This cartoon by Don Wright of the Palm Beach Post (1/16/02) ran in numerous newspapers including the New York Times. It viciously and untruthfully depicts Catholic moral teachings as enslaving women—a typical charge—except now it unfairly uses the sexual abuse scandal as a club. This was common in 2002.
The above cartoon by Mike Peters of the Dayton Daily News (2/10/02) ran in several nationwide newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. It charges that the Church considers ordaining women to be worse than child abuse. Again, the terrible circumstances of the scandal are exploited and used to advance a political agenda.
The above cartoon by Pat Oliphant appeared in the Washington Post (2/20/02) and other papers. It crassly equates President Bush’s famous term for the U.S.’s enemies with Catholic bishops and priests.
This cartoon by Mike Luckovich was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution(2/25/02). It targets all bishops as delinquent in the handling of abusing priests. To target a particular bishop is one thing; to target all is bigotry.
The above by Mike Keefe of the Denver Post (2/27/02) smears all priests. The “odds” the child quotes are a lie: 99 percent of priests have never been accused of abuse. Less than two-thirds of one percent of Catholic priests have been accused of harm since the scandal.
This cartoon by Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News (3/1/02) also appeared in many other newspapers. Wilkinson’s humor is frequently anti-Catholic. Here she uses the scandal to make a tasteless joke.
This cartoon by Steve Benson appeared in the Arizona Republic (3/3/02) and other newspapers. It typifies the obscuring of the truth for political reasons. The cartoon says nothing about gay priests. Since 90 percent of the victims of abuse were male, the majority of the abusers were gay. Yet the artist would never admit this. Not one cartoon we reviewed in 2002 targeted gay priests—only priests in general.
This cartoon by Don Wright of the Palm Beach Post (3/12/02) appeared in several newspapers, including the New York Daily News. The theme of this cartoon was used by others. It targets all priests for the crimes of a few.
Signe Wilkinson’s cartoon was published in the Philadelphia Daily News (3/13/02). It is typical of the false claim of critics of the Church during the sexual abuse scandal—the ordination of women would solve everything.
Nick Anderson’s cartoon was published in several newspapers including the Dallas Morning News (3/18/02). It is another example of targeting all priests for the crimes of a few. One would be hard pressed to find these tactics used against other groups by these artists.
Tony Auth’s cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer (3/20/02) attempted to rebut the fact that celibacy had nothing to do with the sexual abuse scandal. The claim that if bishops were parents they would never have allowed what happened is ludicrous: And it certainly isn’t the case with the abusive clergy of other denominations, most of whom are parents.
This cartoon by Sean Delonas appeared in the New York Post (3/20/02). This is the first of three published over consecutive days. It uses his trademark tasteless style to portray all priests as perverts.
This cartoon by Sean Delonas appeared in the New York Post (3/21/02). This is the second in a series. He again portrays all bishops and priests as sexual predators.
This cartoon by Sean Delonas appeared in the New York Post (3/22/02). It was the third in as many days. Once again, he portrays all priests as perverts. This example is particularly crude even by the standard of the cartoons we reviewed in 2002.
This cartoon by Nick Anderson was printed in the Chicago Tribune (3/22/02). It is another example of a critic using the scandal to portray the pope and the Church as hypocrites.
This cartoon by Pat Oliphant appeared in numerous newspapers (syndicated, 3/23/02). A particularly vile installment, Oliphant continued his attack on all Catholic priests. His bias is even more pronounced in the statement of the elderly man. The priests are clearly chasing boys and are therefore gay. Whom would they marry?
Another cartoon by Pat Oliphant that appeared in numerous newspapers (syndicated, 4/15/02). It is emotionally manipulative and false. Pope John Paul II never expressed anything like this. Indeed, his strong statements at the time that there is no room in the priesthood for anyone who harms a child proved otherwise.
This cartoon by Nate Allen was published in The State News, newspaper of Michigan State University (4/18/02). In linking child pornography with all priests it fulfils the requirements for bigotry—going from the individual to the collective.
This cartoon by Joel Pett ran in the Lexington Herald Leader (4/23/02). It was another one that attacked all priests in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on child pornography.
This cartoon by Michael Ramirez was published in the (4/27/02). It apparently implies that married priests won’t settle the abuse problem. What it avoids completely is that the majority of the abuse was committed by homosexual priests. This is something that was never a topic of cartoons.
This cartoon by Pat Oliphant appeared in several newspapers (syndicated, 6/5/02). It falsely interprets the bishops’ draft on the sexual abuse problem before their meeting by making it seem that a priest could get away with abusing at least one child. The reasoning at that point was that if a priest reformed after an isolated incident he would be allowed to continue in limited ministry. This idea was subsequently rejected.
This cartoon by Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times (6/6/02) It falsely suggests that the Church condones child sexual abuse.
This cartoon by Mike Smith appeared in USA Today (6/6/02). Once again, a critic falsely interprets the bishops’ draft on the sexual abuse problem.
This cartoon by Dan Wasserman appeared in the Boston Globe (6/28/02) right after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of school vouchers. It is well known that most parents who use vouchers use them for Catholic schools. The demagogic scare tactics used here charge that now every extremist form of religion will get to use government money in its schools, therefore it shouldn’t be allowed.
This cartoon by Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News (7/11/02) slanderously claims that the Church would use government voucher money for abuse settlements. Although there is absolutely no evidence that this would be the case, Wilkinson obviously despises the idea that Catholic schools would get this money.
Mike Peter’s cartoon appeared in the Chicago Tribune (10/26/02) as well as other papers. It is a take off of a familiar image using “Holy See” as a pun, and was just another way to bash the Catholic Church during the crisis.
This cartoon by Chris Britt of the Springfield, IL, State Journal-Register (11/15/02) appeared in several other papers as well. This was right after the November meeting of the bishops when they adopted the policy to deal with sexual abuse. To imply that the Church was to allow abusing priests a second chance is clearly false in light of what the bishops adopted. To portray this as coming directly from the pope is even more vicious.
This cartoon by Jeff Darcy appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (11/15/02). It is one of several cartoons that linked the crisis in the Church with the Iraq situation. This one mocked the bishops for having an opinion on Iraq. It is obvious that Darcy wants the Church to lose its prestige and ability to affect public opinion.
This cartoon by Mike Ritter appeared in several newspapers (syndicated, 12/9/02). It cruelly equates the Iraqi government with the Catholic Church.