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Susan Sarandon calls Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi in conversation

By April MacIntyre Oct 18, 2011, 6:22 GMT

10/06/2011 - Susan Sarandon - HBO "Sing Your Song" New York Screening - Arrivals - Apollo Theater - New York City, NY, USA © Marco Sagliocco / PR Photos

Susan Sarandon's casual remark about Pope Benedict XVI has caused an uproar with the Catholic League.

During Newsday interview with fellow actor and filmmaker Bob Balaban in the Hamptons Saturday, Sarandon shared she sent Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Men Walking to the Pontiff.  Sarandon referred to the current Pope as a "Nazi."

"The last [pope]," she said, clarifying she sent the tome to Pope John Paul II. "Not this Nazi one we have now."

"She's a despicable person to make these kinds of despicable remarks," Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights shared with E! News in response to Sarandon's smackdown of Pope Benedict XVI.

"He deserted the Hitler Youth at the first moment," Donohue said to E!
"[Sarandon] doesn't know what she's talking about...To blame him for something that he was never responsible for; he was forced to join as every boy his age was. Unlike the others, he deserted."

Donohue said he won't even seek an apology from the "hard-core leftist" actress because "she is ignorant and full of hatred to the Catholic Church."