I have been lost in a haze of pain for the past week, and missed out on some of the news — I’m reading it now, so forgive me, my posts might sound a bit like I’m a time traveler from the misty long-ago of July 2023. First up: people died without me noticing.
Peewee Herman (Paul Reubens) is gone? I loved that guy. Apparently, a lot of people loved him, but he didn’t tell them he was dying of cancer. That’s strength of character.
Also, he was 70 years old? I need to know his secrets, and it’s too late.
We also lost Sinead O’Connor. I remember watching Saturday Night Live back in 1992 — that is, when I still watched the show — and standing up and cheering when she ripped up the photo of the pope. Good for her. Of course, she was immediately blacklisted by the show, which was one reason I no longer watch it.
You will not be surprised to learn that Bill Donohue of the Catholic League did not like O’Connor at all, and took this as an opportunity to spit on her memory. It’s a strangely digressive whine — he rambles on about various other people he claims to have destroyed, and claims there is no sexual abuse problem in the church. It’s those damned homosexuals.
The truth is that anyone who talks about clergy sexual abuse and refuses to tell the truth about the oversized role played by homosexuals is either ignorant or dishonest: they were responsible for 8 in 10 cases of molestation. And they got away with it because of the gay subculture that orchestrated the cover-up. All of this is detailed in my book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes.
It is an amusingly un-self-aware and horrifically homophobic rant. He claims to have vanquished the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which still exists and has multiple locations around the world.
Michael McDonnell is quoted in the AP article speaking favorably about Sinead. He is identified as the “interim executive director” of SNAP. Poor Mike has been the “interim director” for quite some time now. The reason he is still “interim” is because SNAP does not exist anymore. It’s nothing but his cell phone.
Pretty ironic, coming from one lone homophobic crank with a fax machine.
While Donohue defends the undefensible and does it with no effectiveness, tens of millions of people have left the US Catholic church.
As of 2010 it was 30 million people.
Yeah, my dad kind of faded away from the RCC, starting long before he died. He still at least claimed to believe, but he didn’t seem to have any use for the Church’s backwardness and refusal to step up and deal with present-day reality.
He used to joke that the proof of the Church’s true divinity lay in the fact that it has existed for so long, despite the damn fools who’ve run it. I’m guessing he got tired of the damn fools anyway…
… one lone homophobic crank with a fax machine.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_League_(U.S.)":
They do keep their operating numbers, membership, etc, very close to the chest. Founded in 1973, it’s been the Bill Donohue Show for 30 years now.
This is from the “Catholic Church sexual abuse cases” article in Wikipedia in a section titled, “Gay priests and homosexuality”:
The bracketed numbers are links to citations. Here’s what’s at “[315]”:
Bill Donahue is obviously a lying troll who makes money and gains influence from gullible people willingly believing tripe about gay people and other groups that’s been repudiated innumerable times.
Sinéad O’Connor will be remembered long after Bill Donohue is forgotten.
The truth is that anyone who talks about clergy sexual abuse and refuses to tell the truth about the oversized role played by homosexuals is either ignorant or dishonest…
I have a hard time figuring out which is more disgraceful: that he believes what he’s saying, or that he actually thinks it absolves his Church of any responsibility for the sexual abuse that happened ON THEIR TURF. Because really, even if we accept his premise at face value, it only means that a Church that was supposedly so unyieldingly and consistently anti-gay, allowed itself to be infiltrated by so many gays that they were able to take over the Church, molest all the boys they wanted to, and conspire to keep it covered up and keep all offenders out of trouble, for CENTURIES. If BillDo really believes this makes his Church look less culpable, and not more, then I have seriously overestimated his intelligence.
