The Abstinence Clearinghouse Blog

The Catholic League serves a purpose, but sometimes it doesn’t quite get it. In a July 24 news release the organization describes what it calls Jay Leno’s “obsession.” Apparently the Tonight Show host has ridiculed Catholic priests six times in the past five weeks. The jokes, as reported by the Catholic League, were:

· June 20: Leno cracks a joke about priests as pedophiles· June 21: Leno makes a joke about a drunken pedophile priest

· 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

Here’s my beef. As tasteless as the humor may be, I think the Catholic Church can handle a late night show host making fun of its priests. No one, however, seems to be up in arms about the fact that Leno and others in this vein are actually making fun of child sexual abuse. This is a huge slap in the face of any victim, and ought to be censured. Do I really need to say it? Child abuse is not funny!

Then again, maybe Leno can add this to his repertoire.