Hot Press and Catholicism

Sue Denham, in her (or is it his??) usual snappy form, comments on the Hot Press picture of a priest masturbating (don't click if you don't want to see it!) She compares the lack of outcry (on Rte's Whineline) with the situation in Denmark where a paper depicted Mohammed as a terrorist which led to street protests and death threats.
As she said, Hot Press only was "kicking a soft target when it’s down".
I don't really see the relevance in the such a picture - it's not exactly highlighting anything no one knew before and is not just insulting to Catholics but to anyone who has an imagination and doesn't need to see actual depictions of masturbation, which are just gross. I can just see Niall Stokes in his little office, surrounded by his delusions of musical prophecy and the fragmented dreams of his intellectual liberal crendentials, with his face contorted from the strain of trying to be edgy and "cool".
The Catholic Church doesn't follow up every offensive picture or bigoted comment, and most times that there's outcry over things like this it's ordinary Catholics who've just had enough and want to make their voices heard. Perhaps it's time for the hand of the Church to grab that crozier that had everyone trembling in the past and stand up for itself against juvenile attempts at cleverness.
Hot Press give the picture the caption "the good priest". How dare they judge the entire population of Catholic priests in such a bigoted fashion? (Is the golden commandment of being non-judgemental not the most important part of the liberal gospel that Hot Press has been spouting with such originality since the eighties?)
The vast majority of Catholic priests are incredibly decent men whom we rightly welcome into our lives everytime we have a life changing event (births, deaths and marriage) and struggle heroically to live a life that is not just counter-cultural, but plain hard. Last Sunday, in a North Dublin inner city church a fresh faced priest in his early thirties told the congregation that the Ferns report showed what happens when we shut God out of our lives and refuse to rise to the challenge of Christianity. He spoke of his vocation to celibacy and how it was integral part of his identity as a man, not just as a priest. But according to Hot Press, this man whose daily life is to serve the people of his parish, something he does with charity, good humour and Christian love, is a sexual pervert who is one step away from molesting the nearest child. I suppose a daily musical diet of Damien Dempsey, Glen Hansard and the Thrills would cavitate one's brain and lead to all kinds of crazy conclusions.
Hot Press is a pretty pathetic excuse for a magazine - the free Event Guide is way better. In fact, any concert that I'm at where I see Niall Stokes leads to a mini internal crisis - I like the same stuff as Niall Stokes - does that mean I'm pretentious whiny posturer? (please say no!)