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Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to theCatholic Church, itsclergy, and its adherents.[1] Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cultural.[2]
At various points after theReformation, many majority-Protestant states, includingEngland,Northern Ireland,Prussia andGermany,Scotland, and theUnited States, turned anti-Catholicism, opposition to the authority of Catholic clergy (anti-clericalism), opposition to the authority of the pope (anti-papalism), mockery ofCatholic rituals, and opposition to Catholic adherents into major political themes and policies ofreligious discrimination andreligious persecution.[3]
Major examples of populist groups that have targeted Catholics in recent history includeUlster loyalists in Northern Ireland duringthe Troubles and thesecond Ku Klux Klan in the United States.
Historically, Catholics who lived in Protestant countries were frequentlysuspected of conspiring against the state in furtherance of papal interests. In majority Protestant countries which experienced large scaleimmigration, such as theUnited States andAustralia, suspicion of Catholic immigrants and/or discrimination against them frequently overlapped or was conflated withnativist,xenophobic,ethnocentric and/orracist sentiments (e.g.anti-Irish sentiment,anti-Filipino sentiment,anti-Italianism,anti-Spanish sentiment, andanti-Slavic sentiment, specificallyanti-Polish sentiment).
In theearly modern period, anti-clerical governments often attacked the Pope's ability to appoint bishops in order to ensure that the Churchwould not be independent from the State, confiscated Church property, expelledCatholic religious orders such as theJesuits, bannedClassical Christian education, and sought to replace it with a State-controlled school system.[4]
Protestant Reformers, includingMartin Luther,John Calvin,John Wycliffe,Henry VIII,Thomas Cranmer,John Thomas,Ellen G. White,John Knox,Charles Taze Russell,Isaac Newton,Roger Williams,Cotton Mather, andJohn Wesley, as well as mostProtestants of the 16th–19th centuries, identified thePapacy with the Antichrist.[10] TheCenturiators of Magdeburg, a group ofLutheran scholars inMagdeburg which was headed byMatthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volumeMagdeburg Centuries in order to discredit the Papacy and lead other Christians to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist. The fifth round of talks in theLutheran–Catholic dialogue notes,
In calling the pope the "Antichrist", the earlyLutherans stood in atradition that reached back into the eleventh century. Not only dissidents andheretics but even saints had called the bishop of Rome the "Antichrist" when they wished to castigate hisabuse of power. What Lutherans incorrectly understood as apapal claim to unlimited authorityover everything and everyone reminded them of theApocalyptic imagery ofDaniel 11, a passage that had been applied to the pope as the Antichrist of thelast days even prior to the Reformation.[11]
Doctrinal works of literature which were published by theLutherans, theReformed churches, thePresbyterians, theBaptists, theAnabaptists, and theMethodists contain references to the Pope as the Antichrist, including theSmalcald Articles, Article 4 (1537),[12] theTreatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537),[13] theWestminster Confession, Article 25.6 (1646), and the1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Article 26.4. In 1754,John Wesley published hisExplanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, which is currently an official Doctrinal Standard of theUnited Methodist Church. In his notes on theBook of Revelation (chapter 13), he commented: "The whole succession of Popes fromGregory VII are undoubtedly Antichrists. Yet this hinders not, but that the last Pope in this succession will be more eminently the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, adding to that of his predecessors a peculiar degree of wickedness from the bottomless pit."[14][15]
Referring to the Book of Revelation,Edward Gibbon stated that "The advantage of turning those mysterious prophecies against theSee of Rome, inspired the Protestants with uncommon veneration for so useful an ally."[16] Protestants condemned the Catholic policy of mandatorycelibacy for priests.[17]
During theEnlightenment Era, which spanned the 17th and 18th centuries, with its strong emphasis on the need forreligious toleration, theInquisition was a favorite target of attack for intellectuals.[18]
Institutional anti-Catholicism in Britain and Ireland began with theEnglish Reformation underHenry VIII, and theScottish Reformation underJohn Knox. TheAct of Supremacy of 1534 declared theEnglish crown to be "the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England" in place of the pope. Any act of allegiance to the latter was considered treasonous because the papacy claimed to have both spiritual and political power over its followers. It was under this act that saintsThomas More andJohn Fisher were executed and became martyrs for the Catholic faith.
