Few things make me happier than seeing phony Catholic left-wing front groups that I have been battling for years go under. I fought Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good—I debated them and discredited them—and they no longer exist. I fought Faith in Public Life for a long time, and its obituary is now official.
I know I will be criticized for gloating. My critics are right—I am over the moon.
We knew last year when Faith in Public Life laid off 90 percent of its staff—they went from 19 employees to two in August 2025—that they were teetering. Now they’re dead. They will officially close up shop on October 31. Looks like it’s all tricks and no treats this year.
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Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Faith in Public Life were all created in 2005 under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. The founder of Faith in Public Life was Jennifer Butler, and this letterhead sponsored another dummy sister group, Faithful America. In 2024, she served as director of faith outreach for Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign. Figures.
Funding for these anti-Catholic groups came from George Soros, the atheist billionaire. He never misses a beat trying to undermine Catholicism. Another big donor was John Stryker, a homosexual billionaire. Looks like these fat cats, along with Tim Gill—another homosexual billionaire who funds anti-Catholic groups—didn’t get much bang for their bucks.
Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good were the brainchild of John Podesta, a lackey of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Wikileaks exposed them for trying to create a “Catholic Spring,” a campaign to wreck havoc in the Catholic Church by lying to the public about Catholic moral teachings. For example, they tried to sell the idea that it is perfectly acceptable for Catholics to be pro-abortion. That is a lie.
The activist who made the biggest splash with Faith in Public Life was John Gehring. He previously worked for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and, perversely, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (snakes have managed to find their way into the USCCB).
He was known for slamming the “white hierarchy” of the Catholic Church and for advising the pro-abortion nun, Sister Simone Campbell, on how to conduct her failed “Nuns on the Bus” campaign for the Democrats. He owed his living to the “white hierarchy” of left-wing donors and activists.
It gave me great satisfaction to nail Gehring when he sought to manipulate the media against the bishops. In fact, I remember gloating at the time.
On June 7, 2012 he sent a memo to reporters instructing them how to frame their questions to the bishops—trying to upend them—at an upcoming series of religious liberty events. But it blew up in his face when I exposed his gambit to the public. How did I find out before he began his stealth campaign against the bishops? Someone in the press leaked his memo to me.
I took Gehring on again when his hero, Joe—“Mr. Devout Catholic”—Biden became president. He went apoplectic when the head of the USCCB, Archbishop José Gomez, raised concerns about having a pro-abortion Catholic in the White House. I rushed to defend Gomez.
Unlike the Catholic League, which gets its money from rank-and-file loyal Catholics, these front groups depend on radical anti-Catholic foundations to keep them alive. So when their filthy rich white donors pull the plug, they end up in the morgue. Sayonara. Meanwhile, we keep humming along, working to sabotage their efforts.
LifeNews Note: Bill Donohue is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
