Catholic Discrimination?

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Were any of you discriminated agianst for being Catholic growing up (just growing up). I was homeschooled and went to a “non-denominational” homeschool group many of the parents would tell us that Catholics were wrong because we worshiped Mary or because we bought indulgences or other lies when are parents weren’t around (I was 8 and 9 at the time). Other parents would tell their kids that we weren’t real or good Christians and some parents wouldn’t let their kids play with us. I’m not sore or anything and I certaintly don’t think all protestants think like this (mostly I’ve seen otherwise) just curious to see if anyone had similar situations.
 
I went to a Catholic school so I never saw discrimination there.

I don’t recall anyone ever saying I couldn’t play with them because I was Catholic. (But most of my friends were so…)

The only times I ever remember there being any issues at all were when my being Catholic or attending Catholic school caused some scheduling issues with Girl Scouts. Catholic school ended later in the day than public school so my friend and I (same class in school/same troop) were a couple minutes late to a field trip to MacDonalds. The troop leader was a bit annoyed, perhaps because she thought it reflected poorly on her. (Fortunately MacDonalds was right accross the street from my school.)

And on another occasion the troop went away for a weekend. The Catholic parents arranged for the Catholic kids to attend Mass at the nearby Mission rather than attend the brief non-denominational service with the other Scouts. I think the troop leader was a bit insulted that we didn’t consider the Scout service sufficient. Interestingly, one of the parents who was not Catholic, arranged for her daughter to attend Mass with us because she wanted her to attend a Christian service SOMEWHERE.
 
We had one incident, when I was growing up, of being chased to school by public school kids intent on beating us up because we were Catholic Kids.

HOWEVER, I remember thinking there was something odd about ‘those CCD’ kids when I was growing up - after all, we were actually attending Catholic School and those kids were going to PUBLIC school :bigyikes: SO we had to WATCH OUT FOR THEM…:whacky: .

I think it is sad what you went through - it shows how adults can harm their children by teaching them falsehoods.
 
I had the opposite experience. I was Eastern Orthodox (not practicing) and went to Catholic schools. The Catholic schools were superior to our public schools(academically) at the time.

My parents wanted me to also have some religious education, so with Catholicism and Orthodoxy being so similar it should have worked.

Part of it was my fault becuse I did not know enough to be able to explain the similarities to the other kids. But kids are cruel.

The teachers (especially religion teachers) were very accepting of me but the other kids were very discriminating towards me.

I was looked at as less than them, their parents wouldn’t allow them to play with me, I was made fun of for not being confirmed (not knowing that I was baptized, confirmed, and received first eucharist all at the same time as a baby).

It was a horrible experience and actually helped form some of my anti-Catholic attitudes that I carried with me into adulthood. But I met and married a wonderful Catholic man and am now Catholic myself.

Malia
 
Never really had any when I was a child. I do remember my first encounter, tho, during my first year of college. I was a member of the college’s Chamber Singers, and we were on tour one spring in Arizona. On the bus ride to our next destination, we were all talking in the back, and the subject “what religion are you?” came up. When I told the group I was Catholic, one of the singers, a bass, looked at me with anger and literally screamed “You’re Catholic? Did you know that you guys are a false religion? You worship Mary? It’s not in the Bible!” It really shocked me so much, that I cowered and went to my seat. And I really thought, up to that point, that he was a nice guy, and that we got along pretty well! 😦

Tonks40
 
Not growing up, but it happens often now!

My DH’s family (SIL and BIL) are the biggest culprits! I am a cradle Catholic and DH converted 7 years ago and they let us know all the time that we are going to hell, and we are not Christian. They belong to a non-denominational Bible Church.

One day, I lost my temper (I know, bad) and said to her “do you actually read that Bible you are thumping?” Have to say, it didn’t go over well.
 
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JoanieS:
Not growing up, but it happens often now!

My DH’s family (SIL and BIL) are the biggest culprits! I am a cradle Catholic and DH converted 7 years ago and they let us know all the time that we are going to hell, and we are not Christian. They belong to a non-denominational Bible Church.