Queen Mary, Henry's daughter, was a devout Catholic. She tried to reverse the Reformation during her five years as Queen (1553-1558), marrying the Catholic king of Spain and executing Protestant leaders. Protestants reviled her as "Bloody Mary".[19]
Anti-Catholicism among many of the English and Scots was not only grounded in their fear that the pope sought to reimpose religio-spiritual authority over England and Scotland, it was also grounded in their fear that the pope also sought to impose secular power over them in alliance with their arch-enemies France and Spain. In 1570,Pope Pius V sought to depose Elizabeth I of England with thepapal bullRegnans in Excelsis, which declared that she was a heretic and purportedly dissolved the duty of all of Elizabeth's subjects to maintain their allegiance to her. This rendered Elizabeth's subjects who persisted in their allegiance to the Catholic Church politically suspect, and it also made the position of her Catholic subjects largely untenable if they tried to maintain both allegiances at once. TheRecusancy Acts, which made worship in the Anglican Church a legal obligation, date back to Elizabeth's reign.
Assassination plots in which Catholics were prime movers fueled anti-Catholicism in England. These plots included the famousGunpowder Plot, in whichGuy Fawkes and other conspirators plotted to blow up the English Parliament while it was in session.[20] The fictitious "Popish Plot" involvingTitus Oates was a hoax that many Protestants believed to be true, exacerbating Anglican-Catholic relations.
TheGlorious Revolution of 1688–1689 involved the overthrow of King James II, of the Stuart dynasty, who favoured the Catholics, and his replacement by a Dutch Protestant. For decades the Stuarts were supported by France in plots to invade and conquer Britain, and anti-Catholicism persisted.[21]
TheGordon Riots of 1780 was a violent anti-Catholic riot in London against thePapists Act 1778. Passed byParliament, the new law was supposed to reduce official discrimination againstBritish Catholics.Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association, warned that the law would enable Catholics who were serving in theBritish Army to become a dangerous threat. The protest evolved intoriots and widespreadlooting. Local magistrates feared reprisals and as a result, they did not enforce the riot act. The riots were not suppressed until the Army moved in and dispersed the crowds by shooting them, killing hundreds of rioters. The violence lasted from 2 June to 9 June 1780. Public opinion, especially in middle-class and elite circles, repudiated anti-Catholicism and lower-class violence, and it also rallied behind thegovernment ofLord North. Demands for the establishment of a police force in London were subsequently made.[22]
Anglo-French conflicts during theFrench Revolutionary andNapoleonic Wars, which lasted from 1793 until 1815, saw the rise of anti-Catholicism as an underlying method to unify the Protestant populations of England, Scotland and Wales. Permeating through allsocial classes, antagonism towards Catholicism became firmly enmeshed with Britishnational identity. As noted by English historianLinda Colley in her seminal workBritons: Forging of a Nation 1707–1837, the "defensive unity brought on by war with a Catholic French 'other' helped transform Great Britain from a new and largely artificial polity into a nation with a strong self-image rooted in Protestantism."[23]
Catholics in Ireland gained the right to vote in the 1790s but they were politically inert for another three decades. Finally, they were mobilized byDaniel O'Connell into majorities in most of the Irish parliamentary districts. They could only elect, but Catholics could not be seated in parliament. TheCatholic emancipation issue became a major crisis. Previously anti-Catholic politicians led by theDuke of Wellington andRobert Peel reversed themselves to prevent massive violence. All Catholics in Britain were "emancipated" in theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829; that is, they were freed from most of the penalties and restrictions they faced. Anti-Catholic attitudes continued, however.[24]
In 1937, ten young men and boys, aged from 13 to 23, burned to death in a fire on a farm inKirkintilloch, Scotland. All were seasonal workers fromAchill Sound in County Mayo, Ireland.The Vanguard, the official newspaper of theScottish Protestant League, referred to the event in the following text:
SinceWorld War II, anti-Catholic feeling in England, Scotland and Wales has abated somewhat. Ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics culminated in the first meeting between an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Pope since the Reformation when ArchbishopGeoffrey Fisher visited Rome in 1960. Since then, the dialogue has continued through envoys and standing conferences. Meanwhile, the nonconformist churches such as the Methodists, the Church of Scotland, and the established Church of England, have all dramatically declined in membership. Membership in the Catholic Church continues to grow in Britain, thanks to the immigration of Irish and more recently, the immigration of Polish workers.[26][citation needed]
Conflict and rivalry between Catholicism and Protestantism since the 1920s, especially since the 1960s, has centered onthe Troubles inNorthern Ireland.[27]
Anti-Catholicism in Britain was long represented by the burning of an effigy of the Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes during widespread celebrations ofGuy Fawkes Night every 5 November.[28] However, this celebration has lost most of its anti-Catholic connotations. According to Clive D. Field, only faint remnants of anti-Catholicism are found today.[29]
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As punishment for therebellion of 1641, almost all of the lands which were owned byIrish Catholics were confiscated andgiven to Protestant settlers. Under thePenal Laws, no Irish Catholic could sit in theParliament of Ireland, even though some 90% of Ireland's population was native Irish Catholic when the first of these bans was introduced in 1691.[30] Tensions between Irish Catholics and Protestants have been blamed for much of "The Troubles".
