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Essay On Anti Catholicism In America

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Anti-Catholicism in America “If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses”. (Lenny Bruce) In today’s modern society, religion is not look upon fondly. One religion seems to be in the media more often being criticized, Catholicism. Politicians get criticized for their “Catholic agenda” and the breaking story is diocese protecting pedophile, homosexual priests. This combined makes people think, why does everyone seem to target Catholicism and why are they allowed to get away with it. Especially in this time where everything has to be “politically correct”. The Anti-Catholic prejudice started in Europe with the Protestant Reformation,continued …show more content…

In 1850, only 5% of the American population was Catholic, they were the clear minority in the country. By 1906, 17% of the population in America was Catholic. In 1845 the Irish Potato Famine started, the lack of food caused many Irish to immigrate to America. With them, they brought their own culture and traditions, many of which were based on their faith, Catholicism. Many Americans were afraid that the influx of Catholics coming to the United States would grant the Pope more control over them. This reminded them too much of a king so they were worried about being controlled. To stop from Catholics from having too much sway in America, Americans started treating the them as less than people. Jenkins used the comparison of the prejudice in the 19th century to the prejudice against blacks in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This comparison makes it really easy for people in modern times to understand what it was like to be Catholic back in the 19th century. Catholics were treated as less than people. The Irish, and Catholics in general, were growing at a too fast of rate to many Americans. They were afraid that the Catholics would get in the way of building their Christian America. The strong anti-Catholic prejudice continued in America very many years but toned down a bit as prejudice towards blacks grew. Anti-Catholicism was still present but got pushed onto the back burner for a …show more content…

No matter how unbiased an article seems, there is usually a hidden bias if a person would look closely enough. The Catholic Church seems to be a favorite subject in current media. Between priest sex scandals, controversial political views and secrets that the Vatican is keeping from the rest of the world. Probably the most challenging and difficult topic for Catholic has to do with the priest sex scandals. The sex scandals have cast a harsh light on the Church and is probably what the Catholic Church is in the media the most for. It seems like at least twice a month there is an article or news story about a breaking sex scandal involving a Catholic priest. While it is a horrible thing that happened to the victims, the media seems to take averse pleasure in bringing up the Catholic Church every time there is a scandal involving a priest, yet when a scandal involves a pastor from a Christian faith, they say that he is just a sick individual. Articles and stories like this make it seem like every Catholic priest and even all Catholics are sick. Nowadays, it is one of the first things that people question a Catholic

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