About us Login Get email updates
Quick Clip
Print

On 700 Club, Donohue rants that gay adoption "against nature," Catholic Church has "homosexual" - not "pedophilia" - "problem"

October 16, 2009 8:52 am ET

From the October 15 edition of CBN's The 700 Club:

Please upgrade your flash player. The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player. If you are unable to install flash you can download a QuickTime version of the video.

EMBED
Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by jjamele2880 (October 16, 2009 8:57 am ET)
      12 1
      Oh, great- Bill Donahue pops up on tv again and opens the door for about fifty or sixty Pedophile-Priest-All-Catholics-Are-Morons posts. Before they start, can I please ask the posters to focus their venom on Mr. Donahue and not the millions of honest, decent, sincere Catholics out there who wouldn't give this idiot the time of day? Please?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by christopher howard (October 16, 2009 9:19 am ET)
        4  
        Jjamele:

        Point well taken. As an atheist I am nonetheless inclined to judge people-of-faith individually rather than collectively. People like Donohue make it difficult, but I hope people will not jump to statements of collective guilt.

        In reply to Donohue's ranting, what the Catholic Church really had was a systemic abuse of power problem. A "few" "bad apple" priests whose activities were covered up by the Church hierarchy as a whole. I remember the clergy abuse problem receiving some ink back in the mid-1980s, but when it broke wide in 2002 the church publicly expressed surprise, when it was clearly complicit in covering up criminal activities.

        That said, it is worth noting that most of the victims, as well as the perpetrators, of these crimes were Catholic. I certainly do not blame most individual Catholics for the repugnant failings of their leaders.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by jjamele2880 (October 16, 2009 9:39 am ET)
          7 1
          I was baptized a Catholic and raised by non-practicing Catholics; today I consider myself an agnostic leaning heavily toward Atheism. I condemn the Catholic church for it's complicity in covering up decades of abuse, but I leave Catholics alone. Whatever I think of the belief systems of Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc. etc. I respect their right to hold those beliefs, as long as they don't attempt to interfere with secular law. I detest anti-religious bigotry just as much as I detest religious bigotry-- too often people fail to separate institutions from believers.
          Report Abuse
      • Author by NG_Officer (October 16, 2009 10:18 am ET)
        6  
        Unfortunately, until the Catholic Church and other Catholic groups denounces this idiot, the "millions of honest, decent, sincere Catholics" are complicit in his hate speech.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by dexteritas0071418 (October 16, 2009 10:23 am ET)
          4 5
          um, no. Unless you feel the same way about every Muslim and Arab who isn't denouncing radical islamic terror.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by NG_Officer (October 16, 2009 10:28 am ET)
            7 1
            Did I say every catholic must personally denounce him? No, I said the Catholic Church (The Vatican).
            What a ridiculous comparison...Every time someone has an issue with a christian religion, one of you nuts always has to say "but...but...but ...what about the Muslums?"
            Report Abuse
            • Author by dexteritas0071418 (October 16, 2009 10:56 am ET)
              1 5
              "I" don't say "but..but..but..what about the muslims", but in this case, the same wrong reasoning applies. You didn't say every catholic, but you did say the Vatican AND "catholic groups", and you also said that if those bodies didn't denounce, then all catholics are complicit.

              So, ok, unless all the major worldwide Islamic institutions and leaders denounce the next terror attack by Al Qaeda or another islam-inspired group, then every muslim is complicit in the hate, if we're following your reasoning. You said it, not me.
              Report Abuse
              • Author by NG_Officer (October 16, 2009 10:59 am ET)
                5 1
                wrong again...
                Catholic groups and the church itself are Donahue a pass by not denouncing his statements,i.e. he is the de facto spokesperson for the catholic church
                Report Abuse
                • Author by dexteritas0071418 (October 16, 2009 11:01 am ET)
                    2
                  I disagree, but my point isn't my disagreement with that statement..the point is that your reasoning to get there is flawed, unless you believe that across the board amongst other groups, which you clearly aren't ready to admit to.
                  Report Abuse
            • Author by Brabantio (October 16, 2009 11:24 am ET)
              2  
              You have to have some recognition that while the church leadership speaks for the church as an entity, it doesn't say anything about the membership itself. There's quite a bit of politics inherent to any organized religion, which is why the values that they espouse are often contradicted by leadership action. Pedophile priests, for instance, shouldn't be moved from church to church, by pretty much any moral standard. But that's what the church has done, due to a need for damage control. There's no fair attribution of responsibility for that to the rank and file of Catholics, though.

