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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
DECEMBER 28 ,
2012
Letters
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
When Margery Eagan writes that
Catholic Democrats love their Church
but not their bishops, what she
really means is they favor the
continued killing of unborn children
(TAKING BROWN DOWN, 12/27/2012).
It comes as no surprise that Eagan is
enamored with Vicki Kennedy. After all, the two of them are very much
alike. Both are liberals who conform to the dominant secular culture.
Both pretend to be Catholic while rejecting core Catholic values.
Finally, both are living proof that mediocrity is no barrier to
celebrity status in Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
Catholicactionleague@ gmail.com
Wanderer article by C.J. Doyle and Paul Likoudis:
The Eminence Grise Of The Boston Archdiocese
The Archdiocese of Boston under Fr. Hehir’s leadership is more
concerned with conforming to the secular culture, appeasing a hostile
liberal media, and protecting renegade pro-abortion Catholic politicians
and their apologists in the Catholic community.
Complete article from the October 25, 2012 edition of The Wanderer
(PDF file)
MEMBER ADVISORY
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012
(UPDATED MAY 28, 2013)
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE HELD
ANNUAL CURLEY COMMEMORATION
Today, November 12, 2012, is the 54th Anniversary of the death of
Massachusetts Governor and Boston Mayor James Michael Curley. The
Catholic Action League of Massachusetts held its Annual Rosary at the
Curley grave site in Old Calvary Cemetery, off Cummins Highway in
Roslindale, at 12 noon. Mayor Curley's grave is located directly behind
the chapel at the top of the hill, visible from Cummins Highway. All
Catholic Action League members were invited to participate.
November is the month of the Holy Souls, when the Church remembers in
her prayers the faithful departed. Please pray for the repose of the
souls of all deceased members of the Catholic Action League, and those
of our predecessor organization, the Massachusetts Chapter of the
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, including those listed
below:
Joseph L. Ahern
Joseph Arena
Catherine Barden
Mr. and Mrs. Emile J. Beauregard
Hon. Angelo Berlandi
Elisabeth Bresnahan
Mary Louise Burckhart
Rev. William C. Burckhart
David R. Burke
Leona Carlsen
Bertrand G. Chasse
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Coleman
Hon. and Mrs. John F. Collins
Martin J. Costello
Leo J. Coveney
Hon. and Mrs. James J. Craven, Jr.
Ann Cutress
Rev. Msgr. John Dillon Day
Robert J. Delery
Francis A. Doyle, Sr.
William S. Farrell
Robert J. Flanagan
Thomas A. Flatley
Thomas J. Flatley
Yvonne Goddard
Roger B. Gill
Charles P. Gourlis
Thomas Hamill
Edward B. Hanify, Jr.
Mrs. Marion Hardy
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Healy
H. Noel Hebard
Rev. Cornelius J. Heery
Rev. Harold J. Johnson
Hon. James M. Kelly
Eugene F. Kiely, Jr.
H. E. Edward J. King
Alfred A. Lagan
Florence MacIsaac
John J. MacIsaac
Albert James Healy Madden
Richard Malone
Paul McCarthy
Andrew J. McCauley, Esq.
Celia McClory
Gino Michelutti
Walter T. Mulry
Hon. James J. Nixon
Hon. Joseph R. Nolan
Dante Pattavina
Frances (Mrs. Vincent) Pattavina
Rev. Gilbert S. Phinn
Janet E. Ray
Thomas F. Reynolds
Most Rev. Lawrence J. Riley
John S. Ring
Elinore C. Sheils
Francis N. Sheils
John W. Spillane, KHS, Esq.
Dr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Stanton
Virginia Teehan
Peter L. Travers, Jr.
Hon. John T. Tynan
Bro. Bartholomew Varden, CFX
Thomas A. Walsh
Thomas A. Welch
L. Thomas White
Eternal rest grant unto
them O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine
upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen. May
their souls and the souls of all
the faithful departed, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
"It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that
they might be loosed from their sins." - 2 Maccabees 12:46
ACTION ALERT
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE,
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
VOTE
NO ON QUESTION
2
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts
today is urging all of its members to vote no on Ballot Question 2---the
initiative petition to legalize physician assisted suicide in the
Commonwealth---and to ask their families, friends and neighbors to join
them in voting against this improvident proposal.
Only two states, Oregon and Washington, now
permit this assault against the sanctity and dignity of human life.
Proponents of this measure view Massachusetts as the "break through"
state, where victory will provide the momentum to advance this dreadful
legislation throughout the United States. A no vote on Question 2 is,
arguably, the most decisive vote you will cast on Election Day, November
6th.
Catholic Action League Executive Director
C. J. Doyle made the following comment: "As evidenced by progress in the
polling data, the well funded and highly professional advertising
campaign against Question 2 has been timely and effective in shifting
public opinion on this matter. We are now within striking distance of
accomplishing what a few months ago would have been unimaginable,
defeating an aggression by the culture of death in the most liberal
state in the Union. Every vote, therefore, will count in this very close
contest."
"The pro-life campaign against Question 2
has accurately pointed out the numerous flaws in this troubling and
problematic proposal. These include the impossibility of a precise
prognosis predicting the time left to a terminally ill patient; the
failure to account for the impact of depression on the elderly and the
severely ill; the absence of an attending physician at the time of
death; and the lack of any provision for family notification,
psychiatric evaluation, or consultation with palliative caregivers."
"As Catholics however, we must, first of
all, remember that physician assisted suicide is an offense against
Almighty God, a violation of the Fifth Commandment of the Decalogue, and
an attempt to usurp the Sovereignty of God, Who is the Author of life.
It is also but one step away from active euthanasia, and but another
from involuntary euthanasia. Our society is moving towards a eugenicist
culture, where the so-called quality of life displaces the sanctity of
life as a transcendent value. A defeat for Question 2 will be a victory
for the culture of life and a repulse for the encroaching forces of the
culture of death."
Please remember to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6,
2012!
Rebuttal of New York Times
column
OCTOBER 31, 2012
One of our members asked us to
respond to a column entitled
"Why I am pro-life" by Thomas
Friedman in the New York
Times of October 27. Here is our
response:
I am
not sure Tom Friedman's New York
Times column merits a serious
response given the manifest
ignorance and inaccuracy of the
piece. Did you read where he said no
one should be killed by a concealed
automatic weapon? Automatic weapons
are already illegal in the U.S.
There is not a single state in the
Union where you can carry machine
guns or automatic rifles, nor is it
physically possible to conceal an
M-16. The term "concealed weapon"
usually refers to pistols, which are
either single shot or
semi-automatic.
If
Friedman---who is a poster child for
the Olympian arrogance, smug
parochialism, and unjustified
intellectual pretensions of
America's left-wing media elite---is
completely clueless about guns, he
is even shakier about high school
biology. He referred to a
"fertilized egg," by which I'm
presume he means an embryo.
According to National Review,
he originally wrote "a fertilized
egg in a woman's ovary," which, of
course, doesn't exist in biology.
Snobs,
bigots, and half-educated
secularists like Friedman are always
prattling on, as Friedman does in
his column, about opposition to
abortion being rooted in "religion
and philosophy". Unlike the
pro-abortion prejudice, the pro-life
position does comport with the
perennial wisdom of western
civilization---the Hippocratic Oath,
Aristotelian philosophy, the Hebrew
Bible, the Didache, Thomistic
theology, English common law, Roman
civil law, etc.
It is
biology and embryology however, not
religion and philosophy, that tells
us when life begins. It is reason,
natural law, and the common good,
not sectarian dogma, which informs
that it is wrong to kill the
innocent. It is the supporters of
abortion, like Friedman, who reject
science and reason, and embrace
irrationality and superstition. Have
you heard their superstitions? "Life
begins at viability". "Life begins
at birth." "It is only a child if
the mother wants it." The barbarians
in the so-called Dark Ages were
lucid compared to the modern
advocates of abortion.
Nothing
Friedman wrote was original. He even
plagiarized Barney Frank's old
calumny that pro-lifers were only
concerned about life from conception
to birth. This is one of the lies
which moral imbeciles like Friedman
regularly employ to unjustly abuse
civilized people who oppose the
hideous evil of child murder.
The
largest non-governmental provider of
health care in the world is a
pro-life institution called the
Catholic Church. The largest
non-governmental provider of charity
and social services in the world is
a pro-life institution called the
Catholic Church. The largest
non-governmental provider of
education in the world is a pro-life
institution called the Catholic
Church.
While
supporters of legal abortion argue
for physician-assisted suicide and
euthanasia, pro-lifers support the
compassionate alternative of hospice
and palliative care. While
supporters of legal abortion hustle
women to the butchers in the
abortion clinics, pro-lifers offer
support for continuing the pregnancy
and the compassionate alternative of
adoption. The largest
non-governmental provider of
services to pregnant women in the
U.S. is the pro-life movement.
Friedman recycles the tired,
threadbare, and absurd argument that
only those those who embrace liberal
public policy prescriptions
regarding quality of life issues can
be described as truly pro-life. The
illogical premise seems to be that
only socialists, or at least,
welfare state proponents, can
consistently oppose abortion.
Pro-life citizens have nothing to
apologize for. Since 1973,
fifty-four million innocent children
in this country have been cruelly
slaughtered in their mothers' wombs
through surgical abortions alone.
