Then why, pray tell, don’t you just ignore him like everyone else?

Our local Catholic diocesan rag (aka “my weekly dose of anti-Catholic propaganda”) had an article about Newt Gingrich (“recent convert”) on the cover. If there was ever any doubt that Bill Donohue and fellow travelers are putting out the RCC’s true message, things like this remove it.

(Incidentally, there was a link somewhere on SadlyNo yesterday to the Litany of Butthurt, aka the Catholic League’s annual reports on Anti-Catholicism. There’s some really good stuff in those reports—I especially recommend the editorial cartoons. And don’t forget to look out for numerous flat-out lies in the media analysis.)

Don’t anyone tell him about the penguins.

(And actually yhe catholic church has a sexual abuse problem, it’s just that because of the institutionalized misogyny much of the prosecutable abuse was same-sex, although there are plenty of hetero abuse cases out there, including the infamous one where the church tried to avoid liability by claiming that the victim could have gotten an abortion.)

Will “they” ever drop “gay = pedo”?

No?

OK, then “we” won’t ever drop “priest = child rapist”.

Fair ‘nuf?

I like how ignoring the rantings of a lunatic like Donohue is some sort of solution to the problem of lunatics like Donohue being constantly given media platforms as if he were some sort of official RCC spokesperson. 

And now he’s hawking his fucking book.

So not only does the asshole get on the tube at the drop of a hat, not only are his words treated as if they were channeling Herr Popenfuhrer, but, of course, he uses his unwarranted platform to deflect valid criticisms of the RCC hierarchy and how they’ve systematically avoided full accountability for immoral and illegal activities by priests. 

Throw some dirt on the Left, excuse everything done by the RCC and its clergy, splatter some mud on LGBT’s, and call it a night.  Get the proles to buy his book, take home some coin.  Pretty sweet.

At least there was one totally new, utterly startling, and simply mind-bending revelation from the perpetually hateful Mr. Donohue:  All of the world’s problems are caused by the Left/Socialists/Communists (which are apparently all the same to him), and The Gay.  Yawn…

What they don’t get is that it doesn’t matter if it was love for the same sex or love for children, it is the misuse of trust to take advantage of people.  The Catholic Church thinks they are doing the will of God, though, so they will never admit wrongdoing.  The best we can all do is leave them in droves and work like hell to restore separation of church and state.

I think he’s refering to this wonderful press release by the Vatican. I must admit I dismissed it as a bit of journo exageration as I couldn’t find any real corroboration anywhere else. But hey, thanks Bill, now I know the Catholic church doesn’t know the difference between homosexuality and paedophilia.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/28/sex-abuse-religion-vatican

It’s also the biggest tu quoque I’ve ever seen and uses the little known ‘relabel the problem and it goes away’ gambit. Ephebopobia? that sounds like child abuse to me.

ephebophilia*

the catholic league is merely mr. donahue’s personal self-employment activity. it isn’t an official organ of the church, just some noisy bunch of wannabe “victims” of religious persecution.

frankly, i had no idea nature had much to say on the subject of human adoption, i always thought that was the state’s purview. the things i learn here!

Well, this is one of those times when I want to reach through the screen and smack the idiot.

It is true that the Catholic Church has far more of a homosexual problem than it does a pedophilia problem, but the problem isn’t that there is an organized attack of undercover gay teens entering seminaries for the purpose of getting ordained so they can grow up to abuse minors.

The problem is the Church’s treatment of gay people in general, its incredibly repressive rules about sexuality (no sex until marriage AND masturbation is a sin? Priests, monks and nuns must be celibate AND masturbation is a sin?), and the absurd pedestal they have their clergy on. By utterly condemning homosexuality, making marriage and kids the central part of Catholic society, and then offering a high-status social position where not having heterosexual relationships is mandatory, of course the priesthood is going to be full of gay men! Where else (except out of the Church) can a gay man go?

I am NOT excusing the sexual misconduct. But the system appears specifically set up to guarantee it. And THAT is the Church’s problem, not nihilists who are setting out to destroy society.

I’m pretty sure the “natural” thing to do with unwanted offspring is to leave them in the woods for the wolves.  We are human beings and we are better than animals, Mr. Donohue!

No, Bill Donohue is not the official voice of the RCC or of anything other than his mailing list, he just pretends he is.

and unless the RCC comes out and denies it, they are complicit in letting his hate represent them.  that’s the thing—he goes on tv claiming he’s representing Catholics, and NO ONE DENIES IT—especially no one with authority.

What Caren said.  If a man appears constantly on TV as your representative and says just what you believe (albeit in downmarket form) then you can’t go all innocent and say that he doesn’t represent you.  You have a choice: disown him, or accept the slings and arrows of outraged unfortunates quite justly thrown your way. 

The church’s implicit acceptance of this loathsome mouthbox is merely “plausible deniability” gone modern.

Again, what Caren said. The church is instantaneous at condemning anyone who even claims to BE a Catholic and speaks out on a forbidden topic like abortion or gay rights. Are we supposed to believe that if they had the slightest opposition to the views of someone as visible as Donohue who claims to be speaking FOR the church?

No doctor would do it, because they are better human beings than I, but I’d love to see Brother Donohue show up at a hosptial with a 104 degree fever and be refused treatment because that would be “against nature”.

It’s not just gay priest, it’s not just pedophiles, it’s also straight priests who have affairs with adult women.  Apparently a rather large % of priests just can’t keep it in their pants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/us/16priest.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

I’ll say- the church is extremely good at covering this up.  The article says something like 25% of priests have kids. This is the second case I know of.

All this should be brought right out in the open, and we should not let them direct the discussion.  They are doing a piss poor job of living up to their ideals.

Roman Catholicism is “against nature.”

Apparently a rather large % of priests just can’t keep it in their pants.

drachonfire - Well, neither can most people over time, and the problem isn’t that a priest (or anyone else) has a sexual relationship with another consenting adult. It’s this business of using their positions to evade responsibility.

Celibacy is supposed to be a sacrifice, but it causes the priesthood to attract men for whom it’s a perk—who just can’t deal with sexuality like responsible adults. Either they’re profoundly inclined to denial (of the power and goodness of their own feelings and everyone else’s), or they use their positions of authority to intimidate their partners, or both.

(Incidently, on perusing the comments of that article, I found this [#128].)

Oh just several of the reasons I left the Catholic Church behind in the dust, eons ago.

By the by, my family was forced to raise their children Catholic—a half century ago, to marry my Catholic mother, my Protestant father had to sign a contract that he’d raise the children in the faith.

Are they still doing that?

You notice that, whatever the John Jay study that Donahue quotes really said, Donahue himself does not say that the kids the priests were fooling with over the age of consent—rather, he only implies that they were past the age of puberty.

Makes you wonder what his position is on the Roman Polanski business.

a half century ago, to marry my Catholic mother, my Protestant father had to sign a contract that he’d raise the children in the faith.

It was true about fifteen years ago. And actually all Catholics have to sign that same contract: if you want to get married in the Catholic church, you must raise any children Catholic. If you don’t get married in the Catholic church specifically, you aren’t “really married” and are just living in sin.

Isn’t that a great little scam?

Uh, ” . . . the kids the priests were fooling with were over the age of consent . . . “

Don’t feed the troll. Eventually, someone might ask who died to make him Pope, given that the RC Church is not short on hierarchical authority. In the meantime, you ignore him.

People definitely get on the news because everyone is ignoring them.

Well, he gets on TV because he never turns down a call from a booker, lives five minutes from a camera, and pays his cab fare to the studio. And the clip is from Pat Robertson’s show, which is to news what Doughho is to a spokesperson for Catholics.