Donohue Smacking Himself?

Commenting on proposals by an interfaith pro-choice group on how to address the trend of health providers refusing to provide medical services over “conscience” issues, the Catholic League declared that the group’s effort to confront the issue from the platform of religious morality constituted an assault on “the religious conviction of Roman Catholics”:

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, told Cybercast News Service he considers it "so unchristian for these people to call into question the religious conviction of Roman Catholics ... it smacks of bigotry."

While this is a strange criticism to make against the report, it is even stranger coming from Donohue, who has made questioning the religious conviction of Roman Catholics his own political stock in trade. From Catholics for a Free Choice to Catholic senators opposing recent Supreme Court nominees, Donohue has pulled the “anti-Catholic bigot” card on countless of his coreligionists when it suits his political aims. Just last week, Donohue issued a press release calling into question the religious conviction of a Catholic lawmaker he disagrees with:

“We need more, not fewer, Catholics on the Supreme Court. But not of the Ted Kennedy kind. We need more loyal sons and daughters.”