During the 18th century, thePeep o' Day Boys, an agrarian association composed of Irish Protestants, engaged in numerous acts of anti-Catholic violence throughCounty Armagh. These acts culminated in theArmagh disturbances, a period of intense sectarian conflict during the 1780's and 1790's between the Peep o' Day Boys and the CatholicDefenders. The Peep o' Day Boys would conduct early morning raids on Catholic homes to confiscate weapons, which Irish Catholics were forbidden from owning under the Penal Laws. This led to confrontations between them and the Defenders, which culminated in theBattle of the Diamond, a confrontation which saw six killed and many more wounded. Though theOrange Order would denounce the actions of the Peep o' Day Boys, further anti-Catholic violence would continue to erupt in Ireland in the years leading up theIrish Rebellion of 1798.[31][32]
TheGreat Famine of Ireland was exacerbated by the imposition of anti-Catholic laws. In the 17th and 18th centuries, thepenal laws prohibited Irish Catholics from either purchasing or leasing land, from voting, from holding political office, from living either within 5 miles (8 km) away from a corporate town, from obtaining an education, from entering a profession, and doing many of the other things which a person needed to do in order to succeed and prosper in society.[33] The laws were largely reformed under theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1793, and Catholics could again sit in parliament following theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829.
Northern Ireland came into existence in 1921, following theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920. Though Catholics were a majority on the island of Ireland, comprising 74% of the population in 1911, they were a third of the population in Northern Ireland.
In 1934,Sir James Craig, the firstPrime Minister of Northern Ireland, said, "Since we took up office we have tried to be absolutely fair towards all the citizens of Northern Ireland... They still boast ofSouthern Ireland being a Catholic State. All I boast of is that we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State."
In 1957,Harry Midgley, theMinister of Education in Northern Ireland, said, inPortadown Orange Hall, "All the minority are traitors and have always been traitors to the Government of Northern Ireland."
The first Catholic to be appointed a minister in Northern Ireland wasGerard Newe, in 1971.
In 1986, at the annual conference of theDemocratic Unionist Party, MP forMid UlsterWilliam McCrea interrupted councillor Ethel Smyth when she said she regretted the death of Sean Downes, a 24-year-old Catholic civilian who had been killed by a plastic bullet fired by theRUC during an anti-internment march inAndersonstown in 1984. McCrea shouted, "No. No. I'll not condemn the death of John Downes [sic]. No Fenian. Never. No".[34] In Northern Ireland and Scotland,Fenian is used by some as a derogatory word for Roman Catholics.[35]
In 2001 and 2002, theHoly Cross dispute occurred in theArdoyne area of northBelfast. The Holy Cross school, a Catholic primary school for girls, is situated in the middle of a Protestant area. In June 2001—during the last week of school before the summer break—Protestantloyalists beganpicketing the school, claiming that Catholics were regularly attacking their homes and denying them access to facilities. The picket resumed on 3 September, when the new school term began. For weeks, hundreds of loyalist protesters tried to stop the schoolchildren and their parents from walking to school through their area. Hundreds ofriot police, backed up byBritish soldiers, escorted the children and parents through the protest each day. Some protesters shoutedsectarian abuse and threw stones, bricks, fireworks,blast bombs and urine-filled balloons at the schoolchildren, their parents and theRUC. The "scenes of frightened Catholic schoolgirls running a gauntlet of abuse from loyalist protesters as they walked to school captured world headlines". Death threats were made against the parents and school staff by theRed Hand Defenders, a loyalist paramilitary group.[36]
Eleventh Night is a yearly celebration where Ulster Protestants burn bonfires often adorned with pictures of Irish Catholic politicians,Irish tricolours and effigies of Catholics. Sometimes the tricolours have sectarian dispays as "KAI" (Kill all Irish) or "KAT" (Kill allTaigs) written on them. Recently a bonfire had an effigy of a migrant boat with the phrase "Stop the Boats" written on a sign beneath it, as well as the Irish Tricolours.[37]
Fears of the Catholic Church were quite strong in the 19th century, especially amongPresbyterian and other Protestant Irish immigrants across Canada.[38]
In 1853, theGavazzi Riots left 10 dead in Quebec in the wake of Catholic Irish protests against anti-Catholic speeches by ex-monkAlessandro Gavazzi.[39][40] The most influential newspaper in Canada,The Globe of Toronto, was edited byGeorge Brown, a Presbyterian immigrant from Ireland who ridiculed and denounced the Catholic Church,Jesuits, priests, nunneries, etc.[41] Irish Protestants remained a political force until the 20th century. Many belonged to theOrange Order,[38] an anti-Catholic organization with chapters across Canada that was most powerful during the late 19th century.[42][43]
A key leader wasDalton McCarthy (1836–1898), a Protestant who had immigrated from Ireland. In the late 19th century he mobilized the "Orange" or Protestant Irish, and fiercely fought against Irish Catholics as well as the French Catholics. He especially crusaded for the abolition of the French language in Manitoba and Ontario schools.[44]
