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."

[jjm2111]

Does anyone realize that Preston Noell is mentioned in the article? "C. Preston Noell."

[concerned about politics]

Apparently, if one surfs through the sewers of the internet, you'll find a pile of defecation like this ....

That's true, but more people felt the pain of the young boys than the pain of the molesters. This reaction to the church was earned. It's to be expected.
Like the old saying goes: "Do unto young boys as you would have the public do unto you".

[jjm2111]

As far as I know, Sodom was a town. Does the Bible explicitly describe the acts the Sodomites did?

[concerned about politics]

Again, I believe that scripture strongly supports FF578 and if man will not carry out the sentence sin commands then nature will (HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Hepatitis B, etc.)

Romans I -- It's like watching a re-run on TV. LOL.

[jjm2111]

And how many do YOU know personally?

[Salvation]

Bump.

[concerned about politics]

Take delight in this squalid assault, if you wish, but it is another indication of how low this society has sunk.

I'm not taking delight in the cartoon, I'm amused by the hypocracy. Were was this rightous outrage when all those boys were raped by Catholic priests? There were zillions of excuses for them, but no outrage. They "deserved forgiveness", "let's all just put this behind us and move on."

[Notwithstanding]

The cartoon does not mock a dogmatic institution, rather it gleefully mocks that which the Church considers most sacred: Jesus, Scripture, the sacraments (communion, confession, the matrimonial embrace), sacramental minsters (priests, bishops and pope), vowed religious (nuns), and church buildings and art.

Folks are free to mock the sacred beliefs of the worlds largest communion of believers -
And folks are free to point out the crude and nasty attitude of those who do the mocking.

[BTW, if you do about 5 minutes worth of research you will discover that the "Reformation" leaders had an appalling record regarding "free speech." Reformation leaders had a clear record of squelching free expression of both Protestants and Catholics who did not toe the party line.]

[themorgoth]

Doesn't matter.

Remember Voltaire and his famous principle?

[cyn]

Welcome! The power of FR is that an article, regardless of topic, can bring in so many disparate comments and links to further information for our consideration.

[kezekiel]

I'm a Protestant, and I find two things really offensive here: the first is this dirtbag's cartoon, and the second is how, on every Catholic post, some portion of the discussion devolves into a Protestant vs. Catholic bash fest. Nothing Rome has done entitles it to be dragged through the mud the way it is repeatedly by "gay" activists and the left, and Protestants should stand by their Catholic cousins in times like these. "First they came for the Catholics, and I did nothing..."

[LibertyGirl77]

Just what does a gaggle of homosexual satanists posing as priests have to do with this despicable cartoon of insult?

If they are, as you say, "homosexual satanists," then why is your church going to such great lengths to protect them?

I think it's a fair question...one I'd really like an answer to, and no Catholic I've talked to has been able to provide one.

I'm a Protestant, but I really had nothing much against the Catholic church until I saw the way it collectively reacted to this scandal. Now, I think that the pure, unadulterated arraogance of man has taken over the Catholic church's heirarchy almost completely.

[cyn]

LOL, and you signed up 9/3/2 to post that comment? Welcome to FR.

[LibertyGirl77]

Oops--make that "arrogance."

[Redbob]

Or just as good, you can e-mail Garrett Gaston himself;
wonder how long before Yahoo pulls the plug on his account if he got say, 10,000 e-mails?
Try:
garret_g@yahoo.com

[Dan Day]

IMO, this could easily go the other way, too. I mean, what if it's done in a sarcastic point of view? What if the cartoonist is pointing out that this is what the uninformed public wants the RCC to become?

Right, that was my point in an earlier post as well.

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.

[jjm2111]

You really know too many homosexuals personally?

I work and party in NYC and I know two. How many is too many?