Rick McGinnis: The Pope, free speech, Charlie Hebdo and Bill Donohue

Rick McGinnis writes:

I am used to ignoring the proclamations of Bill Donohue since, in my opinion, he speaks for no one but himself, but as a Catholic, remarks made by the Holy Father, even offhandedly, aren’t to be taken lightly. Which is why I have to admit that they left me worried and disappointed. (…)

Saying that you “cannot provoke” just a few breaths after you state that you also “cannot offend, make war (or) kill in the … name of God” seems quite unequivocal, especially within its context. And while I know that this statement was made with the best of intentions, it also seems full of a dangerous naiveté unbecoming of a man who must know that he stands at the head of an institution that has been diminished or even prohibited in less free societies, and whose adherents are under violent assault right now in parts of the world that are very far from free.

It was a statement that argued for religious belief having precedent over the irreligious, and which seemed to imagine a state of civic affairs that we in the West haven’t lived in for decades, if not centuries.

RELATED:

Bill Donohue pays himself almost US$500,000 a year as the one-man, donor-funded operation inaccurately named “The Catholic League.”

(Hint: The noun “league” is a collective one…)