Catholic League President threatens Empire State Building owner over Mother Teresa

The president of the Catholic League made thinly-veiled threats against the owner of the Empire State Building last week over the owner’s refusal of a religious lighting request.

August 26, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the late Mother Teresa’s birth. The Catholic League asked the owner of the Empire State Building to violate its long-standing policy of not lighting the building for religious figures, or requests by religions or religious organizations. As the company states on its website, the selection of reasons to light the privately-owned building is “a privilege, not an entitlement”. The company does light the building for certain secular and also religious holidays (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim), as it sees fit.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, declared the company’s decision to follow its own existing policy “indefensible and obscene”, and accused the owner of anti-Catholic bigotry.

He then threatened Anthony E. Malkin, the owner of Empire State Building, LLC.

Malkin has made his decision to stiff Catholics. His decision to double down at this juncture – in the face of massive support for our request – is something he will regret for the rest of his life.

Donohue announced a protest by Catholics outside the Empire State Building on August 26, suggesting that the owner’s failure to capitulate to demands could lead to riots.

I think that too many Catholics have fallen asleep at the wheel. It’s time for people, the rank and file to say enough is enough. I hope it’s going to be nonviolent, I wouldn’t encourage violence but I know there’s a lot of anger.

To date, Catholics supporting the lighting have gathered 40,000 petition signatures in the city of over 8 million. City Councilman Peter Vallone has gone one step further, introducing a resolution which would urge the owner to light the building as demanded.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has taken a stance against the Council resolution — deemed an inappropriate intrusion of religion into government — and in favor of another reason to light up the building. August 26 has long been celebrated as Women’s Equality Day.

“Volunteerism is great: but let’s do it in the name of equality, to honor the foremothers who fought for nearly a century for civil equality. Do not let Women’s Equality Day be supplanted by cheerleaders for the Roman Catholic Church and its antiwomen, antigay, anti-stemcell research, antiprogress doctrines,” noted Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

“Mother Teresa did not stand for women’s rights — she was all about taking away women’s rights: the fundamental decision of when or whether to become a mother. She used her podium relentlessly and globally to pound away at reproductive rights, including the right to contraception. She used virtually every public occasion to call for the recriminalization of abortion, and virulently opposed legalization of abortion, despite the fact that backstreet abortions are the leading cause of maternal deaths in countries outlawing abortion,” Gaylor added.

The FFRF has issued an action alert, asking supporters to write to the NY City Council, the NY Post, and Anthony Malkin, owner of the building.

Related articles:

1. Light the Empire State Building to honor Mother Teresa, or else?
2. Catholic League unleashes holiday assault on church-state separation, atheists
3. Catholic League Quotes Stephen Colbert to Promote Book
4. Secretary of State for Education encourages Catholic schools to shield themselves from ‘meddling’ by secularists
5. FRC: ‘Rebel Fleet Surrenders to Gay Empire’

Jenny Donati is webmistress and co-editor of Secular News Daily. Jenny is an outspoken secularist who believes firmly in the separation of church and state. She demands evidence to support arguments, and holds herself to the same standard. She doesn't write about herself in the third person . . . but there's a first time for everything.

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