God knows how many tens or even
hundreds of millions have been
killed through chemical abortions
and abortifacient contraceptives.
The methods of killing include
saline scalding, vacuum suctioning,
and surgical dismemberment. In
ultra-sound images of abortion, the
unborn child can be seen
instinctively moving away from the
surgical forceps trying to sever its
spine. One in three American
pregnancies now end in surgical
abortion.
Contrary to Friedman's fatuous
assertions, pro-lifers are not
narrow or extreme. They are sane,
rational, humane, charitable,
morally responsible human beings who
oppose the injustice of mass murder
on a genocidal scale. History will
view them as those who resisted
Nazism and Communism.
I hope
this is the response you were
looking for.
Regards,
C.J. Doyle
NEWS RELEASE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE RAPS
ANNA MARIA COLLEGE FOR HOSTING
VICTORIA KENNEDY AND JIM MCGOVERN
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized Anna
Maria College in
Paxton---administered by the Sisters
of Saint Anne---for showcasing
Victoria Kennedy and Congressman
James P. McGovern at an academic
symposium held yesterday in the
college's Fuller Activities Center.
Kennedy was the keynote speaker
and McGovern was a panelist at the
forum, entitled Faith and the Public
Square: Balancing Religious Beliefs
with the Common Good. Amid heavy
security, the event was attended by
an audience of over 300, mostly
students.
After receiving a standing
ovation, Mrs. Kennedy, in her
address, spoke of the Catholic Faith
of her family, which she said was
largely inseparable from Democratic
Party politics, and of her own
commitment to social justice. She
went on to claim that the shared
philosophy of John F. Kennedy and
Edward M. Kennedy was "rooted in
Scripture, particularly the
Beatitudes and Matthew 25."
In his remarks, James McGovern
talked about his passionate belief
in human rights for all people, but
added that "abortion was a
complicated issue." The Congressman
received loud applause when he
stated that he would not vote to
make abortion a federal
crime,"sending women and doctors to
jail."
Of the five participants on the
panel, only one, Father Richard F.
Reidy, gave an effective and
unambiguous presentation of
traditional Catholic doctrine,
stating that certain practices, such
as abortion, were intrinsic evils,
and this was not a matter of
sectarian dogma, but was part of
natural law and could be known
through reason. This earned him the
rebuke of Mrs. Kennedy, who accused
him of bringing "absolute truth" and
"non-negotiable positions" into
politics, which would create
"gridlock." Kennedy then reminded
the priest that "the Constitution is
our governing authority." She then
said "I think everyone here is
pro-life."
The Catholic Action League called
the decision to feature Kennedy and
McGovern "an affront to the truth of
both natural law and Catholic
teaching, a failure of the college's
Catholic identity, and a betrayal of
faithful Catholics struggling to
protect the unborn."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle commented:"The
Catholic religion teaches that
abortion is---in the words of Pius
XI---'the direct murder of the
innocent.' Yesterday, a nominally
Catholic institution presented to
its students (whose parents were
promised a Catholic education for
their children), two apologists for
this form of murder, who went on to
offer their excuses, evasions,
falsehoods, distortions and
rationalizations. It was an
audacious and astonishing display of
hypocrisy and intellectual
dishonesty."
"The message which students at
Anna Maria heard Wednesday could be
heard at any secular college, or
from any of the organs of popular
culture. Students at a Catholic
college deserve the truth, not
cynical lies in the service of
cold-blooded evil."
NEWS ANALYSIS
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
RYAN REBUFFS LEGACY OF JFK
History was made during last week's
vice-presidential debate when Republican nominee Paul Ryan implicitly
but effectively rejected the legacy of our first Catholic president,
John F. Kennedy, who disclaimed any notion that his Catholic Faith would
have any influence on his conduct as chief executive.
During the 1960 presidential campaign,
Kennedy, in a concession to anti-Catholic prejudice, told a gathering of
Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas, that he would never allow the
Catholic Church to instruct him in any public matter, and then went on
to emphasize his disagreement with the Church on the questions of aid to
religious schools, and diplomatic recognition of the Vatican.
In contrast, Congressman Ryan, when asked
about his faith, responded "I don't see how a person can separate their
private life from their public life or their faith. Our faith informs us
in everything we do. My faith informs me about how to take care of the
vulnerable, about how to make sure that people have a chance of life."
The Catholic Action League called Ryan's
remarks "a significant milestone in American religious history and a
turning point in the progress of Catholic inclusion in American
political life."
Catholic Action League Executive Director C.
J. Doyle commented: "Unlike John Kennedy --- and Al Smith before him ---
Ryan made no effort to appease anti-Catholic bigotry. He did not
compartmentalize his religion as a purely private matter or suggest
there was some tension between conscience and magisterial teaching. He
did not assert the supremacy of his oath to the Constitution, or
advertise his dissent from Catholic principles.
"Even Vice-President Joe Biden, despite the
ritual dishonesty of his 'refused to impose' position, and his
misrepresentations of the HHS mandate, avoided Kennedy's 1960 rhetoric,
saying instead, 'My religion defines who I am, and I've been a
practicing Catholic my whole life, and it has particularly informed my
social doctrine.'
"Future historians may well look upon 2012,
rather than 1960, as the year that witnessed a Catholicism without
apologies being finally admitted to national politics in the United
States."
NEWS RELEASE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE
CRITICIZES GLASTONBURY ABBEY FOR
HOSTING BARNEY FRANK
The Catholic
Action League of Massachusetts today
joined pro-life Catholics from Saint
Paul's Parish in Hingham to picket
Glastonbury Abbey. They were
protesting the decision of the
abbey, which is administered by the
Order of Saint Benedict, to sponsor
a lecture by U. S. Congressman
Barney Frank. Congressman Frank will
speak this evening at 7:15 pm, as
part of the abbey's "Listening to
Other Voices" series.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
prohibits Catholic institutions from providing "awards, honors, or
platforms" to those who "act in defiance of our fundamental moral
principles."
Barney Frank is a longstanding supporter of
unrestricted legal abortion, partial birth abortion, the public funding
of abortion, and abortion and contraception as part of U.S. Foreign Aid
assistance and federal family planning programs. He also supports
publicly funded embryonic stem cell research and the HHS mandate
requiring Catholic institutions to subsidize contraceptive coverage in
group health insurance programs. Frank is both a proponent of and a
participant in same-gender marriage.
The Catholic Action League called the abbey's
invitation to Frank "another scandalous example of the culture of
betrayal which afflicts Catholic institutions in America."
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J.
Doyle commented: "The Catholic hierarchy expects faithful Catholics to
go out into the public square and defend the sanctity of innocent human
life, the integrity of marriage, and the religious freedom rights of
Catholic institutions. The hierarchy then stands by and does nothing
when some of these same institutions undermine the efforts of orthodox
Catholics by repeatedly sending mixed signals on Catholic moral
teachings.
"The Catholic community might be better served if
America's Catholic bishops spent less time articulating positions on
moral issues which are little more than rhetorical and academic, and
devoted more time and effort to reforming and policing their own
institutions. Glastonbury Abbey should be ashamed of itself for
providing a speaking platform to a relentless adversary of the pro-life
movement (which Frank has repeatedly mocked), Catholic morality, and the
constitutional rights of Catholic believers."
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
SEPTEMBER 20 ,
2012
Letters
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
When it comes to taking a cheap shot
at the Catholic Church, Margery
Eagan never misses an opportunity
(JESUS, MARRY & JOSEPH! 9/20/2012).
The
discovery of an unauthenticated and
unrevealing fourth century document
was the excuse for Eagan to
castigate the Church, malign the
hierarchy, misrepresent the origins
of celibacy, and trivialize the life
of Our Savior.
After
twenty-two years and scores of such
columns by Eagan, Catholics might
reasonably ask why their religion is
the only one to receive such
treatment in the pages of the
Boston Herald.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
Catholicactionleague@ gmail.com
cc: Patrick J. Purcell,
Publisher
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
SEPTEMBER 6 , 2012
Your Views
The Patriot Ledger
400 Crown Colony Drive
Quincy, MA 02169
To the Editor:
Why is Roman
Catholicism the only religion ever
maligned on the pages of The
Patriot Ledger? (COMPROMISING
THE GOSPEL, Sat/Sun, September
1-2, 2012)
Suzette
Martinez Standring's column on Emmet
Coyne's book, The Theology of
Fear, was a tendentious,
uncritical, relentlessly one-sided
endorsement of falsehoods and
slanders directed against the
Catholic Church.
Not content to
recycle Coyne's absurd lies,
Standring proceeded to canonize the
author. Her column read more like a
dust cover promotional piece than a
serious work of journalism.
The Patriot
Ledger should be ashamed of
itself for publishing such crude
bigotry.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle, Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CatholicActionLeague@gmail.com
NEWS RELEASE
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE
CRITICIZES ROMNEY FOR SUPPORTING
"HEALTH OF THE MOTHER" ABORTIONS
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized
Republican presidential nominee Mitt
Romney for telling CBS News on
Monday that he favored the legality
of abortions in cases of rape and
incest, and to protect the health
and the life of the mother.
In response to
the Akin controversy, a spokesperson
for the Romney campaign issued a
statement saying that a Romney-Ryan
administration would not oppose
abortions in cases of rape. Romney
then went further in a television
interview, asserting that he thought
abortion was "appropriate" in cases
of rape and incest, and to protect
the life of the mother.
