Bill Maher: Pope 'Used to be a Nazi;' Compares Church to Cult, Bear Stearns

NewsBusters.org ^ | 4/14/2008 | Matthew Balan

[Pyro7480]

Bill Maher, true to form on his "Real Time" program on HBO on Friday, went on a tirade against Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church, only days before the Pope’s visit to the U.S.. He stated that the Pope "used to be a Nazi" and compared him to a cult leader. He then went on to call the Church a "child-abusing religious cult" and "the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia." "And that’s the Church’s attitude: 'We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,' which is fine, far be it from me to criticize religion."

Following a profanity-tinged one-liner concerning the raid on the Texas compound of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Maher quipped, "In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as God’s infallible wingman here on Earth, lock away the kids. Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That’s right, the Pope is coming to America this week and ladies, he’s single!" At the "funny hat" line, Maher displayed a picture of Pope Benedict wearing a wide-brimmed hat called a saturno.

[Global2010]

Maher is an uninformed and unfunny arrogant dork who thinks he knows it all.

[DGHoodini]

This, coming from a cheerleader for the DemoLib Souless Socialist Cult of Death...He’ll eventually be found like his “hero” Lenny Bruce, in a bathroom, naked, face in the toilet, Drunken and overdosed, mouth and anus filled with sperm...alone and quite dead.

[Berlin_Freeper]

One day Maher will slip up and say something about Islam.

[SaintDismas]

Absolutely Am M. For what awaits those who would war with God is something none of us would wish on our worst enemy. As Fr. Corapi said last week on EWTN, our lifetime here is less than ONE SECOND in eternity. I sincerely hope he has a “knocked off his horse” moment and is not only evangelized and converted, but becomes one of our faith’s staunchest defenders, and lover of Our Lord!

[y6162]

Maher is an anti catholic bigot. I’d like to see Bill Donohue organize a boycott.

On the other hand, as a Catholic, I think it’s a good thing that we’re persecuted. Good for the character.

[Larebil]

What does it matter?

bill maher praised atta days after 9/11 and crisicized our military.

Whatever he says belongs in a dungheap.

I won’t pray for him, I will pray the hell stays hot enough for this traitorous POS.

[trisham]

Holy mackeral.

[DGHoodini]

Maher is a perverted devolving beastial freak.

[Slapshot68]

Yes Bill, he was in the Hitler youth back when you pretty much had to join up.

What an idiot.

[Pyro7480]

The enemies of Catholics are godless humanists, not Protestants.

Though you do get similar rhetoric in some sectors of the "Reformed" churches.

[stuartcr]

The Pope really wasn’t a nazi, was he?

[Bushwacker777]

“Anti-Catholicism, the last “safe” bigotry.”

No, people can be bigoted towards Mormons too it seems.

Strange irony with Maher. If a Catholic said these things about Judaism he or she would be condemned on page one of every newspaper in the USA and on all the networks. Yet a Jewish guy can say these things about Catholics and little is said.

Ironic.

[dforest]

I hope the Catholic bashing does not happen. I am not a Catholic, but I like what this Pope has to say.

People, at least, need to lend him an ear. He has proved to be very brave.

[Wings-n-Wind]

Bill Maher, true to form on his "Real Time" program

*******************

Swat flies...
Step on worms....
Take out the trash...

Ignore MAHER!

JMHO....

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Everybody already knows that Bill Maher is a NAZI.

[wideawake]

So what handle does Maher use on FR?

[mc5cents]

Maher is a serious waste of skin.

And to think that he is using precious oxygen and turning it to the greenhouse gas CO2 with every breath he takes.

[DGHoodini]

Truth told..the original NAZIs came from the Left.

Socialist Democrats, that were the “Party of the working people!”

[Pyro7480]

Donohue's press release on the subject:

On his April 11 HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian went into an extended assault on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. For a transcript, click here.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:

“Maher’s obsession with the Catholic Church continues, only this time there isn’t enough material for him to use as a club, so he literally makes things up. His lies include the following statement: ‘When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney—he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out.’

“A similar lie was floated by an angry ex-Catholic bigot, Rosie O’Donnell. The fact is that before he was named pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had absolutely nothing to do with policing allegations of sexual abuse until 2002, after the scandal erupted that January. And he certainly never counseled bishops to keep sexual abuse secret—this is a bald face lie. Indeed, a week before Pope John Paul II died, he addressed the scandal by saying, ‘How much filth there is in the church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely’ to God.

“Maher also lied when he said the pope ‘used to be a Nazi.’ Like all young men in Germany at the time, he was conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could). Every responsible Jewish leader has acknowledged this reality and has never sought to brand the pope a Nazi. That job falls to Maher.

“In 2005, after complaining about another bigoted outburst, I was told by Richard Plepler of HBO that ‘it’s a free country, and people are free to say silly things—even on HBO.’ Last year, after another assault, I was told by Jeff Cusson (replying for Time Warner’s CEO Richard Parsons), that Maher’s anti-Catholic remarks were a matter of ‘creative freedom.’ Well, folks, no one has the freedom to libel someone.”

[TNCMAXQ]

When the next Democrat president takes office and there are federal laws against hate speech, will Maher and his ilk be prosecuted for statements like this? Ha ha. But anyone who looks at a protected class person the wrong way will be brought up before some PC tribunal.