CATHOLIC APOLOGETICS GUIDE 101
SECTION XIV Anti-Catholic Polemics and Bigotry There has been an escalation in the number of anti-Catholic imagery and rhetoric in recent times. This is the result of traditional anti-Catholicism and fundamentalism as well as the secular anti-Catholicism of contemporary culture. Traditional anti-Catholicism It is not uncommon to find anti-Catholic extremist equating Catholicism with Satanism. Some popular anti-Catholic allegations include: • The Pope is the Anti-Christ. (Usually, “Papist or Popery” is used) • The Catholic Church is the Great whore of Babylon. (Usually, the word “church of Rome or Romanism” is preferred) • The Holy Eucharist is the death [SIC] cookie. • Catholics worship Mary. (Sometimes called “Mariolatry”) Some examples of anti-Marian allegations include: • Mary of Catholicism is not the Mary of the Bible. • Roman Catholic devotions deeply sadden the real Mary and make her cry. • Mary had other children and was a sinner just like us. Some examples of anti-Jesuit allegations include: • The Jesuits instigated the American Civil War. • Jesuits worked closely with Marx, Engels, Trotsky and Lenin to create Communism. • The Jesuits created the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Unity, Christian Science, and other religious groups. • The Jesuit priests are the agents of Lucifer and the “Black pope” conspiracy, etc. There would be little or no opposition between Catholics and Protestants if the Catholic Church would drop her claim to being the only true religion of Christianity. In Protestantism, there may be differences of beliefs and worship, but since they all proclaim that one religion is as good as another, they are mutually tolerant of one another. Protestantism is usually intolerant about Catholicism because, they are false if the Catholic Church is true. One religion however cannot be as good as another because, both cannot be right that affirms what the other denies.
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