Real Catholic Blog

The HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a bawdy comedy by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, had a decidedly anti-Catholic scene in its most recent episode. David, who plays himself, urinated on a painting of Jesus. But it’s not the first time he has incorporated anti-Catholic insults into his show. A few years ago, he mocked people playing Joseph, Mary and others in a live nativity scene.

Bill Donahue of the Catholic League released a statement (read here) in which he asked:

Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?

Deal Hudson, of InsideCatholic.com, told FoxNews.com:

Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim —there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.

More on the controversy can be found here at popeater.com. In fact, there are two poll questions there, including one asking if David should apologize. As of tonight, the responses to both questions are overwhelmingly anti-David. We encourage you to vote and pile on to send HBO — and Hollywood secularists in general — a message.

Washington, D.C., Catholics in the legal profession celebrated the annual Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle last Sunday and heard a staunch defense of the unborn and a call for their protection from America’s newest cardinal, Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Attending were six members of the U.S. Supreme Court, including new Justice Sonia Sotomayor. (Six members of the court are Catholic, but one, Justice Clarence Thomas, was away. The other five and Justice Steven Breyer, who is Jewish, attended.)

In speaking about the unborn, Cardinal DiNardo said in his homily (read its entirety, here):

A person can forget that the basis of that knowledge is something much more natural in the human condition, that the law and lawyers are around because justice among human beings is always an issue.

There are always smoldering wicks and bruised reeds needing our human attention, an attention that cries out and says that even sophisticated knowledgeable ‘human’ lawyers need reminding, need a purifying divine fire from the Lord, both in their personal lives and in their profession itself. It is that reality that brings us to praise, reflection, and prayer this day.

They are poor and wealthy, confused and lucid, polite and impolited. In some cases, the clients are voiceless, for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support.

If the homily did not get the message across, those attending received a less subtle message. Randal Terry, one of America’s most vociferous pro-life advocates, and a convert to the Faith, led a rally outside the cathedral, in full earshot of those attending the Mass.

The name “Red Mass” is honor of the flame of the Holy Spirit and has been celebrated to bring blessings upon the Supreme Court and other legal officials in the U.S. since 1953. However, it has origins as far back as 13th century France.

For more on the Mass, read this article from Randy Sly, Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop himself — of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He resigned that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.