THE PUBLIC MIND: EDITORIAL CARTOON PROVES AN EXAMPLE OF ANTI-CATHOLIC BIGOTRY

To the Editor:

The July 23, 1~991 issue of the Southeast Missourian contained a cartoon by Benson dealing with the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The cartoon offers a classic study of mindless bias. Clarence Thomas is sketched as a cowering dunce, seated on a dunce chair, wearing a miter (a ritual headpiece) to denote his subservience to the Pope.

Whatever Thomas might be, he is surely no dunce. His intellectual acumen and his scholarship are outstanding. A coward he is not. He does not need to be taught Constitutional Law on abortion, especially by the likes of Ms. NOW (National Organization of Women~. He is entitled to have and he in fact has a religious faith concerning abortion. We can be sure that Ms. NOW does not intend to teach Thomas how he can be both Catholic and Constitutional~. S~he knows that he can, but in Benson's cartoon the aim is to ~keep alive the fiction that it is not possible for a Catholic Judge to be Constitu~tional.

The cartoon is an example of anti-Catholic bigotry. The issue is not the nomination of Clarence Thomas, but to foster the anti~~~-Catholic spirit in our society, our oldest and most persistent form of bigotry. ~Benson's purpose for Clarence Thomas and Ms. NOW in the car~~toon is to catch the attention of the reader; they are incidental to the cartoon. If one is a Benson watcher one is easily convinced tha~t he is a chronic anti-Catholic bigot.

One wonders how many editors realize that they play the role of anti-Catholic bigot with Benson when they print his cartoons. ~One can be sure that very few readers view Benson's cartoons with ~true discrimination, and that few detect any intellectual or moral manipulation. ~Newspapers and other printed media in our country, since the days of the colonies, have poisoned the minds of thei~~r readers with Benson type cartoons, all the while mumblin~g, ~"Freedom of the Press." All the while subscribers and advertisers h~ave paid to be so abused.

Msgr. Joseph Gosche

Fredricktown