I actually saw this live, and was completely clueless
When she tore up a picture of John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in protest of church abuse, some of which she was the personal target of, she got a LOT of grief.
Now, people are recognizing that she was right and justified, Even in her native Ireland:
Her declaration back in 1992 that the Catholic Church was rotten to its core and pedophile priests and their enablers were the real enemy was true.
It caused a massive worldwide reaction when she tore up a picture of the then Pope on Saturday Night Live in October 1992 and declared, “Fight the real enemy.”
We now know that the pedophile scandals were rampant during the era of Pope John Paul, who chose to turn a blind eye. O’Connor was calling out the right person.
Before Spotlight, before the worst of the American and Irish church scandals, O’Connor called it right and only got abuse in return.
The enemy has become very obvious since then. The revelation that a Pennsylvania grand jury found that more than 1,000 children in six dioceses there had been molested by 300 Catholic priests over the past 70 years while successive church officials covered it up is truly shocking.
The scandal, which has been going on for decades, and the coverup, which was particularly ferocious under John Paul II, has proven her right.