PW: Do you realize how The Church That Forgot Christ is going to anger people—especially toward you?

I don't think they will get angry, because I haven't had anybody express any anger in all the writing [in my newspaper column] I've been doing in the last two years. Very rare expressions. The harshest columns of all drew absolutely no negative respects. Most people, without question, agree. They may be uncomfortable seeing it put out so blatantly, but they agree with it. They know it's right. That's the big thing—they know it's right.

Why did you decide to write this book?

How could you not, number one. The only problem with doing the book was that the cases kept coming in every morning. It's my game. I'm in the Church, or I was. It's my faith; I got betrayed. I'm not going to write a scholarly treatise on the tides and times of the Holy Roman Catholic Church over the centuries—I'm not going to bother with that. I think it's time we got away from Rome. We're no longer a branch store of that place, and that's what it should be. [Congressman] Peter King was there in Rome in the Vatican when Bush went in to see the pope. Bush told him about the troubles over here. It's amazing for Bush to do anything, and he did that, but [the pope's] people out in the hallway where they were waiting in the reception areas said, "What is it you're making such a big thing of? We've already taken care of that." They thought they had straightened it out. They've done nothing. They don't care about America and that's what it comes down to. They don't care at all.

Do you still go to church?

I stopped when I made a pronouncement that [New York cardinal Edward] Egan ought to get thrown out, that I'd have nothing more to do with him. I really believe the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in America are pimps, and the rank-and-file are pedophiles. Deny it if you can. Don't tell me it's the work of only a few.

How did the Church become a breeding ground for pedophiles?

It was inevitable. It was a safe place. It's not dangerous—it's very dangerous out on the streets like that if the public gets ahold of you. It's not dangerous to be a pedophile; it's the easy way going into the Church. Have all the boys and choirboys, and have anything else, because a pedophile cannot handle a love affair with an adult. They only want children. There's no cure for it. The streets are too dangerous, so they came into the Church. The strange breed congregated there. The upshot of it was, there's a lot of priests who are gay, no question, but these people are giving gays a bad name. Gay doesn't mean anything, but a pedophile does.

Why have no obstruction of justice charges been brought against members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church?

[Bernard Cardinal] Law in Boston ran everything because he could guarantee the popes that he could fight abortion. That's all they know, that abortion. Anything to do with a woman's body, they're terrified of. They want to run a woman's body. If you could explain that to me, I could be a genius. The urge of a man who's supposed to be celibate and wants to control a woman's body.

How much fault lies with the pope?

All. He's in charge. Did he stop abortions in Poland? Who is he kidding? This is America.

If you could say one thing to the pope, what would it be?

Why do you stand between God and me? Who are you to get in the way?