Monday, July 24, 2023

Time To Rein In FBI Over Catholic Probes

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League President 

We sent the following letter to Rep. Jim Jordan today (we urge you to contact his communications director, Russell Dye: russell.dye@mail.house.gov).

Dear Rep. Jordan:

On July 17, in your role as House Judiciary Chairman, you said you notified FBI Director Christopher Wray that he had until July 25 to turn over requested documents pertaining to the agency’s probe of orthodox Catholics; he has heretofore not fully complied with two subpoenas issued earlier this year. The deadline is tomorrow at noon. If he does not comply with your request, it is important that you follow through with your pledge and hold him accountable.

On April 11, 2023, I wrote a letter to Wray, copying you, about my concerns over this issue.

“We know from previous disclosures that the FBI was probing ‘Radical-Traditionalist Catholics’ (RTCs). To this day, we have not seen any evidence that they are a threat to anyone. Now the FBI has upped the ante, going after ‘mainline’ Catholics and dioceses.

“On February 9, I made public my concerns about the FBI’s interest in RTCs. ‘What’s next?’ Will it be a war on ‘Catholics who are orthodox?’”

My hunch that there would be a war on orthodox Catholics came true.

This is totally indefensible. It smacks of religious profiling and opens the FBI door to monitoring traditional Catholics, simply because they are loyal sons and daughters of the Catholic Church.

I commend you for your leadership on this matter. If Wray does not meet the deadline, I implore you to “take action” against him, as you said you would do. 

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

Texas Nurse Practitioner Wins Religious Accommodation Process for All VA Employees Opposed to Abortion

Waco, TX—First Liberty Institute today announced that Stephanie Carter’s lawsuit against the VA resulted in a nationwide religious accommodation process for VA employees with religious objections to being forced to participate in abortions.  Carter is a nurse practitioner at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas.

“We’re pleased that the VA implemented a nationwide policy to protect the religious liberty rights of all VA employees,” said Danielle Runyan, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Stephanie Carter is living proudly by her faith and should not be forced to choose between her faith and her career. Because of her courage, every VA employee in the nation can now seek a religious accommodation from participating in a procedure they find unconscionable.”

Ms. Carter has faithfully served veterans as a VA employee for 23 years.  When she sought a religious accommodation from participating in abortions in the fall of 2022, VA officials informed Ms. Carter that no process for such accommodations existed.  But after filing her lawsuit in December, the VA created a religious accommodation process for affected VA employees.

First Liberty asked the court to dismiss its lawsuit against the VA on Friday.

Court says FBI spied on elected officials

The FBI inappropriately searched for information on a U.S. senator using an intelligence provision intended for monitoring foreign nationals, a court opinion released Friday shows. “In June 2022, an analyst conducted four queries of Section 702 information using the last names of a U.S. senator and a state senator, without further limitation,” the court said. Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to obtain the online communications of foreign nationals without a warrant.  READ

Friday, July 21, 2023

DeSantis urges senators to back Tuberville

Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis this week said he backs Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-AL, blocking of military nominations until the Biden administration backs down from its use of taxpayer funding to pay for abortions. “They are using tax dollars. They’re funding abortion tourism, which is not an appropriate thing for the military to be doing,” DeSantis said. “Day one as commander-in-chief, that [abortion] policy will go out the window."  READ

Another Jesuit-Run School Tanks On Free Speech

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League President

For the past several years, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has published a survey on the status of free speech on college campuses. In my remarks on the 2021 study, I pointed out that three Jesuit-run institutions—Fordham University, Boston College and Marquette University—were listed among the worst in the nation. In the 2022-2023 survey, another Jesuit school, Georgetown, was rated #200. Only three schools out of a total of 203 were rated worse; Columbia University was dead last.

Georgetown shows such contempt for free speech that it merited a special section in the study. Three specific cases, all very serious, were cited.

