clear track-record of putting partisanship above Church teaching," said Chris Korzen, Executive Director of Catholics United for the Common Good.  "We hope that Archbishop Wuerl will take this opportunity to distance the Church from partisan politics, decry the moral shortcomings of both parties, and remind Prayer Breakfast organizers that by calling themselves 'Catholic' they are bound to avoid partisanship and to represent the fullness of Church teaching."

 In the 2004 election, the GOP infamously used photos of the meeting between President Bush and Pope John Paul II as campaign propaganda, despite the fact that the Pope was highly critical of Bush's handling of Iraq and the torture scandals.  Catholics United encourages Archbishop Wuerl to preempt similar exploitation by being unambiguous in his critiques.

"One way to advance Catholic teaching and distance the Church from partisan politics would be to echo Pope Benedict's recent comment that 'nothing positive comes from Iraq,' a country 'torn apart by continual slaughter,'" said Korzen.  "This partisan prayer breakfast offers the perfect opportunity for U.S. Catholic leaders to follow the Vatican's lead on more vocally criticizing the disaster in Iraq."

 Catholics United is also calling on all Catholic leaders to think twice about participating in future National Catholic Prayer Breakfasts - unless its sponsoring organization adopts a more politically-diversified leadership structure.

The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast board of directors is comprised of:

         Joseph Cella, President - President of the conservative group Fidelis, whose political action committee gave exclusively to Republican candidates in 2006, primarily Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.  Cella is a former member of the Ave Maria List political action committee, which contributed more than $50,000 in the 2002 and 2004 election cycles exclusively to Republican campaigns, including those of Saxby Chamblis, Wayne Allard, Norm Coleman, Jim Talent, Elizabeth Dole, and John Thune.

l        Austin Ruse, Vice President - President of the Culture of Life Foundation and Institute.  At the 2006 Prayer Breakfast, Ruse referred to President George W. Bush as "The Second Catholic President."  He told the New York Times after the 2004 election:  "Those 25 percent of voters who said moral values were the animating issues in this election, that is us.  We understand that President Bush is a very loyal guy, and we believe that President Bush will be loyal to those who put him there."

l        Jacqueline Halbig, Treasurer - Bush Administration appointee to the Department of Labor's Center for Faith and Community Based Initiatives, and former employee of both the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council.

l        Leonard Leo - Former Republican National Committee Catholic Outreach Director and Vice President of the Federalist Society, which bills itself as "a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order."  Leo also served on the Bush-Cheney campaign's Catholic Working Group.

l        Bill Saunders - Family Research Council Human Rights Counsel, and Federalist Society Vice Chair for Religious Liberty.

###

About Catholics United for the Common Good

Catholics United for the Common Good is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition. We accomplish this mission through online advocacy and educational activities. For more information, visit www.catholics-united.org.