Actress Susan Sarandon is under fire from the Catholic League after calling Pope Benedict XVI a “Nazi” during a recent interview.

When telling filmmaker Bob Balaban about sending the pope a copy of the book ‘Dead Men Walking,’ which inspired the film for which she won a 1995 Oscar, she said she meant Pope John Paul II and “not this Nazi one we have now.”

In response, Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said, “She’s a despicable person to make these kinds of despicable remarks… To blame him for something that he was never responsible for; he was forced to join [the Hitler Youth] as every boy his age was. Unlike the others, he deserted.”

Donohue says he won’t demand an apology from the actress because “she is ignorant and full of hatred to the Catholic Church,” but it’s probably just as well. Knowing Sarandon’s political views, he could be waiting an awfully long time.

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