Tonight Show's Jay Leno Jokes of Priests as Pedophiles Six Times in Five Weeks

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | July 26, 2007 | John-Henry Westen

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Thursday July 26, 2007	Printer friendly version	Email to a friend

Tonight Show's Jay Leno Jokes of Priests as Pedophiles Six Times in Five Weeks

By John-Henry Westen

NEW YORK, July 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic League has revealed a sustained attack against the Catholic Church from Jay Leno, host of the Tonight Show.   Describing it as "Jay Leno's obsession," the League points out that in the past five weeks, the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" has ridiculed priests six times and the pope once; all of the priest jokes were sexual in nature and painted priests as molesters.

·   June 18: Robin Williams gets into an extended diatribe about priests as pedophiles

·   June 20: Leno cracks a joke about priests as pedophiles

·   June 21: Leno makes a joke about a drunken pedophile priest

·   July 12: Leno ridicules the pope for restating Catholic doctrine on salvation

·   July 18: Leno portrays all priests as pedophiles

·   July 23: Leno jokes about priests using the Harry Potter books as "bait" to lure kids

·   July 23: Leno tells a story about a priest who pays to see a male stripper at a gay nightclub and jokes that the priest was cheating on his altar boy

"Hypocritical priests make for good script, but in the world Jay Leno apparently lives in, priests have a monopoly on hypocrisy," Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented.  "This would seem to suggest that either he is clueless about other expressions of hypocrisy, or there is a strong animus against Catholicism at work. If it's the former, the Catholic League can be of assistance-we track lots of hypocrites, many of whom live in Leno's Hollywood backyard. If it's the latter, we suggest he knock it off."

To express concerns, contact NBC President:

Mr. Jeff Zucker, President
NBC Entertainment
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
Phone: (818) 840-4444
Email: nbcshows@nbc.com 

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
NBC Studios
3000 W. Alameda Avenue
Burbank, CA 91523
Phone: (818) 840-3538
Email: TonightShow@nbc.com

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[go-dubya-04]

Same here. 12 years of Catholic school and never witnessed so much hypocrisy since. I cannot understand how any person (my family included) still remains in this corrupt institution.

[netmilsmom]

Come on over to our 6:30 pm Holy Mass on Sundays.
Father Norbert will give you a shockingly good surprise.

Maybe that’s my problem. I do hear this stuff. I do hear the angry disdain.

Maybe I need to get out more.

(but I can tell you the seminaries are being purged, quick fast and in a hurry)

[Bogtrotter52]

Yeah, ain’t free speech a pain. And telling the truth is not “bashing”.

[netmilsmom]

Post 8 that Clear_Case guy was refering to is not truth. It is opinion.

Go back and read it

[hunter112]

And have sent letters to the Diocese when different money-raising calls have come out saying, “You’ll get money when you clean this all up”. And like I said, many things have already been done.

I appreciate knowing this. Until more people realize that the Catholic people have not just been "the flock" to their hierarchy, they will see this scandal as having reached an endpoint. Until then, send the Leno jokes to the bishops and cardinals, let them know what their inaction has caused Catholics to endure.

[netmilsmom]

>>Until then, send the Leno jokes to the bishops and cardinals, let them know what their inaction has caused Catholics to endure.<<

This actually is a great idea!

We recently got an small sum of money from my hubby’s parents. We wanted our 10% to go to our parish only.

A copy of this article may well go to Our Archdiocese!

[IrishBrigade]

The story isn’t the abuse - it’s the protection racket and issue avoidance that went on for decades. There’s no similar story there with “protestants”, so there are no jokes to tell...

...I see...so Leno’s telling jokes about the ‘protection racket’...not the pedophiles...sure...I can see how there’s a lot more humorous material in that...

[hunter112]

This actually is a great idea!

Glad I could suggest it. Blame the people who caused the ridicule, not those who are laughing at the jokes.

I am sympathetic to your feelings, it must be tough to be in a parish that was not part of the scandal, but still has to pay the costs for what happened elsewhere.