Romney has now
once again, modified his position,
becoming the first Republican
presidential nominee in modern times
to embrace the "health of the
mother" exception. He also said that
although he supported life, the
issue of abortion was settled by the
courts some time ago, and then went
on to endorse contraception.
The Catholic
Action League said Romney's
unprecedented stance is "further
compelling evidence of the
calculating cynicism which
characterizes Romney's continually
evolving position on moral issues."
Catholic
Action League Executive Director C.
J. Doyle stated: "Anyone who claims
to be pro-life but thinks abortion
is 'appropriate' in some cases
either does not believe in the
humanity of the unborn child, or
bases his position on polling data,
or both. Either way, it suggests
expediency rather than conviction.
"Even more
disturbing is Mitt Romney's embrace
of the so-called health of the
mother exception. This is the
loophole through which the
proverbial Mack truck can be driven.
It can be defined to include the
mental health of the mother. It can
be invoked if the mother claims
suicidal thoughts because of an
unwanted pregnancy. 'Health of the
mother' is a blank check which has
the potential to effectively negate
any meaningful prohibitions of
abortion.
"No one can
object if a member of the pro-life
community makes the prudential
argument that a tactical vote for
Mitt Romney is preferable to
re-electing the most pro-abortion
president in American history. Those
who make that argument however,
should not mislead pro-life voters
into believing that Mitt Romney is
sincerely pro-life. He is not. If
Romney is willing to make these
compromises before he is elected,
pro-lifers should ask themselves
what he will be willing to do once
he is safely in the White House."
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
AUGUST 28 ,
2012
Letters
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
One wonders
what possible benefit accrues to the
Boston Herald by offering a
forum for Margery Eagan to ventilate
her visceral hostility to the
Catholic Faith (Catholic opportunist
a damning pick for Mitt, 8/28/12).
Eagan's latest
diatribe, like her other columns on
the Church, is tired, predictable,
unoriginal, repetitive, indifferent
to the facts, without a shred of
fairness or balance, and filled with
ad hominem attacks, sweeping
generalities, and unsubstantiated
assertions.
Eagan's lack
of intellectual seriousness makes
her a better fit for talk radio than
print journalism. As a columnist,
Margery Eagan is an anti-Catholic
hack, who gives mediocrity a bad
name.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
Catholicactionleague@ gmail.com
cc: Patrick J. Purcell,
Publisher
NEWS RELEASE
SATURDAY, JULY 28, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE REJECTS
MENINO "CLARIFICATION" OF THREAT TO
RESTAURANT CHAIN
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today rejected the
so-called "clarification" issued by
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino
regarding his threat to block a
business license for a proposed Hub
branch of a restaurant chain whose
owner is an outspoken critic of same
gender marriage. Menino told Chick-fil-A
owner Dan Cathy that his chain
engaged in "discrimination", and
that it was not welcome in the City
of Boston.
Menino has now backpedaled saying
that he was only expressing "a
personal opinion" and using his
office as "a bully pulpit."
The Catholic Action League called
the Mayor's clarification "entirely
disingenuous and self-serving."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "Even
if Mayor Menino recognizes that his
threatened opposition to Chick-fil-A
was constitutionally indefensible
and legally unenforceable, he is
still sending an unmistakable
message to those who do business in
Boston that unless you are on the
right side of the homosexual
community, you will be on wrong side
of City Hall. One cannot discount
the intimidation value of Menino's
words towards a compliant Boston
business community notoriously
subservient to the demands of the
Mayor.
"No one should
trivialize this episode. Menino was
effectively calling for overt,
government sponsored discrimination
against practicing Catholics,
Evangelicals, Orthodox Jews,
Muslims, and other religious
believers who accept the biblical
definition of marriage. Evidently,
the mayor saw no irony in attempting
to penalize Chick-fil-A for agreeing
with a fundamental moral teaching of
the religion which Menino allegedly
professes."
NEWS RELEASE
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
MENINO
V. THE BILL OF RIGHTS
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for
equating support for traditional
marriage with discrimination,
and threatening to withhold a
business license from a restaurant
chain whose owner opposes same sex
marriage.
Menino told Chick-fil-A owner Dan
Cathy that a proposed branch of his
business on the Freedom Trail near
Faneuil Hall would not be welcome in
Boston.
The Catholic Action League
characterized the Mayor's threat as
"an unambiguous assault on the First
Amendment and its guarantees of free
speech and the free exercise of
religion."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "In the
universe of Thomas Menino support
for the traditional definition of
marriage --- something believed
always and everywhere by everyone
--- now makes you guilty of
discrimination, liable to public
rebuke by the government, and unfit
to run a business in the City of
Boston. By Menino's logic, the
Catholic Church should not be
permitted to operate schools,
hospitals, or charities in the city.
"Menino not
only needs to read the Constitution,
but look at a map and understand
that Boston is part of the United
States, where it is unlawful for the
government to punish people for
professing their religious beliefs
and engaging in vigorous free
speech.
"If Menino is
reckless enough to pursue his
threat, he will be sued and he will
be restrained by the courts. It
speaks volumes about the
parochialism and the fatigue of the
Menino Administration that there is
no one around the Mayor who is able
to warn against such irresponsible
and improvident remarks."
TESTIMONY OF C. J. DOYLE
AT
A PUBLIC HEARING
BEFORE THE
MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL
ON THE NOMINATION OF KENNETH W.
SALINGER TO THE SUPERIOR COURT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012
Madame Chairman:
My name is C. J. Doyle, and I am
the Executive Director of the
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts. Our organization is
dedicated to defending religious
freedom rights. I will be brief.
As we saw from the recent
controversy regarding the absence of
conscience protections in a federal
regulatory mandate relative to the
Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act of 2010, the most dangerous
threats to religious liberty are
likely to arise from the
intersection, indeed, the collision
of long established,
constitutionally protected religious
freedom rights with newly contrived,
so called reproductive rights.
When a nominee to the Superior
Court has made numerous
contributions to organizations such
as Emily's List, and MoveOn.Org.,
which take such an extreme view of
the latter, and such a narrow,
constricted, and indifferent view of
the former, it is a cause of serious
concern for us.
Like the Founding Fathers, we
believe religious freedom is
indispensable to a free society and
a republican form of government.
This is especially so here in the
Commonwealth, where Article II of
the Declaration of Rights of the
Massachusetts Constitution provides
an even more expansive definition of
religious liberty than that which is
contained in the Free Exercise
clause of the First Amendment of the
U. S. Constitution.
We respect the right of His
Excellency, the Governor to appoint
judges who reflect his judicial
philosophy. We find it hard to
believe however, that a nominee who
contributes extensively to Emily's
List and MoveOn.Org, shares the
traditional understanding of the
foundational character of religious
liberty, so essential to the
functioning of our democratic
republic.
Finally, the Council ought to be
disturbed by the extraordinary,
indeed, unprecedented volume of
campaign contributions by the
nominee to liberal and left-wing
candidates and causes. This suggests
the profile of a thoroughly
politicized, relentlessly partisan,
and extremely ideological activist
and advocate. It is not the profile
of an impartial, apolitical, and
dispassionate jurist.
We wish to be recorded in
opposition to the nomination. Thank
you.
NEWS UPDATE
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
DISTRICT ATTORNEY RESPONDS TO
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE AFTER THREATS
TO ACUSHNET PARISH
The District Attorney of Bristol
County, C. Samuel Sutter, has
responded to the concerns raised by
the Catholic Action League after
threats were made to a Catholic
parish in the Diocese of Fall River.
In May, Saint Francis Xavier
Parish in Acushnet was subjected to
vandalism, harassment, and threats
of arson after a message was posted
on the church bulletin board
supporting the traditional
definition of marriage. Within a few
hours of the message being
displayed, the parish began
receiving profanity laced telephone
calls, including one threatening to
burn the church down. A sign was
attached to the rear door of the
church making a vile, sexual
reference to Our Blessed Mother.
Another sign was nailed to the front
fence of the church denouncing
"hate." Two protesters attempted to
enter the church, and when denied
access, one shouted that he was
going to burn down the church.
During Mass the following Sunday, a
group of nine protesters picketed
the parish.
The Catholic Action League wrote
to District Attorney Sutter asking
him to undertake an investigation
into constitutional rights
violations and hate crimes. The
League is pleased to report that the
District Attorney personally
contacted Executive Director C. J.
Doyle.
D. A. Sutter told us that he took
this incident very seriously, that
there is a separate criminal statute
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
pertaining to threats of arson
against a house of worship, and that
he would charge and prosecute anyone
identified making threats against
Saint Francis Xavier Parish! Mr.
Sutter even offered to host a
meeting where he and the local
police chief could brief the League
on the security situation at Saint
Francis Xavier.
After two decades of federal,
state and county prosecutors
ignoring invasions of Catholic
churches, disturbances of Catholic
worship, and harassment of Catholic
congregants by homosexuals
militants, it is most gratifying to
find an elected official in
Massachusetts willing to enforce the
law without fear or favor. The
League wishes to commend District
Attorney Sutter for his courtesy in
contacting us, for his receptiveness
to our concerns, and for his
position that the law should be
vigorously enforced.
