By James Tillman
LOS ANGELES, California, April 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Former governor of Minnesota and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura said that the Catholic Church should be prosecuted under federal RICO laws last Friday, during an appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time show.
Maher, who has stated that “religion is a neurological disorder,” asked about his “crazy radical friends Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins” and their aim of arresting the pope “when he hits the tarmac” during the pope’s visit to England in September.
“Now do you think that's going too far?” Maher asked.
“I have another alternative,” Ventura responded, “Why hasn't the Catholic Church been prosecuted under the federal RICO laws of organized crime?”
RICO stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act; it was passed in 1970 in an effort to dismantle the Mafia and similar organizations displaying a pattern of criminal activity.
Ventura described the Catholic Church as a “predator” and a felonious organization like the mafia, involved in covering up molestation. “That's what the RICO laws were written for,” he stated. “Why have they not been charged?”
“They are an organization involved in felonies. … and they move people around to protect them, and all of that stuff.”
Efforts to prosecute the Church under RICO laws have not fared well in the past. In Magnum v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia the court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing under RICO standards.
Real Time Host Bill Maher is known for his rabid anti-Catholicism, having previously described Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi and suggested that he deserves to be in jail because of cases of child molestation.
Regarding Maher's offensive behavior, Catholic League President Bill Donohue has previously said that there “is no bigger bigot in America today than Bill Maher.”
“His serial insults are tolerated on HBO and on late-night television shows because the producers are not outraged by what he says. How else can we explain his ability to offend with impunity?”
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