William Donahue, leader of the radical Catholic League, gave a truly bizarre appearance during the Justice Sunday II event this past weekend (click here to read more). Justice Sunday II was a partisan political rally meant to build support for the president’s judicial nominees among the religious right. One group, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship, says that Donahue’s remarks were an embarrassment to all Catholics:
Justice Sunday II not only claimed an inflated Super Bowl like viewer ship, but among the inflated egos claiming to speak on behalf of people of faith, Catholics had no credible spokesperson. Instead the few Catholics who may have watched or listened had to endure the continued ramblings of William Donohue of the Catholic League. Donohue’s very short speech was nothing short of a tirade filled with uncorroborated accusations and threats. He started out by bashing Irish Catholics and ending by bragging about how he perceives himself as a threat to the left, as if threatening others is somehow compatible with Christianity.
As expected, there was no mention of any values that Catholics and our Bishops hold dear, such as economic matters, the war, gun violence, the Bush administrations advocacy for the super rich while ignoring the least among us. There was nothing really substantive on abortion other than repeating the same stereotype – that the right is moral and the left is not. There was no mention of rights for immigrants, minorities or those in need. The 40 million Americans without healthcare were overlooked as well. There was no mention of Jesus’ admonition to “feed the poor”, “clothe the naked” and “give shelter to the homeless” once they are born to impoverished families.
Rather Donohue chose to show his true extremist colors by referring to Atheist – Marxist Sidney Hook, who he claims had a great influence on him. Is this is something to be proud of as a self proclaimed Catholic spokesperson? Donohue went on to make the ludicrous suggestion that the Constitution be amended to require a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn any law passed by Congress. We question the authority Donohue has in speaking to maters of the Constitution as if he is a spokesperson for the Catholic Church. By subscribing to Donohue’s suggestion, are we to deconstruct the Constitution and the Supreme Court? Our founders structured the three branches of Government to provide balance. To prevent the balance of power would create the theocracy that Donohue and others at Justice Sunday II envision. They would rather restructure our great system of Government to allow ideologues who want to enforce their opinion and not decide based on the rule of law, precedent and the constitution.
Catholics for Faithful Citizenship encourage Donohue to seek the wise counsel of his Bishop as this would be a good teaching moment for his Bishop. We challenge Mr. Donohue to re-read the Gospels, especially Mark and Luke. As Catholics we are not supposed to wear our faith on our sleeves, we are not supposed to pray loudly and sit in front of the Church, and we should not mention the splinter in our opponent’s eye when we have a log in ours. Donohue seems to forget the words of Jesus. “Do not judge, lest ye be judged”. Leave doctrine and the interpretation of it to the Pope and the College of Cardinals. If Donohue is so sure he knows the correct way for the church then let him hang his articles of truth on the door of the Church like Martin Luther and leave the running of the Government to the three branches and the people.
The truth is that Justice Sunday II was an embarrassment for all Christians. We should be thankful that our brothers and sisters in Christian groups like the National Council of Churches and Catholics for Faithful Citizenship have denounced the message it preached.
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