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Let a Catholic repeat centuries-old and unchanging Catholic teachings against the American sacred cows of sodomy, abortion, transgenderism, freedom of religion, and democracy, and watch that anti-Catholic sentiment bubble over.
The reason anti-Catholic sentiment is not as overt as it used to be, is because Catholics either don't believe what the Church teaches anymore, or if they do, they aren't very outspoken about it due to fear of repercussions.
Opposition to anti-LGBT bigotry isn't 'anti-Catholic'. It's just anti-bigotry.
Hey, people. This is the History forum. It's not the Politics forum, or the Current Events forum. If somebody's name appears in the news today, you all already know that is not History. Don't quote or reply to stupid posts like that. Just report them and we'll deal with it.
I just finished reading a bio of Hugo Black, first a Senator from Alabama, then a Justice on the Supreme Court for 30+ years.
Back in the 1920's in Alabama, if you aspired to be a state legislator, Governor, Congressman or Senator it was all but mandatory to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which, a surprise to me, was very anti-Catholic.
In the book, there was a case where a Methodist Minister murdered a Catholic Priest, for marrying his daughter to a Puerto Rican. Hugo defended him, because he was a friend, and he was acquitted, no charges filed. Being an ex-Catholic myself, I found it shocking to read!
This hatred was a carryover from the Protestant/catholic wars in England and Europe
And it was also about being an outsider in Protestant America
Kennedy winning the presidency had lot to do with toning down anti-catholic hatred
But it was also just replaced by other religions—like anti-Muslim religion today
The Catholics and evangelicals share a common belief (most of them) in being anti-abortion
So now catholic priests are warning their parishioners not to vote democratic or they will incur god’s wrath
They have been told not to do that—but they won’t listen
Everybody loved Jack Kennedy. President Kennedy was Catholic and everybody loved him. I pick that as the time people stopped hating Catholics in America. Women loved him. Men loved him. Everybody.
That is an oversimplification
Because plenty of people didn’t love his liberal policies
But Kennedy being voted in as president was one factor in toning down anti-Catholicism in America
And Catholics themselves became more ecumenical in their beliefs—stopped drawing so much attention to their differences—
Like many other social attitudes a conscripted army from WWII was coming of majority age with a we're in this together attitude. Then the Catholic Church dropped its our way or the highway doctrine and liberalized just left a small number of Fundamentalist and some non traditional Christian sects, most with an identifiable single leader, as the Catholic Church had its Pope and that didn't believe in the Holy Trinity as outliers
A lot of the anti-catholic sentiment was anti-Irish. Once the Irish assimilated and became Americans, much of the prejudice receded.
Assimilation was not easy for the Irish. Many of them fled the famine from rural areas where their only home had been a hole dug in a dirt bank. They were illiterate. They had no concept of personal hygiene. Some of them didn't even speak English, or spoke broken English, since Gaelic was their native tongue. Plus, they were Catholic in an era when Catholic services were incomprehensible Latin mumbo-jumbo.
The Irish got involved in New York politics and became policeman. They put a stop to the catholic/protestant parades thru each other's neighborhoods which continued to stir tension in Northern Ireland well into the 70's and 80's. This was the first step up the ladder for the Irish in America. Not saying Tammany Hall was a good form of government, but for the Irish it was instrumental for their advancement into politics, making it possible for men like Joseph Kennedy to gain power in the next generation.
Obviously the Italian mafia was hurting the image of Italians and the catholic church by attending services and getting priests to look the other way for large donations to the church. The eye catching weddings and funerals were not impressing the protestants that much. Catholics tend to put a lot of resources into those ceremonies, while the family may be very poor. Prohibition was a divider, the protestants were for it, the catholics were against it and the mafia profited greatly from prohibition and brought a lot of trouble to cities like Chicago.
Another factor which hurt catholic image in the past, concerning most catholic run countries around the world before 1960 and lingering in South America and Philippines, overpopulation and underperforming economies were a common problem. Catholics did not practice birth control and had a tendency to have very large families they couldn't support. One of the Monty Python movies pokes fun of this problem, which has subsided greatly in the past 40 years. Now, Ireland, Italy and Spain economic situations are a lot closer to equality with England, France and Germany. This was a stigma many catholic counties have overcome.
For white supremacists, WW2 may have softened their views on catholics, Hitler did not persecute the catholics and the pope actually cooperated with Hitler and helped many nazi's escape after the war. Francisco Franco probably helped the image of Spain with the "Spanish Miracle" economy of the 1960's, while preserving conservative catholic traditions, at a time when anglo sphere countries were liberalizing at a very rapid pace. Frank Sinatra switching from democrat to republican and helping Spiro Agnew pay off his debt to state of Maryland, the whole rat pack thing and superstar Dean Martin becoming cultural icons. Recent IQ scores from various countries have Italy testing among the highest.
That's different. They molested people and covered it up for generations. Calling them on their crimes is called justice. But irrational prejudice against Catholics is a different phenom. If it's died out, it may be because the last generation to be part of it has passed.
Another poster may have a point in implying, that Kennedy's popularity helped change attitudes, but staunch Republicans didn't love him. "Everyone" did not love Kennedy. But he was popular. Possibly more so in death, than in the Presidency.
Those accusations about priests. Talk about a money-for-free grab. My brother and I and some of our chilhood buds semi-seriously considered getting in on it. No DNA, no video, no nothing, just a half good lawyer...they'd melt down a gold chalice, cash it in, and boom! you're rich!
I'll just bet there were 10 Baptist ministers molestering boys for every priest that did. But, ever notice....relatively little about that. Catholic boys would blab all over the neighborhood if an adult molestered them. Baptist boys not so much. It's a cultural thing. And I know...we had hillbillies as well as Catholics in my neighborhood. Different stuff there.
And now that a brand new Ford F-150 costs over $50,000 I feel stronger than ever I should have "turned in" I don't know, Father Mullen? He was such an easy mark. But none of us could ever recall him getting within 6' of us. So what? Evidence was not part of that baloney. And it was baloney! For reasons I won't divulge here - I know it was baloney.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 09-22-2020 at 10:40 AM..
That is an oversimplification
Because plenty of people didn’t love his liberal policies
But Kennedy being voted in as president was one factor in toning down anti-Catholicism in America
And Catholics themselves became more ecumenical in their beliefs—stopped drawing so much attention to their differences—
I'll just bet there were 10 Baptist ministers molestering boys for every priest that did. But, ever notice....relatively little about that. Catholic boys would blab all over the neighborhood if an adult molestered them. Baptist boys not so much. It's a cultural thing. And I know...we had hillbillies as well as Catholics in my neighborhood. Different stuff there.
The protestants didn't need boys, they had the girls. As long as they didn't get one knocked up, nobody ever called them on it. The girls generally weren't talking anyway. Preachers liked the young ones, and since the girls were being "protected" from sex education, they tended to believe whatever the preacher told them.
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