Karen De Witt, a writer for the New York Times, recently took a cheap shot against the Catholic Church. In the PBS show, “To the Contrary,” the panelists were discussing sexual abuse when De Witt unloaded with the folllowing: “It’s not just an issue with girls alone. Boys are exploited as well, and people should not forget this. I mean not, not […] we’ve had incidences in the Catholic Church, you know under the guise of religion. But boys are just as much likely to be the target of perverts as girls are.”
A letter was sent directly to De Witt stating our objections. “Out of nowhere you found it necessary to trot out the old canard about Catholic priests as pedophiles,” we said. “For the record, this problem is not only not unique to the Catholic clergy, its incidence is less than among the non-celibate Protestant clergy.”
We hope that our closing line will make her think: “Perhaps in another edition of “To the Contrary” you will find the opportunity—just do it out of nowhere—to correct the unfair stereotype you helped to foster.”
