Guess who’s partially responsible for the terrible terrible War on Christmas now?

According to blowhard O’Reilly, you can blame Catholics.  Here’s the charming conversation he had with Reverand Richard O’Brien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.

McBRIEN: Well, first of all, Bill, this is a very different sort of issue. I mean, the pedophilia crisis and scandal that it was associated with it was enormously significant. In fact, I think the most important crisis the Catholic Church in America has ever faced.

This controversy over a Christmas celebration — whether to say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" or to allow nativity scenes, crèches, and so forth, or to call Christmas trees "Christmas trees" rather than "Holiday trees" — is a very minor issue in comparison.

[…]

O’REILLY: Look, look, here’s the deal. We’ve got 65 million American Catholics. OK? And they don’t hear a word from any Catholic leadership on the subject at all.

The Protestants have at least a half dozen — what, you got, Falwell, Wildmon (they’re going to be on next week); we’ve got campaigns that the Protestants have organized to say to retailers, "Hey, listen, if you don’t — if you disrespect the holiday of Christmas, we’re going to let our people know." All of this is in play on the Protestant side; zippo on the Catholic side.

As I pointed out here, Pope Benedict has spoken out on the issue of Christmas.  He said that materialism is ruining the spirit of Christmas.  He’s quite right, Bill, and you should take heed.   Rather than acting as a shill for John Gibson’s book, and selling The O’Reilly Factor Christmas ornaments, maybe O’Reilly (a Catholic himself) should remember what Christmas is all about, and what Jesus taught us.

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