A Catholicism Check Up

Today, we at Holier Than Thou have decided to check in to see what our Catholic friends have been up to recently.

1) A 70-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit against Bishop William Skylstad, claiming that he sexually abused her as a teenager some 40 years ago. The move makes Skylstad one of the highest-ranking members of the U.S. Catholic Church to be accused of sexual abuse to date. Skylstad is also:

A. U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican
B. President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
C. Head of the New York Archdiocese
D. President-elect of the Catholic League


2) Meanwhile, Catholic Charities in Boston is facing the potential loss of millions of dollars in donations. Why?

A. Negative fall-out over the Church’s sexual abuse scandal has dried up donations.
B. The Church has had to dip into the charity’s coffers to pay its legal bills in the wake of the sexual abuse lawsuits.
C. The Church’s plan to bar gay couples from adopting children violates many large donors’ nondiscrimination policies.
D. Bad investments


3) And lastly, Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Mohaghan has apparently backed down on his controversial (some might say crazy) plans to create a Florida city that would be governed by strict Catholic principals — no girlie magazines, no contraception, no X-rated channels on cable, etc.

Saying that it was all “a lot of misconceptions,” Monaghan clarified his earlier Catholic-only remarks, noting that his proposed town of Ave Maria will actually do WHAT?

A. Suggest but not prohibit businesses from selling adult magazines and contraceptives
B. Welcome synagogues “as well as Baptist churches”
C. Not restrict cable TV programming
D. Welcome homosexuals, despite the Church’s belief that homosexuality is a sin
E. All of the above




ANSWERS
1) B: Bishop William Skylstad is President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He denies the sexual abuse charges.

2) C: If the Church indeed bars gay couples from adopting children from Catholic Charities, groups like the United Way will likely stop contributing to the Church. (For the record, since 1987, the church has placed only 13 children with gay couples — only a fraction of the 720 children it has placed since then.)

3) E: All of the above. Said a spokesman for the Ave Maria project: “The misconception we’re trying to clarify is that this is not going to be a strictly Catholic town… We’re truly just trying to create a town with traditional values.”