Anti-Catholic hate disguised as political speech from cartoonist Rob Tornoe
What cartoonist Rob Tornoe thinks of Catholic priests need not be explained. His caricature of Catholic priests is simply bigoted and ugly.
If Tornoe – a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY News, and the far-left organization Media Matters – had produced such a grotesque drawing of a Jewish rabbi or Muslim cleric, the outrage in the media would be deafening. Apologies from the media outlet that published such a cartoon would be effusive, and Tornoe would likely be shown the door.
But the mainstream media's double standard with the Catholic Church is still alive and well.
Rambling screed: Wrong on the facts
Bigoted cartoonist Rob Tornoe
Of course, the Catholic Church does not have the power to "silence" anyone, even if it wanted to. And there is no other organization in the United States which is more transparent with respect to the issue of sex abuse than the Catholic Church, as it has retained layers of independent auditors to examine and publicize all of its affairs.
Tornoe refers to proposed legislation in New Jersey which would permit individuals to sue the Catholic Church for big dollars for alleged abuse committed many decades ago, and even if the accused priest is long ago deceased and the accusation is incapable of being proven.
Tornoe also sympathetically quotes a member of the anti-Catholic group SNAP who claims that "people just want their day in court."
In truth, civil lawsuits against the Church rarely reach any courtroom. After contingency lawyers take their cases to an all-too-willing media to trumpet their suits, these lawyers then privately press the Church to reach big cash settlements. And the Church predictably caves to the plaintiffs' demands, resulting in large payouts for alleged victims and their lawyers.
Most notably, Tornoe makes no note of our nation's public schools, where massive abuse and cover-ups are happening this very day.
Meanwhile, annual independent audits of the Catholic Church have consistently shown that abuse in the Church today is extremely rare.
But don't expect to get these facts from Tornoe.
Thanks for article – and for photo. Anybody have any personal details on this schmuck? E-mail address, postal address?
The cartoon seems taken right from that old sight-gag in the 1980 movie Airplane! (the exclamation point was part of the film’s title): the priest looking at a copy of – if memory serves – a mag called Altar Boys’ Life and holding it the way one would if looking at a Playboy centerfold.
The “silencing” bit is a staple of the Playbook: it is a bit of scripting necessary to increase the contrast between the Huge Purely Evil Corporation and the Individual Purely Innocent Victim.
In the Playbook and the Stampede it has created, if an accused tries to make a defense, that is “silencing”; if the accused files a Motion of any sort, that is “silencing”; if the accused denies the allegations, that is “silencing”; if the accused points out the impossibility of or incongruities in the allegated story, that is “silencing”; if defense counsel holds its own press-conference, that is “silencing”.
And “silencing” has a sibling: “chilling”. If the victim is questioned too closely, this will have a “chilling” effect on any other of the (hypothetical) gazillion un-reported victims; if a victim is caught in perjury, then to prosecute and punish the victim would be “chilling” for the other gazillion out there somewhere; if Statutes of Limitation are not expanded like play-dough then that will have a “chilling” effect on the same gazillion.
It is also a fact – the significance of which the reader may wish to consider – that the cartoonist is somehow connected to the State of Delaware, home to a certain Vice-President who may well want to become the next President and who has since at least 1990 been pushing all manner of victimist/revolutionary ‘reforms’ to the nation’s laws.
Mr. Tornoe, I for one DO NOT think you are a bigot. Your cartoon has spoke volumes without uttering one word.
It is a shame that all priests are now seen in this light but the catholic church and its parishioners have no one else to blame but themselves.
Your cartoon does not show hate but truth.
Ad hominem much?
This cartoon is not funny. A very small amount of priests have been involved with the sins that have cast a pall on all of them. There is more abuse in any metro school system than has been for decades in the Catholic Church. But, a priest is indeed held to the highest standard and the attack against the Catholic Church is greater than the attacks against all others and there is a reason for that. The abuse from clergy is not isolated to the priest but is plentiful among ministers, pastors, and rabbits as well but they do not get the press.
