We know that the scandal in the Catholic Church is ready-made material for late-night comedians. But when one particular entertainer can’t seem to give it up, we begin to wonder. We are speaking about David Letterman.

Letterman’s obsession with the scandal—and obsession is the only word that accurately describes what’s going on—was evident to the New York Times last spring. Since that time, Letterman has relentlessly attacked Catholicism. His prime competitor, Jay Leno, evinced no such obsession.

For example, during a three-week period, August 19 to September 6, Letterman aired fifteen shows and told seven jokes on six episodes that disparaged Catholicism. The Virginia couple that had sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral was milked for four jokes alone. All the jokes made a sexual statement and all of them targeted either New York City or Los Angeles. The audience, it should be noted, couldn’t get enough of it.

We were bombed on September 11, 2001, by 19 Muslim men. This was great script for Letterman. But aside from a few jokes about terrorists and Muslim nations, we haven’t heard Letterman stab Islam (and rightly so). Maybe that’s because he’s too busy sticking it to Catholics. Or maybe he doesn’t have the guts to do it.

The Museum of Sex (called MoSex) opened on September 23 in New York City. After investigating the museum, we concluded that the a more apt name would be Museum of Smut (MoSmut).

Not for nothing did the New York State Board of Regents refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the establishment, saying that its name made “a mockery of museums.” We pointed out to the press that many of those who are either featured as heroes by the museum, or are in one way or another associated with it, exhibit pathological characteristics. Consider the following.

Heroes include white racists (Margaret Sanger and Victoria Woodhull) and an advocate of man-boy sex (Al Goldstein). The historian advisory board includes a defender of sadomasochism (George Chauncey), an author who glamorizes prostitutes (Patricia Cline Cohen), a professor who argues that transvestites and “street queens” are pioneers (Martin Duberman), a scholar who has been implicated in research that gave pregnant women male hormones without their knowledge (June Reinisch) and a writer hailed as a “lesbian matriarch” (Joan Nestle).

Those listed as “Friends” of the museum include pornographers (Betty Dodson, Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle and Veronica Vera), an ex-priest turned sexologist (Robert Francoeur), a minister who maintains that swinging is “family-forming behavior” (Ted McIlvenna) and an author whose understanding of the cultural corruption of Weimar Germany still allows him to defend decadence (Mel Gordon).

In his remarks to the media, William Donohue said: “If the museum’s officials were honest, they would include a death chamber that would acknowledge all the wretched diseases that promiscuity has caused. And they would give due recognition to the role that promiscuity has played in creating poverty (it’s called illegitimacy).”

Instead, Donohue commented, we can look for the museum to celebrate public sex. He instructed the media to see the museum’s website and click on “1001 Nights,” the map of Manhattan and then Rockefeller Center. By doing so they can learn of the virtues of gays having sex in public.

In short, Donohue concluded, “the museum celebrates smut as sex, hence the name MoSmut.

If a Jew gets mugged by anti-Semites, we all hear about it. If a black gets roughed up by the cops, it’s front-page news. If a gay gets clobbered by gay bashers, it’s all over TV. But if a Hispanic Catholic stands up for his faith and is nearly killed by African American bigots, hardly a word is said.

On September 7, John Santiago of Lindenwood, New Jersey, was on the corner of 34th Street and 7th Avenue with his fiancé and her family when he spotted a painting of Jesus with horns. He got into an argument with its sponsors—eight gang members of the “Black Israelites”—and they responded by savagely beating him and stomping on his head. He was taken to a hospital with severe head trauma, lacerations and contusions where he nearly died. He was released several days later.

Only the New York Post ran an article on this story. It was summarily ignored by the rest of the media.

We mention this for two reasons. Number one, Catholic League staff members are well aware of the “Black Israelites”—they have been assembling right next to our building for years and we have all seen them in action. Full of hate, they shout bigoted remarks at blacks, whites, Catholics, Jews—anyone and everyone. Number two, the insouciance of the media towards this crime speaks volumes: it is not particularly newsworthy when a Catholic is pummeled for defending his religion.

It is not clear to us whether those in the media really understand the bias that is at work here. We know from tracking the New York Times that if a New York college professor is mugged, it not only gets reported, it merits front-page coverage. When gays are victimized by gay bashers, it gets noticed, too. But somehow when Catholics are physically beaten for defending their faith, the media shrug it off.

The police arrested all the men and charged them with gang assault and rioting. We hope they get sent away for good.