Chicago Catholics to Protest "Blasphemous" Cartoon -- September 25

The Illinois Leader ^ | September 20, 2002 | The Leader - Chicago Bureau

[Preston Noell]

Please join this protest in Chicago on Wednesday, September 25th, 11:30 to l:00 pm.

Chicago Catholics Protest "Blasphemous" Cartoon

Friday, September 20, 2002

By The Leader-Chicago Bureau - Chicago Reader's cartoonist Garret Gaston focus of protest

During lunch hour on September 25, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) will publicly protest a recent cartoon published in The Chicago Reader. Catholics and other faiths plan to demonstrate across the street from the paper's downtown Chicago office at shortly before noon on Wednesday to voice their outrage with Garret Gaston's cartoon, "Papal Makeover," a piece the TFP calls "blasphemous."

link to cartoon: http://www.illinoisleader.com/content/img/f2062/Papal.jpg

On June 21st, The Chicago Reader, a 130,000-reader weekend newspaper, published a cartoon with the Pope dispensing "red hot birth control pills," saying, "we were just kidding about Original Sin" and suggesting immoral actions in the confessional, proposing a "new recipe for communion" using chocolate chips, among other images offensive to Catholics.

Each Thursday, The Chicago Reader is distributed freely at 1200 locations to upper middle class, single, college-attending professionals, 59% male and 41% female. Garret Gaston's cartoons are syndicated in less than ten papers nationally, including a news source in San Diego.

Before mobilizing a network of over 200,000 activists nationwide, American TFP President Raymond Drake sent a protest letter, asking The Chicago Reader for an unqualified apology and a written commitment that it will never again publish such blasphemies.

"This blatant, filthy mockery of the Papacy and the Church is a grave insult to God and to all Catholics" wrote Mr. Drake in a letter to the editor published by The Reader. "Facing these blasphemies we have no other option than to stand up and defend the honor of God and our Catholic Faith."

Gaston is known and has won awards for his "alternative" style in cartooning. And in a letter to the editor in reply to a reader condemning the cartoon, Gaston wrote, "I was actually calling through my comic strip for its readers to consider that the church has as little business promoting sexual behaviors as it does condemning them," and that if the reader "feels that as a Catholic [he] is being unfairly persecuted by a licentious cartoonist, I suggest he try being sexually persecuted by a powerful religion that professes to be the mouthpiece of God."

The Reader has not apologized or responded to the TFP's demands.

C. Preston Noell, head of the TFP's Chicago Bureau asks, "If this cartoon does not awaken our holy outrage, can we still consider ourselves Catholic?"

Noell is heading up the protest in Chicago. "We have been successful in the past in effecting the media," Noell said. "TFP is sending out 500,000 anti-blasphemy cards that will be returned to the Chicago Reader and we are planning next week's rally to held in front of The Chicago Reader's offices at Illinois & State Streets in downtown Chicago."

If the rally does not effect change in policy, other tactics may be used to influence the publication, Noell said.

"We may begin pressure on the paper's major advertisers," Noell said. "Perrier Water, Loyola University and United Parcel are all major advertisers in The Chicago Reader. We have asked for an apology and a promise to not print another cartoon of blasphemous nature. We will push until we protect our doctrine from these attacks."

Noell encouraged anyone to attend the rally and everyone to check the TFP's website to email the Chicago Reader a protest letter directly by visiting their website at http://www.tfp.org or by calling the TFP's Chicago area office at 847.692.2585.

"We hope that another 'Catholic backlash' will occur as it did in Disney's movie Dogma that bombed a year or so ago. We know that if there's enough outrage, we will turn this around."

[Arthur McGowan]

This hissy-fit from TFP (an organization of hyer-traditionalist, monarchist weirdos) deserves no support. Cartoons like this constitute no more of a crisis for the Church than a mosquito bite. It is to beexpected that homosexual activists will come up with puerile stuff like this. The real outrage is that 250 (at least) Catholic bishops in the U.S. have not resigned. Another real outrage is the presence of Baby-Brain-Suctioning Leon Panetta on a committee that is supposed to guide the Church in its dealings with victimized children.

