Phil Donahue, talk show pioneer and ‘lapsed Catholic’ who courted controversy, dies at 88

[Michie]

Phil Donahue, a self-described “lapsed Catholic” who reinvented the daytime television talk-show format beginning in the 1960s, died Sunday at his home in New York at age 88.

Born in Cleveland in 1935 and raised in a Catholic family, Donahue attended an all-boys Catholic high school and the University of Notre Dame. He later dismissed the Church as “‘sexist,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘unnecessarily destructive,’ feelings that imbued many of his shows,” his New York Times obituary notes.

When “The Phil Donahue Show” debuted in 1967 on a Dayton, Ohio, TV station, Donahue encouraged audience participation in his interviews and discussions, an unusual practice at the time that was later copied by numerous other shows.

Continued below.

Phil Donahue, talk show pioneer and ‘lapsed Catholic,’ dies at 88

Phil Donahue, a self-described “lapsed Catholic” who reinvented the daytime television talk-show format, died Sunday at his home in New York at age 88.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

[Wolseley]

I used to glance at his show now and then back in the 80s, until he got on the bandwagon for mainstreaming homosexuality in all forms. Can't recall ever watching him after that.

 

[RileyG]

May God have mercy on his soul!

 

[RileyG]

I used to glance at his show now and then back in the 80s, until he got on the bandwagon for mainstreaming homosexuality in all forms. Can't recall ever watching him after that.

He thought the Church was outdated because of their “anti-sexual theology,” and he praised Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the famous fanatical atheist who got prayer out of public schools in the 1960s.

He did not receive the Blessed Sacrament because he didn’t want to get his first marriage annulled.

Sad.

 

[Lady Bug]

I do get concerned about such people as Donahue.

(or anyone who grew up Catholic and dies seemingly in grave sin, or is still living in grave sin unrepentantly - I think of celebrities like Sting, Julia Roberts, etc.)

 

[RileyG]

I do get concerned about such people as Donahue.

(or anyone who grew up Catholic and dies seemingly in grave sin, or is still living in grave sin unrepentantly - I think of celebrities like Sting, Julia Roberts, etc.)

Same.