In response to the2021 Canadian Indian residential school gravesite discoveries, numerous churches and monuments in Western Canada have been vandalized or burned down.[45][46][47]
One of the most controversial issues was public support for Catholic French-language schools. Although the Confederation Agreement of 1867 guaranteed the status of Catholic schools when they were legalized by provincial governments, disputes erupted in numerous provinces, especially in theManitoba Schools Question in the 1890s and in Ontario in the 1910s.[48] In Ontario,Regulation 17 was a regulation by the Ontario Ministry of Education that restricted the use of French as a language of instruction to the first two years of schooling. French Canada reacted vehemently and lost, dooming its French-language Catholic schools. This was a central reason for French Canada's distance from theWorld War I effort, as its young men refused to enlist.[49]
Protestant elements succeeded in blocking the growth of French-language Catholic public schools. However, the Irish Catholics generally supported the English language position which was advocated by the Protestants.[50]
Newfoundland long experienced social and political tensions between the large Irish Catholic working-class, on the one hand and the Anglican elite on the other.[51] In the 1850s, the Catholic bishop organized his flock and made them stalwarts of the Liberal party. Nasty rhetoric was the prevailing style elections; bloody riots were common during the 1861 election.[52] The Protestants narrowly electedHugh Hoyles as the Conservative Prime Minister. Hoyles unexpectedly reversed his long record of militant Protestant activism and worked to defuse tensions. He shared patronage and power with the Catholics; all jobs and patronage were split between the various religious bodies on a per capita basis. This 'denominational compromise' was further extended to education when all religious schools were put on the basis which the Catholics had enjoyed since the 1840s. Alone in North America Newfoundland had a state funded system of denominational schools. The compromise worked and politics ceased to be about religion and became concerned with purely political and economic issues.[53]
The presence ofCatholicism in Australia came with the 1788 arrival of theFirst Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney. The colonial authorities blocked a Catholic clerical presence until 1820, reflecting the legal disabilities of Catholics in Britain. Some of the Irish convicts had been transported to Australia for political crimes or social rebellion and authorities remained suspicious of the minority religion.[54]
Catholic convicts were compelled to attend Church of England services and their children and orphans were raised as Anglicans.[55] The first Catholic priests to arrive came as convicts following the Irish1798 Rebellion. In 1803,Fr James Dixon was conditionally emancipated and permitted to celebrate Mass, but following the Irish ledCastle Hill Rebellion of 1804, Dixon's permission was revoked. FrJeremiah Flynn, an IrishCistercian, was appointed asPrefect Apostolic ofNew Holland and set out uninvited from Britain for the colony. Watched by authorities, Flynn secretly performed priestly duties before being arrested and deported to London. Reaction to the affair in Britain led to two further priests being allowed to travel to the colony in 1820.[54] TheChurch of England was disestablished in the Colony of New South Wales by theChurch Act of 1836. Drafted by the Catholic attorney-generalJohn Plunkett, the act established legal equality for Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists.[56]
By the late 19th century approximately a quarter of the population of Australia wereIrish Australians.[57] Many were descended from the 40,000 Irish Catholics who were transported as convicts to Australia before 1867. The majority consisted of British and Irish Protestants.[citation needed] The Catholics dominated the labour unions and the Labor Party. The growth of school systems in the late 19th century typically involved religious issues, pitting Protestants against Catholics. The issue of independence for Ireland was long a sore point, until the matter was resolved by theIrish War of Independence.[58]
Limited freedom of belief is protected bySection 116 of the Constitution of Australia, butsectarianism in Australia was prominent (though generally nonviolent) in the 20th century, flaring during theFirst World War, again reflecting Ireland's place within the Empire, and the Catholic minority remained subject to discrimination and suspicion.[59] During the First World War, the Irish gave support for the war effort and comprised 20% of the army in France.[60] However, the labour unions and the Irish in particular, strongly opposed conscription, and in alliance with like-minded farmers, defeated it in national plebiscites in1916 and1917. The Anglicans in particular talked of Catholic "disloyalty".[61] By the 1920s, Australia had itsfirst Catholic prime minister.[62]
During the 1950s, the split in the Australian Labor Party between allies and opponents of the Catholic anti-CommunistB. A. Santamaria meant that the party (in Victoria and Queensland more than elsewhere) was effectively divided between pro-Catholic and anti-Catholic elements. As a result of such disunity the ALP was defeated at every single national election between 1955 and 1972. In the late 20th century, the Catholic Church replaced the Anglican Church as the largest singleChristian body in Australia; and it continues to be so in the 21st century, although it still has fewer members than do the various Protestant churches combined.
