Catholic League president Bill Donohue replied today to Bill O’Reilly’s remarks about the Catholic League last night on TV:
“Last night on his TV show, Bill O’Reilly said, ‘The Catholic League hates me.’ We do not. We simply object when he crosses the line from criticizing the Catholic Church to dissing it.
“In none of the three news releases that I have written on Bill O’Reilly have I ever even hinted at hating him. But the reverse is not true: in his book, Who’s Looking Out for You?, O’Reilly branded the Catholic League a ‘witch-hunter.’ So why is he now spinning the truth?
“In that same book, O’Reilly alleges that we said he ‘despises’ the pope. What I said was that O’Reilly, having called Pope John Paul II ‘an autocrat,’ and having admitted that ‘I have never liked this pope,’ has shown ‘contempt’ for him. That was it. In his mind, that makes us—I guess he means me—a ‘witch hunter.’
“O’Reilly has done a great job criticizing those who are already bashing Pope Benedict XVI. Now if he would just stop bloviating, all would be well.”
