Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on a bigoted remark made by a Michigan lawmaker:
Rep. Tim Greimel, a Democrat from Auburn Hills, Michigan, is a state lawmaker who is running for Congress. He just stuck his middle finger at Catholics. Not a smart move.
In the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal, Michigan legislators have been weighing several measures to rectify matters. One of the bills being considered would be limited to cases involving physicians like Nassar. There are legitimate reasons to criticize the narrowness of such a bill, but there is no right to indulge in bigotry in doing so.
“All victims of sexual assault deserve the protections of this bill,” said Greimel. He should have stopped there. But instead he accused the bill’s sponsor of doing the bidding of the Michigan Catholic Conference, saying they were “putting the interests of priests who’ve been criminally convicted of sexually abusing children over the victims’ ability to seek justice.”
This is pure unadulterated bigotry. The Catholic Church does not own this problem. Indeed, it has a better record of combating the sexual abuse of minors than any institution in the nation today, secular or religious. For the past ten years, the average number of credible accusations made in the previous year against over 52,000 priests and deacons was 7.1. Match that up with what is going on the public schools today and be ready for a shock.
Greimel owes Catholics an apology. The faster he wipes this stain of bigotry off his record, the better. We will let his colleagues know of our response to his anti-Catholicism.
Contact: timgreimel@house.mi.gov
