Catholic League calls author Anne Rice's rejection of Christianity a 'tragedy'

New York City, N.Y., Aug 6, 2010 / 08:24 am

The Catholic League responded to the recent statement of author Anne Rice, who in 2008 announced that she had returned to the Catholic faith, but now says she is no longer a Christian but remains “committed to Christ.”

Group president Bill Donohue called the author's rejection of Christianity a “tragedy” in remarks issued on Friday.

On her Facebook page on July 28, Rice wrote that “Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity,”

The author added that it was “simply impossible” for her to belong to “this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.”

She said she had “tried” and “failed,” describing herself as an outsider.

“In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay,” continued Rice, whose son Christopher is a homosexual who writes for The Advocate, an “LGBT” monthly. “I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat,” she continued, also characterizing Christianity as “anti-science” and “anti-life.”

However, she still described her faith in Christ as “central” to her life.

In a statement on Aug. 6, Catholic League president Bill Donohue reacted to the author's comments, saying, “Anne Rice started as a believing Catholic; then she quit the Church; then she rejoined the Church; now she has quit again.”

“All of this is as amusing as it is sad, and would be of no interest to the Catholic League save for her parting shots at the Catholic Church,” Donohue explained.

“Rice said this week that when the American bishops opposed homosexual marriage, that was the 'last straw.' She offered, 'I didn't anticipate in the beginning that U.S. Catholic Bishops were going to come out against same-sex marriage,'” Donohue continued. “Did she think they would be silent on one of the most contentious moral issues of our day?”

“She said this week that 'I refuse to be anti-gay,' thereby separating herself from all those awful Catholic bigots,” the Catholic league president added. “But when she was asked two years ago on ABC-TV whether the Catholic Church condemns her gay son to hell, she said, 'I don't think anybody in my church would say that. I think our view is far more compassionate.' She got that right. But does she have any idea how she looks now?”

Commenting on an interview that the author had with a co-star from “The View,” Donohue said that “Rice told Joy Behar 'I myself am anti-abortion.' It didn't take long before the pro-abortion and anti-Catholic Behar snapped, 'You would deny other women the choice to have an abortion?' To which Rice said, 'I would not deny them the choice.' Yet in the same breath she added, 'I do think it's the taking of a human life.'”

“Rice came back to the Catholic Church in the 1990s,” but only recently found that the Church is opposed to same-sex “marriage,” Donohue noted. “She said in 2008 that Catholicism is not anti-gay, but in 2010 it was so anti-gay she had to quit.”

“She is pro-life, knows abortion kills, but sides with the agenda of Planned Parenthood. She wants Christ without the Christianity.”

“This is more than an odyssey,” Donohue concluded. “it's a tragedy.”