Catholics outside the US

[bklynbrat]

I’m curious to know if Catholics outside the US have to deal with so much anti-Catholicism in their own countries?
Do you have the John Hagee’s, James White, etc. type of fundalmentalists? Or are the majority of these of people here in the US? I know I need to pray for these people, & it’s very hard, because I see them as haters. I guess I should look at them as ignorant & need to have their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit instead.
Also, are there Non-denom mega churches elsewhere? I know of the one in Australia (cannot remember the name right now).

Thank you & God Bless

 

[dosdog]

I’m curious to know if Catholics outside the US have to deal with so much anti-Catholicism in their own countries?
Do you have the John Hagee’s, James White, etc. type of fundalmentalists? Or are the majority of these of people here in the US? I know I need to pray for these people, & it’s very hard, because I see them as haters. I guess I should look at them as ignorant & need to have their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit instead.
Also, are there Non-denom mega churches elsewhere? I know of the one in Australia (cannot remember the name right now).

Thank you & God Bless

In India, Catholic churches are regularly burned by Hindu Fundamentalists, and both Hindus and local animist groups have harassed and killed Catholic converts. In Pakistan, which disagrees with India about everything else, an Islamic Fundamentalist government does the same. Even great charity is no protection. Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity have been threatened in India and three of them were murdered in Yemen in the 1990s.

Following is the first in a series of articles by Robert Royal, author of the soon-to-be released book Catholic Martyrs of the 20th Century.

catholicherald.com/royal/royal1.htm

Our Sunday Visitor: Persecution of Catholics still alive, oppression’s face fanatic, traditional
catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=19509

 

[happygal]

In Singapore, we do not have such things at all. Therefore i am very surprise to hear or see such disunity among Christ believers outside my country.

 

[Peterdiago]

I’m curious to know if Catholics outside the US have to deal with so much anti-Catholicism in their own countries?

You don’t have anti-Catholicism here in the US You have kids playing games; it’s sweet and almost cute what those people are like. You know when you get a little Paris-Hilton-style-handbag-dog that barks and snaps? It obviously wants to bite you, but it’s just so sweet in its earnest incompetence

Do you have the John Hagee’s, James White, etc. type of fundalmentalists? Or are the majority of these of people here in the US?

Fundamentalist anti-Catholicism is essentially a US phenomena, but in the UK there are elements of that, but far less than there is here. However, those people are not really actually a threat.

I know I need to pray for these people, & it’s very hard, because I see them as haters. I guess I should look at them as ignorant & need to have their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit instead.

They aren’t really ignorant - they are just stupid and have no common sense. An ignorant person could believe (for example) that the Catholic Church was founded in 325 by Constantine. However, only a collosal idiot could believe the Vatican has a computer with all the names of all Protestants on it

Also, are there Non-denom mega churches elsewhere? I know of the one in Australia (cannot remember the name right now).

Not to the same scale as they are in the US.

What you have to understand about Catholicism outside of the USA is that, firstly, virtually everywhere else in the world Catholicism is the vastly dominant Christian religion. Secondly, in places where anti-Catholicism actually exists (and it doesn’t really exist in the USA - that would be like saying that because 9/11 happened the USA is plagued by terrorism) it is often insitutionalized and legal.

Consider the UK, and many of the Islamic nations. In those countries, Catholics have fewer rights than the dominant state religion, and persecution (of varying sorts) is legal. There are national holidays in some countries which celebrate anti-Catholic sentiment.

I’ve lived in the US for about eight or nine months now; there is no anti-Catholicism worthy of the name here. What there is, as I said above, is kids playing games

 

[Stolen_Rutters]

I suspect that anti-catholicism in the US is fairly unique. You don’t get the murders, the church burnings or bombings like you see in non-catholic countries in asia and muslim world, but the verbal demonization you do get here is pretty nasty and propagandized. For a largely protestant nation, there is a significant catholic minority (up to 25% depending on what level of “practicing” you pick) so catholics are a big target for the verbal assault.

