An apparent fan of the AAA videos edited and uploaded a key segment from last Friday's episode:
A reader writes:
So this morning me (22) and my father (52) were watching Bill Maher together – a fairly new occurrence. We're both Catholic and we both get kind of irritated with Maher when he goes on his usual reductive rants about what it means to belong to any faith other than atheism. Predictably, when that segment of the show popped up, my father groaned "here he goes again." Now, I just wanted to point out that my father, who has no idea who the hell you, applauded in my living room today during your defense of the quality of American Catholicism. From both of us, I just wanted to share a simple thank you for being so articulate and using your platform to try and strike down the notion that the Body of the Church is driven solely by the Hierarchy.
A reader writes:
I'm a fan from Brazil and I just watched you on the Bill Maher show. Indeed Catholics have to fight to change what we feel is wrong in the hierarchy of our church, specially considering rights of our fellow human beings. However, I think it's wrong to say that Santorum acts entirely according to the Vatican and Pope.
Remember this is a man who rejects macro evolution, universal health care (helping the sick), actions to help the poor (reducing social inequality) and is pro war. We know that the church has been preaching social justice for more than a century (I'm quite sure Santorum has never read the "Rerum Novarum"). Also the current and last Pope have written they accept evolution and states that it does not contradict our faith. Lastly, the Vatican was always against the war on Iraq and would be certainly be against attacking Iran. Therefore, it's not fair to say Santorum is the role model Catholic according to the Pope Benedict. I would say it's fair to say Santorum only follow the worst part of Pope Benedict sayings, which is the terrible way he has dealing with the gay's rights issue, treating them as lesser human beings, when we are all brothers.
Another:
Your comments hit home re: your local parishioners being supportive of gay rights despite an institutional bias. As a recently unlapsed Catholic (sort of), I was struck, while looking at the weekly bulletin, that my church has a group for gays and lesbians. "Hey wait a minute," I thought, "aren't we being pounded by the Pope and St. Santorum about how evil these people are – shouldn't we be storming these people's brownstones with torches?" I guess this is yet another case of using something as an institutional tool to retain power (ie, fear), although not REALLY meaning for it to pertain to people you personally know (eg, Dick Cheney's daughter.)
More importantly, dude – do you wear the same blue shirt EVERY time you go on Maher's show?
Yes, I do. It's become a tradition. They give me shit if I don't wear it. And I notice a question Bill asked in watching this that I didn't on set: how often do I go to Mass? For most of my life, weekly. In the last few years, since the sex abuse crisis, I've found it harder to overcome my anger at the instititution as a whole. There are periods when I go every week, and then lapse for a few. But I find these questions and prayers are with me more now than they once were. I'm half in the church and half in the wilderness. But the wilderness leads back to the church.
The Dish 