Meanwhile, Monsignor Gerard
O'Connor, the pastor who
courageously refused to be
intimidated by this episode, reports
that protests have fizzled, and
attendance and donations at Saint
Francis Xavier are up. Perhaps,
Catholics in Massachusetts are
finally beginning to understand that
the best response, when confronted
with aggression, is resistance.
NEWS RELEASE
THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE
CRITICIZES SUPREME COURT DECISION ON
OBAMACARE
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized the
decision of the United States
Supreme Court in National
Federation of Independent Business
v. Sebelius, which upheld most
of the provisions of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act
of 2010, known as Obamacare.
The court did not rule on the
Department of Health and Human
Services regulatory mandate ---
proceeding from the Act --- which
requires insurance companies to
provide subsidized coverage of
contraceptives, sterilizations, and
abortifacients. By sustaining the
legislation however, the court
decision means that the mandate
remains.
Chief Justice Roberts joined the
four liberal justices in upholding
the health care law.
The Catholic Action League called
the decision "another in the long
line of judicial failures to
restrain the seemingly endless
expansion of the federal
government."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "It is
difficult to imagine a decision more
hostile to the principles upon which
the American Republic was founded.
Individual liberty, states' rights,
religious freedom, Christian
morality, and the concept of a
limited federal government,
constrained by the Constitution, and
authorized to exercise only certain
enumerated powers, were all
sacrificed today by an obliging
court. Interestingly, the court
initially used the phrase 'National
government,' a term unknown to the
Founding Fathers."
"Chief Justice John Roberts,
after making a cogent and compelling
argument that the legislation could
not be justified by either the
Commerce clause or the Necessary and
Proper clause of the Constitution,
then blithely assented to the
incredulous notion that the
insurance mandate and its associated
penalties are a legitimate exercise
of the power of Congress 'to lay and
collect taxes.' "
"The pro-life community should
understand that if Roberts is
unwilling to challenge something as
unpopular and constitutionally
doubtful as Obamacare, he is
unlikely to disturb thirty-nine
years of legal abortion. Four of the
seven Supreme Court justices
appointed by Republican Presidents
Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and
George H.W. Bush --- John Paul
Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor,
Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter
--- ended up supporting Roe v.
Wade."
"Now, one of the two justices
appointed by George W. Bush (Samuel
Alito was part of the dissent), has
clearly signaled his
accommodationist instincts. The
Republican assertion that we must
vote for them to save the Supreme
Court grows more unconvincing every
day."
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
June 26 ,
2012
Letters
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
In the photo
caption accompanying Margery Eagan's
column, the Sunday Herald
accurately reported that
Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn
was convicted of child endangerment,
but acquitted of conspiracy charges
(INDEFENSIBLE, 6/24//2012).
That did not
stop Eagan however, from describing
the Catholic hierarchy as Lynn's
co-conspirators. When it comes to
bashing the Catholic Church, Margery
Eagan does not allow facts --- even
those reported in her own newspaper
--- to restrain her bigotry.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
cc: Patrick J. Purcell,
Publisher
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
June 13,
2012
Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
To the Editor:
The Lisa
Wangsness story on the angry
reaction of dissident nuns to
Vatican attempts at oversight
reminds one of the old legal
aphorism "If you have neither the
facts nor the law on your side, just
pound the table" (Sanctions against
nuns spark backlash, 6/12/2012).
The reality
here is easy to perceive. A group of
nuns who manifestly reject Catholic
teaching, but continue to hold
leadership positions in Catholic
religious orders, are incensed at
the Vatican for pointing out the
obvious --- that they substituted
secular values for Catholic
principles sometime ago.
What these
nuns want is very simple: no
consequences and no accountability
for their heresy and apostasy.
Whatever else can be said about
Martin Luther, at least he had the
integrity to leave.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
June 12,
2012
Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
To the Editor:
Farah
Stockman's fatuous assertion that,
in the matter of dissident nuns, the
Vatican is on the wrong side of
history, is laughable (Sisters of
strength, 6/12/2012).
The precise
opposite is true. Actuarial tables
will provide a demographic solution
to the problem of disaffected
American nuns. In this country, the
average age in mainstream female
religious orders is above seventy.
Meanwhile, conservative and
traditionalist orders face housing
shortages for new vocations. All the
Vatican has to do is wait.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
MEMBER ADVISORY
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE,
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
Please pray for the repose of
the soul of Yvonne Goddard, who
died in the early hours of this
morning. Yvonne, a devout, pro-life,
traditional Catholic, was the wife
of Warren Goddard, a longstanding
member of the Catholic Action League
of Massachusetts. For many years,
Yvonne and Warren were friends of
the Saint Benedict Center in
Richmond, New Hampshire.
The wake is Wednesday,
June 6th at the Farrell Funeral
Home, 684 State Street in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from 4
p.m. to 7 p.m.
The funeral Mass will be
at Immaculate Conception Church, 98
Summer Street, in Portsmouth
(directly across from the funeral
home) on Thursday, June 7th, at
11:00 a.m. The funeral liturgy will
be a traditional Latin Requiem Mass.
Eternal rest grant unto her O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine
upon her. May she rest in peace.
Amen. May her soul and the souls of
all the faithful departed, through
the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
ACTION ALERT
MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE,
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
STAND UP FOR
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
This Friday, June 8th, 2012,
there will be a number of Stand
Up For Religious Freedom
rallies across the Commonwealth
to oppose the Obama Administration's
mandate requiring all employers to
carry insurance coverage for
contraception, sterilizations, and
abortifacients. This mandate ---
promulgated as a U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services regulation
by the pro-abortion, nominal
Catholic, Kathleen Sebelius --- is
the most serious aggression against
the religious freedom rights of
Catholics in the 223 history of the
federal government.
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts urges all Catholics to
defend their constitutional
liberties, their rights of
conscience, and the moral teachings
of their Faith by participating in
these rallies!
All rallies will be held on
Friday, June 8th, at the following
locations:
BOSTON - 12 noon, Boston
Common, 24 Beacon Street, across
from the State House
LEOMINSTER - 12 noon,
Carter Park Gazebo Main Street
WORCESTER - 12 noon, City
Hall Plaza 488 Main Street
WEST ROXBURY - 6:30 p.m.,
Holy Name Rotary 1689 Centre
Street
Please take this important
opportunity to express your support
for the liberty of the Church, for
the First Amendment, and for your
own rights as an American citizen!
Please come, and if possible, bring
a friend or family member!
For more information, please
access the following web site:
www.standupforreligiousfreedom.net
MEDIA UPDATE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
FOX NEWS
RESPONDS TO CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE
Fox News identifies itself as
"fair and balanced." Its local
affiliate, WFXT-TV, Channel 25
Boston, lived up to that claim with
a timely and favorable response to
concerns raised by the Catholic
Action League of Massachusetts
regarding a viewer poll.
On Thursday, May 17th, Channel 25
broadcast a story on its six o'clock
news detailing the violent reaction
of homosexual activists to a sign
posted by Saint Francis Xavier
Parish in Acushnet supporting
traditional marriage. The news
report was accurate and evenhanded,
but the viewer poll question
presented after the conclusion of
the story was outrageously biased.
WFXT anchor Maria Stephanos asked
viewers if they thought the Catholic
Church should be allowed to post
political signs on its property!
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle immediately
called the station to object to the
poll question. Doyle pointed out
that when the Catholic Church speaks
out on a moral issue, such as the
right to life, or the definition of
marriage, the Church's adversaries
charge it is engaging in politics
and demand that the Church's tax
exempt status be withdrawn. Doyle
stated that this was an obvious
intimidation tactic intended to
silence the voice of Catholics and
bring public odium upon the exercise
of their religious freedom rights.
He went on to say that every
government that has persecuted the
Church has begun with the false
claim that the Church is interfering
in politics.
WFXT News Director Paul McGonagle
called back to say that he agreed
with Doyle's criticism, that the
poll question was unfair, and that
the station had decided to take it
down and replace it with another
question unrelated to the
controversy. McGonagle thanked Doyle
for bringing the matter to his
attention.
The Catholic Action League wishes
to commend WFXT-TV, Channel 25, for
its prompt, positive and fair minded
response to the issues raised by the
League. The League also wishes to
express its gratitude to Channel 25
News Director Paul McGonagle for his
courteous and professional conduct
in acknowledging our concerns and in
effecting an appropriate remedy.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
May 29,
2012
Letters
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
When Margery
Eagan testifies to a crowd's "solid"
Catholic Faith, you can guess that
they left the Church a long time ago
("Faithful flock won't give up
anytime soon," 5/23/2012).
Eagan's
endorsement, the snide cracks about
the Pope, and the cheap shot about
the Vatican and women tell us all we
need to know about the so-called
vigil keepers who have occupied
parishes closed by the Archdiocese
of Boston.
Closing a
church is always a tragedy, and a
tacit admission of failure. The
comments of these disaffected
Catholics, however, --- who are
insulting the Holy Father while
appealing to him --- suggest that
these former parishes had very
little Catholicity in the first
place.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
NEWS REPORT!
PENTECOST SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
BC Law picketed over Kennedy
commencement presence
Pro-lifers from Operation Rescue: Boston and the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts lined the sidewalk outside of the entrance to The Conte Forum at Boston College. Our protest was directed primarily at Boston College, for honoring Victoria Kennedy, and at Cardinal O'Malley for not exercising his authority in this matter; only secondarily at Victoria Kennedy herself. We got some press coverage from the AP and The Boston Globe.
