Catholic League Obscenities
by Thomas Strobhar
It has been almost 10 years since
the priestly sex abuse scandal became major news. It is hard to imagine how the
sins of a tiny percentage of all too-human priests could have caused as much
damage as they have. Church attendance is down, giving is down and the Church
still reels from accusations from many years ago.
Into this fray rides the tough and
articulate Dr. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil
Rights. He appears regularly on various talking-head shows and writes a
considerable amount of press releases defending the Church. I worked briefly
with him some 15 years ago when Disney's then-subsidiary Miramax produced the
movie Priests. I helped file a shareholder resolution against Disney for the
movie's anti-Catholic bias, the first time anti-Catholic bigotry was ever
addressed at the annual meeting of a public corporation. (My specialty is
filing shareholder resolutions, having filed almost every pro-life resolution
ever introduced.)
When
that was done, Dr. Donohue sent a note of thanks. He also thanked me for
sending him information on the Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS). I
had sent him a copy of an article I had written earlier reporting that the
Christian Brothers were investing Catholic funds in companies manufacturing
abortifacient drugs and devices.
To most people's surprise, for
being the small organization it is, the Catholic League is well-endowed with
more than $25,000,000 in reserves. Those reserves led me to contact Dr. Donohue
a year ago. I noticed the organization had tens of millions invested with CBIS.
I was surprised and impressed with the amount. With that much money I thought
they might be able to dissuade the Christian Brothers from investing in
companies that sold pornography. I had criticized CBIS for doing exactly this
on behalf of more than 1,000 Catholic institutional clients a few years earlier
in an article entitled, "Holy Porn."
The BBC used that article as the
basis for a portion of a documentary entitled Hardcore Profits. It included an
interview with Brother Louis DeThomasis, a co-founder of CBIS, the Chancellor
of St. Mary's University of Minnesota and a senior fellow of SMU's Hendrickson
Institute for Ethical Leadership. He was even a featured speaker at the 2009
U.S. Military Academy's annual National Conference on Ethics in America.
But he couldn't seem to figure out
if it was ethical to invest the Catholic Church's money in pornography. The
BBC's questions were pointed and the interviewer persistent in asking why CBIS
was invested in hotels and cable companies and hadn't done anything in seven
years to protest those companies' involvement in porn. Brother Louis, at first,
tried to defend the CBIS position.
Later, he cut the interview short. (It can be seen at www.corporatemorality.org.)
The Christian Brothers responded to
my criticism by acknowledging that they do invest in porn-selling companies,
but insisted it is permissible because they contact the companies and
"offer to work with them to help get them out of the business." To
date, they can offer no examples of this tactic's success. Companies CBIS has
owned that sell pornography include such heavyweights as Time Warner, Marriott
Hotels and the Sands casino in Las Vegas.
I wasn't sure if Dr. Donohue was
aware the Christian Brothers were investing in companies selling pornography
and thought he could help change their mind. I was wrong.
Dr. Donohue turned the matter over
to the chairman of the Catholic League, Father Philip Eichner. The latter's
response: my claims are "exaggerated." My only claim was that the
Christian Brothers invested in porn distributors. To date, this claim has not
been denied.
Father Eichner reasoned it was just
too tough in this complicated world to avoid investments in pornography. He
added, "The very fact that you used the United States Post Office to send
your letter to the Catholic League involves you in a communication system which
supports a number of operations that are not consonant with Catholic morality -
such as pornography and abortion propaganda." Thus, according to Father
Eichner, my 44-cent stamp to send a letter was morally equivalent to investing
tens of millions of dollars in a company that promotes and profits from the
sale of pornography.
As I had noted to Dr. Donohue in my
original letter, there are some things over which we have little control, like
the sexual sins of others, but refusing to invest in a company that destroys
human souls for profit is a relatively easy thing to do. The Christian Brothers
avoid tobacco companies without any problem. Surely they could avoid companies
selling pornography, which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has likened
to selling drugs.
