New Campaign Calls Out Bishops for Their Crusade to Discriminate

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Catholics for Choice launched a campaign on the front cover wraparound of the Washington Post Express that points a finger at Catholic bishops for discriminating against people in DC—and throughout the country. The ad reached 316,000 commuters in the DC metro area.

"Asking you to join a discrimination campaign sounds outrageous," said Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice. "Yet the US Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a campaign this Sunday that we believe promotes just that: discrimination. Though they call it a 'Fortnight for Freedom,' make no mistake: The bishops' idea of religious freedom is the freedom to discriminate against anyone who disagrees with them. By lobbying for special exemptions from state and federal policies, the bishops are imposing their narrow beliefs on everyone—Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

Highlights of our ongoing campaign include:

• A dramatic front cover wraparound advertisement in the Washington Post's Express newspaper points a finger at the bishops' discrimination. The ad inverts the US Army's famous Uncle Sam recruitment poster, originally by James Montgomery Flagg, by showing a Catholic bishop recruiting an army of intolerance.
• An op-ed in the Baltimore Sun with Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, and Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, examines the shopping list that extremist religious groups—from the USCCB to World Vision to Rick Warren's Saddleback Church—want to sell you as "religious liberty."
• Jon O'Brien explains in Crux how the bishops want a parade of Catholics—not to uplift and celebrate our community—but to show support for their discrimination campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

SOURCE Catholics for Choice