In 2022, Ilya Shapiro was suspended over a tweet thread in which he criticized President Biden’s pledge to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court. Dean William Treanor issued a statement denouncing the tweets, insisting that Georgetown is committed to “inclusion, belonging, and respect for diversity.” [Note: Treanor said nothing about Georgetown’s commitment to academic freedom.] Shapiro was eventually reinstated, but the damage was done; he subsquently resigned.

In 2021, Sandra Sellers was fired over a viral video in which she was unknowingly recorded talking to her colleague, David Batson, about the relatively poor performance of black students in her class. Dean Treanor condemned the two of them, pledging commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Batson later resigned following the backlash.

In 2021, Timothy Wickham-Crowley made jokes in class that evoked racial stereotypes and for dropping the n-word when reading aloud from a course textbook. He was investigated by the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action. While it was determined that his conduct was not “severe or pervasive,” he was no longer asked to teach again.

These incidents say nothing about the way students, especially conservative students, feel about freely expressing their thoughts on campus. But Georgetown didn’t earn a lousy rating on the basis of muzzling the free speech of faculty alone.

It should be pointed out that Georgetown’s fidelity to Catholic teachings has long been questioned. It has two pro-abortion clubs on campus: H*YAS for Choice for undergraduates, and Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice. It has no racist clubs on campus—nor should it—but it has no problem allowing pro-abortion clubs. For liberals, racism is clearly more offensive than child abuse in the womb.

As I said with regard to Fordham, Boston College and Marquette, the time has come for these schools “to have a campus-wide forum on the root causes of Jesuit intolerance for freedom of speech.” Georgetown needs to do the same.

Censored Study Confirms COVID-19 Shots Caused Worldwide Deaths

ORLANDO, FL – A bombshell study authored by Dr. Peter McCullough and other physicians and medical researchers was quickly censored within 24 hours after its publication because it showed clear evidence that the COVID-19 shots were responsible for many deaths. Out of 325 autopsies from various global locations, the study revealed the COVID shots directly caused or significantly contributed to up to 74 percent of those deaths.

The Lancet, a renown medical journal, published the study titled “A Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings in Deaths After COVID-19 Vaccination” on July 5, 2023 on its “pre-print” site while the study began the months-long peer review process. However, The Lancet took less than 24 hours to remove it citing the study fell short of the journal’s “screening criteria” and that the study’s methods did not merit its conclusions.

Dr. McCullough, an internist, epidemiologist, and one of the most published cardiologists in America with more than 1,000 peer-reviewed publications to his credit, conducted the study with eight other researchers. The co-authors included senior research scientist in epidemiology at Yale University Dr. Harvey Risch, top pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and former Department of Health and Human Services official Dr. Paul Alexander. The project was approved through the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, and Dr. McCollough said the team used a standard scientific method known as the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses to evaluate the autopsies. Dr. McCullough stated this “standard search methodology” is something he has used his “whole career.” 

Collectively, they reviewed 678 studies investigating possible causal links between COVID-19 shots and death and identified 325 autopsies meriting further investigation. The study stated each autopsy was “independently reviewed” by three physicians to determine the cause of death. The investigation revealed:

“A total of 240 deaths (73.9 percent) were independently adjudicated as directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 [injection].”

“Among adjudicators, there was complete independent agreement (all three physicians) of [injection] causing or contributing to death in 203 cases (62.5 percent).”

“The most implicated organ system [receiving fatal injury] was the cardiovascular system (53 percent)…”

“Most of the deaths occurred within a week from [the person’s] last vaccination.”

These results bear similarity to a November 2022 peer-reviewed study by leading pathologist Dr. Peter Schirmacher and other top German scientists. This study examined 25 deaths finding five of them likely died exclusively from the COVID injection and all five died within 20 days of receiving the injection. 

According to Dr. McCullough, before The Lancet briefly published the study, it was rejected by both The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association as “not a priority.” He noted that in the hours before The Lancet took it down the study had 30,000 views averaging about 20 views per minute.

