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Robin Williams Mocks Catholics Priests on Tonight Show

By John Jalsevac

BURBANK, California, June 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Last night on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," comedian Robin Williams plugged his upcoming movie, "License to Wed." In the film, Williams plays a Protestant minister who forces an engaged couple to go through a grueling marriage preparatory course. But last night Williams went off on Catholic priests, painting them as pedophiles.

Williams pretended to be playing a game where the pedophile is hidden under a cup, suggesting that this was an image of the Church's attitude towards dealing with "pedophile" priests. "Here we go. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Find the priest, find the pedophile. Here you go right now. Move 'em around, move 'em around. Oh, you found the pedophile."

Williams then put his hand over his groin, saying, "You have to realize that if you are a Catholic priest, you have retired this. That's it--no more sex." Then he took a shot at confession, saying "But they are going to put you in a small dark box and people are going to tell you the nastiest sexual stuff they have done."

This is not the only time that Williams has done this routine. In a MoviesOnline interview about his upcoming film, Williams launched into the same routine, also suggesting that the Church should repeal its teachings on priestly celibacy.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded to Williams' routine with outrage. "Isaiah Washington lashes out at one gay person in private, and he is banished from 'Grey's Anatomy.' Robin Williams lashes out against all priests in public, and he suffers no consequence," said Donahue. "To top it off, Williams suggests that most molesting priests are pedophiles, when in fact they are homosexuals. But to make a joke about gay priests could get him into trouble."

"One more thing," Donahue continued, "in an interview with MoviesOnline, Robin Williams recently said that 'you can't poke fun at certain religions,' noting that 'we just made major fun of the Catholic Church but hey, they don't blow you up.' So not only is Williams a bigot and a liar, he's a coward. No wonder he's so well received in Tinseltown."

In the lengthy MoviesOnline interview Williams was asked, "Have you had feedback from any religious groups about any of the religious jokes you've done in the past?"

He responded, "Oh yeah, you always do because organized religion, you can't poke fun at certain religions. Hence, right now [assumes Middle Eastern voice] if I was to dress you in a full Burka, someone would go, "What are you doing?" [normal voice] I mean it's difficult because you have to realize that we just made major fun of the Catholic church but hey, they don't blow you up. The Pope will just excommunicate and you know I haven't gotten a lot of communications originally from him so... "

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