Letter in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I had a letter published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today attacking a recent article by the paper's religious columnist, Ann Rodgers. The article was a poorly thought out critique of the new movie Angels and Demons, accusing it of bigotary against Catholics. Rodgers haplessly attempts to portray the Catholic Church as benevolent and undeserving of suspicion.

Really, Ms. Rodgers, were you asleep during history class and, for that matter, the past ten years? Did you just happen to ignore the revelations of cover ups by the Church hierarchy of wide spread sexual abuse within Catholic-run schools? For that matter, did you know about the collaboration between the Catholic Church and Fascists such as Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini during the early twentieth century? Hell, when I was attending Northeast Catholic High School in the year 2001, the teachers were still trying to whitewash Franco.

With all that in mind, it's not really difficult to see why the Catholic hierarchy might be viewed as an object of suspicion.