              So even if Catholic leaders and groups were to approve of Donohue's speech, I don't see how that makes millions of sincere Catholics "complicit" in any way. If you're talking about appearance of complicity to the public, I would say that the actions of the church do reflect on the membership, wrongly or not.
              Report Abuse
              • Author by dexteritas0071418 (October 16, 2009 11:54 am ET)
                  1
                I'm awaiting at least 3 "thumbs down" for you....but it won't happen because you dont' have the stalkers I do =)
                Report Abuse
    • Author by wzwriter (October 16, 2009 9:15 am ET)
      2  
      People like Bill Donahue are why I'm an ex-Catholic.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by vysotsky (October 16, 2009 9:45 am ET)
      5 1
      Donohue: "So they lie about the Catholic Church and they say 'oh we had a pedophilia problem'. It's been a homosexual problem all along!...I'm not saying homosexuality causes predatory behavior; I'm saying that most of the priests who have been predators have been homosexual and they hit on post-pubescent boys, not minors!"


      Does even Bill Donohue understand what Bill Donohue is trying to say?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by jbrantow (October 16, 2009 10:04 am ET)
        5 1
        Your twisted facts are false. Please tell us where you get your facts and where you obtained your PhyD? Gay men are attracted to masculinity. Prepubescent boys are hardly masculine. Pedophilia is not homosexuality. You are blurring a line than reasonably shouldn't be blurred. Also what's your explanation for male preists abusing prepubescent girls. There were plenty of those as well.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by worrierking (October 16, 2009 10:17 am ET)
          5  
          I'm pretty sure that the twisted facts you mention are Donohue's not Vysotsky's.

          Report Abuse
        • Author by Conchobhar (October 16, 2009 10:24 am ET)
          3  
          Bigotry doesn't deal with facts.
          The Catholic Church doesn't have a "homosexual problem," or a pedophilia problem, per se. It has a sexual repression problem, and an abuse of power problem. This isn't unique to the Church, as the flameouts of televangelists have shown. When you have a "flock" following a man believed to be close to and speaking for God, you have sheep ready for slaughter.
          Report Abuse
        • Author by vysotsky (October 16, 2009 10:31 am ET)
          4  
          If you read my comment again, you may notice that I've left several subtle clues indicating that Bill Donohue's incoherent and offensive remarks are not my own. They include quotation marks, direct attribution of Donohue's comments to Donohue, and my own somewhat snarky criticism of what Donohue said.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by Brabantio (October 16, 2009 11:05 am ET)
            1  
            You went well above and beyond the call of duty. The quote box should be sufficient without listing his name or using quotation marks. About the only other thing you could have done would be to type THIS IS A QUOTE in there.
            Report Abuse
    • Author by jbrantow (October 16, 2009 9:59 am ET)
      3 1
      So how does this "catholic", donahue, explain the male preists molesting the underage girls........what a piece of holy crap. If only third trimester abortion were legal when his mother was in labor.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by usp (October 16, 2009 11:44 am ET)
           
        it's tough. most underage kids don't care i.d. so it's pretty hard to be sure about stuff like that.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by SLRTX (October 16, 2009 10:06 am ET)
      5  
      I couldn't stand to listen this entire clip. It hurts my brain to try to reconcile that anyone, even CBN would give airtime to such a lunatic.

      What a complete crock. He just strings buzz-words together into an incompressible jumble of crap.

      Is this one of those guys who stand on the street corner, waving a bible, telling us all the world is going to end? They just cleaned him up, gave him a shave, and put a suit on him.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by ScienceBuff (October 16, 2009 10:36 am ET)
      2  
      Of course, by criticizing Donohue's bigotry and ignorance we'll be accused of bashing christianity.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by snoopy (October 16, 2009 10:48 am ET)
        1  
        Not quite. We'll be accused of it when the reichwing fundamentalists do their yearly count of how many christians vs. muslims are in the world. Once the count is over, we'll be drowned out by those same reichwingers who will be comparing the pope to satan.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by rtwmd1230 (October 16, 2009 11:00 am ET)
      1  
      And it's wonderful he's doing this on the 700 Club. I'm sure the next guest was some hillbilly snakehandler denouncing the Catholic Church as the great whore of Babylon.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by shaggles (October 16, 2009 11:16 am ET)
      1  
      How can any adoption be for or against nature?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by lewislaw7153 (October 16, 2009 12:19 pm ET)
      2  
      "We have a left element in the catholic church . . "

      "Most of the priests that have hit on the prepubescent children have been homosexual."

      DUH . .

      So it was just COINCIDENCE the victims of priests were children? The priests couldn't find any adult males?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by midcinmann (October 16, 2009 12:42 pm ET)
         
      This man and people like him give Christians a bad name.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Boxer1979 (October 16, 2009 1:57 pm ET)
      2  
      On 700 Club, Donohue rants that gay adoption "against nature," Catholic Church has "homosexual" - not "pedophilia" - "problem"

      [http://www.liberadio.com/wp-content/loony_sm.jpg]



      Report Abuse
    • Author by Ribelin2000 (October 16, 2009 5:50 pm ET)
         
      I just loved it when "South Park" went after this guy on one of their episodes.
      Report Abuse