While older sectarian divides declined, commentators have observed a re-emergence of anti-Catholicism in Australia in recent decades amid rising secularism and broaderanti-Christian movements.[63][64][65][66]
According toNew ZealandhistorianMichael King, the situation in New Zealand has never been as clear as in Australia.Catholics first arrived in New Zealand in 1769, and the Church has had a continuous presence in the country from the time of permanent settlement byIrish Catholics in the 1820s, with the first Maori converted to Catholicism in the 1830s.[67] The signing of theTreaty of Waitangi in 1840, which formalised New Zealand's status as a British colony and instigated substantial immigration fromEngland andScotland, resulted in the country developing a predominantlyProtestant religious character. Nonetheless,FrenchbishopJean Baptiste Pompallier was able to negotiate the inclusion of a clause guaranteeingfreedom of religion in some of the versions of the treaties signed and oral promises during meetings beforehand.[68][69]
New Zealand has had several Catholicprime ministers, which is indicative of the widespread acceptance of Catholicism within the country;Jim Bolger, who lead theFourth National Government of the 1990s, was the country's fourth Catholic prime minister;Bill English, who lead theFifth National Government from 2016 to 2017, was the fifth and most recent. Probably the most notable of New Zealand's Catholic prime ministers wasMichael Joseph Savage, anAustralian-borntrade unionist andsocial reformer who instigated numerous progressive policies as leader of theFirst Labour Government of the 1930s.[70][71]
Unification into the German Empire in 1871 saw a country with a Protestant majority and large Catholic minority, speaking German or Polish. Anti-Catholicism was common.[72] The powerful German ChancellorOtto von Bismarck – a devout Lutheran – forged an alliance with secular liberals in 1871–1878 to launch aKulturkampf (literally, "culture struggle") especially in Prussia, the largest state in the new German Empire to destroy the political power of the Catholic Church and the Pope. Catholics were numerous in the South (Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg) and west (Rhineland) and fought back. Bismarck intended to end Catholics' loyalty with Rome (ultramontanism) and subordinate all Germans to the power of his state.
Priests and bishops who resisted the Kulturkampf were arrested or removed from their positions. By the height of anti-Catholic legislation, half of the Prussian bishops were in prison or in exile, a quarter of the parishes had no priest, half the monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed, 1800 parish priests were imprisoned or exiled, and thousands of laymen were imprisoned for helping the priests.[73] There were anti-Polish elements in Greater Poland and Silesia.[74] The Catholics refused to comply; they strengthened their Centre Party.
Pius IX died in 1878 and was replaced by more conciliatoryPope Leo XIII who negotiated away most of the anti-Catholic laws beginning in 1880. Bismarck himself broke with the anti-Catholic Liberals and worked with the Catholic Centre Party to fight Socialism.[75][76] Pope Leo officially declared the end of the Kulturkampf on 23 May 1887.
