Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Human Rights, has added his voice to the chorus of people who have come out against the Alabama immigration law. From the Faith in Public Life blog:
According to today’s Montgomery Advertiser news story, Donohue has strongly criticized Alabama’s new immigration law, the most draconian in the nation, saying it would criminalize clergy and other Catholics who minister to undocumented immigrants.
“The idea of punishing the clergy for doing what they are called to do — servicing those in need, independent of any condition — is morally reprehensible and constitutionally offensive,” Donohue wrote in a news release. This appears to be the first time Donohue has publicly opposed flawed immigration policy, one leading immigration activist who has worked on this issue for years told me. Donohue acknowledges many will be by surprised by his comments – “It is not every day that the Catholic League is on the same side as the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Obama administration and the New York Times,” he wrote.
For those of you who don’t know who this guy is, he’s got quite a reputation. Bill Donohue has been described as someone who “is about as subtle as a fist in your face” and “makes righteous indignation and throwing rhetorical bombs into an art form” by the Washington Post. John at Faith in Public Life expressed it well:
As someone who has criticized Donohue in the past ( it’s hard to resist when he sends news releases headlined Rogue Catholics Unwelcome in Detroit and New York Times Is Gay Crazy ) I give him credit for speaking out against a law that should be opposed by anyone who cares about human dignity and justice for immigrants.
