What every Catholic should see . . .

If you want to see something that’s got right up the noses of the Catholic hierarchy, have a look at the video we’ve embedded below.

It’s the American TV show by the magicians/comedians Penn and Teller in their Pen & Teller: Bullshit! series. This one’s about the evils of the Vatican.

Predictably, it’s been lambasted by – well, by Catholics. All the more reason why this video should be given as much exposure online as possible.

Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League, thinks “the Nazis couldn’t have done better”, and he took out an advertisement in Variety to call for the show to be cancelled. He wrote: “CBS/Showtime needs to send Penn & Teller a message and let them know that they have crossed the line for the last time. This should be their final season. We know that they’ve been told before to drop the Catholic bashing, and yet they persist. By doing so, Penn & Teller have effectively stuck their middle finger right in the eye of CBS.”

Donohue has also said, “I have never seen a more defamatory, obscene and vicious show on TV. And I mean about any religious or demographic group – not just Catholics. The lies about the Catholic Church, to say nothing of the vile language used by Penn Jillette, were positively astounding. Moreover, it never attempted to be comedic – from the very beginning it advertised the show as payback for 2,000 years of alleged crimes.”

Well, if the cap fits, Mr Donohue . . .

Interviewed in the show was the UK’s National Secular Society boss, Keith Porteous Wood, who says, “Penn & Teller said something that was long overdue – that the Vatican has a lot of answering to do for its corruption, greed and disgraceful attempts to cover up child abuse by its priests. Even worse than that is the damage to the environment caused through its irrational and dishonest opposition to contraception.

“This ‘teaching’ also adds to the AIDS pandemic and to the massively increasing poverty and starvation in the world. What is truly shocking is that governments and international organisations are unwilling to take on the Vatican, which uses its position as a half church half nation state to maximise its power while minimising its accountability.”

OK, with that out of the way, sit back and enjoy the show.