New York Times Ad Calls Catholic Church "Autocratic, Woman-Hating, Sex-perverting Old Boys Club"
Catholics and non-Catholics alike have reacted to a viciously anti-Catholic full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times. The ‘Freedom From Religion Foundation’s ad, which takes the form of a letter to a “liberal Catholic”, asks “Cafeteria” Catholics, “Why are you propping up the pillars of a tyrannical and autocratic, woman-hating, sex-perverting, antediluvian Old Boys Club?” The Freedom from Religious Foundation is led by Annie Laurie Gaylor and her husband, Dan Barker. Gaylor is author of the book, Abortion Is a Blessing.
The authors accuse “the conscienceless Catholic Church” of “launching a vengeful modern-day inquisition” by opposing the HHS mandate in which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandated that religious employers provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs in their health insurance coverage. “No politician should jeopardize electability for failure to genuflect before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.” “If you’re part of the Catholic Church, you’re part of the problem,” they state. “Never has there been a more vicious anti-Catholic advertisement in a prominent American newspaper,” said Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Donahue said the ad uses the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops’ opposition to the HHS mandate as a “pretext…It’s real agenda is to smear Catholicism,” Donahue said, “the issue is the increase in hate speech directed at Catholics.” Source: LifeSiteNews.com