Atrios has a post asking does Bill Donohue speak for you?
If you’re Catholic, he does, in fact, speak for you. If that’s an
unhappy state of affairs, it’s time to start thinking about what to do
about it.
That reminded me of a recent incident in New Orleans when the Catholic Church apparently objected to Donohue speaking out for them.
In September 2006 Donohue sent an “inflammatory message” to members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority” accusing the board of “anti-Catholicism” and “bigotry” for rejecting a request by the Archdoicese of New Orleans for millions to repair local Catholic schools. At his site Donohue’s efforts were described as “supporting
the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its quest to receive federal
assistance for Catholic schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina.”
Problem was no such decision had been made..…
The LRA members, several of whom are Catholic, took offense, saying
they had not reached any decision on the archdiocese’s request that the
LRA direct $20 million to parochial and other nonprofit schools in New
Orleans. “That’s as low a blow as could be sent to any of us at this
table,” LRA Chairman Norman Francis, president of Xavier University,
said at the time.
Yes ranting Bill was wrong and worse had to “emphatically” admit in a letter of retraction he had NOT been speaking for the Archdiocese of New Orleans…
In a new letter distributed in recent days to LRA members, Donahue
said, “I have since learned that … no bigotry of any kind is at work.
I am sorry for this false accusation.”He added, “I cannot stress too
emphatically that the Archdiocese of New Orleans had absolutely nothing
to do with either my letter or press release.”
Why does anyone even listen to this guy?