One day, I lost my temper (I know, bad) and said to her “do you actually read that Bible you are thumping?” Have to say, it didn’t go over well.
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That is hysterical! I’ll have to remember that line. (I wouldn’t use it but it would make me feel less irritated at those Bible-thumping fundamentalists who believe that Catholics are not Christian.):banghead:
 
I grew up in a prejudice home. We were Catholic and dad wouldn’t let us be friends or date kids that weren’t Catholic. I went to public school…pretty tough to start all your friendships by asking what religion they are! I finally in my sophmore year met a Lutheran boy that dad just hated, which you all know made me fall head over heel for him. Dad was soooo mad at me!!! He even MADE bf go to mass with us! A neighbor made a joke out of my little brother asking what church they went to and replied St Matress. My mom and dad gathered us kids up, told them good bye and left their yard. The whole way home dad ranted about it. If anyone were prejudiced against us, I wouldn’ t know it since dad wouldn’t let me get anywhere near them!
 
Heck yes…wasn’t everyone!

Nah just kidding but there was definite problems in a Victorian country town where I lived. Dad was regular army so we got to move quite a bit. The local Proddy kids use to throw insults and stones at us sometimes.

Our wonderful Archbishop told me this and I remember after all these years, to hold our heads high and be proud to suffer for Our Lord, thrash them on the sports ground and better them academically.

God Bless this fierce old Irishman
 
Yep. I had a neighbor tell me, when I was about 7, that **her **father went to Catholic school and that was why he sent them to public school. They were *obviously *more enlightened than my parents!

In college, we sang for the Holy Father (altho it was a public college) when he came to DC and one guy in the choir was a Fundamentalist. He joked that he was going to ask the pope if he was a Christian. That was when I was a freshman. It only went downhill from there!
 
I didn’t know what real discrimination was until I was a senior in highschool. I am an army brat and moved to a new school right before my senior year. There were three groups… white from east side of town, white from west side of town (aka rednecks) and black. You fit into one of those groups. I didnt’ fit into any of those groups and refused to assimilate. Then I met a guy I thougth was really cute, cool, and safe. He was a bible thumper and I didn’t care at the time. Then he learned I was Catholic and started to really harp on me about it. A really, really bad thing happened to me to shatter my innocence about life by this guy and he used the exuse “God wanted me to do it to show you.” :confused:

Anyway… my inlaws are the only ones that discriminate against me now. I’ve had all the age old anti-catholic junk thrown at me to try to prove my religion isn’t true. To be honest, I’d rather talk with others than them about my religion… I’d get more respect from others than my inlaws. :))
 
I was raised and live in a country were 75% of the population is Catholic, so I never had to face Catholic discrimination while growing up.

I´ve always admire Catholics that live in countries where Catholics are not a majority. It must be very difficult sometimes, especially while growing up. On the other hand I think it can actually help strengthen your faith.
 
In 7th grade I had to go to public school due to my Dad being unable to continue paying for Catholic school. It was my first realization that there were other religions! I just assumed everyone was Catholic.

I never truly knew the “problems” that some people had with Catholicism until I became an adult and was challenged about where the Bible says anything about birth control. Every Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter I have to spend time with my SIL who challenges me with “worship of Mary” - it’s become a tradition to bash me at these lovely family events (I am currently the only practicing Catholic out of 6 siblings). If something is said to me and I begin to voice my defense of the Catholic faith she and the others simply roll their eyes and say something to the effect of “don’t get her started!” It even happened after my grandmother’s wake a couple of years ago. I was asked to lead the rosary since the priest was unable to make the prayer service. Except for my grandmother (who was deceased) I was the only one who knew the rosary, so I led the prayer. After the rosary, while we are still in the funeral home my SIL asked why Catholics repeat the same prayers over and over again!

Since my grandmothers funeral, the priest challenged me to lead and bring my family back to the Church. I learn everything I can about the faith so I can have calm, rational discussions regarding my Faith. Not that I have made any progress but it might happen!
 
