Catholic groups are upset at the Clinton campaign after hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that were released by WikiLeaks showed top Clinton aides making offensive comments toward Catholics and Catholicism.
The Hill reports that in the 2011 exchange, a fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, John Halpin, sent an email to Podesta and Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri about Rupert Murdoch.
"Friggin' Murdoch baptized his kids in Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus," Halpin wrote. "Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups."
"It's an amazing bastardization of the faith," Halpin continued. "They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy."
Palmieri responded while Podesta stayed silent.
"I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion," Palmieri wrote. "Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals."
The Catholic League lambasted the email comments.
"These anti-Catholic remarks are bad enough but it makes one wonder what else Clinton’s chiefs and others associated with the campaign are saying about Catholics and Catholicism," said a statement from the the Catholic League.
Another group, Catholic Vote, called for Palmieri's resignation in their statement from their president, Brain Burch. Catholic Vote says it has 500,000 members.
"Everyone has a unique faith journey, and it’s just insulting to make blanket statements maligning people’s motives for converting to another faith tradition," Burch wrote. "Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups she would [be] dismissed. Catholics will be watching Hillary Clinton to see whether she thinks our religious faith should be respected, or whether it’s fair game to mock us."