On the October 8 episode of the Fox program, “Bones,” the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation was ridiculed. The show, which features a female forensic specialist called “Bones,” and a male detective, Seeley Booth, began with an exchange regarding a female Protestant minister who is missing. Here is how it went:
· Booth: “She’s a pastor. Yeah. Looks like one of those grassroots community churches.”
· Bones: “Huh. She was preparing for a sermon.”
· Booth: “A pastor with augmentation and veneers.”
· Bones: “So?”
· Booth: “A spiritual leader shouldn’t be so vain.”
· Bones: “The pope sits on a throne. He wears robes worth hundreds of dollars. Isn’t that vanity?”
· Booth: “Oh, really? You’re going after the pope now?”
· Bones: “One pastor gets her teeth whitened, and the other drinks wine on Sunday mornings and tells everyone that it’s been miraculously transformed into blood. Which of those is more outlandish?”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
“We had complaints about this show following the episodes that aired on March 28, 2007, and on April 19, 2006, but we decided not to make a public protest because we didn’t think the incidents in question were clear-cut cases of bigotry. But for two reasons, this one is different: a) it cuts to the heart and soul of Catholicism and b) it was entirely gratuitous.
“It does not matter that non-Catholics may not accept what happens at Mass. What matters is that they show respect. And to just throw this line in while the opening credits are running—about a minister, no less—shows how mean-spirited the writers are. If only they thought of Catholics as if they were an indigenous people, we’d be fine.”
Contact Scott Grogin, Senior VP for Communications, atscott.grogin@fox.com
