CBS Airs "Most vile, Obscene" Attack on Catholic Church "Ever Aired"

LOS ANGELES, CA, September 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In all of his 16 years defending the rights of Catholics, the President of the Catholic League has "never seen a more defamatory, obscene and vicious show on TV." League President Bill Donohue was referring to the August 27 edition of the CBS/Showtime program Penn & Teller.

The half-hour show libeled the Catholic Church with impunity, blaming the Church for, as Donohue put it, "every evil in history." Show host Jillette said the "intolerance, greed, paranoia, hypocrisy and callous disregard for human suffering" was the hallmark of the Catholic Church. Others on the show branded the Church as an "amoral" and "power hungry" institution that is just worried about its "cash flow."

Donohue said on Fox News that, "Penn & Teller's Nazi-like assault on Catholicism that took place on August 27 will go down in history as one of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation. That CBS, which owns Showtime, allows this to go on is positively unbelievable."

Donohue has requested a meeting with CBS officials to discuss the matter. He spoke to one official by phone Monday, but the Catholic League told LifeSiteNews.com that no official meeting has yet been held.

This week the League commenced a mass mailing of DVD copies of the outrageous episode to bishops and religious leaders across the nation. 414 bishops, hundreds of influential Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Mormon religious leaders across the United States are to receive the packages.

The League has also posted the complete program on its website here. (WARNING- HIGHLY OFFENSIVE AND FOUL LANGUAGE)

The League is encouraging all people of good will, Catholics and non-Catholics alike to demand that CBS cancel the Penn & Teller show.

Donohue describes just a few of the falsehoods in the program, saying: "Jillette lied about the Vatican's reaction to Sabina Guzzanti, an Italian foul-mouthed comedian who staged an assault on the pope in 2008: the pope never sought to throw 'her sexy ass in jail' and never once sought any punitive measure against her - it's all a bald face lie! Jillette lied about a 1962 Vatican document - it was a statement about penalties for priests who used the confessional to solicit sex: it was not a cover-up for sexual misconduct! He lied about Pope Benedict XVI - he had absolutely nothing to do with overseeing cases of priestly sexual misconduct in the United States! And so on."

The show interviewed anti-Catholic activists who masquerade as Catholics in order to have them bash the Church. Said Donohue, "Spokesmen for Catholics for Choice, SNAP and Dignity - three anti-Catholic groups that lie about their Catholic status - twisted, distorted and ridiculed Church teachings on sexuality."

The League has provided contact information for CBS officials so that they may hear the voices of many requesting that the Penn & Teller show be cancelled.

Mr. Leslie Moonves
Chairman of CBS
7800 Beverly Blvd., Rm. 23
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2112

Many atheists are people of good will who have been driven from Christ by the hypocrisy and weakness of people like me (i.e. weak and unfaithful Christians), and more than a few are intellecually gifted, creative, or otherwise "abnormal" people who have personally suffered injury and abuse at the hands of others acting in the name of Christ. I'm guessing, of course, but based upon his work I believe that Penn Jilette may be such a person.

I was an atheist through my teens, and I think the reason for atheism has to do with the intellectually gifted and creative side. Gifted kids see at an early age past the little lies that adults tell them because adults know they aren't really mature enough to handle a real explanation. Once you have an immature person who has "looked behind the curtain" enough, then their system gets shocked and jaded early and pride takes over for the rest of it.

I don't put much stock into claims of having "personally suffered injury". Usually it's from their offense at being treated at their maturity level in adolescence.

anyone associated with the church, at any level, who ever molested a child, lost his Priest-hood the instant the crime was committed, and as such is excommunicated

But this is already the case. Excommunication occurs automatically when a believer knowingly and of his/her own free will commits a mortal sin. This applies to priests, religious, and laypersons. Believers can also be formally excommunicated by the Church in certain circumstances. Both types of excommunication can be undone through the Sacrament of Penance.

In the Western Church, a priest can't "lose" his priesthood; he can only be laicized -- that is, dismissed from the clerical state. Such a priest is denied the authority to administer the Sacraments except in certain extremely rare circumstances. This happens automatically as a penalty for certain grave offenses, or by a papal decree granted for grave reasons.

When a believer sincerely confesses his or her sins to a priest, absolution from those sins is granted by the priest by the power of Jesus Christ. This erases the death sentence ( = eternity in Hell ) that applies to us sinners.

However, since no one and nothing impure can enter the Presence of God, a person who has led a sinful life ( = everybody ) must also be cleansed of the temporal penalties of his/her sins. In other words, he or she must suffer punishment for his or her sins as a means of purification. This "purging" of the believer of the temporal penalties of his or her sins is called Purgatory. This is what the Apostle Paul meant in the third chapter of his first Letter to the Corinthians (I Cor 3:1-12) when he wrote "And every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour... Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire" [Source]

Rest assured that none of us will die perfectly free from the guilt of what we did to our fellow men in this life. By the Blood of His Son, God has preserved us from the eternal death we surely deserve for our rebellion against Him, but for divine Justice to be served, the "bill" for the suffering we caused our fellow men must also be paid. Thus as each of us dies, we are drawn towards the Presence of the Just Judge -- and that Judge will deliver us to the exacter, and the exacter will cast us into prison -- and not one of us will go out thence, until we have paid that bill to he last bitter penny! [Source]

I think of Purgatory not so much as a place but as a journey. As I die, I enter the Beyond cleaned of deadly sin by the Blood of Christ, but still bearing the guilt of the other sinful things I did in life. As I approach the Presence, the Glory of God acts as a refining fire, burning away and annihilating this guilt until I am worthy to arrive in the Presence.

Sometimes I think that Purgatory consists of God forcing you to relive every horrible thing you ever did in this life -- from the point of view of the people you did them to. "Saved as through fire" indeed...

One thing is certain, God is perfect, and that means He is perfectly just. And that means that come Judgment Day, we each of us will receive exactly what we deserve. And if that prospect scares you, thank God -- there's still hope. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” [Genesis 18:25]

We will all gladly enter Purgatory. Not just because it means we’ve evaded Hell, but because we’ll want to be cleansed.

When people ask questions about that, I like to ask them how they would feel if they knew their mother was coming to visit and the house was a pigsty. “Mortified,” is the usual response. “I would want to clean it from head to toe.”

Then I ask them, if they’re driven to deep clean their house for a visit from their mortal mother, what would they think about being covered in the effects of sin before visting the House of their Immortal Father?

The light goes on quickly, at that point.

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