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A staunch supporter of Israel, Hagee, leader of John Hagee Ministries, has in the past accused the Catholic church of being anti-Semitic.
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WASHINGTON (AFP)---A popular US televangelist who backs Republican presidential candidate John McCain has apologized for calling the Catholic church "a great whore," a Catholic spokesman said Tuesday.
"I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful," Texas-based preacher John Hagee wrote Monday to Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights president William Donahue, who made the letter public.
Hagee, 68, said that after speaking with Catholic friends and officials, "I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism."
A staunch supporter of Israel, Hagee, leader of John Hagee Ministries, has in the past accused the Catholic church of being anti-Semitic, in addition to branding it "the great whore."
"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," he wrote.
"In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic church. It most certainly does not."
Donahue's response was positive. "The tone of Hagee's letter is sincere," he said.
Hagee is known for controversial statements. In 2006 he said Hurricane Katrina, that killed some 1,500 people the year before in Louisiana, was God's way of punishing New Orleans for scheduling a gay parade the day the storm struck, August 29.
McCain has publicly condemned Hagee's comments, but has not refused his
endorsement, made on February 27.
The controversy echoes the trouble Democratic hopeful Barack Obama is facing over his former pastor Jeremiah Wright's claims that AIDS was a racist government plot and suggestions that black citizens sing "God Damn America" to protest discrimination.
