Anti-Catholicism

Uncommon card · No. 115878

Anti-Catholicism is prejudice or discrimination against Catholics, including opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, the authority of the pope, and its adherents. Four categories of anti-Catholicism exist: political, involving concerns about Catholics' loyalty to the state; theological, rooted in disagreement with Catholic doctrines; popular, including fears and accusations that Catholics are heretics or potential traitors; and sociocultural, based on claims that the Church fosters or enables forms of immorality. Following the Reformation, a number of majority-Protestant states, including England, Northern Ireland, Prussia and Germany, Scotland, and the United States, at various times incorporated anti-Catholic rhetoric and policies, including opposition to the authority of Catholic clergy (anti-clericalism) and papal authority (anti-papalism), criticism or mockery of Catholic rituals, and religious discrimination and persecution against Catholics. Several populist movements had...

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