Pres. Obama’s speechwriter makes anti-Catholic joke

WDTPRS ^ | December 3, 2010 | Father Zuhlsdorf

[NYer]

This is the sort of person Pres. Obama chooses for his speech writing staff. Now we will have to wait to see what POTUS does about this.

From The Catholic League:

OBAMA SPEECHWRITER’S IDEA OF COMEDY
The winner at last night’s “Funniest Celebrity” competition in Washington D.C. was White House speechwriter Jon Lovett. In a quip he made about the TSA’s pat downs, he said, “it’s giving a way for, you know, defrocked priests to get their lives back together, giving back to the community, lend a…Well, not lend a hand, but you know.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds as follows:

Had this been some flunky entertainer appearing in an urban comedy club, no one would blink an eye. But it is at least an interesting window into the mind of one of the speechwriters for the president of the United States: Jon Lovett could have chosen a million examples to poke fun at the TSA, so it is revealing that what he settled on was a former priest guilty of sexual molestation.

This is an administration that has bent over backwards not to offend Muslims. Even in a comedic forum, it would never countenance a joke of this sort that targeted an imam. But for Catholic priests, the White House obviously has a different standard. [Does President Obama think that his staff can offend Catholics with impunity?]

At the very least, Lovett should never be given an assignment ever again that touches on matters Catholic. And quite frankly, a statement by President Obama on this issue is entirely warranted. We can’t have one standard for Muslims and another for Catholics.

At best this reveals a double-standard. At worst this reveals gross anti-Catholicism.

This requires an explanation from the White House.

What do you think? Am I wrong about this?

[cdmsr]

It’s not ‘unwitting’ — that IS the joke, that a TSA search is tantamount to being molested.

[cdmsr]

Yeah, those dirty child-molesting imams, not to mention the evil mullahs who covered it all up, moving them from mosque to mosque to hide their, er, uh... Wait a minute.

Seriously, the molestation/coverup happened. The ensuing scandal, the outrage and lawsuits were justified and understandable and the criminal charges and jail sentences were too few and too far between. The hardest part to understand (besides the willful complicity of the Church hierarchy and how high it went) is the complacency of the uninvolved laity who only show anger when someone is critical of the Church, an action often performed as humor.

Good joke, bad joke, funny or not, the ultimate fault lies in the Church, the priesthood and defensive, complacent Catholics. It's the mote-vs.-timber principle in action.