However, co-writer Oscar Kightley and producer John Barnett say the character was not an out-and-out depiction of Bishop Tamaki, but of a generic, larger-than-life religious leader.
"There's a degree of veneration of the leader. It requires henchmen, it requires acolytes like Stanley," Mr Barnett said.
He said Hoani getting a lap dance wasn't meant to reflect the lifestyles of any church leaders in the country. Charismatic church leaders were natural material for writers, he said.
"I think most religious institutions have taken a beating in the last few years and have become objects of parody in comedy and drama. It's absolutely fair game," he said.
Kightley said it would've been petty to parody Bishop Tamaki and wasn't what he or co-writer James Griffin set out to do.
"James and I didn't discuss him at all. We put a lot of things from popular culture, nothing specific, and then of course exaggerate those things. But there was no discussion about targeting anybody.
"We just wrote what we thought would be a cool story with elements drawn from life that we hope people would be familiar with and connect with," Kightley said.
Because Bishop Tamaki had a high media profile, people might associate the Cardinal with the Bishop, he said.