TheCatholic Church faced repression inNazi Germany (1933–1945).Hitler despised the Church even though he had been brought up in a Catholic home. The long-term aim of many Nazis was the de-Christianization of Germany and the establishment of a form ofGermanic paganism which would replace Christianity.[77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85] howeverRichard J. Evans writes that Hitler believed that in the long run National Socialism and religion would not be able to co-exist, stressing repeatedly that Nazism was a secular ideology, founded on modern science: "Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition". Germany could not tolerate the intervention of foreign influences such as the Pope and "Priests, he said, were 'black bugs', 'abortions in black cassocks'".[86]Nazi ideology desired the subordination of the Church to the State and could not accept an autonomous establishment, whose legitimacy did not spring from the government.[87] From the beginning, the Catholic Church faced general persecution, regimentation and oppression.[88] Aggressive anti-Church radicals likeAlfred Rosenberg andMartin Bormann saw the conflict with the Churches as a priority concern, and anti-Church andanti-clerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists.[89] To many Nazis, Catholics were suspected of insufficient patriotism, or even of disloyalty to the Fatherland, and of serving the interests of "sinister alien forces".[90]
Adolf Hitler had some regard for the organisational power of Catholicism, but towards its teachings he showed nothing but the sharpest hostility, calling them "the systematic cultivation of the human failure":[91] To Hitler,Christianity was a religion that was only fit for slaves and he detested its ethics.Alan Bullock wrote: "Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against thenatural law of selection by struggle and thesurvival of the fittest". For political reasons, Hitler was prepared to restrain his anti-clericalism, seeing danger in strengthening the Church by persecuting it, but he intended to wage a show-down against it after the war.[92] Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda, led the Nazi persecution of the Catholic clergy and wrote that there was "an insoluble opposition between the Christian and a heroic-German world view".[89] Hitler's chosen deputy, Martin Bormann, was a rigid guardian of Nazi orthodoxy and saw Christianity and Nazism as "incompatible", as did the official Nazi philosopher,Alfred Rosenberg, who wrote inMyth of the Twentieth Century (1930) that the Catholic Church were among the chief enemies of the Germans.[93][94][95] In 1934, theSanctum Officium put Rosenberg's book on theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum (forbidden books list of the Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, indeed the very fundamentals of the Christian religion".[96]
The Nazis claimed that they had jurisdiction over all collective and social activities and based on their claim, they infiltrated all collective and social institutions, interfered in all of the activities which they performed, and banned them if they did not become Nazified, including Catholic schools, youth groups, workers' clubs and cultural societies.[97] Hitler moved quickly to eliminatePolitical Catholicism, rounding up members of the Catholic alignedBavarian People's Party andCatholic Centre Party, which ceased to exist in early July 1933. Vice Chancellor Papen meanwhile, amid continuing molestation of Catholic clergy and organisations, negotiated aReich concordat with the Holy See, which prohibited clergy from participating in politics.[98][99] Hitler then proceeded to close all Catholic institutions whose functions were not strictly religious:[100]
It quickly became clear that [Hitler] intended to imprison the Catholics, as it were, in their own churches. They could celebrate Mass and retain their rituals as much as they liked, but they could have nothing at all to do with German society otherwise. Catholic schools and newspapers were closed, and a propaganda campaign against the church was launched.
— Extract fromAn Honourable Defeat byAnton Gill
Almost immediately after agreeing the Concordat, the Nazis promulgated their sterilization law, an offensive policy in the eyes of the Catholic Church and moved to dissolve the Catholic Youth League. Clergy, nuns and lay leaders began to be targeted, leading to thousands of arrests over the ensuing years, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality".[101] In Hitler'sNight of the Long Knives purge,Erich Klausener, the head ofCatholic Action, was assassinated.[102]Adalbert Probst, national director of the Catholic Youth Sports Association,Fritz Gerlich, editor of Munich's Catholic weekly andEdgar Jung, one of the authors of theMarburg speech, were among the other Catholic opposition figures killed in the purge.[103]
By 1937, the Church hierarchy in Germany, which had initially attempted to co-operate with the new government, had become highly disillusioned. In March,Pope Pius XI issued theMit brennender Sorge encyclical – accusing the Nazis of violations of the Concordat, and of sowing the "tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny, of secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church". The Pope noted on the horizon the "threatening storm clouds" of religious wars of extermination over Germany.[101] The Nazis responded with, an intensification of theChurch Struggle.[89] There were mass arrests of clergy and Church presses were expropriated.[104] Goebbels renewed the regime's crackdown and propaganda against Catholics. By 1939 all Catholic denominational schools had been disbanded or converted to public facilities.[105] By 1941, all Church press had been banned.
