Steve Malzberg
Wednesday, July 31, 2002

So this past Sunday we were on the couch, about 10 minutes into the show, when I heard it. "It" was the latest example of Catholic bashing on TV. As I will point out in this piece, it has become an all too common occurrence these days, and not just on TV.

Back to Sunday's episode of "Sex and The City," titled "Unoriginal Sin." One of the story lines centers around the planning of a baptism. Miranda is the single mother of the baby. The father wants the baptism. Miranda goes to the church and has a pre-ceremony meeting with the priest. She insists that there be no mention of the child being Catholic. "No original sin," she says. "No denouncing of Satan. In fact, no mention of Satan."

While she continues to lay down the rules, the voice of the character Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, who is also listed as the show’s executive producer, narrates the following: "Miranda was surprised the priest was so flexible. But the truth is, in these troubled times, the Catholic Church is like a desperate 36-year-old single woman, willing to settle for anything it can get."

I was outraged, but not surprised. It's just the latest in what has become a most fashionable trend in our media, Catholic bashing.

Do you need convincing?

On March 15 of this year, on "Dennis Miller Live,” also an HBO show, his opening monologue was about the problem of priest pedophilia. According to The Catholic League, he then said to the audience, "F--- the priests – they're weird."

The Catholic League and its president, William Donohue, are always out there on the front lines trying their best to expose and confront this sickness of tearing down the Church. Donohue says, "Miller would never say 'F--- the rabbis.' That would make him anti-Semitic. The reason he says 'F-- the priests' is because there is no stigma attached to saying it. This tells us as much about our society as it does Miller."

He's right. Do you want more? The Catholic League has it.

One day later, on March 16, on NBC's "Saturday Night Live,” actor Ian Mckellen ripped the Church for not allowing gays to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, even though it allows gays in the priesthood.

In response to Mckellen, Donohue pointed out that the Catholic Church does not run the St. Patrick's Day Parade, nor are gays banned from marching in it. "But even if his ignorance were corrected by the facts, there is little reason to believe he'd drop his Catholic bashing," says Donohue. "This is one prejudice that cannot be relieved through education alone."

Earlier this month Comedy Central promoted an episode of "South Park" for about a week. It stated that this is the episode "the Catholic Church doesn't want you to see." The show was to target the sex abuse scandal in the Church. The promo showed a bishop standing in front of the pope, complaining, "We'll never be able to have sex with boys again."

Donohue says, "The promo was dishonest. The scandal in the Church is not about priests having sex with pre-pubescent boys. It's about priests having sex with post-pubescent boys. The former is called pedophilia and the latter is called homosexuality.

If the creators of 'South Park' really had guts, they would do a show on gay priests. But of course, like so many other intellectually dishonest elites in our society, they will go to any length to protect homosexuals."

Back in March of this year, Comedy Central was airing a promo for the start of the new season of "South Park." It showed a young woman in the confessional. With trepidation in her voice, she says to the priest: "Forgive me, Father. It's been two months since our last meeting and the visions have not yet stopped. Eternal damnation, the Antichrist, and people with asses where their faces should be. Oh, Father, are these the signs of the Apocalypse?"

On the March 5 edition of "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher," comedian Jimmy Kimmel mocked the Immaculate Conception by saying, "G-d has a penis." As the audience laughed nervously, he added, "Oh, like he doesn't? How do you think we got Jesus?"

That led to another guest on the show, Kirk Franklin, a black musician, saying, "See, that's why we've gotta move away from religion. I think religion is one of the worst things that ever happened to America."

Then he attacked the Eucharist by complaining, "Gotta take the cracker." To which Maher replied, "Gotta take the cracker from a cracker."

Need more? The Catholic League has it.

On March 18, 2002, the Fox cartoon "King of the Hill" featured Mrs. Peggy Hill, the wife of Hank Hill, posing as a nun in order to teach at a Catholic high school.

She is shown dropping a "practice wafer" (the Eucharist again). She then picks it up, dusts it off, and gives it to the child who was to receive it. Later Peggy dreams that the monsignor bursts into her classroom as she is about to talk about safe sex. He then pulls a lever which opens the classroom floor and drops all the kids into hell. The monsignor is depicted in the dream as a devil with horns.

NBC's "Law And Order" has had several episodes of Catholic bashing. In 1995 there was one about a 'devout Catholic' woman who kills her baby. She confesses her crime to a priest, who tells her that it was God's will that she murder the child. A detective on the show wants to know how many Hail Marys would one be assigned for this crime?

William Donohue says there's more from "Law And Order." "In 1997 we learned about a 'devout Catholic' mother who, according to her son, 'held a rosary in one hand and beat the crap out of me with the other.' In 1999, we met a 'very orthodox nun' who murdered a young woman after a botched exorcism. And back in October of 2001, we met a priest who was guilty of lying, embezzlement, womanizing and the murder of his son."

But the bashing isn't limited to the TV screen. The May 25 edition of Billboard, the music news weekly, carried a piece by editor in chief Timothy White that congratulated Irish singer Sinead O'Connor for ripping up a picture of the pope on "Saturday Night Live" in 1992. That's when she said, "Fight the real enemy."

In reference to the current scandal in the Church, White writes, "It would appear with each passing day that Sinead O'Connor has less and less to apologize for."

The article also condemned the Catholic Church for being intolerant, misogynist and fascistic.

Yes, one can even find Catholic bashing being taken to the streets. The streets of San Francisco, that is. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of homosexuals dressed as nuns, were to celebrate this past Easter with an "Indulgence in the Park." It was to feature a "clown-drag nun" fundraiser and a "Hunky Jesus" contest.

On Good Friday they were to have a "traditional observance of Very Good Friday," with scantily clad men.

I could go on and on, but I believe that my point has been made. This kind of hate would not be tolerated if it were aimed at Jews or blacks or Hispanics, homosexuals, or at women for that matter. Why, then, is it okay to go after Catholics with a vengeance?

I believe that so many liberals hate the Church because of its stand on homosexuality. Not because the Church calls for harm to be done to homosexuals. Not because the Church promotes discrimination against homosexuals, but rather because the Church refuses to bow to the pressures thrust upon it by the politically correct.

Those who insist the Church change its belief that homosexuality is a sin. I believe that there are so many in the media, in show business and in positions of power out there that truly get a kick out of Catholic bashing, that it will be very tough to stop it.

That is why it is so very important for good people of all faiths to stand up and shout about it when they see it, hear it or read it. There is no place for this kind of garbage.

Don't let The Catholic League be the lone voice out there battling against the powerful forces on the left. The forces that put forth hate. The forces that choose to bash Catholics.

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