[IrishBrigade]

I cannot understand how any person (my family included) still remains in this corrupt institution...

...classy post, bud...does it strain your brain to think that others may disagree with you???

[netmilsmom]

>>but still has to pay the costs for what happened elsewhere.<<

It’s a bite.
But I’ll take what I have to do because I love working with the kiddies. My girls appreciate mom showing up and being known as “MsB” to all the young people in our parish, is something I couldn’t miss.

And trust me, not only has this caused me to be wary of all adults when it comes to my kids, but also I hold back on hugs and kisses myself. That is the worst part. Being Polish, we’re always kissing some kid. Now I have to watch myself and keep those kisses to my own, only.

[Grunthor]

I understand that the jokes probably hurt feelings, and I am sorry that they do. That being said, I would NEVER under ANY circumstances EVER allow a young male member of my family to be alone with a Catholic Priest. I’m sorry, it’s just not safe.

[IrishBrigade]

I would NEVER under ANY circumstances EVER allow a young male member of my family to be alone with a Catholic Priest. I’m sorry, it’s just not safe...

...nice little bit of profiling there...gee, let’s see, we got single digit percentages of gay priests out there doing what they’re doing, which leaves 90 plus percent walking the line...and you’re fine with slamming the entire profession...think you’d do that with any other group of people, or are priests just special...

[SuziQ]

Frankly, just WHO watches Jay Leno anymore, or more importantly, who takes him seriously?

Why should anyone give him any free publicity?

[SuziQ]

One of the more ridiculous things I can think of is receiving pre-marriage counseling from the church if the one giving the advice is a celibate.

You may scoff, but the man has probably heard it ALL when it concerns marriage and it's joys and difficulties.

When we did Pre-Cana, over 32 years ago, we had several married couples who did the talks. It was very enlightening.

[dan1123]

I think we would all prefer the pedophiles and those that aided them to be spending the rest of their lives in jail rather than spending someone else’s money to stay out of it. The large punitive damages are really dissatisfying and make it continue to be an issue with the public (and hence Leno’s continued mention of it).

[gidget7]

Leno’s jokes are getting increasingly distasteful. Which is why I stopped watching. When I did watch, for a number of years now, I watched only the dialog, not the guests, unless he had a conservative on.

[go-dubya-04]

What is classy or not classy? I said I don’t understand. That is my opinion/question. Explain to me (with your towering intellect) why you remain connected to what is clerly a corrupt instiution. I lived in Massachusetts and NH, the land made famous by Bernard Law and his ilk, including Bishop McCormick, who they made a bishop despite his clear involvement in the cover-up and stonewalling. Cardinal Law, rather than being run out of the Church on a rail was given a high post in the Vatican. The LA Diocese just agreed to pay out $660 million ($666 million would have been more appropriate) to the HUNDREDS of victims that they ignored.
My point is that ANY church is a man-made institution. All Christians believe that Jesus is our Lord & Savior. Why would anyone stay connected to the man-made institution that has clearly abused thousands of children and done everything it could to cover-up those abuses in order to “save the Church”? There are other equally valid ways to praise Jesus.
Should Jim Bakker’s followers ignored his fraud and continued to follow him in his corrupt ministry?
And, what is your opinion with regard to the stance that the Catholic Church is taking toward illegal immigration? I’m sure that stance has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that most of the illegals are plopping dollars into the basket every Sunday.
You reap what you sow.

[Bogtrotter52]

“........we had several married couples who did the talks. It was very enlightening.”

Now that does make sense. Good Catholic married couples counseling soon-to-be’s. True, the priest may have heard it all, but he is still looking at it from an outsiders point of view. Unless of course he was one of the ones who got into the priesthood later in life. I understand that happens fairly often now.

[SuziQ]

he is still looking at it from an outsiders point of view.

True, but that does afford him some objectivity in the matter. I think the combination of the priest and the married couples is the best. That's what we had.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

I guess you don’t know how to copy & paste? You left-click, then roll the mouse pointer over the article you want to copy. Then right-click and press Copy. Then paste. No need to copy the whole web site with all of their links.