Posted on 09/03/2009 10:25:47 AM PDT by NYer
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.
Contact CBS rep Nancy Tellem at nancy.tellem@tvc.cbs.com
-Or-
Mr. Leslie Moonves
Chairman of CBS
7800 Beverly Blvd., Rm. 23
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2112
Matthew Blank, the Chairman and CEO of Showtime.
Matthew.Blank@Showtime.net
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Too bad that *both* of them aren’t silent.
did Penn & Teller lose their minds??
I found their show rather entertaining at one point, but I knew that even though I agreed with many of their episodes (by no means all) I could tell they were distorting facts (if not outright lying) and purely one-sided in their arguments.
I stopped watching them a long time ago.
The Catholic League should have ignored P&T — now their ratings will go through the roof — especially among the Christian / Catholic bashers out there.
It's all part of the plot to destroy Christianity across the nation and make the Marxist government our God.
Libel ... if what they say is untrue, then sue for libel and defamation. We have a court system, use it. If what they said is untrue, bankrupt them - I have no problem with that at all.
However, the Catholic Church has, and is still actively protecting members of its clergy who have molested children. If you want accountability, act accountable.
Why defend the indefensible?
Consider the source.
I’m holding my breath waiting for the expose on the religion of pieces. /sarc
Yeah. They hate the Boy Scouts too.
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....
"One of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation" is being distributed by the Catholic League and Bill Donohue en masse and free of charge, to hundreds of religious leaders across the nation. Oh the irony.
They are cheap shot artists who don’t really care about the veracity of their information. They do not lose sleep worrying about accuracy. They are slobs.
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.
So now more people than otherwise would have will see this? I find it hard to believe that it was the intent of the “League” to make sure that this offense was viewed by as many people as possible.
Look at the job they did on Mahatma (means "Saint" in Hindi) Gandhi.
“The League has also posted the complete program on its website here”
Why in the world are they promoting this thing?
Oh please. This show didn't do such a thing, it talked about three or four major scandals and the politics of the church reacting. For the most part, it did not go into Catholicism as a religion, instead it focused on the politics of the church. The theme was the church being a self-protecting (to the point of a fault at times) political-esque entity instead of a religious organization. This is a debate/challenge that happens with almost all denominations, Catholics more because of their size and longer history.
Even aside from the questionable legality here, that's ridiculous attention-whore behavior.
These leftist retards don't realize that, even if they do manage to destroy Christianity in this country, that vacuum will only be filled with something else. And when they try attack that, they are going to be very sorry.
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.