Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on news reports indicating that New Hampshire House Majority Leader David J. Bettencourt plans to apologize to Manchester Bishop John B. McCormack for calling him a “pedophile pimp”:
The apology is overdue. We can only hope it is sincere and to the point, quite unlike the lame letter Bettencourt wrote to the bishop.
To lower the bar on the kind of discourse expected of public servants, at any level of government, would be a grave mistake. Kids who can’t vote listen to the news, and if lawmakers can savage religious leaders, the lesson learned is that coarse language—in any setting—can be uttered with impunity. It is up to the people of New Hampshire to determine whether the apology is satisfactory. The Catholic League has no further comment on this issue.