I tried to join a Christian a capella group my freshman year in college. The group wanted to make sure I was “saved” before I joined. I told them I was born saved, but gave them a story about how I tried to be an example to the “too cool” older kids who were supposed to sit with us younguns at my Catholic school during Mass. I did this by actually participating (what a concept) and especially by singing.
Then they challenged whether people who did not have the opportunity to every hear the name Jesus could go to heaven. I told them (which I am pretty sure is consistent with the CCC) that I thought it was possible to “know Jesus” without knowing of the Son of Man Jesus. They didn’t like my answer, but I didn’t back down.
They made private visits to tell us their decision. It went like this:
“Well, you would have been our first pick for the group, but… I mean, we aren’t saying you’re not saved or anything, but we just wanted to give you a couple of these pamplets to read.”
It was, of course, the typical Get Saved literature. :rolleyes:

I’ve been pretty impressed, though, by the attitude of people I work with when they find out I’m Catholic. Most are very receptive to friendly conversation. Actually the worst person to talk to (about Catholicism) is the nominal Catholic who still thinks we use the ‘rhythm method’ and that we actually eat bread and drink wine at Communion. :eek:
 
I went to a high school in a town where everyone belonged to a Baptist or other “Christian” church. Every morning there would be a circle of all of my friends who would gather in a circle near my locker in the hallway, hold hands, and pray together. I never had a problem with it since, at a minimum, it was Christian and they seemed harmless. The next year (sophomore year), the group grew from 3 to the size of about 80. They were able to get permission from the school to gather before classes in an empty classroon due to their huge turnout. I never went.

One morning I decided to attend, since I felt left out as all of my friends would attend. Not 5 minutes into their prayers, they were reciting “prayers” asking God to show “our flawed Catholic brothers and sisters the true ways of your works”. I’ll never forget that part. It made me sick. They also said some disparaging things about the Pope, too, that were ridiculous. I left within a few minutes, and mad quite a scene as I did.

For the remaining 2 years I was called names such as “statue worshipper”, heretic, and a lot worse names as well- probably many of the same names you may have been called. One day I was asked by my Baptist friend if I could help him out at his congregation. There was a wicked storm a few days earlier that ripped the wood siding off of a few sides of the church building, and it needed to be replaced. It was a big job, but I said that I would be more than happy to help out.

Fast forward to Saturday morning, and here I was working away for hours on end with about 20-30 Baptists, many of them my friends from school as well as congregants of the church. Before shutting it down for lunch, I found myself up about 20 feet on some scaffolding when this 75 year old guy I was working with- Justin- had started up the whole “Catholics are bad people” thing. He finally got to me when he told me that Catholics don’t believe in God. By this time the conversation became quite loud and people on the ground had noticed. But this guy really irritated me, so I felt the need to repsond to his verbal assaults. I told him that of course “we Catholics believed in God, the same God that has given me the strength to not throw you off of this scaffolding”. Needless to say, I was bever bothered again.
 
My cousins were not so much bigoted or prejudiced as biased. They weren’t mean about it. They were expressing interest. They just wanted to know what spell the nuns taught us when we learned our incantations…you know, around the caldron…when they taught us black magic in front of the idols. Years later, one cousin from that same family married a Catholic in a Catholic church. Another was in more Catholic weddings than you could imagine, and became a Lutheran.

My exposure as a child was limited to street preachers who ranted that I was on my way to Hell, and my sibs and I were taught to ignore all people who might be mentally unstable, unless they tried to touch us. Then we could take evasive action or kick and punch them while we screamed for help.

I encountered non-Catholics of the extreme evangelical and cult variety in high school, which was a “magnet” school. In Chicago, that meant the magnet school was about 65% filled with graduates of Catholic elementary schools whose parents couldn’t afford tuition at Catholic high schools. There were a few others, though. I was warned by JWs that I was not one of the 144,000, but I’d better get on-board now, or all I would have is some sort of natural happiness when Jehovah remade the world in 1973, 1974 and 1975. One guy repeatedly tried to convert me to Baptist. And surprisingly, the Jesus People were very tolerant, and only reminded every so often in a very loving way that the Bible did not contain the Rosary (little did they know that the prayers are biblical).

I guess I encountered most bigotry as an adult in the South in the military.
 
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