Later Catholic protests included the 22 March 1942 pastoral letter by the German bishops on "The Struggle against Christianity and the Church".[106] About 30 per cent of Catholic priests were disciplined by police during the Nazi era.[107] In effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, the security services monitored Catholic clergy very closely – instructing that agents monitor every diocese, that the bishops' reports to the Vatican should be obtained and that bishops' activities be discovered and reported.[108] Priests were frequently denounced, arrested, or sent to concentration camps – many to the dedicatedclergy barracks at Dachau. Of a total of 2,720 clergy imprisoned at Dachau, some 2,579 (or 95%) were Catholic.[109] Nazi policy towards the Church was at its most severe in the territories it annexed to Greater Germany, where the Nazis set about systematically dismantling the Church – arresting its leaders, exiling its clergymen, closing its churches, monasteries and convents. Many clergymen were murdered.[110][111][112]
The independence of theNetherlands fromSpanish rule led to the formation of a majority Protestant country in which the dominant form of Protestantism wasCalvinism. InAmsterdam, Catholic priests were driven out of the city[113] and following the Dutch takeover, all Catholic churches were converted into Protestant churches.[114][115] Amsterdam's relationship with the Catholic Church was not normalized until the 20th century.[116]
After thedissolution of Denmark-Norway in 1814, the newNorwegian Constitution of 1814, did not grantreligious freedom, as it stated that bothJews andJesuits were denied entrance to theKingdom of Norway. It also stated that attendance in aLutheran church was compulsory, effectively banning Catholics. The ban on Catholicism was lifted in1842, and the ban on Jews was lifted in1851. At first, there were multiple restrictions on the practice of Catholicism by Norwegians and only foreign citizens were freely allowed to practice it. The first post-reformation parish was founded in1843, Catholics were only allowed to celebrate Mass in this one parish. In1845 most of the restrictions on the practice of non-Lutheran Christianity were lifted, and Catholics were now allowed to freely practice their religion, butMonasticism and the Jesuits were not allowed in the country until1897 and1956 respectively.[117]
During the period of great power inSweden, conversions to Catholicism were punished with fines or imprisonment and in exceptional cases, death. Sweden during theThirty Years War saw itself as the protector of Protestantism in all of Europe against the pope. TheLinköping Bloodbath of 20 March 1600 saw several prominent Catholic nobles beheaded by order of KingCharles IX of Sweden. The executions were partially motivated by the Polish invasion of Sweden and a threat of a potential Catholic takeover under Polish kingSigismund III Vasa, who planned to reconvert Sweden back to Catholicism. TheBattle of Stångebro prevented Sigismund from conquering and reconverting Sweden. Catholic nobles were put in a majority of leading positions by Sigismund In the Swedish government without the approval of the Swedish people or parliament. The conspiracy provoked new laws preventing Catholics from holding leading government positions in the Swedish government. Due to the Austrian emperor winning a lot of great victories before Sweden joined. The war and Swedish successes cemented Protestantism's continued survival in theHoly Roman Empire and the following anti-Catholicism ingrained in the religion.
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was known as the "Lion from the North". He did prevent the pillaging of Catholic villages of Swedish troops by proclaiming Protestant moral superiority in 1631, while Catholic armies were plundering Saxony. He did not wear any armour during theBattle of Rain against the Catholics and proclaimed he was divinely chosen by God to lead the Protestants to glory, and so felt he needed no protection in battle.[118][119]Russian Orthodox populations had the right to practice their faith since their incorporation in 1617 after theIngrian War and never faced similar persecution. Even after Eastern Orthodoxy was legalized, there remained an extreme anti-Catholic sentiment in Sweden which was widely supported by German nobility and German Protestants in Swedish territories.
Only in 1781 did Catholics have the right to worship once again in Sweden, the latest of all major religions exceptJudaism that was legalized in the same era, even though Judaism had already been in practice tolerated sinceCharles XII of Sweden brought Muslim and Jewish advisors with him from the Ottoman Empire.[120] While Protestant Swedes could not join any other religious organization until 1873, still, in 1849, Catholic converts were punished with imprisonment. Conversion to Catholicism was punished with fines or imprisonment even after the reform.[121] Catholics could not become a minister of the Swedish government or work as teachers or nurses in Sweden until 1951.[122]
John Higham described anti-Catholicism as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation inAmerican history."[123]
HistorianArthur Schlesinger Sr. has called anti-Catholicism "the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people".[125]
Historian Joseph G. Mannard says that wars reduced anti-Catholicism: "enough Catholics supported the War for Independence to erase many old myths about the inherently treasonable nature of Catholicism.... During the Civil War the heavy enlistments of Irish and Germans into the Union Army helped to dispel notions of immigrant and Catholic disloyalty."[124]
