On April 8, and again on April 12, the HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” featured a verbal assault on Pope John Paul II. Led by Maher, the pope was also attacked by Arianna Huffington. Here is a sample of what happened:
Maher: “People waited in line for 24 hours to see the pope’s body and when they got to see the pope they smelled worse than he did.”
Maher: “For those who could not make the funeral, the Vatican has asked that in lieu of flowers, just stop touching your d—.”
Maher: “American Catholics say we love the pope, he should be a saint but he is kind of full of s— on everything we believe.”
Maher also said that the whole story of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the resurrection was “grafted from paganism.” He ended by mocking the death of the pope and the upcoming conclave.
Huffington egged Maher on, saying “this guy” [the pope] should be blamed for the sexual abuse scandal, as well as AIDS in Africa.
Catholic League president William Donohue remarked as follows;
“HBO bears the ultimate responsibility for this exercise in incivility. They must know that Maher is a man infused with hatred towards the Catholic Church, and that Huffington has long demonstrated that she has no ethical standards whatsoever. So what did they expect? Because Maher and Huffington have a total IQ in double digits, it is not worth our while to try to correct their ignorance. But that doesn’t mean we won’t try to persuade HBO to stop with the bigotry. Timing, as well as content, matters, and on these two counts, HBO failed miserably.”
