Today Catholic League President Bill Donohue is alerting his audience to a minor controversy at Bellingham High School in Washington State, involving a drama club awards ceremony that got out of hand. According to Donohue, one of the tasteless jokes told during the ceremony was “among the most vulgar expressions of anti-Catholicism that I have encountered in some time.” Sounds pretty bad!

Allegedly, [drama instructor] Teri Grimes told a “joke” at an awards ceremony that was laced with profanity. That is bad enough, but what caught my eye was her rank anti-Catholic bigotry. “The plane was going down and the teacher says we have to save the children,” Ms. Grimes said. “The attorney says ‘F*** the children’ and the priest says, ‘OOOOH—Do we have time for that?’”

Where exactly, you might be wondering, is this “rank anti-Catholic bigotry” that Donohue is jabbering about? Grimes merely referred to a “priest,” a leadership position held by people of many different religious traditions. And scholars of Donohue’s hysterical and aimless attempts to gin up outrage should be acquainted with his habit of pointing out that plenty of non-Catholic priests and ministers have been accused of abusing children, too.

From 2007:

On June 16, the New York Times ran an Associated Press story, “Data Shed Light on Child Sexual Abuse by Protestant Clergy.” ... In a time when Catholic priests are routinely ridiculed and stereotyped as molesters, the study on Protestant ministers shows the problem is far from limited to one religion.

From 2009:

Last year, 40 minors in this small Jewish community said they were abused. Last year, there were 10 such allegations in the entire Catholic Church in all 50 states. Catholics are fed up with the duplicity.

From 2012:

The Church Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints reported 3-4 yearly lawsuits over the course of the last 10 years, which translates to allegations in .4-.5% Mormon wards. ... [The] Catholic Church isn’t the only religious establishment faced with this problem.

Anyway: Why does Donohue assume that a priest who rapes children is Catholic? Why is he such an anti-Catholic bigot?

[Photo credit: CNN]