Oh, and nuns and schoolgirls have also been molested by Catholic priests…not sure what that does to his “crisis of homosexuality” shtick…
@6 They were probably gay too, as no true
Scottsmanstraight Catholic priest would ever molest children and nuns.On Mastodon, I saw a clipping from a newspaper that read: “I was greatly saddened by the death of Sinéad O’Connor. She was a very different person behind her fame. In 1991, my 20-y. o. daughter, Louise, was suffering from terminal cancer, when she received a phone call from Sinéad out of the blue. Sinead had heard of Louise’s illness from some source, probably the press as we were raising funds for our local hospice. My daughter was a great admirer of her & loved her music. During this long call, Sinéad invited my daughter to travel to London to spend some time with her. Needless to say, Louise was thrilled. A few days later she met Louise at Euston station & Louise had the best week of her short life. They dined, they drank, they danced, but most of all they laughed irreverently. Sinéad was at the height of her fame at this time & found it highly amusing that when they were out people were asking for Louise’s autograph. Louise returned home exhausted & happier than I had seen her since her devastating cancer diagnosis. It didn’t stop there: this lovely, compassionate woman always stayed in touch. She sent Louise wine & flowers & letters right up until her death in 1992. On Louise’s last visit to London, Sinéad gave her her platinum disc for her song Nothing Compares 2 U & dedicated her Christmas record Silent Night to her. During all this time, Sinéad never sought any publicity for these acts of love & compassion. Today my thoughts are with 2 remarkable women who, I have no doubt, will be somewhere still laughing, dancing & singing.”
I think Jesus would approve and many “Christians” wouldn’t understand.
@5. Dunc : “Sinéad O’Connor will be remembered long after Bill Donohue is forgotten.”
FWIW, I’d already forgotten all about Bill Donohue until I saw this post which reminded me he’s sadly still alive..
Off topic – but can Trump be arrested for contempt of court and perverting the course of Justice (again?) now please?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-05/trump-s-threatening-post-flagged-by-us-prosecutors-to-judge/102693572
Gather he was specifically warned against doing this so what more wil it take?
Yeah, gay priests brought mostly the issue of on the job sexual harassment of other gay priests and noviates. Twenty-five Years ago, through an acquaintance, I went to a party on Long Island hosted by a Bishop and his young priest boyfriend and swarmed with other young priests around the pool. No children, that’s for sure, but certainly not exactly in accord with church vows. There was eventually a big scandal in the news.
Of course, there are many fewer gay priests starting now that your can be unmarried or gay without censure.
@!0 I think the scandal was partly over the question of how the house and pool and boyfriend were paid for.
I have been made glad about the world by reading many of the stories about the details we didn’t know about Paul and Sinead (eg: goaded #8; what a sweet piece of reality you shared.) My wife loved Peewee from before he became as popular as he ended up after Peewee’s Big Adventure. I hope he knew how much he was loved, not so much by fans, who, even more so than with most celebrities, loved a persona and not the real person, but by all the folks who gave tribute to and told lovely stories about him after he died. They made it clear that he was a lovely, caring person, and a devoted friend.
I’m not letting the disgusting creeps like Bill Donahue — nor the scummy, corrupt, hypocritical hierarchy of the Catholic church — into my head when I think about these two; they were both, in my view, people who stepped outside of what was expected and gave the world something new. The creeps are a dime a dozen and sadly predictable.
More childhood wackiness gone. I liked seeing Paul Rubens on Gotham recently. I was hoping it would turn into something.
I hadn’t heard about Sinead O’Connor’s death until now. Donohue’s drivel aside, both Herman and O’Connor have warts. Probably the worse in O’Connor’s case is victim-blaming Desiree Washington, the victim of Mike Tyson in an interview in the early 90s.
Herman, I believe, was just a victim of prudishness. RIP to both.
Another death from this week is Carmen Xtravaganza (April 4 1961 – August 4 2023). She was a member of the House of Xtravaganza, one of the Ballroom Houses of New York in the 1980s. She appeared in the 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning”.
Reportedly, the House of Xtravaganza was the inspiration for the House of Evangelista on the TV show “POSE”.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-08-07/carmen-xtravaganza-death-paris-is-burning-ballroom