[George W. Bush]

Why weren't these stories given national press coverage? Why is there a coverup of Christian pedophile ministers' crimes against America's children???

Because in these non-Roman churches, the controlling authorities did not criminally conspire to shield the molesters. Because they did not unlawfully withhold evidence of criminal activity from the police. Because they not establish, as a matter of routine administrative procedure, the repeated re-assignments of known child molesters in new parishes.

Criminal conspiracy as an institutional practice is about the only term that describes the culpability of the American branch of the Roman hierarchy in this matter. That is the real scandal.

Americans and their courts aren't going to tolerate it. Rome had better have deep pockets for this one. You can wail that it's just anti-Roman bigotry if you like. But the bigotry is against any institution being able to get away with doing these things to children. These cases are not just about restitution. They're about the judgment of our society on any organization that tries to operate in this way with regard to the sexual exploitation of children.

To be regarded as a legitimate church, Rome's hierarchy needs to have more legal and moral credibility than a NAMBLA lawyer. Rank and file members do. Why can't the hierarchy, particularly given the extravagant claims they make for Roman supremacy and the sole favor of God in granting them the so-called apostolic succession?

[Salvation]

"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out --
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out --
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out --
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me --
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
~~Pastor Martin Niemoller
(victim of the Nazis)

Is there anything we can learn from this?
When they came for the Catholics?
When they came for the Baptists?
When they came for the fundamentalists?
When they came for the agnostics?

Just something for all of us to think about -- is this picture larger than we currently see it?

[Salvation]

The diocese that you speak of with special insignia, I believe is in Ohio. They certainly don't speak for many Catholics here. Please don't try to generalize and accuse us all through your personal attacks.

[Salvation]

And the hierarchy wants to soft-pedal the boy-sex aspect of Catholicism, no matter what anyone says.

What support from Pope John Paul II or the Vatican are you referring to here.

This is not the message they are putting out and I do not like your attack about soft-pedalling the issue. The issue is being dealt with slowly and surely. You will see.

[Salvation]

thanks for 160, Coleus!

[ladysusan]

It was also Kevin Smith's point when in the movie "Dogma" he depicted a "modernized" diocese (headed by a priest played by George Carlin), complete with the slogan "Catholicism WOW!" and an "updated" depiction of Jesus, the "Buddy Christ": The entire point was to show how ludicrous the results can be when you try to "merge" modern culture and traditional religion. When you put them side by side like that, religion doesn't end up looking bad, but the modern culture sure does.

That was ONE of his points. In his arrogance and greed, the bishop (played by George Carlin), created a scenario that could have brought about the end of the Universe. He did this by using the power of the RCC to create a situation in which God's Word contradicts itself.

The movie makes a point about the arrogance, greed, and in this case, true imbecility of Catholic clergy. Carlin's character is a greasy, sleazy, feebleminded, out-of-touch, powerdrunk in DOGMA. It's not a pretty picture. To my mind, that's pretty much the problem the RCC is having now; people are aghast at the arrogance with which these pedophilia cases were dismissed with a wave of the hand, like so much collateral damage in a holy war. To my mind, the real problem with the RCC, beside the satan worshipping baby rapers, is the institutional arrogance which values its own survival above the souls it is supposed to be sheparding.

P.S. The movie ends well, but only because the Deity directly intervenes to correct the situation created by the Bishop. Lady Susan

[Polonius]

The 'toon depicted Jesus cussing, using the "F" word, God's name in vain, and physically assaulting Santa ... I can't BELIEVE this stuff gets on the air without a protest.

That Jesus vs. Santa short was actually a student film by the creators of "South Park" that predated the series. To my knowledge, it has never aired on TV in any form, and was passed around via tapes and the Internet.

[EODGUY]

And conversion to our Catholic faith has increased dramatically in spite of the criminal/scandalous behavior of a miniscule minority of Her clergy.

