The Catholic League's Annual Reports on South Park's Anti-Catholicism

compiled from the site's archives

1998

January 18: "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" - Comedy Central’s "South Park" showed a mother and son, in a Catholic home with a Crucifix and a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, discussing the use of vibrators. Standing next to the Crucifix, the mother regaled her little boy with details of how she would use a vibrator in bed that night.
February 4: "Damien" - "South Park" struck again, this time staging a boxing match between "Jesus" and "Satan." The Comedy Central cartoon featured its typically offensive language: a priest character who shouts, "Jesus, you’re gonna kick ass"; a boy who coaches Jesus saying, "Goddammit, Jesus, snap out of it"; another young boy who describes how he stuck an envelope "up my ass"; and, as usual, the chef singing sexually explicit songs to the boys. Moreover, "Satan" slams "Jesus" around the ring, and "Jesus" bemoans that he was betrayed because everyone bet against him.
March: "SOXMAS" - Los Angeles, CA – A web page of KFI Radio promoted three highly offensive websites. One contained the script for the pilot of the sick cartoon series, "South Park," in which Santa Claus gets into a fight with Jesus, who uses the F-word.
March 25: "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boatride" - Comedy Central’s "South Park" continued its notorious Christian-bashing, with an episode that linked Christians to Nazis as oppressors of homosexuals. In a segment describing homosexuality throughout history, the character "Big Gay Al" interrupted his commentary to say, "Uh-oh, look out, it’s the oppressors—Christians and Nazis and Republicans." The scene showed Hitler with a Catholic priest to the right and a Republican on the left—the priest waving a cross, the Republican an American flag.
June 17: ??? - Comedy Central’s "South Park" was at it yet again, making priests and Mother Teresa the butt of its sick humor.

1999

April 14: "Spontaneous Combustion" - Comedy Central’s "South Park" used Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross as part of a skit about sexual dysfunction. The show opened with one of the characters, Kyle, telling his friends he needed to get an "erection" for his father. The boy had learned that his father’s inability to get an erection was causing marital discord. Not knowing what an erection is, Kyle thought he could buy one for his father at the store. Then he and his friends met a priest, who invited them to participate in the Stations of the Cross. The priest explained that Jesus was crucified on the Cross, and after three days had a resurrection. "Res-erection?" Kyle exclaimed. "That’s what my dad needs." So he and his friends designated another boy, Cartman, as Jesus, hung him on a cross and waited for him to die and have an erection.

2000

July 19: "Do The Handicapped Go To Hell?" "Probably" - The Comedy Central show "South Park" featured a two-part storyline that included an attack on almost every aspect of the Catholic faith. The basic plot of last week's show centered around a priest who tells children they will burn in hell unless they confess and "eat the crackers" (read: Holy Communion). During the course of the show, the following attacks on Catholicism were presented:
  1. The priest is caught by the children having sex with a parishioner in the confessional.
  2. The priest tells a nun "the Jews crucified our savior. If you don't go to hell for that, what the hell do you go to hell for?"
  3. The nun calls the Vatican to see if the priest is right. The pope appears senile.
  4. Transubstantiation is described as "just plain silly" and the kids wonder whether "Jesus was made of crackers"; they also ask whether "all we have to do is confess our sins and eat crackers" to avoid hell.
  5. The father of the Jewish boy tells his son "Christians use hell to scare people into believing what they want them to believe."

2002

March 6: Promo - The new season for Comedy Central's "South Park" was preceded by a promo that showed a young woman in the confessional. With trepidation in her voice, she says to the priest: "Forgive me, Father. It's been two months since our last meeting, and the visions have not yet stopped. Eternal damnation, the Anti-Christ, and people with asses where their faces should be. Oh, Father, are these signs of the Apocalypse?"
July 3: "Red Hot Catholic Love." - Comedy Central's "South Park" aired an episode titled "Red Hot Catholic Love." It boasted that it is one "the Catholic Church doesn't want you to see." The show satirized the sex scandal by portraying priests eager to have sex with boys, and a bishop complaining in front of the pope that "we'll never be able to have sex with boys again." Catholics were revealed to really worship a "Queen Spider" and were lectured that the Church got out of hand because it deviated from the Scriptures, which are only ethical platitudes.

2004

March 31: "The Passion of the Jew." - The Comedy Central network aired an episode of "South Park" titled, "The Passion of the Jew." Eric Cartman, a young character often portrayed as an anti-Semite, says "The Passion" shows that "Jews are the devil." Cartman, dressed as Hitler, holds a meeting of the "Mel Gibson Fan Club"; obviously well-intentioned Christians show up and assume that his cryptic Nazi references in fact have some benign religious significance. The entire cartoon was replete with anti-Catholic characterizations.

2005

December 8: "Bloody Mary" - seeing as Comedy Central won't do anything to stop Matt and Trey from coming out with episodes the League deems anti-Catholic, the League appeals to the parent company, Viacom, and succeeds in stopping "Bloody Mary" from ever airing again after it first aired on December 7. Mr. Twig should be quite happy though. :) See: VIRGIN MARY DEFILED ON “SOUTH PARK” and VILE “SOUTH PARK” EPISODE PULLED
The South Park episode killed by Comedy Central this week after Catholic groups complained has ascended to BitTorrent heaven! Hallelujah!