 

[BelFarfalla]

Anti Catholicism in the USA stems from the same in the parts of Europe that embraced Catholicism. The Evangelical and Protestant missionaries are carrying the same form of anti-Catholicism to every country in the world in which they are working to convert Catholics away from the Church. The lies and mistruths we here on these forums and see on internet sites is what they are teaching people world wide about Catholicism.
Muslim countries are a special case. They have always been anti-Catholic and anti-Christian of any kind. So they are equal opportunity haters. They are anti anything non-Islamic. Most Christians in the Muslim countries are Catholic/Orthodox/Coptic/Chelean. Christians are routinely discriminated against by law and in social treatment. There are significant restrictions on things like where/when Christians can worship, even things like fixing the toilet in a Church requires years to get permission. Christians are routinely attacked, beaten and killed.

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Although from time to time the anti-Catholic tendency in Canada is explicit, all of the time it is implicit.

We lived in Calgary, Alberta when it was time for me to start kindergarten. There was no Catholic school nearby, so I couldn’t. Why? Because it was AGAINST THE LAW for a Catholic to attend a public school. (We moved to Ottawa, Ontario in time for me to start grade 1 on schedule.)

I was an only child (and the physicians couldn’t understand how I was carried to term), and my parents wanted to adopt, in Ontario. They were told, flat out, that Catholic service families (Dad was Air Force, as was I later) need not even bother applying.

When there used to be prayers in the military, they were preceded by the command, “Roman Catholics, fall out.”

There were still plenty of small towns in Ontario where, to enter them, one had to drive under an Orange arch. (For US readers, the “Loyal Orange Lodges” were hotbeds of virulent anti-Catholic activity.)

When the Bishop of Calgary, Most Rev. Fred Henry, spoke out strongly about the responsibility of Catholics during the same sex “marriage” debates, he got a call from the Canada Revenue Agency threatening to revoke his diocese’s charitable status.

And of course, we are beset with some prominent “Canadian Catholics”, who delude themselves into thinking that is better than being a “Catholic Canadian,” and are thereby perhaps the worst anti-Catholics of all.

You can find as much anti-Catholicism in Canada as in the US, per capita, but it tends to be expressed somewhat differently.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[PaulDupre]

In the Philippines (which is 87% Catholic, 10% Muslim and 3% other), there are many tiny protestant sects, mostly started by American “missionaries” that spend a great deal of their energies trashing the Catholic Church. Most of these are lucky if 10 people show up for Sunday services. The Catholic parishes, by contrast, are packed on Sundays, and well attended on weekdays. We attended daily mass at a parish in Manila whose pretty little chapel is in the Harrison Plaza shopping mall right near our hotel. There was standing room only at 6:30 AM on a Wednesday.

Two distinctly Filipino religions, Iglesia Ni Cristo and Ang Dating Daan (one a spin-off of the other), each has a television network. Each of them spends half of their broadcast time bashing the other and the other half of the time bashing Catholics. You could watch those networks for weeks and never figure out what they believe, except that it’s pretty clear who they don’t like.

 

[bklynbrat]

Thank you everyone for your responses. It’s amazing & sad how much prejudice there is in the world against Catholics & fellow Christians.

I’ve lived a sheltered & blessed life here in the US.

Peace to everyone
God Bless

 

[Verisimilitude]

When there used to be prayers in the military, they were preceded by the command, “Roman Catholics, fall out.”

Really? I assume you mean the Canadian Air Force. I never thought to ask my dad (US Marines) if he ever experienced that. He’s a bit older than you, but I will ask. I was in the US Air Force in the 80’s, and as there was no prayers by unit, (other than the Sunday services) I never experienced that. Very interesting.

 

[Mjae]

The most anti-Catholic people I ever spent any significant amount of time with were my two ex-husbands…

 

[Milliardo]

In the Philippines (which is 87% Catholic, 10% Muslim and 3% other), there are many tiny protestant sects, mostly started by American “missionaries” that spend a great deal of their energies trashing the Catholic Church. Most of these are lucky if 10 people show up for Sunday services. The Catholic parishes, by contrast, are packed on Sundays, and well attended on weekdays. We attended daily mass at a parish in Manila whose pretty little chapel is in the Harrison Plaza shopping mall right near our hotel. There was standing room only at 6:30 AM on a Wednesday.

