Here's another story you've probably read about - a cover story in the alt-weekly New York Press, with a picture of the Pope and the headline "There's Nothing Funny About This Man Dying - Or is There?" It's been written up in a number of places - I think the best is this from Amy Welborn (no surprise), who includes the entire list of "the 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope" Want a preview? #1 is Throw a marble at the dead Pope's head. Bonk! #2: This is what happens when weird old men in dresses communicate with the world with doors and chimneys.
A warning, if you choose to read this story or any of the other links - some of the language is extreme, and the content is quite offensive.
The story is covered in Brian Saint-Paul's Crisis e-letter. Here's a link to the Catholic League press release. Coverage from GetReligion is here, and here's some interesting fallout as a result of the story - seems it was a little strong even for some of the paper's personnel, as Press contributor Alan Cabal notes:
My loyalty has its limits, and here we are. Take my name off the masthead. I am no longer a "contributing writer" to this sophomoric mockery. NY Press once challenged the [Village] Voice -- now it can barely compete with The Onion.
This story would be offensive no matter who it was written about. The fact that it is about the Holy Father makes it more than that. If it were written about some other class (fill in the blank with your choice), it would probably be considered some kind of hate crime - if it had been written in Canada about homosexuals, the writer would have been arrested. It emphasizes, once again, that Catholic-bashing is the only acceptable bigotry left.
Right as Cabal may be in this situation, he's also a long-time anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteYou probably know more about Cabal than do I, but based on other things I've read I'm not surprised. In reading the article which quoted him, what strikes me is that(in the opinion of the original article writer) this "story" is so offensive that EVEN people like Cabal (my emphasis)were offended by it. So I don't try to praise Cabal, rather show how bad the whole thing was. Thanks for adding the Cabal info - I think your comments make it a better post. Hope you comment again soon!
Mitchell