NEWS RELEASE
SATURDAY, MAY 26, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE CRITICIZES BC LAW FOR
PRESENTING VICTORIA KENNEDY AS
COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized
Jesuit administered Boston College
Law School for featuring Victoria
Kennedy as the principal speaker at
yesterday's commencement ceremonies.
Mrs. Kennedy is a proponent of legal
abortion, contraception, and same
gender marriage.
In her remarks to graduates,
Kennedy said lawyers must keep
fighting for equal rights, civil
rights, and human rights "for all of
God's children." In a May 23rd, 2004
Washington Post op-ed piece however,
entitled "The Altar Is Not a
Battlefield," Kennedy described
abortion as "a private moral
decision," while castigating capital
punishment as the taking of a life.
Kennedy argued that those who
advocate that Canon Law be enforced
and Holy Communion withheld from
pro-abortion Catholic politicians
are motivated by "political
ideology," and their position is
"flawed and intellectually
dishonest." Mrs. Kennedy is also a
director of the pro-abortion front
group, Catholic Democrats, which
supports Roe v. Wade.
The Catholic Action League
characterized Kennedy's role as
keynote speaker as "yet another
disgraceful betrayal of Catholic
morality, the pro-life movement, and
the innocent unborn by Boston
College and the Society of Jesus."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated:
"Victoria Kennedy's showcased role
in the commencement ceremonies of
Boston College Law School clearly
contravenes the 2004 statement by
the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, Catholics in
Political Life, which states: 'The
Catholic community and Catholic
institutions should not honor those
who act in defiance of our
fundamental moral principles. They
should not be given awards, honors
or platforms which would suggest
support for their actions.'
"The message BC Law is sending to
future attorneys, legislators,
judges, and public policy makers is
one of indifference and infidelity
to Catholic moral teaching about the
sanctity of innocent human life from
conception to natural death. The
school is effectively telling its
graduates that power, success,
affluence, and celebrity are higher
values than obedience to the laws of
God and loyalty to the Catholic
Faith. Kennedy's presence also
conveys the impression that support
for the mass killing of pre-born
human beings is a respectable
position within the Catholic
community."
"No rational person can
reasonably be expected to take
Catholic opposition to abortion
seriously when a prominent Catholic
institution spotlights a
pro-abortion celebrity in an
archdiocese presided over by the
Chairman-Elect of the USCCB's
Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
Sadly, that archbishop, unlike his
suffragan in Worcester, has remained
silent on this issue. Faithful,
pro-life Catholics should not be
constantly forced to fight a two
front war, against a culture of
death in secular society, and
against a culture of betrayal in
their own church."
On Friday, May 25th, members of
Operation Rescue Boston and the
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts picketed the Boston
College Law School Commencement.
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle is an alumnus
of Boston College.
ACTION ALERT!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE TO JOIN O.R. BOSTON IN PICKET
OF BC LAW COMMENCEMENT
On Friday morning, May 25th, the
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts will join the
indomitable pro-lifers of Operation
Rescue Boston to picket the
commencement ceremonies for Boston
College Law School. This year's
commencement speaker is Mrs.
Victoria Kennedy, a proponent of
legal abortion, contraception, and
same gender marriage.
In May 2004, Kennedy authored an
op-ed piece in The Washington
Post which described the killing
of unborn children as "a private
moral choice." She is also a
director of the pro-abortion front
group, Catholic Democrats, which
supports Roe v. Wade.
This commencement will be on the
main BC Chestnut Hill Campus, on the
border of Boston and Newton, instead
of the Law School campus. OR Boston
will be set up on Beacon Street,
near the entrance to the parking
garage.
Date: Friday, May 25
Time: 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Location: Beacon Street,
near the entrance of the Beacon
Street Garage, 100 feet west of
Chestnut Hill Drive and the
reservoir.
Parking: VERY difficult!
There is parking on Beacon Street,
near the parking garage entrance,
around both sides of the reservoir,
and on Commonwealth Ave. Or you can
take the T (Green Line, B train to
Boston College, or Green Line, D
train to Chestnut Hill Station), and
walk to the picket.
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C.J. Doyle made the
following comment: "BC Law's choice
of Mrs. Kennedy as a commencement
speaker and honorary degree
recipient clearly contravenes the
2004 statement by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops,
which prohibits Catholic
institutions from providing awards,
platforms or honors to those who
repudiate fundamental Catholic moral
teaching. The message BC Law is
sending to future attorneys,
legislators, and judges is one of
indifference and infidelity to
Catholic teaching about the sanctity
of innocent human life from
conception to natural death.
"No rational person can reasonably be expected to take
Catholic opposition to abortion
seriously when a prominent Catholic
institution honors a pro-abortion
celebrity in an archdiocese presided
over by the Chairman of the USCCB's
Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
Sadly, that archbishop, unlike his
suffragan in Worcester, has remained
silent on this issue. Faithful,
pro-life Catholics should not be
constantly forced to fight a two
front war, against a culture of
death in secular society, and
against a culture of betrayal in
their own church."
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
May 21, 2012
Your Views
The Patriot Ledger
400 Crown Colony Drive
Quincy, MA 02169
To the Editor:
Joseph
O'Mahoney's sophomoric caricature of
a Catholic bishop, portrayed
expressing contempt for his own
flock with vulgar language, was
gratuitous, unwarranted, and without
foundation in reality (O'MAHONEY,
5/17/2012).
No other local
religious leaders are subject to
these kinds of cheap shots by
editorial cartoonists. When it comes
to the Catholic Church, the double
standard practiced by the news media
is as conspicuous as it is
appalling.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle, Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CatholicActionLeague@gmail.com
NEWS RELEASE
MONDAY, MAY 21, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE CRITICIZES HOMOSEXUAL PROTEST
AT ACUSHNET PARISH
The Catholic
Action League of Massachusetts today
criticized the demonstration held
yesterday during the 10:30 a.m. Mass
at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in
Acushnet. Ten protesters, some
carrying signs, marched on the
sidewalk across the street from the
entrance to the church. They were
protesting the brief appearance last
week of a sign on the church's
message board supporting the
traditional definition of marriage.
The
demonstration culminated five days
of protests directed against the
parish which included a sign posted
on the church's back door making a
vile sexual reference to the Virgin
Mary, another sign nailed to the
church's fence characterizing
Catholic teaching as "hate," and a
number of profanity laced phone
calls, at least one of which called
for the church to be burned down.
The Catholic
Action League called the protest "an
outrageous attempt to penalize
Catholics for expressing their
constitutionally protected religious
beliefs."
Catholic
Action League Executive Director C.
J. Doyle stated: "The arrogance here
is beyond measure. Apparently, the
Catholic Church cannot be permitted
to proclaim its own moral code on
its own property. If it does, its
houses of worship will be picketed
on Sunday morning during Mass by the
forces of tolerance, pluralism, and
respect for diversity. It should be
obvious to any fair minded observer
that homosexual activists have no
understanding of the First
Amendment, and have nothing but
contempt for the religious freedom
rights and moral sensibilities of
Roman Catholics. These threats and
protests are clearly intended to
intimidate Catholics into silence on
the issue of same sex marriage.
"The
traditional definition of marriage,
which for millenia was believed
always and everywhere by everyone,
is now demonized as hatred and
bigotry. Something unheard of in the
history of the planet, the idea that
two persons of the same gender could
contract marriage (which homosexual
activists, as little as twenty years
ago, denied they were seeking) is
now treated as beyond criticism. The
punitive, illiberal, and
authoritarian character of the
homosexual movement in this country
is becoming increasingly evident."
May 17, 2012
Hon. C. Samuel Sutter
Bristol County District Attorney
888 Purchase Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
Dear Mr. District Attorney:
Since May 15th, the Catholic
parish of Saint Francis Xavier in
the town of Acushnet has received a
number of menacing communications
--- including a call for the church
to be burned down --- as a
consequence of posting a sign on
church property supporting the
traditional definition of marriage.
As you are aware, Chapter 265,
Section 37 of the General Laws
states: "No person....shall by force
or threat of force, willfully
injure, intimidate or interfere
with, or attempt to injure,
intimidate or interfere with, or
oppress or threaten any other person
in the free exercise or enjoyment of
any right or privilege secured to
him by the constitution or laws of
the commonwealth or by the
constitution or laws of the United
States."
The free exercise of religion is
a right guaranteed by both the First
Amendment of the U. S. Constitution
and Article II of the Declaration of
Rights of the Massachusetts
Constitution.
Chapter 434 of the Acts of 1990,
AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE REPORTING OF
HATE CRIMES defines a hate crime as:
"as any criminal act coupled with
overt actions motivated by bigotry
and bias including, but not limited
to, a threatened, attempted, or
completed overt act motivated at
least in part, by racial, religious,
ethnic, handicap, or sexual
orientation prejudice, or which
otherwise deprives another person of
his constitutional rights by
threats, intimidation, or coercion,
or which seeks to interfere with or
disrupt a person's exercise of
constitutional rights through
harassment or intimidation."
