On ABC’s “The View” today, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and guest co-host Whoopi Goldberg criticized the actions of a Catholic priest in Wisconsin. Having learned that his organist/choir director was selling sex toys, the pastor advised the woman that the products she peddled were incompatible with Catholic teaching. When she refused to quit her sales job, the priest removed her from her position.
During the discussion, Behar said, “She is selling [the sex toys] to married couples, which the Catholic Church wants you to procreate. How do they think we have been doing it all these years? With sex toys, that’s how.” Goldberg asserted that the woman now “can’t get a spiritual advisor” because she has “a different way of doing things.” Walters reinforced Goldberg’s notion by asking, “Why can’t someone who is a hooker at night…on Sunday go to whatever church or temple and try to get spiritual?” Hasselbeck questioned the merit of “probing into your private life in terms of how well you can do your job or keep your job.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on the episode today:
“Here we go again. This is the fifteenth incident since September where ‘The View’ has revealed its overwhelming obsession with all things Catholic. The panelists’ disregard for the truth is bad enough—for instance, there is no report of the woman being denied spiritual advice, or even the sacraments, because of the nature of her job—but what is especially appalling is the co-hosts’ intrusion into the internal matters of the Church. Clergy of all religions make judgments about the moral propriety of their employees every day, without attracting any attention. Yet when a Catholic priest does it, the ladies of ‘The View’ launch into a sophomoric rant questioning his right to run his parish as he sees fit.
“It has only been a matter of days since ‘The View’s’ leading bigot, Rosie O’Donnell, left the show. Yet the assault goes on. The co-hosts will use any excuse to rip into the Church, even if they have to play fast and loose with the facts to do so. Thus we see that the true culprit isn’t Rosie, it is co-owner and co-producer Barbara Walters. She’s the captain of this anti-Catholic ship.”
Contact ABC executive Anne Sweeney at 818-569-7700.