Two distinctly Filipino religions, Iglesia Ni Cristo and Ang Dating Daan (one a spin-off of the other), each has a television network. Each of them spends half of their broadcast time bashing the other and the other half of the time bashing Catholics. You could watch those networks for weeks and never figure out what they believe, except that it’s pretty clear who they don’t like.

Some large Evangelical churches here in the Philippines, like Victory Christian Fellowship, have many members. They attract members by getting celebrities as members–as if the quality of a certain church is hinged on celebrity membership. Locally grown Evangelical sects like Jesus Is Lord (JIL) fellowship have large memberships too, though its founder, Eddie Villuaneva (some disparagingly call him as E.Vil) is also very much into politics. Last Presidential elections he ran for President, but lost. Now he has tried again through the party list route, and won a seat in Congress through his party list, CIBAC. Of course, that is balanced well since the Catholic charismatic group, El Shaddai, also has its own party list, Buhay (Life in English) which has won 3 seats in Congress (you have to wonder where the separation of church and state is at this point, but that’s another topic).

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Really? I assume you mean the Canadian Air Force.

Correct. (the Royal Canadian Air Force, as it was at the time.) This was a constant across all 3 services (when we had 3).

I never thought to ask my dad (US Marines) if he ever experienced that. He’s a bit older than you, but I will ask. I was in the US Air Force in the 80’s, and as there was no prayers by unit, (other than the Sunday services) I never experienced that. Very interesting.

You wouldn’t find a prayer on parade in Canada these days, for sure. What we probably had was a hold-over from the British military traditions we inherited. And of course, in the U.K., the C of E was a state, established religion, and Catholics were, well, somewhat awkward.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

You don’t have anti-Catholicism here in the US You have kids playing games; it’s sweet and almost cute what those people are like. You know when you get a little Paris-Hilton-style-handbag-dog that barks and snaps? It obviously wants to bite you, but it’s just so sweet in its earnest incompetence

Fundamentalist anti-Catholicism is essentially a US phenomena, but in the UK there are elements of that, but far less than there is here. However, those people are not really actually a threat.

They aren’t really ignorant - they are just stupid and have no common sense. An ignorant person could believe (for example) that the Catholic Church was founded in 325 by Constantine. However, only a collosal idiot could believe the Vatican has a computer with all the names of all Protestants on it

Not to the same scale as they are in the US.

What you have to understand about Catholicism outside of the USA is that, firstly, virtually everywhere else in the world Catholicism is the vastly dominant Christian religion. Secondly, in places where anti-Catholicism actually exists (and it doesn’t really exist in the USA - that would be like saying that because 9/11 happened the USA is plagued by terrorism) it is often insitutionalized and legal.

Consider the UK, and many of the Islamic nations. In those countries, Catholics have fewer rights than the dominant state religion, and persecution (of varying sorts) is legal. There are national holidays in some countries which celebrate anti-Catholic sentiment.

I’ve lived in the US for about eight or nine months now; there is no anti-Catholicism worthy of the name here. What there is, as I said above, is kids playing games

Another thing - in the US, one person in four is a Catholic. In Scotland, the proportion is one in seven; in England, about one in nine. There seems to be some similarity between US & Scottish Catholicism, in that both Churches are influential: what the Cardinal-Archbishop of St. Andrews & Edinburgh says is often unpopular, but it does get attention. OTOH, there are are only seven bishops in Scotland, for about 740,000 Catholics, as compared with c. 200 (?) in the USA, for 60M Catholics.​

The proportions are wildly different, because the population stats & distribution are. What anti-Catholicism there is, seems to be much more prevalent on the West coast, including Glasgow: in large part because of the Irish immigration of the 1850s. Scotland is becoming ethnically & religiously mixed - there have been Poles & Italians since WW2 , & now the Muslims & Sikhs are making their mark. I think that this mixture probably means smaller audiences for the more anti-Papist type of Protestant; there used to be much more overt anti-Popery than now. Besides, people are less bothered with religion than they were even 30 years ago. OTOH, nationalism is alive & well - & some of it is very unpleasant.