It is a chilling state of affairs
for religious freedom that a
Catholic parish cannot proclaim its
own teaching on its own property
without becoming the object of
threats, harassment, and
intimidation. I urge you to
undertake an investigation into this
matter for potential constitutional
rights violations and hate crimes.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle, Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
CatholicActionLeague@gmail.com
NEWS RELEASE
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE CALLS
FOR HATE CRIME INVESTIGATION OF
THREATS AGAINST ACUSHNET CHURCH
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today called upon
Bristol County District Attorney C.
Samuel Sutter to undertake an
investigation into potential
constitutional rights violations and
hate crimes following threats to a
Catholic parish in Acushnet. Saint
Francis Xavier Church received a
number of menacing communications
after it displayed a sign which
read, "Two men are friends, not
spouses."
In a letter to the District
Attorney, League Executive Director
C. J. Doyle said, "It is a chilling
state of affairs for religious
freedom that a Catholic parish
cannot proclaim its own teaching on
its own property without becoming
the object of threats, harassment,
and intimidation."
The following is the text of the
letter to the District Attorney:
"Since May
15th, the Catholic parish of Saint
Francis Xavier in the town of
Acushnet has received a number of
menacing communications ---
including a call for the church to
be burned down --- as a consequence
of posting a sign on church property
supporting the traditional
definition of marriage.
"As you are
aware, Chapter 265, Section 37 of
the General Laws states: 'No
person....shall by force or threat
of force, willfully injure,
intimidate or interfere with, or
attempt to injure, intimidate or
interfere with, or oppress or
threaten any other person in the
free exercise or enjoyment of any
right or privilege secured to him by
the constitution or laws of the
commonwealth or by the constitution
or laws of the United States.'
"The free
exercise of religion is a right
guaranteed by both the First
Amendment of the U. S. Constitution
and Article II of the Declaration of
Rights of the Massachusetts
Constitution.
"Chapter 434
of the Acts of 1990, AN ACT RELATIVE
TO THE REPORTING OF HATE CRIMES
defines a hate crime as: 'as any
criminal act coupled with overt
actions motivated by bigotry and
bias including, but not limited to,
a threatened, attempted, or
completed overt act motivated at
least in part, by racial, religious,
ethnic, handicap, or sexual
orientation prejudice, or which
otherwise deprives another person of
his constitutional rights by
threats, intimidation, or coercion,
or which seeks to interfere with or
disrupt a person's exercise of
constitutional rights through
harassment or intimidation.'
"It is a
chilling state of affairs for
religious freedom that a Catholic
parish cannot proclaim its own
teaching on its own property without
becoming the object of threats,
harassment, and intimidation. I urge
you to undertake an investigation
into this matter for potential
constitutional rights violations and
hate crimes."
New England Cable News coverage
(including Catholic Action League)
NEWS RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
THREATS AGAINST
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ACUSHNET
A Catholic
parish in the Diocese of Fall River
has become the object of threats of
violence, and vandalism, because of
a sign posted on church property
supporting the traditional
definition of marriage. Yesterday,
Saint Francis Xavier Parish in the
town of Acushnet displayed a message
on the church's billboard reading
"Two men are friends, not spouses."
In an
interview this morning with Boston's
FOX 25 News, Steve Guillotte,
Director of Pastoral Services for
Saint Francis Xavier, said the
church has received a number of
menacing, obscenity laced phone
calls, including one threatening to
burn the church down. A sign
describing the church's message as
"hate" was nailed to the church's
fence, while additional hostile
signs were laid against the fence,
and rainbow balloons were attached
to it. All references to same gender
marriage were removed from the
parish's billboard this morning.
Intimidating
or interfering with someone in the
exercise of their constitutional
rights --- such as freedom of speech
or the free exercise of religion ---
is a crime in Massachusetts (Chapter
265, Section 37 of the General
Laws). Since 1990, it has been a
hate crime (Chapter 434 of the Acts
of 1990).
The Catholic
Action League characterized the
episode as "compelling evidence
clearly demonstrating which side in
the conflict over same sex marriage
engages in hate tactics."
Catholic
Action League Executive Director C.
J. Doyle stated: "At a time when
homosexual pride parades monopolize
public thoroughfares with police
protection, it is now unsafe to post
a message upholding traditional
morality on private property. This
event tells us all we need to know
about the totalitarian instincts of
organized homosexualism in America.
What began as a so-called 'gay
rights' movement, has become a
neo-fascist enterprise dedicated to
suppressing, harassing, censoring,
silencing and punishing anyone
supportive of biblical morality.
Attorney General Martha Coakley and
Bristol County District Attorney C.
Samuel Sutter should investigate the
threats against Saint Francis Xavier
Parish for possible prosecution as
hate crimes."
NEWS RELEASE
TUESDAY,
MAY 8, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE RAPS ANNA MARIA COLLEGE FOR
SNUB TO BISHOP
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today criticized Anna
Maria College ---founded by the
Sisters of Saint Anne --- for its
decision to disinvite the Bishop of
Worcester, the Most Reverend Robert
J. McManus, to the school's May 19th
commencement ceremonies. During a
meeting with the bishop on May 3rd,
college president Jack Calareso and
board of trustees chairwoman Sister
Yvette Bellerose asked McManus to
withdraw from the graduation
exercises, claiming his presence
would be "a distraction." This
followed the bishop's instruction to
the college to cancel its award of
an honorary degree to Victoria
Kennedy, and withdraw its invitation
to Kennedy to serve as the principal
commencement speaker. Mrs. Kennedy
is a supporter of legal abortion and
same gender marriage.
The Catholic Action League called
the college's request for the bishop
to withdraw "shameful, cowardly and
treacherous."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "For
the first time in American history,
a Catholic bishop has been
disinvited to a Catholic college in
his own diocese because he attempted
to preserve that institution's
Catholic identity. Apparently,
demands of fidelity to Catholic
moral teaching are a source of
embarrassment to the cultural
conformists who govern Anna Maria
College. It seems they would prefer
an affluent celebrity who repudiates
the right to life over an orthodox
prelate who defends that right.
"The bishop
has been deemed 'a distraction,' no
doubt from the college's core values
of institutional fundraising and
favorable media coverage. The
message which the leadership of Anna
Maria college is sending, with
unmistakable clarity, to its
students is that Catholic morality
is not merely irrelevant, but
unacceptably controversial, and
efforts by the Catholic hierarchy to
uphold it in Catholic institutions
are intrusive, wrongheaded, and
inappropriate.
"Schools like
Anna Maria College were founded by
and for Catholics, to provide an
education infused with the
principles of the Catholic religion.
Faithful Catholics are being
dispossessed of their own
institutions by modernist religious
orders and secularized
administrators and faculty. The time
has come for Catholics to recover
their own educational institutions.
A good place to start would be for
the president and the board of
trustees of Anna Maria College to
resign."
ACTION ALERT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
BILLY COSTA
TRIVIALIZES SEXUAL ABUSE
One of our supporters, Patrick
Sheridan, was very diligent in
compiling a list of sponsors for the
Matty in the Morning show on
Kiss 108 FM, where co-host Billy
Costa made a tasteless and offensive
remark about sexual abuse in the
Church. We thank and commend Patrick
for his timely and forceful response
to this insult to our Faith.
From Patrick's e-mail:
Billy Costa is the co-host of
the morning talk show Matty
in the Morning on Kiss 108
FM. He is also the host of the
show TV Diner on NECN,
and The High School Quiz Show
on WGBH-TV Channel 2. On a
regular basis he makes the joke,
"I was an altar boy, but I am a
little hurt that the priests did
not find me attractive". Matt
Seigal, the host of the show,
encourages the joke. I suggest
we contact Channel 2 and suggest
he may not be an appropriate
host for a high school quiz
show. I also suggest we contact
the sponsors of the other shows.
Channel 2 WGBH-TV
To contact by phone, please call
(617) 300-5400, Monday through
Friday, 9am to 5pm; or write to
WGBH-TV, One Guest Street,
Boston, MA 02135.
Patrick Sheridan called Channel 2
and said:
"Hi, I am a history teacher and I
really enjoy watching The High
School Quiz Show, but the host
of the show, Billy Costa, is on a
morning show making crude comments
about Catholic priests and rude
comments about the death about
Whitney Houston. I do not feel it is
appropriate for the host of a high
school game show to be making such
comments"
Here are the sponsors for the
Matty in the Morning show:
Ocean Edge Resort & Golf
Club
2907 Main Street
Brewster, MA 02631
PHONE (508) 896-9000
Panera Bread
1855 S. Ingram Mill Rd.
Springfield, MO 65804
PHONE (800) 685-0385, FAX (417)
890-5397
E-MAIL:
comments@panera-boston.com
Whole Foods Market
Regional Office
125 Cambridgepark Drive Suite 5
Cambridge, MA 02140
PHONE (617) 492-5500
Here are the sponsors of TV
Diner:
Herb Chambers
259 McGrath Highway
Somerville, MA 02145
PHONE (617) 666-8333 FAX (617)
666-8448
Please contact these sponsors.
Let them know that they are
sponsoring a show that is making
crude comments about the Catholic
Church. If you are only able to
contact one, please contact the
resort, as they are currently making
reservations for the summer.