He is a nobody–happily. A punk kid.
No offence , Dennis, but you desperately need an education in all things. I wouldn't know where to start.
P.S. Martha is right. He is a nobody from Delaware who cares little about the truth -the cartoon is outragious in at this stage of the game!
Very true, Martha; the other punks are the ones that would agree with Turdnoe's bigoted, and cowardly depiction (I'd like to see some "artwork" from the Turd, and his minions, on the glory of Mohammadism, and their clerics).
So, as usual, it is not so much about them po' little victims, but, more about the "parishioners". Yet, the "proud" Turds of the world do serve a purpose, if only to help "out" the still "closeted" Turds. I wonder if those same shameful "parishioners" include those po' little priest victims?
Mark-I have a tendency to think like you you regarding these "sitting in your drawers in your mama's basement" misfits; Turdnoe needs a spanking.
Such wee minds these lefty bigots must sustain – how do you nourish a gnat?
"Turds"? Nice, lady like, talk. Again what a fine example you arn't.
If you could bottle your rage and someone would buy it?
Why what a wealthy woman you'd be.
I remember once when I was on the bus, I heard the driver say that if a pedophile worked in a school, he'd be turned in to the police, but because this was the Catholic Church… Easy to see someone needs to show the bus driver this article, at least the link to the public school abuse.
If the Public Schools have perpetrators, which they do, it's on them and the police to end it.
They should rid their system of all perps and ENABLERS of perpetrators against children.
So why don't you?
Why do you not fire your co conspiritors in all this , i.e. the bosses?
No answers?
Looking at the big picture, it has always been the tactic of the radical secularist to attack the Church not with facts, but with emotional images and lies. They will say and do anything to accumulate power to themselves, all the while claiming that they are doing this for the "greater good" or "protecting the innocent". They are not. They are simply mongering in order to gather power to themselves. They use people like this unwitting author or cartoonist to further their totalitarian goals. If they reach their goals they will consume him like they do everything else. This has been true for centuries. They decorate themselves with gold, have statues made of themselves, wear jeweled encrusted armor and crowns or plumes in their hats. They make for themselves titles and honors and try to make themselves into gods. Their enemy is the Church, the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God's emmisary on earth. They will rage and fight against it with every power they have, but to little avail. They will always go down in defeat because their little kingdoms and empires are made of sand.
I like to look at the pictures of the tombs of the Austrian Emperors and their families at moments like this. They put great symbols on their tombs to remind themselves and others that all the wealth and power that they held was only temporary. At the end of their lives they only had the Grace of God to save them from damnation. The symobol of a skelleton with missing teeth,wearing an Imperial Crown is very powerful indeed.
Josie – Your truly have no clue to the world around you.
This cartoon shows one example of the freedom that abusive priests have who are sent to Childs Maryland. The freedom to come and go as they please without out no supervision.
Three cheers & a high five to Mr Tornoe
Stop trying to guess posters gender, age, economic status, education, profession and everything else personal with your silly assumptions. It is an obvious ploy to distract from the point of a post, and the facts of the Church abuse matter.
As the scales fall from the eyes of the public (how long and hard did you think you could ride that pale horse before it collapsed?), the day of reckoning for your gang will come. And, it may be a walk in the park in the here and now compared to what awaits you just a wee bit down the road.
You amateurs sure picked a doosey for your very first (and final, I will wager) foray into God-war; our Lord's Church will not be taken down. You should have lowered your sites somewhat, say on the atheist-gods, like Hollywood, Washington DC or the NY Times for your "first-time".
To Fr. Higgins point, personalized assaults are the only strategy the leftists can possibly employ to sustain their defenseless ideaology (and dishonerable tactics). Just look at the wreckage of the current Administration for proof of that fact.
