6 JUNE 1 2012 THE CATHOLIC HERALD

FEATURES Features Editor: Ed West Tel: 020 7448 3601 Fax: 020 7256 9728 Email: [email protected] Meet the Catholic Mary Whitehouse contraception to employees tells Tim Stanley as part of their health insur- ance. “If the Supreme Court why he emerged as America’s strikes the entire Obamacare most vocal – and politically thing down, then we’re home free,” he says. But the incorrect – defender of the faith contraception mandate wasn’t part of the original package that the court was asked to adjudicate on, so “if just a part of it remains ill Donohue is the revelation isn’t to make legal and becomes law then unacceptable face folks feel “comfortable”. we’re in trouble”. of American William Anthony “Bill” Donohue predicts civil Catholicism. Donohue was born in New disobedience among BAngry, Right-wing and York in 1947. He studied Catholics as a result. At the loud, the president of the sociology and taught at St very least, more schools, for Reli- Lucy’s School in Spanish hospitals and adoption agen- gious and Civil Rights can Harlem. In 1977 he started cies will close. It could deal look like a dockworker in a teaching at La Roche a savage blow to Catholi- bar shouting at the televi- College in Pittsburgh and in cism as a civic enterprise. sion. And yet it’s Dono- 1980 he was awarded his Obama’s machinations hue’s insensitivity to PhD in sociology from a have confirmed Donohue’s offence that has helped University. Dono- worldview of a liberal Left transform the way that the hue has also spent time at driven mad by its hormones. US media perceives the Heritage Institute, a To be sure, Obamacare Catholicism. No more is it Republican Party-dominated represents a unique invasion solely the silent contempla- think tank in Washington of the Catholic conscience, a tion of the monastery or the DC. That is significant direct assault on its hip liberalism of the Jesuit. because it speaks to the not seen since the 19th Thanks to smart, politically growing interest among century. A lot of what Dono- incorrect Catholics like many Catholics of his hue has said has been hith- Donohue, Catholicism has generation in mainstream erto denounced as hysteria. become the public face of conservative politics. In But the Catholic League’s social traditionalism in 1973 the Jesuit Fr Virgil outrage seems vindicated. America. Blum founded the Catholic Whether Donohue will I call Donohue up at his League in response to what lead the coming “civil office in New York and he perceived as a growing disobedience”, I’m not so within minutes he’s saying intolerance towards the faith sure. His style seems more something I can’t imagine within the American media in tune with the late 1990s I’d hear from anyone else: and education system. It’s and early Noughties, when “There is no paedophile impossible to separate this Right-wing pundits like Ann problem in the Catholic lay group’s conceptualisa- Coulter, Rush Limbaugh Church. The Catholic tion of Catholic “civil and Glenn Beck were at Church had a paedophile rights” from the contempo- their zenith. Today, the great problem in the 1960s and raneous attempt by Republi- religious causes are led by 1970s, but now it’s got it cans like Richard Nixon or quieter, younger Christians. under control. The rate of Ronald Reagan to exploit The National Organization accusations – and that’s Catholic anger at cultural for Marriage, which helped accusations, nothing proved change. Throw in John Paul outlaw same-sex civil – is under 10 a year among a II’s anti-Communism, the unions in North Carolina, priest population of 40,000 rise of the so-called Moral is dominated by Catholics or so. That’s nothing. Majority and the expansion raised on Donohue’s rheto- Compare that to the Ortho- of the pro-life movement, ric but less likely to invoke dox Jews. Just last year and the 1970s and 1980s Bill Donohue: ‘There is no paedophile problem in the . There was a problem in the 1960s and 1970s, but now it’s got it under control’ it. Their company is softer, about 85 of them were presented the perfect condi- more legalistic and wonkish. arrested in Brooklyn for tions for the Catholic profound, near-universal Donohue injected some of by its Catholic owners as the Christianity in general and agenda is to tear down the Arguably, it’s achieving paedophilia... but they are League’s success. Every- liberalism within the Ameri- the shock-jock anger into miraculous tears of Christ), Catholicism in particular,” last barriers between liberals bigger and better results. kind of a protected group thing old was new again. can Church which preferred Catholic politics, going after Donohue flipped out. In a he said at the time. “It’s not and sexual fulfilment. “It all Nevertheless, Bill Dono- among the media, so you And yet the Catholic ecumenical dialogue and the Church’s enemies with statement, he suggested that a secret, OK? And I’m not comes down to sex,” he hue has established himself won’t hear about it.” League in its original form good works to moral or all guns blazing. He called David “quit while he is afraid to say it. That’s why insists. “All anti-Catholi- proudly and permanently as That’s the Donohue was a disappointment. theological leadership. them bigots, fools, hippies ahead”. He asked: “Was they hate this movie. It’s cism is libertine. We’re the Mary Whitehouse of profile: a Catholic pride that When Bill Donohue was Donohue says: “I always and wreckers – people who Larry David always this about Jesus Christ.” becoming a nation of brats. American Catholicism. borders on chauvinism. Do invited to take it over in had trouble dealing with the wanted to destroy Catholi- crude? Would he think it’s In case it’s starting to read People want total genital Thanks to him, the war on the research and you’ll find 1993 he recalls it being bishops. Not that they didn’t cism and take western civili- comedic if someone like Donohue has a particu- liberation, which is what permissiveness and the that he’s technically accu- defunct. necessarily agree, but a lot sation down with it. He urinated on a picture of his lar problem with Jewish Jeffrey Dahmer got – he defence of public morals rate: the US media really “It had been handed over of them were bureaucrats bought the cultural Marxist mother? This might be fun Americans, it’s worth point- followed his conscience to are associated in the popular does report obsessively on a to lay people for a long time who gave a bureaucratic line that the best way to to watch, but since HBO ing out that a lot of the wherever it led him.” mind with a