Catholics compared to pedophiles and Eucharist as barbaric ritual

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

Arianna Huffington, publisher of the Huffington Post is under fire for allowing a column to be published on her website that compares Catholics to pedophiles and attacks the Eucharist as a “barbaric ritual.”

In a letter dated Tuesday a group of conservative leaders allege Huffington is “complicit in bigotry” for publishing columnist Larry Doyle’s article about Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith.

The letter claims “Larry Doyle’s recent anti-Catholic screed in the Huffington Post, ‘The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum,’ (Catholic Republican US Presidential candidate) is bigoted and unacceptable, and a perfect example of ‘flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric'” is what Huffington pledged to avoid when she launched the Huffington Post in 2005.

The group asked for the column to be removed from her website.

Describing Mass as a “barbaric ritual,” satirist Doyle writes that “a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine, transfiguring it into the actual living flesh and blood of their Christ. Followers then line up to eat the Jesus meat and drink his holy blood in a cannibalistic reverie not often seen outside Cinemax.”

Saying he’s a former altar boy, Doyle, claims to have “seen behind the curtain” but escaped.

Doyle’s column was roundly criticized and he wrote a follow-up on Tuesday saying he would not apologize and doesn’t care if anyone is offended.

“My criticism took the form of a ridiculously over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum,” he writes.

“I hope (Catholics who are offended) will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will.”

As for Doyle’s claim it was satire, the group writes that “intelligent readers and the millions of faithful Catholics” who read the article “don’t buy such equivocating nonsense for a minute.”

The group concludes that if Huffington doesn’t delete Doyle’s piece and issue an apology, “your so-called news outlet cannot be seen as anything but an anti-Catholic talking piece.”

The letter is signed by Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center; Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage; Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List; Richard Viguerie chairman of ConservativeHQ.com; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Sources