NEWS RELEASE
SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE,
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE APPLAUDS BISHOP OF WORCESTER
FOR LEADERSHIP IN VICTORIA KENNEDY
CONTROVERSY
The Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today applauded the
Bishop of Worcester, the Most
Reverend Robert J. McManus, for his
decision to instruct Anna Maria
College in Paxton to withdraw its
invitation to Victoria Kennedy to
speak at the school's commencement
this spring. (Boston
Globe news article)
The Catholic Action League called
the Bishop's intervention "a
courageous decision which was
entirely warranted."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated:
"Catholic institutions must not
provide platforms or honors to those
who repudiate fundamental Catholic
moral teachings about the sanctity
of innocent human life, the
integrity of marriage, or the
impermissibility of contraceptive
use. As a culturally conforming
Catholic who rejects the truths of
the Catholic religion, Victoria
Kennedy would have been an
inappropriate role model for Anna
Maria graduates. Her presence would
have sent the message that wealth,
status, and celebrity are more
important than fidelity to Christian
morality.
"The Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council defined abortion
and infanticide as 'abominable
crimes.' Since Roe v. Wade,
more than fifty-four million
American children have been killed
through surgical abortion alone. The
number killed by chemical
abortifacients is known only to God.
Those who believe that these numbers
are not enough, and that the killing
must continue, are manifestly unfit
to to speak at any Catholic
institution.''
March 23, 2012
Stand Up for
Religious Freedom Rally
C.J. Doyle was one of the
speakers.
YouTube has a video of his speech
(about 8 minutes long).
Included in Doyle's remarks were
some pointed criticisms of Catholic
dissenters and the colleges,
parishes, and Church authorities
that tolerate or even promote their
message. Some question if that led
to the omission of Doyle's name from
The Pilot's coverage of the
rally.
February 23,
2012
Your Views
The Patriot Ledger
400 Crown Colony Drive
Quincy, MA 02169
To the Editor:
JoAnn Fitzpatrick's column
on religious resistance to the Obama
contraceptive mandate was a
cacophony of inaccuracies, invidious
stereotypes, spleen venting
complaints, and simmering
resentments (COMPLETE DISCONNECT,
February 18-19, 2012).
In her rancor towards the
Catholic Church over moral issues
--- so typical of the bourgeois
Catholics of the 1960's ---
Fitzpatrick dismisses the
significant threat to religious
liberty contained in the President's
decision to require contraceptive,
abortifacient, and sterilization
coverage in health insurance plans.
In an unprecedented
expansion of state power, the
federal government --- by an
executive branch regulation --- will
coerce Catholic employers into
subsidizing, through their insurance
carriers, practices abhorrent to
their consciences. That is why
Baptists, Evangelicals, Lutherans,
Eastern Orthodox Christians, and
Jews, have joined Catholics in
opposing this bureaucratic
aggression against the First
Amendment.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
February
21,
2012
Letters to the Editor
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
Margery Eagan
displayed an astonishing ignorance
of Catholicism when she made the
absurd claim that the Church has
only opposed contraception since
1968 (Contraception bill bad choice
for Brown, 2/16/2012).
For two
thousand years, the Catholic Church
has consistently rejected any
unnatural method of birth
limitation. In modern times, prior
to 1968, this teaching was
reaffirmed in the 1917 Code of Canon
Law and the 1930 papal encyclical
On Christian Marriage.
Eagan is
apparently unaware that, until the
1930's, virtually all Christian
denominations condemned birth
control.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
February 11,
2012
Letters to the Editor
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
Margery
Eagan's fulminating column on
Catholic opposition to the Obama
contraceptive mandate was a mixture
of hypocrisy and inaccuracy (A HARD
PILL FOR BISHOPS TO SWALLOW,
2/9/2012).
Eagan invokes
the consciences of dissenters while
opposing conscience rights for
faithful Catholics. She pretends to
be a Catholic while citing the
anti-Catholic hate group Catholics
for Free Choice.
Eagan cannot
even get her facts straight.
Contrary to Eagan's assertion,
Obama's proposed mandate had nothing
to do with the reception of federal
funds. Eagan's ludicrous suggestion
that Catholic teaching on birth
control was not a defined dogma only
underscores how ill-equipped she is
to comment on Catholic issues.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
(781) 251-9739
NEWS RELEASE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE
(781) 251-9739
CATHOLICACTIONLEAGUE@GMAIL.COM
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE CRITICIZES
OBAMA SWITCH ON BIRTH CONTROL
COVERAGE
The Catholic Action
League of Massachusetts today
criticized President Obama's plan to
transfer the cost of contraceptives,
abortifacients, and sterilizations
from religious employers to their
insurance companies.
The Catholic
Action League characterized the move
as "an election year tactic, not a
public policy compromise, intended
to divide Catholic opposition,
rather than protect Catholic
consciences."
Catholic
Action League Executive Director C.
J. Doyle stated: "Under this
cosmetic change, there is nothing to
prevent insurance companies from
passing on the costs of birth
control coverage to their customers
through higher premiums --- to the
very same religious institutions
which have fundamental moral
objections to subsidizing abortion
and contraception. Instead of paying
directly and formally for
abortifacients, contraceptives and
sterilizations, Catholic schools,
charities and hospitals will still
fund the same devices, procedures
and chemicals, only they will do so
indirectly and unofficially.
"The Obama
Administration was blindsided by
opposition to their contraceptive
mandate from liberal Catholics who
supported Barack Obama in 2008. This
change in the mandate is an attempt
to provide plausible deniability to
Catholic swing voters who form part
of the President's political base.
The bottom line for Catholic
institutions will remain the same
however. Catholics will pay for
birth control."
February 3, 2012
Boston Globe interviews
C.J. Doyle: “The initial injury
to Catholic religious freedom came
not from the Obama administration
but from the Romney
administration,’’ said C.J. Doyle,
executive director of the Catholic
Action League of Massachusetts.
“President Obama’s plan certainly
constitutes an assault on the
constitutional rights of Catholics,
but I’m not sure Governor Romney is
in a position to assert that, given
his own very mixed record on this.’’
Link to full article
February 2,
2012
Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
To the Editor:
It is
difficult to take seriously Joan
Vennochi's criticism of Catholic
bishops for their opposition to the
Obama mandate for contraceptive
coverage in health insurance
(Catholic Church's unfair attack
against Obama, 2/2/2012).
Vennochi
flails at the Church, but carefully
avoids a candid consideration of the
key issue, which is, that Catholics
understand abortion, including
abortifacient contraception, to be a
legalised form of mass murder.
Whether it necessitates litigation,
political mobilization, or civil
disobedience, Catholics are not
going to stand by and see their own
institutions forced to subsidize the
killing of the innocent.
As for
Vennochi, it requires an egregious
level of intellectual dishonesty to
characterize the refusal to
participate in murder as imposing
one's religion on others, a
threadbare argument which suggests a
certain lack of originality among
those who persist in using it.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
MEDIA UPDATE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE
(781) 251-9739
Catholicactionleague@gmail.com
This has been
a busy week for the Catholic Action
League of Massachusetts, in terms of
media coverage.
On Tuesday,
January 31st, League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle had a long
interview with Paul Likoudis, News
Editor of the Catholic newspaper
The Wanderer. Doyle discussed
the impact of the gubernatorial
administration of Mitt Romney on the
issues of homosexual adoption,
so-called emergency contraception,
and same-gender civil marriage. The
interview is scheduled to be
published in the February 9th
edition of The Wanderer.
On Wednesday,
February 1st, Doyle was interviewed
by David Riley of Gatehouse Media,
which now owns The Patriot Ledger
of Quincy, The Enterprise of
Brockton, and dozens of local
weeklies. Riley asked Doyle about
the decision of the Archdiocese of
Boston to group parishes into
clusters called pastoral
collaboratives. The story should run
in various Gatehouse publications
next week.
Also, on
Wednesday, Doyle was interviewed by
Steve Jordahl of Family News in
Focus Radio Network on the Obama
contraceptive mandate, the
withdrawal of government grants from
Catholic charitable organizations
because of their refusal to
recognize homosexual unions, and a
possible solution in the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act. The
interview is scheduled to be
broadcast tomorrow.
Finally, C. J.
Doyle was interviewed Wednesday by
the Washington Bureau of The
Boston Globe on the role of
Governor Mitt Romney in the passage
of the 2005 Emergency Contraception
law in Massachusetts. Doyle's
comments should appear in a Globe
story either tomorrow or the
following day.
January 29,
2012
Letters to the Editor
The Boston Globe
P.O. Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
To the Editor,
One wonders
why the Globe would publish a
letter to the editor containing an
assertion so utterly unsupportable
as Carlotta Tyler's absurd claim
that the Catholic Church demonized
women (SUNDAY FORUM, Inquisition's
impact on women overlooked,
1/29/2012).
It was
Catholic just war doctrine which
ended the use of organized rape as
an instrument of warfare, and
Catholic moral teaching which
prohibited the infanticide of
females through exposure. Catholic
culture created chivalry, while the
Catholic religion elevated women to
the status of saints, martyrs,
mystics, and doctors of the Church.
Modern social
science reminds us that one of the
chief causes of female poverty is
divorce, which the Catholic Church
--- uniquely, among faith
communities --- has consistently
opposed for two thousand years.
