Not everyone was laughing at Wednesday’s new “South Park” episode, “A Boy and a Priest,” which took on child molestation within the Catholic Church.
The episode features Butters developing a relationship with the parish priest, and jokes like this: When Randy calls Steven to warn him that the boys are missing and he heard they went camping with a priest, Steven responds, “Camping with the priest? Should we call the police or buy some condoms?”
The Catholic League called the creators of the Comedy Central animated series “cowards” for their take on the topic.
Here is the Catholic League’s memo:
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night’s episode of Comedy Central’s “South Park”:
The October 3rd episode of “South Park,” titled “A Boy and a Priest,” portrayed molesting priests as pedophiles. This is factually inaccurate: almost all the molesters–8 in 10–have been homosexuals. Therefore, the cartoon-victim characters should have been depicted as adolescents, not kids.
In Hollywood, the creators of “South Park,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are seen as courageous. They are really cowards. It takes courage to tell the truth.
The group then posted the email address of Steve Albani, Comedy Central’s senior vice president of communications. The network declined to comment on the League’s statement. A rep for Parker and Stone did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The Catholic Church abuse scandal isn’t the only touchy subject “South Park” has tackled so far in its 22nd season. Last week, Season 22 debuted with an episode titled “Dead Kids,” in which the townspeople treated the only person who cared about a school shooting like she was crazy. You can read a recap of that episode right here.