Columbia President Apologizes for
Anti-Catholic Remarks over Football Game

NEW YORK (AP) _ The president of Columbia University has apologized for a
remark during a football game that Fordham students criticized as
anti-Catholic.

Lee Bollinger called his counterpart at Fordham, the Rev. Joseph O'Hare,
on Tuesday to express regret for the remarks.

The comment, broadcast over a public address system by a marching band
announcer at halftime, alluded to the priest sex scandal and involved a
double entendre about altar boys.

Students at Fordham, a Catholic university, circulated a petition
demanding an apology after Saturday's game. The Catholic League sharply
condemned the comment, as did Columbia's Roman Catholic chaplain, who
wrote a letter of protest Tuesday to the university's administrators.

The marching band said the comment was intended as a joke and denied
charges of bigotry. The student who wrote the script, Andy Hao, said he
would not apologize.

``You should blame the priests that molest kids and degrade the name of
the church rather than blaming some college kid who wrote a football
script,'' Hao told The New York Times.