Dr. McCullough has been censored before without a definitive reason. In October 2021, The Lancet’s publisher Elsevier retracted a different study he co-authored with molecular biologist Dr. Jessica Rose just days after it was published. The findings from that study showed myocarditis spiked in teenagers after COVID-19 injections. Despite being peer-reviewed, Elsevier never reinstated the study though it can be found through an internet archive.

Just as a federal judge ruled on July 4, 2023 in Missouri v. Biden that the government “pressured” social media companies to censor and suppress information critical of COVID-19 injections, Dr. McCullough and his co-author Dr. Risch think medical journals are subjected to that same external pressure.

Dr. Risch stated he believed their recent study was censored “at the behest of the Trusted News Initiative (TNI)” or a similar organization because of the study’s “strong evidence” that some COVID-19 injections have led to death. The TNI was founded in 2019 by the British Broadcasting Company as an “industry collaboration” between major news outlets and global technology companies such as Google, Facebook, and others for the purpose of combatting disinformation worldwide. TNI’s partners “alert each other to disinformation that poses an immediate threat to life…so content can be reviewed promptly by platforms, whilst publishers ensure they don’t unwittingly republish dangerous falsehoods.”

“[It’s] pure Government-directed censorship, even after the Missouri v. Biden injunction,” stated Dr. Risch.

Dr. McCullough noted their study is the largest summary of autopsies of COVID-19 shot-related deaths and its medical censorship speaks to the importance of their findings.

“They are trying to kill [the study] so the world doesn’t see the data,” he stated.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Scientists are validating the dangers of the COVID-19 shots and confirming these injections have never been safe nor effective. Censoring scientific debate is reprehensible and dangerous. The government, news media, and elements of the medical and scientific communities are intentionally and knowingly trying to deceive the public.”

This week on FOT: Why corporations go woke; Pennsylvania school system says NO to religious school students

Listen now: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/  -- Episode 372



Thursday, July 20, 2023

KIRBY: ABORTION IS A 'SACRED OBLIGATION'

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called promoting abortion a “sacred obligation” of the government in a recent White House press conference. Kirby said he had met with female military service members and spouses and claimed the majority communicated to him that pro-life laws “are absolutely having an effect on their willingness to continue serving." He added: “That means we lose talent, important talent."  READ

HHS OFFICIAL: KIDS GO THROUGH ‘WRONG PUBERTY’

In an interview with ABC News, Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, a man who calls himself a woman, argued that subjecting minors to so-called "gender-affirming care" is necessary for suicide prevention. When asked how he would respond to those who argue “transgender medicine” should at least be disallowed until a patient is 18, Levine said: “What if you’re going through the wrong puberty? What if you inside feel that you are female, but now you’re going through a male puberty?”  READ

Free Speech On Campus: Jesuit-Run Schools Do Poorly

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League President

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has published the results of a comprehensive survey of over 37,000 students at over 150 colleges and universities; the survey was taken in 2021. [The 2022-2023 survey results were subsequently released.]

The subject of the survey is the extent to which freedom of speech is honored on college campuses. The findings are not sanguine, and this is particularly true of Jesuit-run schools.

The overall state of free speech on campus is not good. Here are a few examples found in the survey.

  • More than 80% of students reported self-censoring their viewpoints at their colleges at least some of the time.
  • More than 50% of students identified racial inequality as a difficult topic to discuss on their campus.
  • Two-thirds of students (66%) say it is acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus.
  • Almost one in four (23%) say it is acceptable to use violence to stop campus speech.

As I’ve long said, there is more free speech allowed at your local pub than there is at your local college campus. This proves it. Moreover, whatever happened to the “peace loving” reputation of college kids—almost one in four say it’s okay to violently attack someone who says something disagreeable.

Marxism in practice, of course, has a long trail of bloodshed, and it is Marxism, in its cultural iteration, that is popular on college campuses these days. It’s not hard to connect the dots.

