That was easy.
The conservative Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights has received a letter from televangelist/John McCain supporter John Hagee expressing regret over having offended Catholics (read it here). And, just like that, Catholic League president Bill Donohue says he accepts Hagee’s apology:

“The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it. Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology. What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns. But he has done just that. Now Catholics, along with Jews, can work with Pastor Hagee in making interfaith relations stronger than ever. Whatever problems we had before are now history. This case is closed.”

God-o-Meter wonders whether the Catholic church, for which Donohue is not an official spokesperson, or tens of millions of American Catholics feel the same way. What about the issue of Hagee’s allegedly anti-Catholic comments and his criticism of the Catholic church’s actions during the Holocaust that appear in his books? Hagee didn’t renounce any of that. Does Donohue care? Seems like a pretty quick fix to a very thorny problem.
Not to mention the convenient timing for John McCain, who’s suffered a lot of grief for pursuing and embracing Hagee’s endorsement. Somehow, God-o-Meter doubts that the case is closed on Hagee. This settlement might just spur more critical coverage of the Hagee-McCain connection.

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