How would the blatant denigration of a minority ethnic group be viewed by the media based on the actions of less than (figures vary based on the agenda of the media outlet publishing the data) for argument purposes, less than 5% of the members of that ethnic group? The uproar would be deafening!

Several on this forum cite the "Catholic Church" as the problem. Such a contention can only be considered bigotted, based on the, IMO, more than 95% of the members of that Church, both clergy and lay, who are nothing more that devout practitioners of their faith.

[chance33_98]

Group Blasts 'Pro-Gay Scriptures':New Bible (NOAB) waters down homosexuality, Jesus' sovereignty

[George W. Bush]

What support from Pope John Paul II or the Vatican are you referring to here. This is not the message they are putting out and I do not like your attack about soft-pedalling the issue. The issue is being dealt with slowly and surely. You will see.

Yes, it is the message they are putting out when they start talking about how they want to keep on staff priests that have only one episode of child molesting.

That is the message from your hierarchy. And, yes, our courts will most certainly deal with them. Some of the statements of the American hierarchy lead people to believe that they think they did nothing wrong. I think the hierarchy (these American bishops who kept re-assigning known perverts to new territories) ought to be in prison along with the pervs themselves. I think that most Americans agree with that. Cardinal Law, for instance, should go to prison for aiding and abetting in causing grievous harm to children. That's exactly what we'd do if a child-care supervisor kept shuffling around a pervert to fresh territory. It's what should be done with these pedophile-enabling bishops.

It's not the failure to detect a pervert before he commits the first crime against children that is the problem. It's when their supervisor knows that they do it and keeps re-assigning them to new territory or helps them evade prosecution in other ways.

That's why Coleus' list, horrible as it is, doesn't actually address the problem your hierarchy has with boy-sex. He is essentially saying that non-Roman churches have the same problem. And it's untrue. In non-Roman churches, you simply don't see pervs getting shuffled around as routine administrative procedure while they continue to repeat their crimes upon fresh victims.

[Surge-on]

more than 95% of the members of that Church, both clergy and lay, who are nothing more that devout practitioners of their faith.

Thanks for your reply, EODGUY.
IMHO you were far too conservative in your estimate of 95% devout, I believe the church to consist of over 99.99% devout practitioners of their faith!

[Catholicguy]

The two TFP folks I know of are Marian Horvath and Attila Guimaeres(sp?) who write for "The Remnant." They are nutz and both succor the schism. TCRnews has info about this group. Stay away from them<>

[EODGUY]

"IMHO you were far too conservative in your estimate of 95% devout, I believe the church to consist of over 99.99% devout practitioners of their faith!"

I agree, when you eliminate the CINOs.

God bless.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

Concerning your post #160:

I can understand your anger at the tormentors who fasten themselves onto these threads. But your response--to publicly scandalize some other Christian or pseudo-christian sect--is precisely the wrong thing to do.

Don't you see who is squatting up in the rafters just out of sight? Over there in the dark corners--grinning and squealing with delight--their pointy little teeth gleaming when you respond to the Catholic hierarchy's faithlessness by exposing the faithlessness of other Christians?

Most of these alternative Christian sects are, sadly, too stupid to apprehend the Big Picture. If Catholicism goes down all these other sects will crumble like the hollow things that they are. They are propped up only by their relationship with the Church. They have no internal reality save their reactions to the Great Mother of us all.

So it's understandable why they torment the Church, even as they are feeding upon her. But there is no excuse for Catholics to have such a narrow vision.

They are out to get us all. Remember that.

[Admin Moderator]

I am pulling your post 155. The html is messing up some folk's "my comments". Sorry.

[Gophack]

I looked at the cartoon and it is sick. This guy can't even draw worth a darn.

[Gophack]

Calling something "blasphemous" just does not register with the media elites because they see nothing wrong with blasphemy. Whereas, if you call the same thing "racist" or "bigoted" or "biased," you push the buttons that get the reaction you want.

I agree. It's blasphemous AND bigoted.

[a history buff]

TFP is better spelled tfP, the congregation of Brazilian landowners.