If Ms.Tyler is
outraged over the persecution of
witches, she ought to focus on
post-Reformation Scotland, and
colonial Massachusetts, not Catholic
Christendom.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
NEWS UPDATE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739,
catholicactionleague@gmail.com
RESPONSE TO
"HATE CRIME IN DORCHESTER"
On January
26th, less than 24 hours after
writing to Martha Coakley, a
representative of the Civil Rights
Division of the Attorney General's
office contacted the League to
discuss the details of the church
vandalism at Saint Margaret's in
Dorchester. Over the past twenty two
years, the Catholic Action League
and its predecessor organization ---
the Massachusetts Chapter of the
Catholic League for Religious and
Civil Rights --- have raised the
issue of hate crimes and civil
rights violations with each of
Martha Coakley's three predecessors,
Attorneys General Tom Reilly, Scott
Harshbarger, and James Shannon. The
usual response was to ignore our
concerns, claim they didn't have
jurisdiction, or contrive
disingenuous excuses not to act.
This is the first time that the
League has received a prompt
response and what appears to be a
good faith willingness to listen.
Also, on
January 26th, League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle was interviewed
by Lana Jones of WBZ Radio in Boston
on the League's call for a hate
crime investigation of the
destruction of the statue of the
Sacred Heart in Dorchester. The
interview was broadcast several
times during the course of the
afternoon. On January 27th, Doyle
was interviewed by The Dorchester
Reporter. The online story can
be found at
www.dotnews.com/public-safety.
Incredibly,
Boston Police now report that a
witness to the incident came forward
with information, but police
officers failed to obtain contact
information for that person, and are
now searching for the witness! One
cannot blame public authorities for
a failure to act vigorously,
however, if the Archdiocese of
Boston itself does not treat this as
a serious matter. Although the
Pastor of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Parish, (located at Saint Margaret's
in Dorchester), Father John J.
Ahern, was interviewed several times
by various Boston television
stations, neither the Archdiocesan
website, communications office, or
online edition of its official
newspaper --- The Pilot --- has seen
fit to mention this hate crime
against Catholics.
The Catholic Action
League will keep its members
informed as this case develops.
NEWS RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE CALLS FOR HATE CRIME
PROSECUTION IN DORCHESTER CHURCH
VANDALISM
The
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today called upon Bay
State Attorney General Martha
Coakley to undertake a hate crime
investigation following
the vandalism of a religious statue
in the Dorchester district of
Boston.
A
statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
located in front of Blessed Mother
Teresa of Calcutta Parish, at Saint
Margaret's Church, was decapitated
and knocked off its pedestal in the
early hours of Sunday morning,
January 22nd.
The
Catholic Action League called the
vandalism a "malevolent act of
destruction .... directed at an
institution that has served the
spiritual, charitable, and
educational needs of the Dorchester
and South Boston communities for
more than a century."
In his
January 25 letter to the Attorney General,
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "It is
unlikely that this vandalism was a
mere juvenile prank. The damage done
to the statue required considerable
application of force, probably
accompanied by some weapon or
instrument. Nor was the statue in
some obscure location frequented by
delinquent teenagers. The statue was
in public sight at one of the
busiest intersections in the City of
Boston, the corner of Columbia Road
and Dorchester Avenue. The person or
persons responsible undertook a
significant risk of identification
and apprehension to carry out their
crime."
Doyle
urged Coakley to "treat this
incident as a potential hate crime
and use the resources of your office
to apprehend and prosecute the
perpetrators."
January
25, 2012
The Honorable Martha Coakley
Attorney General of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Office of the Attorney General
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108 -1518
Dear Madam Attorney General:
Sometime in
the early hours of Sunday morning,
January 22nd, a statue of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, located in front of
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Parish, at Saint Margaret's Church
in Dorchester, was decapitated and
knocked off its pedestal. This
malevolent act of destruction was
directed at an institution that has
served the spiritual, charitable,
and educational needs of the
Dorchester and South Boston
communities for more than a century.
It is unlikely
that this vandalism was a mere
juvenile prank. The damage done to
the statue required considerable
application of force, probably
accompanied by some weapon or
instrument. Nor was the statue in
some obscure location frequented by
delinquent teenagers. The statue was
in public sight at one of the
busiest intersections in the City of
Boston, the corner of Columbia Road
and Dorchester Avenue. The person or
persons responsible undertook a
significant risk of identification
and apprehension to carry out their
crime.
I urge you to
treat this incident as a potential
hate crime and use the resources of
your office to apprehend and
prosecute the perpetrators.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle
Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
UPDATE:
A
representative of the Civil Rights
Division of the Attorney General's
office contacted the League on
January 26th to discuss the details
of the case. That same day, WBZ
Radio interviewed League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle about the
League's call for a hate crime
prosecution.
NEWS RELEASE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
CATHOLIC ACTION
LEAGUE CONDEMNS
OBAMA BIRTH CONTROL MANDATE
The
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts today condemned the
decision by the administration of
President Barack Obama to enforce
its mandate for contraceptive
coverage in all employer sponsored
health insurance plans, without a
meaningful religious exemption for
faith-based entities. Kathleen
Sebelius, U.S. Secretary for Health
and Human Services, announced
yesterday that this new regulation,
stemming from health care
legislation enacted in 2010, would
go into effect on August 1, 2012,
with a one year extension for
religious affiliated organizations.
The new
rule requires coverage not only for
contraceptives, but for
sterilizations, and for specific
abortifacients such as Ella and Plan
B. The Catholic bishops of the
United States had lobbied President
Obama to broaden the narrow
religious exemption contained in the
current regulation, which limits its
application to sectarian
institutions which principally serve
and employ members of their own
denomination.
The
Catholic Action League characterized
the decision as "an expression of
unmitigated contempt for the rights,
consciences, and sensibilities of
Catholics."
Catholic Action League Executive
Director C. J. Doyle stated: "If
this unprecedented aggression
against the religious freedom rights
of Catholics is allowed to stand,
then virtually all Catholic
institutions --- colleges,
universities, secondary schools,
hospitals, charities, social service
providers, fraternal orders, and
advocacy organizations --- will be
forced to pay for procedures,
devices, and chemicals abhorrent to
the consciences of Catholics."
"All
hormonal contraceptives, including
the ordinary birth control pill, are
abortifacient, as they can prevent
implantation on the uterine wall
after conception. The result is the
chemical abortion of a human embryo.
Consequently, Catholic institutions,
employers and consumers will not
only be coerced into violating
Divine and natural law, but will be
required to participate,
financially, in the killing of
innocent human life."
"This
decision underscores the
totalitarian instincts of secular
liberalism, which would sacrifice
the hallowed, constitutionally
protected guarantees of religious
liberty to newly contrived so-called
'reproductive rights', and would
reduce the free exercise clause of
the First Amendment to the freedom
to worship on Sunday morning.
Ironically, the same Democratic
Party which gave America its first
Catholic cabinet officer, its first
Catholic Supreme Court justice, and
its first Catholic President, is now
the vehicle for this assault on
Catholic freedom of conscience."
"Blame
cannot be focused exclusively on
President Obama and the self
identified Catholic, Secretary
Sebelius however. This debacle is
the inevitable consequence of forty
years of silence by the American
Catholic hierarchy and clergy on the
subject of contraception, forty
years of tolerating dissent, and
forty years of failing to catechize
Catholics on church teaching. Most
American Catholics have never heard
a homily on contraception. Most CCD
students, parochial school students,
and Catholic university students
have never had Humanae Vitae
explained to them."
"Now,
our prelates, after decades of
failing to defend Catholic teaching
on contraception, profess shock at
this violation of conscience rights
by our government. They have,
mostly, themselves to blame."
MEMBER ADVISORY
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2012
CONTACT: C. J. DOYLE (781)
251-9739
Please pray
for the repose of the soul of
Thomas F. Reynolds of Lincoln,
Massachusetts, who died Saturday at
the age of 67. A pious and orthodox
Catholic, Tom Reynolds was a
longtime member of the Catholic
Action League of Massachusetts, who
was always generous in contributing
his time to support Catholic causes.
The son of
Irish immigrants, Tom Reynolds was
born and raised in Boston, in the
Forest Hills neighborhood of Jamaica
Plain. He was a graduate of St.
Andrew's School, Cathedral High
School, and Boston State College.
An entire
generation of Bay State police
officers will remember him as the
Chief Civil Service Examiner for the
Massachusetts Division of Personnel
Administration. He went on to work
for the Massachusetts State
Treasury, where he served as an
assistant to its legendary Chief
Investigator, Eugene F. Kiely, Jr.
Prior to working for the
Commonwealth, he taught in the
Boston Public Schools.
Funeral
arrangements are pending.
Eternal rest grant unto him O
Lord, and let perpetual light shine
upon him.
May he rest in peace. Amen.
May his soul and the souls of all
the faithful departed, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
January 12, 2012
Letters
(published on January 16)
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 55843
Boston, MA 02205-5843
To the Editor:
Margery
Eagan's compulsion to distort
Catholic teaching erupted again with
the conference of sexual abuse
survivors in Boston
(Holier-than-thou Rick's got to go,
1/8/2012). This time, however,
Eagan's inaccuracies suggest
mendacity more than ignorance.
While
Catholics are always free to
disagree about issues which require
prudential judgments --- such as
which conflicts meet just war
standards --- Catholics may never
embrace practices forbidden by
absolute prohibitions, such as
abortion and contraception. Eagan's
attempt to muddy that distinction
with moral equivalence points to a
lack of intellectual integrity, the
frequent companion of a bad
conscience.
Sincerely,
C. J. Doyle, Executive Director
Catholic Action League of
Massachusetts
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