Catholic. With- child abuse problem within and it was run down. [The answer to everything.” transform a nation is by only likes to dump on Catholic League’s work is (Dahmer murdered his out him, American Catholi- the Catholic Church that is bishop] asked me to fix it.” One reason why things subverting its culture, and Catholics... and David is ecumenical. “We build homosexual partners and cism might have succumbed mainly historic rather than Donohue laments that in started to pick up for turned it on its head: expos- Jewish, we’ll never know.” alliances with Protestants kept their skulls as to the numbing political contemporary. Donohue’s the 60s, 70s and 80s conser- Catholic conservatives in ing the lecturers, television This is a regular theme in and some of our best allies souvenirs.) irrelevance of the Episcopal theories on why this vative Catholics “were the 1990s was that priests of show hosts, comedians, Donohue’s work: the idea are Orthodox Jews,” he Donohue believes that Church. In politics, irrele- happens so often – why the outnumbered by liberals”, the post-Vatican II genera- publicly funded artists and that the artistic community tells me. something has changed in vancy is far worse than Church’s teaching or record and it was difficult to moti- tion were now rising Hollywood stars who sought is dominated by people with Donohue’s primary issue the war against Catholicism. controversy. is distorted by the press – vate Catholic conservatives through the ranks. Hence the to shift America incremen- an axe to grind against isn’t with non-Catholics but “It’s moved from culture to are fantastic and intriguing. to become activists for Catholic counter-revolution tally to the Left. For exam- Catholicism. In 2004 he rather with people who politics. In all my life I’ve Tim Stanley is a historian at The way that he puts it themselves. They preferred that began in the 1970s only ple, when the popular HBO denounced the “relentless espouse a world view that never seen anything like Oxford Universtiy and a across might be uncomfort- to lend their energies to really had any impact at the comedy Curb Your Enthusi- attacks” on ’s isn’t respectful of Catholic what the current administra- blogger for the Daily Tele- able reading for some other, non-sectarian groups. moment that Donohue asm featured its lead, Larry movie The Passion of the mores. He calls the cultural tion is doing,” he says. The graph. His latest book, Catholics. But Donohue They were also weighed became a leader of the David, accidentally urinat- Christ in similar terms. revolution that has happened Obama White House has The Crusader: the Life would probably insist that down by the legacy of Vati- Catholic League in the ing on a picture of Jesus “Hollywood is controlled since the 1960s “genital tried to compel Catholic and Tumultuous Times of the purpose of religious can II, which created a 1990s. (which was then mistaken by secular Jews who hate liberation” and says its organisations to provide , is out now A loving defeat Cardinal Angelo Scola explains how Catholics should respond to the pain of family breakdown

ore and more tively. Children who belong on truth are determined by families are to families affected by sepa- God and allow us to relate experiencing ration or divorce are partic- to Him. Jesus constantly poverty. House- ularly at risk. Separation is asks us what he said to Mholds with more than two a painful and traumatic Peter: “Do you love me?” children are especially experience for them, since And he does that even when affected by the trend, a it disrupts the family order incomprehensible and unac- sign that creating a family and brings emotional and ceptable injustices occur, is becoming increasingly routine changes. While chil- such as having an unfaithful expensive. dren are often believed to spouse. Jesus asks us to But there is also a rela- not only survive but also to keep love alive and offers tively new kind of poverty gain strength from such you support to keep your that affects single-parent trauma, it’s impossible to marriages alive even when families emerging from ignore their suffering. the relation with your divorce or separation. So how can families be spouse is over. Marriage is Experts say that the inci- rescued from situations of much more than a relation- dence of poverty among crisis and from fractures? ship between wife and these families recently grew Adults must be responsible husband. from four to seven per cent for their children. Separa- in Italy in just four years, tion is always a defeat, but hildren are often part an unprecedented rate that in some cases it can be of it, and God’s reflects something more viewed as the ultimate initiative, to which than a lack of economic expression of love, given Cthe spouses freely and resources. It has to do with that it respects the institu- publicly accede, is always a lack of relations, health, tion of marriage and, while present. An unfaithful housing, education and accepting the fact that spouse makes it harder to work. spouses can live separately, be faithful. But in a way Of course any family can does not exclude the possi- the choice of being faithful “get sick”: trust and justice bility of a reconciliation. seems even more free and coexist with their opposites That is why children feel necessary. in all relations. But since that the union among their What about those who do our society is often parents is stronger than the not believe in Jesus? They confused about its founda- weakness and exhaustion should always look at love tional principles, it’s no that keep them apart. That’s as a never-ending experi- surprise that primary rela- not the case when spouses ence. As Shakespeare said: tions often lack trust and sever their relations by “Love is not love that bends suffer from prevarication opting for a divorce. with the remover to and injustice. It’s certainly not my remove.” But a closer look shows intention to judge individual that single-parent families people: Jesus came among Cardinal Angelo Scola is and families with many us to save, not to condemn, the Archbishop of Milan. children are especially poor and the Church only aims to The Seventh World – and not just in economic defend and protect true Meeting of Families terms. Multifaceted poverty, love. For Christians, voca- (Family2012.com) is according to experts, affects tion is a constant fact currently taking place in his 17 per cent and 15 per cent throughout life. All relations archdiocese and concludes of these families, respec- and situations that are based on Sunday, June 3