Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, cl@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, June 3, 2011 /Standard Newswire/-- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the critical reaction to the John Jay study of priestly sexual abuse:

The left-wing attack on the John Jay study proves once again that art critic Harold Rosenberg was exactly right to say that liberals represent a "herd of independent minds." Ever since the New York Times criticized the study as the "blame Woodstock" report, the herd has swung into high gear. 

• Tony Auth labels his cartoon "It Was The Sixties, Man"
   
• A Boston Globe writer titles her piece, "Blame it on the '60s, Man"
   
• Jon Carroll brands his article, "The '60s Made Them Do It"
   
• A Canadian writer says, "Church Study Blames Swinging Sixties"
   
• ReligionDispatches indicts the Church for "Blame the Sixties" rationale
   
• Church-basher Marci Hamilton says the Church is guilty of "blaming the Sixties"
   
• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says the Church blames "the 1960s"
   
• Mark Silk says the Church invokes the "Woodstock" excuse
   
• Sally Quinn's brother, Wilson, slams the Church for "Blame the Hippies" excuse
   
• Kevin Osborne of Citybeat.com says the Church blames "dirty hippies"
   
• New Haven writer Doug Daniels says the Church blames "hippies"
  
• A Minnesota writer says the Church blames Jefferson Airplane
   
• A Florida writer argues the Church blames Janis Joplin

Top honors go to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for falsely claiming, "In page after page, the report also accuses the news media of misrepresenting the crisis." This is utter nonsense. Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star shows her brilliance by criticizing the study for not finding a "single cause." She needs to take Sociology 101.

None of these critics is a social scientist, and few, if any, give evidence of actually having read the report. But that's what we would expect from a "herd of independent minds."