Robin Williams Slams Catholic Priests as Pedophiles, Spews Bigotry on NBC Tonight Show

June 20th, 2007 10:42 AM

Actor Robin Williams riffed on Catholic priests as pedophiles on NBC's June 18 Tonight Show with Jay Leno, proving that anti-Catholic bigotry is alive and well and condoned among Hollywood's elite, and apparently among the liberal media as well. Williams essentially smeared all priests,  ignoring the fact that 81 percent of the victims in the Catholic Church were males abused by priests and that more than 40 percent of these victims were males aged 11 to 14. The majority of the victims, according to the official reports on the cases, involved people who were past puberty, i.e., young teenagers.

On the show, Williams pretended to play a game where the pedophile is hidden under a cap (hat tip to the Catholic League). Said Williams: "Here we go. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Here you go right now. Move 'em around, move 'em around. Oh, you found the pedophile." 

Williams went on, placing his hand over his groin, saying, "Youhave to realize that if you are a Catholic priest, you have retired this. That's it--no more sex."  Then Williams slammed confession. "But they are going to put you in a small, dark box and people are going to tell you the nastiest sexual stuff they have done.

Commenting on Williams' anti-Catholic bigotry being aired on a major network, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said: "Isiah Washington lashes out at one gay person in private and he is banished from 'Grey's Anatome.' Robin Williams lashes out all priests in public and he suffers no consequence. To top it off, Williams suggests that most molesting priests are pedophiles, when in fact they are homosexuals. But to make a joke about gay priests could get him into trouble. So it's better to lie. This is justice--Hollywood style."

Note:  The John Jay Study (John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York) on the sexual abuse problem in the Catholic Church, as also noted in the National Review Board report, found that a majority of the victims were post-pubescent adolescents with a small percentage of the priests accused of abusing children who had not reached puberty.