When Catholic League member, Robert J. Flaherty of Peoria, Illinois, listened to a radio commercial that defamed his religion, he registered a complaint with the company and succeeded in having the ad withdrawn.

The radio ad was run by STIHL, maker of power tools. It featured a nun, Sister Mary Margaret, who gets so exasperated that she utters an obscenity that is bleeped out. The expletive deleted is what got Flaherty to act. He contacted the president of STIHL, who in turn investigated the matter, and the ad was pulled. Good going, Bob! Stories like this only buttress the point made in this month’s “President’s Desk” article.

Most of us regret doing some things that at the time seemed right, or at least okay. The same is true of Sinead O’Connor, the foul-mouthed Irish anti-Catholic bigot who is also known for her singing.

Sinead regrets performing at a New Jersey concert in 1990 simply because the event opened with the playing of “The Star Spangled Banner.” She also regrets canceling a 1990 appearance on “Saturday Night Live” simply because the anti-gay comedian, Andrew Dice Clay, was scheduled to be on the program. But she has no regrets about ripping up a picture of the pope on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992.

When Sinead shredded a photo of the pope, she remarked, “Fight the real enemy.” Now, in an interview she gave Lisa Robinson in July, the single mom says, “I stand by that. I am as proud of that as I am of having my two children.” She also told Spin writer Chris Norris that “I can say about the pope thing, I’m very proud of that and I stand by it and I would do it again.”

So let’s see if we understand this. Sinead regrets offending the American people and homosexuals, but not Catholics. Did someone say she took a course in Political Correctness 101 over the summer at an Ivy League school?

In the last issue of Catalyst, we ran a story entitled, “U.S. Holocaust Museum Libels Catholicism.” While we had several complaints, our central concern was the terribly skewed short film, “Antisemitism.” We have since heard from Dr. Steven Luckert, Curator of the Permanent Exhibition at the museum.

Dr. Luckert wrote a lengthy and detailed letter to Dr. Donohue explaining the museum’s position. Though appreciative of the attention given his letter, Donohue remained unpersuaded and has subsequently written to Luckert further explaining his position; he also asked that certain questions be answered. We’ll keep members abreast of this ongoing controversy.

The June Catalyst listed the name and address of a dentist from the Scranton area who offered free check-ups to members of the junior class from Bishop O’Reilly High School. Dr. Dale Wilkie made the offer after the class was told that there would be no junior prom this because of the way the class misbehaved when Auxiliary Bishop John Doughtery spoke at the school in the spring. After other local merchants and broadcasters withdrew their promise to reward the miscreants, Dr. Wilkie stood fast, hence the reason we asked members to contact him. They did.

Dr. Wilkie wrote us explaining that he only meant to reward those students who were innocent (how he was to know this he did not say), making the argument that the innocent should not be punished. But he added “I apologize to Bishop Dougherty, the school administration, parents of the students, and members of the Catholic League for any inconvenience that I may have inadvertently caused.”

We’ll accept this even if shows that he still doesn’t get it. None of us ever complained about being inconvenienced, what we were mad about was his decision to stick his nose in where he didn’t belong. Wilkie ought to stick to his drill work. We think he will, thanks to you.

The cable network, Comedy Central, has a problem with Catholics. What it is we do not know, but the file we have on them is building, suggesting that something is rotten at the station.

The latest offense took place on August 4 during the “Porn Losers” segment of “The Daily Show.” In a skit about New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s move to close porn shops, especially those located within 500 feet of a church, the commentary got ugly. With St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the background, here is what the character A. Whitney Brown had to say: “This [the new regulation] is to make sure that children on their way to church need not fear being molested…by priests on their way to a porn shop.”

The next statement by Whitney was as follows: “Once again decent citizens will be able to enter this house of worship, kneel down in front of a nearly naked man hanging from a wooden apparatus by a series of gruesome body piercings, and engage in their bizarre practices of ritualized blood-drinking and cannibalism, without being assaulted by graphic images of attractive young women with bare breasts.”

Members are urged to write to Doug Herzog, CEO, Comedy Central, 1775 Broadway, New York, New York 10019 and let him know what you think of this humor. We already did.