Of the 154 colleges listed in FIRE’s 2021 Campus Free Speech Rankings, the five schools with the best free speech rating, are, from top to bottom:

Claremont McKenna

University of Chicago

University of New Hampshire

Emory University

Florida State University

The five worst, beginning with the worst, are:

DePauw University

Marquette University

Louisiana State University

Boston College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

FIRE awarded Rensselear Polytechnic its lifetime censorship award.

It may surprise some to learn that sixteen of the twenty schools that scored the lowest are private institutions, while sixteen of the twenty highest free speech institutions are public institutions.

Some other surprises include schools like the University of Mississippi weighing in at #11, while Harvard was near the bottom at #130; Princeton was #135.

Most people would expect the results to be the opposite, given the prestige of Harvard and Princeton. Maybe the Ivies would benefit by hiring faculty such as University of Mississippi law professor Ronald Rychlak (he is a member of our board of advisors): he co-founded and chaired The Declaration of Independence Center for Study of American Freedom at Ole Miss. Maybe they can hire him so he can “reeducate” the professoriate.

Regarding Catholic institutions, none were in the top twenty. In fact, none were in the top one hundred. But there were three among the worst: Fordham was tenth from the bottom (#145); Boston College was fourth from the bottom (#151) and Marquette was second to last (#153). All three are Jesuit-run institutions.

While Fordham is a disgrace, it is clear from reading the report that Boston College and Marquette are much worse. Free speech is so under fire at Marquette that the FIRE gave it special mention.

“For two years running—in 2015 and 2016 (for the years 2014 and 2015)—FIRE named Marquette one of the ten worst colleges for free speech because of its attempts to revoke the tenure of Professor John McAdams and then terminate him. It took more than three years, but McAdams ultimately won his lawsuit against the university and was reinstated to his faculty position in the fall of 2018.”

What did McAdams do that made a faculty panel recommend sanctions against him? He complained when a graduate instructor tried to muzzle the free speech of a conservative student. In November 2014, McAdams criticized Cheryl Abbate for telling a student she would no longer tolerate his position objecting to gay marriage in her ethics class. McAdams was subsequently fired. He sued.

In July 2018, Marquette said it would comply with a court order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reinstate McAdams. Abbate was not just a graduate student—she was paid as an instructor by the university.

It was the free speech of McAdams that was endangered, not Abbate’s. Indeed, she was the one who was guilty of stifling free speech, and by a student who defended the Church’s teachings on marriage at a supposedly Catholic university!

Previously, in 2014, the Catholic League criticized Marquette for telling employees at an “anti-harassment” training presentation that merely voicing objections to gay marriage may be considered discriminatory; they were urged to report such offenses. At that time, I raised the following question. “Would they bring the pope up on charges following a speech on marriage?”

What’s going on at these Jesuit schools? Why are they breeding such intolerance? The time has come for those who run Fordham, Boston College and Marquette to have a campus-wide forum on the root causes of Jesuit intolerance for freedom of speech.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Pennsylvania Parochial School Parents Sue School District Over Religious Discrimination

(Williamsport, Pennsylvania) Parents of Pennsylvania parochial school students are suing the public school district for violating their religious rights. Thomas More Society attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania and the parents of two Centre County parochial school students against the State College Area School District. The complaint calls out the district and its board for discriminating against students who attend religiously affiliated institutions by refusing to allow them to participate in the district’s extracurricular and co-curricular activities, simply due to their parochial school affiliation. 

In the lawsuit—filed July 10, 2023, in United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania—Thomas More Society attorneys assert the school district violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit seeks a court order allowing parochial students to participate in the activities previously denied to them. 

Thomas Breth, Thomas More Society Special Counsel, explained that the school district has a non-discrimination policy that permits non-parochial school students who reside in the district, including charter school and home-school students, access to school district educational programs and activities. Yet, the school district justifies its exclusion of parochial school students from the same programs and activities by claiming their inclusion would take away opportunities from students attending district schools. 