Father Eichner also noted that the
Catholic League had been using CBIS for 20 years. This would include the time
when the Brothers were investing in producers of abortifacients. I had pointed
this out to Dr. Donohue as far back as 1995. The League was comfortable with
the Christian Brothers' investment decisions back then and has no difficulty
owning companies that sell the worst kinds of smut now.
While researching the League's 990
tax return at GuideStar.org, I
discovered that Dr. Donohue was paid more than $399,000 in 2009. Not bad for a
modest-sized charity with a budget over $2.7 million and an entire staff of 11
employees.
According to Charity Navigator, a group which
tracks the salaries of non-profit CEOs, the average salary for similar sized
non-profits is in the $90,000+ range. Now Dr. Donohue does work in New York and
$400,000 a year is peanuts compared to the princes at Goldman Sachs, but that
kind of income does raise eyebrows from people who live west of the Hudson.
His board of directors must think
he's worth it. And maybe he is. After all, South Park, the vulgar cartoon
brought to us by Viacom (another CBIS holding), once parodied Dr. Donohue. Not
many other non-profit heads can lay claim to that distinction! But neither do
many non-profit big shots consume almost 15 percent of the group's budget.
(Full disclosure: I am chairman of Life Decisions International and our top
employee gets paid almost 27 percent of our budget. But our total budget is
just above $100,000 compared to Catholic League's more than $2.7 million. And
Life Decisions' president works out of his basement at no charge while the
League's occupancy costs are more than $355,000 annually.)
Which
brings me to a recent fundraising letter I received from the League. The appeal
itself was a survey and a request for funds, a common method these days.
Strangely, I received the same letter at least two more times in the following
months. In the letter Dr. Donohue said, "I need to raise at least $42,000
of the total cost - about 12% - in the next sixty days." Why? So more
people can get more surveys! But the Catholic League is quite comfortable
financially. It seems less than ethical to say you "need" money in 60
days when you already have more than 600 times that amount in reserves.
The National Institute on
Philanthropy's guidelines state that any charity that asks for money when they
have more than five times their annual budget in reserves deserves an F. Since
the Catholic League's reserves are 10 times their annual budget, perhaps they
deserve a double-F.
The appeal itself lamented how a
number of major media outlets were guilty of anti-Catholic bigotry. Companies
mentioned were Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, The Washington Post and The New
York Times. Most, if not all, of these companies have been or are owned by
CBIS. The irony is self-explanatory.
Perhaps Dr. Donohue should have
consulted League Advisory Board member L. Brent Bozell of the Parents Television Council. The Council
has challenged Viacom programming such as MTV, South Park, Comedy Central and
others for years. They even sponsored a shareholder resolution at Yum Brands'
annual shareholders' meeting opposing Yum's decision to buy advertising during
disgusting shows. One wonders, would Mr. Bozell have counseled the Catholic
League to avoid investments in companies that sell porn? It seems more than
likely that he would.
Although it should be noted, the
Parents Television Council has a few problems of its own. The New York Times
recently reported
upwards of 195,000 pieces of mail delivered to the Parents Television Council
were opened for their donations, but the surveys the donors completed were
never delivered to their intended target.
So much for surveys!
In the end, we have the Catholic
League asking for money it doesn't need, doing it in a disingenuous manner,
then handing it to the Christian Brothers Investment Services, which invests
the funds in companies that profit from the destruction of souls and are
responsible for the worst displays of anti-Catholic bigotry. And all the while
the League represents to its supporters and to the world that they are defending
the Catholic faith from the onslaughts of the pagans. This is hypocrisy and
moral repugnance beyond telling.
If the Catholic League chooses to
ignore the problem of pornography because it is seemingly so widespread that
you can't even mail a letter without supporting it, there is little hope.
Fortunately, Jesus Christ brings us eternal hope. He did not die on the cross
so CBIS and its clients, including the Catholic League, can beat the stock
averages. He died to forgive those who acknowledge their sins and repent.
Voltaire, a great enemy of the
Church in 18th century France, once said he only prayed that God would make
Voltaire's enemies look foolish. Bill Donohue, the Catholic League and CBIS
seem to be answering the prayers of today's anti-Catholic bigots. 
Thomas Strobhar
This article
was published in the May, 2011 issue of Culture
Wars.
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