The cartoon Popetown is voiced by the acerbic American comedian Ruby Wax, who is Jewish

The Pope, the church says, is "depicted as a cretinous, dirty, spoiled brat ... It also implies a predilection on the part of one Vatican-based priest for exotic animals in a way that suggests moral degeneration of an appalling kind."

CanWest Global Communications Corp, an international media company, is Canada's largest media company. In addition to owning the Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada's largest publisher of daily newspapers including The National Post, The Vancouver Sun and The Province.

In New Zealand ,CanWest owns TV3 and C4, and the radio stations More FM,Kiwi FM, The Breeze, Radio Works, The Edge, The Rock and Solid Gold in New Zealand.

C4 launched Popetown on June 8 despite the program's developers, Britain's BBC, deciding it was too risky even for its more offbeat BBC3 station.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand has repeatedly condemned the program, according to the New Zealand Herald.

New Zealand's Catholic Communications director Lyndsay Freer said the church would probably now complain to the country's Broadcasting Standards Authority as it was dissatisfied with Canwest's response to the complaints.

In the meantime, the nine New Zealand bishops were calling on the almost half a million Catholic New Zealanders to boycott all Canwest stations and its advertisers.

"We want our people to make their complaints and their opinions heard," said Freer.

She didn't expect all Catholics would make the boycott, but if some did that would definitely show they were being offended by Popetown.

"BBC3 made the series and then decided it was too offensive to screen-Canwest obviously don't think it is. They think it's okay to offend Catholics."

The church had also written to Canwest advertisers suggesting they pull their advertising from their channels.

C4 station manager Andrew Szusterman has said the programme was satire and no more offensive than Father Ted, The Vicar of Dibley or Monty Python's Life of Brian.

The premise of Popetown-life inside a bureaucratic fiefdom ruled by a hyperactive, infantile pope, is voiced by the acerbic American comedian Ruby Wax, who is Jewish.

Popetown is the story of Father Nicholas, an idealistic young priest struggling to make sense of the Vatican bureaucracy. The thorns in his side include scheming cardinals and a pope who is determined to shirk the duties of his office.