 

[french]

Catholics are HEAVILY persecuted in the muslim world. also, i wouldn’t be surprised if in lutheran areas of germany, there was persecuation.

but i’m sure that it’s only the protestant “Christians” here in the US that are anti Catholic.

God has a surprise for them though! as the Catholic population booms (especially here in Austin, where it’s expected to double), and as Catholic Churches are being built month after month, protestant Churches are dying out, and having to merge. now i’m not saying that’s a good thing. but what i am saying, is as the Catholic Faith grows here, protestants will hopefully cease to continue spreading their anti Catholic hate.

is there a word for predjudice against Catholics? like there’s anti semetic for Jews, homophobe for homosexuals… any Catholic one? lol

 

[pawel15]

In Australia, most opposition government mp’s are anti-catholic. Cardinal Pell is often criticized for his opinions against homosexuality and ebryonic stem cell research (not sure if this is the right way to say it). The catholic church has lost alot of it’s influence on the younger generation. The catholic board of education has failed to increase interest in religious education. Most younger catholic when they finish school don’t even know the basics of their own faith (all this is due to the media being so anti-catholic)

I remember at colege all we learnt in R.E was about how bad the catholic church was in the medi-eval ages, the crusades and the inquesitions. Any student who critisized homosexality or femenism would get into trouble. (most of my R.E teachers were women)

Jewish and muslims groups all have more rights than catholics.

 

[dolphinlove]

In Australia, most opposition government mp’s are anti-catholic. Cardinal Pell is often criticized for his opinions against homosexuality and ebryonic stem cell research (not sure if this is the right way to say it). The catholic church has lost alot of it’s influence on the younger generation. The catholic board of education has failed to increase interest in religious education. Most younger catholic when they finish school don’t even know the basics of their own faith (all this is due to the media being so anti-catholic)

I remember at colege all we learnt in R.E was about how bad the catholic church was in the medi-eval ages, the crusades and the inquesitions. Any student who critisized homosexality or femenism would get into trouble. (most of my R.E teachers were women)

Jewish and muslims groups all have more rights than catholics.

I dont think the quote Jewish and Muslims get more rights than catholics is true. Its about equal.

 

[BelFarfalla]

Catholics are HEAVILY persecuted in the muslim world. also, i wouldn’t be surprised if in lutheran areas of germany, there was persecuation.

but i’m sure that it’s only the protestant “Christians” here in the US that are anti Catholic…

I’m not sure that it’s only protestant ‘Christians’ who are anti-Catholic. It seems that huge numbers of Muslims, agnostics and athiests are too. Muslims from my experience use the anti-Catholic propaganda of the protestants to try to undermind Catholicims and it is their largest and strongest Christian rival. Athiests and agnosts tend to be either from protestant backgrounds or disinfranchised Catholics. The anti-Catholic sentiment is very strongly nurished in these communities.

God has a surprise for them though! as the Catholic population booms (especially here in Austin, where it’s expected to double), and as Catholic Churches are being built month after month, protestant Churches are dying out, and having to merge. now i’m not saying that’s a good thing. but what i am saying, is as the Catholic Faith grows here, protestants will hopefully cease to continue spreading their anti Catholic hate.

 

[Sr_Sally]

Really? I assume you mean the Canadian Air Force. I never thought to ask my dad (US Marines) if he ever experienced that. He’s a bit older than you, but I will ask. I was in the US Air Force in the 80’s, and as there was no prayers by unit, (other than the Sunday services) I never experienced that. Very interesting.

In places with a state church, this was very common. For example, British Navy services were always Anglican, so all Catholics (and others) didn’t attend. If there were enough Catholic sailors (Catholics were not allowed to be officers–or better stated, all officers had to be Anglican), they might join together to say the rosary or other prayers. But until they landed somewhere with a Catholic parish, they didn’t get to attend Mass.