Catholic League President Bill Donohue fanned the flames of his bitter dispute with Hugh Hewitt over the Paris terror attacks, labeling the conservative radio host a "horse's ass" who's been discredited by the Pope himself.
On Thursday,
Pope Francis said there are limits to freedom of expression, agreeing with those who charge that Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Prophet Muhammad — which spurred Islamic extremists to execute 12 at the satirical Paris magazine — went too far.
It was the same argument Donohue had earlier made — one that infuriated Hewitt, a fellow Catholic, who called it "repugnant."
"He will be forever known to me as Huge Blewitt. Quite frankly, the man looks like a horse's ass," a gloating Donohue said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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Donohue enraged Hewitt with his criticism of Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier
— who was murdered with 11 others by Islamist terrorists for printing satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. He claimed Muslims had "a right to be angry" and accused Charbonnier of being "narcissistic" and partly responsible for his own murder.
Hewitt, in a radio interview with Donohue,
called his remarks "morally offensive" and "repugnant," telling him: "I’m appalled, and I’m embarrassed, and I’m urging you to rethink this."
Things deteriorated further when Hewitt challenged Donohue's assertion that top Catholic officials had called him in support of his opinion.
"Name me one archbishop or cardinal who has called you up and said they stand with this statement, which is morally offensive, repugnant, and embarrassing. It’s a scandal on the Church," Hewitt told Donohue.
The Pope later spoke about the terror attack, and his comments echoed those of Donohue.
"You cannot insult other people’s faith," the Pontiff told reporters. "You can’t make fun of other people’s faith."
"This is so sweet. If [Hewitt] wants to take on the bishop of Rome, il Papa, go right ahead," Donohue told Steve Malzberg.
"This is a sweet victory for me and for all my critics, including a lot of conservatives who, I don't know what they've been drinking lately, would actually say freedom of expression is an absolute, there can be no limits. ... Have they lost their minds as well as some crazy liberals?"
"This guy Hewitt … the wheels have come off his head. [He] tries to tell me nobody in the Catholic Church would agree with my position. To tell you the truth, I was actually surprised myself, happily surprised the Pope came out. But he came out stronger than I ever expected. So it looks like I won this one and Hewitt and these other clowns lost."
Donohue reiterated that offensive depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, is "short hand for … hitting below the belt with filthy, scatological commentary, stuff that's obscene."
"You have a freedom of speech to disagree with Islam or anybody else. There's no need to insult people.... I don't want to insult Jews, I don't want to insult Muslims, I don't want to insult gays. I don't want to go out of my way to insult people," said Donohue, whose New York City-based group is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization.
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