Catholic League Blasts Abc Series About Earthy Priest

Producers of ABC’s controversial fall show “Nothing Sacred,” which features an irreverent priest who grapples with God, abortion and lust, defended it Tuesday as simply a “workplace drama” much like “ER.”

In “Nothing Sacred,” however, the workplace just happens to be a Catholic Church. And the office chums aren’t doctors and nurses but nuns and parishioners.

“This is a show about a guy and his job,” producer Richard Kramer told an annual gathering of television critics in Pasadena. “It’s about going to your job every day.”

Although the show won’t debut until September (on Thursdays opposite NBC’s popular sitcom “Friends”), it already has drawn fire from the 350,000-member Catholic League, an anti-defamation group.

“We find it very offensive,” says league vice president Bernadette Brady, who reviewed the pilot. “It belittles the priesthood.”

In the premiere episode, star Kevin Anderson, as Father Ray, hears the confession of a pregnant woman who seeks his advice on abortion. He tells her, “I don’t know what to tell you,” and asks her to follow her heart.

Father Ray also admits that he can’t prove the existence of God and ponders his own sexual urges after meeting up with an old flame.

Brady says the roguish nature of Father Ray contradicts the reality of priests she knows.

“The character is really nothing like a Roman Catholic priest,” she says. “He’s arrogant and hostile. It’s a very hostile environment that these people exist in.”

The Rev. Greg Coiro, director of media relations for the Archidiocese of Los Angeles, condemned the show as “awful.” He became aware of it when ABC’s broadcast standards and practices division sent him a copy of a script for review.

The script included several profanities and a note that the language would be taken out because such vulgarities generally are not allowed on network television.

Coiro found it ironic that the script didn’t adhere to ABC’s standards, let alone the Catholic Church’s.

“If they don’t have a clue about their business, how could they have an inkling about mine?” he mused.

Coiro was disturbed by both the priests and the nuns in the show. One nun, a feminist, complains that the “Our Father,” a prayer central to most Christian groups, should be changed to “Our Mother.”

Not all Catholics, however, are opposed to the show. During his talk with critics, co-producer David Manson said two Jesuit priests serve as consultants to “Nothing Sacred.”

He also read a review of the show printed in “America,” a religious magazine for Ukrainian Catholics, that exalted the drama as “brilliant” and “the best TV series ever produced about Catholics.”

“There’s a wide range of opinion within the Catholic world,” Manson said.