Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night’s episode of “Late Night with Seth Meyers”:
Seth Meyers and one of his genius writers, Jenny Hagel, did a number on the Catholic Church last night that showcased their ignorance. Here is the exchange:
Meyers: “The Vatican recently refused to host an international women’s day conference because one of the speakers was a lesbian.”
Hagel: “…and because they’re too busy hosting a 2,000-year-long pedophile convention.”
Here’s the truth. For the past four years, the Vatican has hosted an event, Voices of Faith, that gives prominent Catholic women a platform to discuss a range of social and cultural issues; it is part of the International Women’s Day. It has never screened for sexual orientation.
This year the Vatican refused to host the event because two women, Ssenfuka Joanita Warry and Tina Beattie, have a reputation of bashing the Catholic Church. Had they been heterosexual, the result would have been the same.
Why is this different from any other conference host? Do journalists host conferences and awards dinners featuring those who hate the media? Do Muslims welcome anti-Islamic bigots to their events?
The quip about pedophiles is another example of their ignorance. If Meyers and Hagel were interested in the truth, they would mention homosexuals—gays were responsible for the lion’s share of the scandal (less than five percent were pedophiles). But that would take guts. And this is not something that the writers and hosts of late-night TV shows have in abundance.
Talking about truth and courage, why didn’t Meyers and Hagel use a more contemporary example? Why didn’t they make a joke about Hollywood not hosting a conference featuring its most strident critics? Then they could have said that the moguls are too busy hosting a decades-long rapist convention.
Contact: Lauren Roseman, VP, NBC Entertainment Publicity: lauren.roseman@nbcuni.com