This is why his work is banned from government installations. It falls under the category of hate.
Somebody who gives their name as Oliver Cromwell tells us everything we need to know about that commenter. Vicious anti-Catholic crusaders, Cromwell's men slaughtered every man, woman and child in several Irish towns, and when finished, had murdered 600,000 people in Ireland.
Julie,
Mr. Cromwell who posts here has never said he wanted to kill Catholics.
How would you suggest that little show should start, Julie?
But I agree, Mr. Cromwell is a very poor name choice.
I am Irish
Maybe he wants to have the little old Irish audience [edited by moderator - word for "angry"].,( mostly donating ladies, cuz the ladies last),
And since Mr. Cromwell is an"arriviste" to this hoe down he may not be what one would think.or even want. But I reserve myself.
Jim, I didn't say the commenter wanted to kill Catholics. But you feel free to accuse us Catholic commenters of enabling and defending pedophiles with the flimsiest (and non-existent) evidence. Don't fly to such conclusions. Relax, dear boy. I would imagine somebody who supports a killer like Cromwell WOULD give a thumbs-up to an anti-Catholic cartoon.
I would say it was more antipriest than anti Catholic. The priest isn't learing at a foldout of the Baby Jesus in that cartoon. Now that could be deemed anti Catholic, maybe.
You want to believe your clerical class pure. there are consequences for that; but at least half of them are. And that's against staggering biological barriers. They tend to be a bit crabby but who wouldn't be under the circumstances, unneccessary circumstances.
Non existent evidence? Show me any "nonexistent" evidence you have, that victims haven't provided evidence. You cannot. I have my letters of apology and my settlement from the Church. Where's your evidence for my or any victims "lack of evidence"?
You take your own Church down. I haven't had to raise a finger.
Real men, grown men, can control their "biology" with no problems. There is no such thing as a "need" or "requirement" for men to engage in sex – not anymore than there is a similar need for women.
AntiCatholic bigots shouldn't worry so much about the personal commitments priests make; they need to worry more about the deadly venereal diseases, one of which was virtually a pandemic, that has been perpetrated upon humanity by men of their hue – men who can't control their most base instincts as well as can most animals – even dogs exhibit more control.
There is an awful lot of antiCatholic trash talk unrelated to minor abuse victims in these posts that claims not to be bigoted. It must be hard to keep the feet (among other things) out of the mouth when it's so full of…..deceit.
I'm only anti your kind of Catholic. You know the judgemental kind. The mean, nasty kind.
[edited by moderator]
Why is it some women feel it's their duty to tell men what a "real man" is?
If men attempted to define being a "real woman" to a real woman. It would rightfully be seen as an outrageous attempt to control that woman.
In my reckoning the reverse is also true.
Did Jesus ever use such definitions? No.
If being anti bull, anti sex abuse of it's children, pro gay; pro poor makes me an anti Catholic bigot. Then you may place my name at the top of the list.
[edited by moderator]
Jim, You are demonstrating that you don't know anything about how I think. I don't want to believe the clerics to be pure. They are human. "There is an awful lot of antiCatholic trash talk unrelated to minor abuse victims in these posts that claims not to be bigoted. It must be hard to keep the feet (among other things) out of the mouth when it's so full of…..deceit." Right. I am also troubled by the bigotry demonstrated here, and the loose cannon-type throwing out of any kind of mud at the Catholics just to give us a swift kick. Jim wants to believe all accusers are being truthful. A lady in my diocese got a settlement for a weird, clumsy pass a priest made to her several years ago. She was not touched or anything. She calls herself a victim and got a big payout. I wish I could sue every man who did that to me. Of course there are false accusers, and also varying degrees of victimization. Why else would the lawyers bundle the suits. BTW, God loves you Jim. Peace to you.
