Posted on 04/14/2008 1:14:50 PM PDT by NYer
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.”
Contact HBO CEO Bill Nelson at bill.nelson@hbo.com
Accusing me of going along with the MSM and some queer agenda is as big a joke as your Roman church.
Whatever, papist. The tenets of your theology are taken out of whole cloth, and your priests dig little boys. If that makes me a bigot, oh, well.
Thank you, Bob, for recognizing what the media often overlook in their witch hunt against anything Catholic. Sadly, sex abuse is not limited to the Catholic Church but is also found in the Protestant denominations, as well. According to Insurance Journal:
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.
FULL TEXT
In their animosity towards the Catholic Church, the media have actually done us a great favor. We have forced ourselves to clean up this problem - who is watching out for the children in public school?
Every once in a while, I hear some backwater preacher who spends his radio show ranting about the ‘Roman church’ and how the Pope is actually the anti-Christ described in Revelation. I checked out the preacher. Sure enough, he is a fallen-away Catholic. Methinks he doth protest too much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.