The Catholic League has received many complaints from its members regarding a particular line of products offered by the Franklin Mint. We agree with our members that the “Holy Cats” and “Teddy Bear Treasure” series is not an amusing caricature of the nativity scene.
In a letter to the president of the Franklin Mint, Adam Berger, we said that “In both cases, animals are substituted for religious figures in a most trivial way. With regard to the latter, the nativity figures of Christ, Mary and Joseph and have replaced with bears.”
We then conveyed our concern: “No doubt some find this caricature amusing, but it is also true that many practicing Catholics believe that this is taking liberties with their religion. Surely there must be some way to hawk your products without giving undue offense to the sensibilities of Catholics.”
Finally, we said that it was not persuasive to argue that “no offense was intended.” We made it clear that “the effect of these products is to insult a large segment of the population.” We then asked the Franklin Mint to “discontinue this venture.” We are awaiting a response.
