A recent blog post by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan criticizing the New York Times has gained momentum. Dolan called out the Times for its "gushing" reviews of an art exhibit by ACT UP that features a picture of the late John Cardinal O'Connor resembling a condom (pictured beside him), with the inscription, "Know Your Scumbag." He also noted its glowing review of a play that mocks Catholicism, "The Divine Sister"; a large crude photo of a cross-dressing homosexual in a nun's habit was also published.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue discussed this issue this morning on "Fox and Friends," and now offers some more thoughts:
The producers of the play are boasting that their work is "indeed irreverent," and gossip maven Liz Smith agrees: she writes approvingly that it is "startlingly vulgar." Rainbow Sash, a group known for disrupting Mass, berates Dolan for throwing "a public hissy fit," and for attempting to "censor" expression, merely because he objects to bigotry.
It is impossible to beat the New York Times (though Trinity College professor Mark Silk is a close second). It defends its Catholic bashing by indulging in the following Freudian insight: "While Archbishop Dolan is entitled to his opinions, he might not have liked the intense spotlight cast on the Church when the Timesextensively reported on the widespread abuse and molestation of children at the hands of the Catholic Clergy." So that is what's bothering Dolan—the Times' failed attempt to pin the homosexual scandal on the pope last spring, not the newspaper's flagging of anti-Catholic fare!
As I said this morning on TV, "the New York Times has never found an anti-Catholic TV show, movie, artistic exhibition or play that it didn't like," save, perhaps, for artistic reasons. That it now sides with ACT UP, a gay fascist group known for busting into St. Patrick's Cathedral during Mass, throwing condoms in the air and spitting the Host on the floor, shows just how low it has sunk. Archbishop Dolan is right to slam the Times, and the Catholic League proudly stands with him.
Contact NYT's public editor Arthur S. Brisbane:public@nytimes.com
