Over the weekend, comedian Dennis Miller and actor Ian McKellen exploited the Catholic Church’s problem of priest pedophilia by making irresponsible statements about priests in general.
On March 15, on “Dennis Miller Live,” an HBO show, the opening monologue by Miller featured a discussion of the problem. He then said to the audience, “F— the priests, they’re weird.”
On NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” 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.
Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:
“On the front page of today’s New York Daily News, there is a picture of the NYPD’s top 10 most brutal and dangerous felons. Nine are non-white. But there will be no jokes made about non-whites and crime—nor should there be—by any comedian or actor. But if some priests are guilty of sexual misconduct, that’s fair game. From radio talk shows to newspaper columnists, sweeping generalizations are being made about priests that are downright cruel. The problems in the Catholic Church have given Catholic bashers an absolute field day.
“Dennis 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.
“As for McKellen, someone should tell him that the Catholic Church does not run the St. Patrick’s Day Parade nor are gays barred from marching. But even if his ignorance were corrected by the facts there is little reason to believe he’d drop his Catholic bashing. This is one prejudice that cannot be relieved through education alone.”