“However, the board has consistently allowed home-school students and those attending charter schools to take part in the district’s more than 100 extracurricular activities and classes, including athletic teams and Advanced Placement courses,” said Breth. “The school district has denied those same opportunities to students attending religious schools, based solely on their religious identity. That forces parochial school students to choose between their religious beliefs and the right to participate in extracurricular activities and advanced classes.” 

Breth noted that similar cases have come before the United States Supreme Court in the past, and the Court has ruled that denying generally available benefits solely on account of religious identity imposes penalties on the free exercise of religion. 

“The Supreme Court has made it clear that such denials can be justified only by a state interest of the highest order,” Breth added. “That is certainly not the case in the State College Area School District.” 

Read the complaint filed July 10, 2023, by Thomas More Society attorneys in the United States Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on behalf of the Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania and parochial school parents, in Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania, et al. v. State College Area School District, et al. here [https://tinyurl.com/yc7jysx6].

[Editor’s Note: Mr. Breth will be a special guest on this week’s Faith On Trial program on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network.]

About the Thomas More Society

The Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, religious liberty, and election integrity. Headquartered in Chicago and with offices across the country, the Thomas More Society fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. For more information, visit thomasmoresociety.org.

SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO PROTECT KIDS

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-OH, introduced a bill in the Senate Tuesday calling for the protection of children from so-called “gender-affirming care.” If passed, the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” would classify subjecting children to “trans” surgeries and hormone therapies as Class C felonies, which could lead to 10 to 25 years in prison or a maximum fine of $250,000.  READ

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Judge Blocks Iowa Heartbeat Law Protecting Babies From Abortions

Judge Blocks Iowa Heartbeat Law Protecting Babies From Abortions

The Trans Controversy: American Bishops Face a Divided Nation and a Divided Church

From Crisis Magazine: Our bishops cannot ignore the percolating civil war brewing in America over trans ideology.

Read the entire report here:

https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-trans-controversy-american-bishops-face-a-divided-nation-and-a-divided-church?utm_source=Crisis+Magazine&utm_campaign=078c8ac05f-Crisis_DAILYRSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a5a13625fd-078c8ac05f-28429859&mc_cid=078c8ac05f&mc_eid=2fe5c614ca

Court Upholds Religious School’s Employment Freedom

CHICAGO, IL – A unanimous federal appeals court recently upheld the right of a religious school to make employment decisions consistent with core religious beliefs. A three-judge panel ruled that Roncalli High School under the Archdiocese of Indianapolis was entitled to the ministerial exception and was within its right when it fired a guidance counselor who revealed she was in a “same-sex marriage” contrary to the school’s biblical views on marriage.

In 2019, the Catholic Roncalli High School chose not to renew the contract for its co-director of guidance after she had notified the school the previous year that she was in a same-sex marriage, which ran contrary to her contract to uphold the school’s mission that marriage is between “one man and one woman.” Shortly thereafter, the counselor sued Roncalli contending that the school violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by firing her for being in a same-sex marriage. 

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed that claim, stating the ministerial exception allows religious institutions to determine their own employment guidelines for employees whose jobs involve religious duties or ministry.

The Court wrote “employment discrimination suits [are barred] ‘when the employer is a religious group and the employee is one of the group’s ministers.’ This is what has long been called ‘the ministerial exception.’… As the [Supreme] Court explained, ‘[requiring] a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision… Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs.’” 

The Court continued, “In determining whether an employee served a religious role, we show deference to the church… All arrows point one way… A religious school is entitled to limit its staff to people who will be role models by living the life prescribed by the faith.” 

This ruling marks the second time in a year this Court has ruled in favor of Roncalli High School. Also in 2018, the school declined to renew a different counselor’s contract for the exact same reason. Notably, the Indiana Supreme Court in 2022 also ruled in favor of another school in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis upholding the school’s decision to terminate a teacher for violating his employment agreement and failing to uphold the school’s religious teaching on same-sex marriage. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This commonsense ruling protects a fundamental religious liberty of faith-based organizations to employ people who align with their mission. The ministerial exception allows religious institutions to decide who to employ to represent the organization.”