Julie,
You bring up the lady in your diocese that calls herself a victim and received a "big payout" for what might NOT EVEN be called a "boundary issue" by most people. Well, your example of "victim playing" is being discovered as more common than ever. There is a woman in Philadelphia who boasts all over the place of her victim status (she was 24 when she broke off her relationship where she was a victim) and throws charges around like crazy, sets herself up a some sort of "model" victim,(seems to love the attention), smears the Church in a "SNAP- like" manner (no matter what they try to do to attend to real victims and put the best protection policies in place) encouraging others to be accusers-unbelievable.
I have met more and more people who know falsely accused priests and those who have been reinstated . due to so called witnesses lying. It is really quite stunning. People must stand up for the truth when they know it,
Again, you have no idea, and will never know what gender I am, so, your temper tantrum about "women telling you what a real man is" is moot if directed in response to my post.
Since you belong to a cult-culture (pardon the stutter) fond of "gender-bending", you should have an appreciation for my position. Today, I am "self-identifying" as a cross-dressing lambchop, so please address me, accordingly. I am feeling like a real part of the LGBTQAABCDEFG…XYZ crowd, now.
Now, before you attack innocent priests for their chosen lifestyle, which in most cases, except for those involving deviant homosexuals that infiltrated our Church, was born of a calling from God. Again, faithful priest lifestyles have nothing to do with the invasion of those deviant homosexual minor abusers (obviously, those boys were not celibate, now, were they?).
Try to remember during your discourses that you are a tolerant member of the lefty "rainbow coalition" that adamantly opposes all forms of bigotry and hatred.
Just keep repeating it to yourself as your click your ruby shoes together….
Click, click.
Josie, You are right. It is so disheartening, stunning even. Some of this reminds me of a case I read about where several people filed suit after a bus accident in a big city, but didn't prevail when it was revealed the bus didn't have any passengers when the accident occurred. Of course, any real victims should receive recompense. I hope the fake ones get their due punishment, perhaps in the next life. I think lawyers bundled the suit to get the biggest payouts they could without much scrutiny to the merit of the cases, and I appreciate this blog examining this very, very important issue. Somebody needs to care about something other than money – the victims, the innocent priests, the safety of children, etc. SNAP and Marci Hamilton, et al, don't give a crap about children's safety.
Who knows more what a real man is than a woman, or God? A man can only be measured against a woman, or God. Our priests refer to Mary and Jesus to determine their manhood. Real men have either the Church or a woman as their spouse. Without God and/or a woman, what is a man?
While Gods' law might be suspended by atheists, the suspension of natural law is a bit trickier. Gods' Law and the Laws of Nature are one in the same, and correct. Mans' law, designed to replace either/both with totally selfish intents, is flawed, greatly.
And, that is why women, as helper, has the duty to assist, support and guide men.
You want to see what the world looks like without womens guidance, look to the mideast and any other society or culture that oppresses women into oblivion.
Bigoted and sexist, interesting revelation.
The "Real" man as compared to what? "Unreal" men (they don't and can not exist) or those who females fail to identify as "real" men or imaginary dieties fail to identify as such?
( Dieties can do nothing since they do not exist).
So really what we've had historically is men defining both men and women and their "real" roles in the "real" world. All male defined.
Your analysis never said anything about women defining men; where as your definition of women is one created by men for women that you seem eager to obey.
Why go to the middle east for an example of male dominerance? When we have the Vatican, an all male dictatorship.Churning out definitions of women and men for eons.
Women have no "duty" regarding men other than surviving their historical oppression of women and their ridiculous definitions (if they hold them) and to create themselves for themselves. Men should do the same . IMNSHO
P.S God has no law, since God does not exist. Therefor what is called by you: "God's Law" is in fact Man's Law made for the benefit usually of the males making said laws. (That's why you have an all male diety) Again we have the Vatican and all religions as an example.
You know how you know a "real" man? Check the genetalia.
The same for "real" women.
Mission accomplished.
To paraphrase Voltaire in Candide: Let's "watch our garden grow" together.