American anti-Catholicism has its origins in the Protestant Reformation which generated anti-Catholic propaganda for various political and dynastic reasons. Because the Protestant Reformation justified itself as an effort to correct what it perceived were the errors and the excesses of the Catholic Church, it formed strong positions against the Catholic bishops and thePapacy in particular. These positions were brought to New England by English colonists who were predominantlyPuritans. They opposed not only the Catholic Church but also the Church of England which, due to its perpetuation of some Catholic doctrines and practices, was deemed insufficiently "reformed". Furthermore, English and Scottish identity to a large extent was based on opposition to Catholicism. "To be English was to be anti-Catholic," writes Robert Curran.[126]
Because many of the British colonists, such as thePuritans andCongregationalists, were fleeing religious persecution by the Church of England, much of early American religious culture exhibited the more extreme anti-Catholic bias of these Protestant denominations. MonsignorJohn Tracy Ellis wrote that a "universal anti-Catholic bias was brought to Jamestown in 1607 and vigorously cultivated in all the thirteen colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia".[127] Colonial charters and laws often contained specific proscriptions against Catholics. For example, the second Massachusetts charter of October 7, 1691, decreed "that forever hereafter there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all Christians, exceptPapists, inhabiting, or which shall inhabit or be resident within, such Province or Territory".[128] Historians have only identified one Catholic who lived in colonial Boston – Ann Glover. She was hanged as a witch in 1688, four years before the much more famouswitchcraft trials in nearby Salem.[129]
Monsignor Ellis noted that a common hatred of the Catholic Church could uniteAnglican clerics andPuritan ministers despite their differences and conflicts. One of theIntolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament that helped fuel theAmerican Revolution was theQuebec Act of 1774, which granted freedom of worship to Roman Catholics in Canada.[130]
The patriot reliance on Catholic France for military, financial and diplomatic aid led to a sharp drop in anti-Catholic rhetoric. Indeed, the king replaced the pope as the demon patriots had to fight against. Anti-Catholicism remained strong among loyalists, some of whom went to Canada after the war while most remained in the new nation. By the 1780s, Catholics were extended legal toleration in all of the New England states that previously had been so hostile. "In the midst of war and crisis, New Englanders gave up not only their allegiance to Britain but one of their most dearly held prejudices."[131]
George Washington was a vigorous promoter of tolerance for all religious denominations as commander of the army (1775–1783) where he suppressed anti-Catholic celebrations in the Army and appealed to French Catholics in Canada to join the American Revolution; a few hundred of them did. Likewise he guaranteed a high degree of freedom of religion as president (1789–1797), when he often attended services of different denominations.[132] The military alliance with Catholic France in 1778 changed attitudes radically in Boston. Local leaders enthusiastically welcomed French naval and military officers, realizing the alliance was critical to winning independence. The Catholic chaplain of the French army reported in 1781 that he was continually receiving "new civilities" from the best families in Boston; he also noted that "the people in general retain their own prejudices." By 1790, about 500 Catholics in Boston formed the first Catholic Church there.[133]
Fear of the pope agitated some of America'sFounding Fathers. For example, in 1788,John Jay urged theNew York Legislature to prohibit Catholics from holding office. The legislature refused, but did pass a law designed to reach the same goal by requiring all office-holders to renounce foreign authorities "in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil".[134]Thomas Jefferson, looking at the Catholic Church in France, wrote, "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government",[135] and "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."[136]
Anti-Catholic fears reached a peak in the nineteenth century when the Protestant population became alarmed by the influx of Catholic immigrants. Irish and German Catholic immigrants in particular were pouring into the US at rapid speeds in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Some settled in urban centers in the East, but a large portion also began moving to the unsettled western land along the Mississippi River Valley. The land provided the resources that they would need to survive in their new home, but it also created tensions with the Protestant Americans looking to inhabit the land themselves. Theories about the Roman Catholic Church's intentions were abundant since it appeared that the church was impeding on the Protestants' right to the western lands.[137]
Some Protestant ministers preached the belief that the Catholic Church is theWhore of Babylon which is described in theBook of Revelation.[138] The resulting "nativist" movement, which achieved prominence in the 1840s, was whipped into a frenzy of anti-Catholicism that led to mob violence, most notably thePhiladelphia Nativist Riot of 1844. HistorianDavid Montgomery argues that the Irish Catholic Democrats in Philadelphia had successfully appealed to the upper-class Whig leadership. The Whigs wanted to split the Democratic coalition, so they approved Bishop Kendrick's request that Catholic children be allowed to use their own Bible. That approval outraged the evangelical Protestant leadership, which rallied its support in Philadelphia and nationwide. Montgomery states:
The nativist movement found expression in a national political movement called the "American" orKnow-Nothing Party of 1854–1856. It had considerable success in local and state elections in 1854–55 by emphasizing nativism and warning against Catholics and immigrants. It nominated former presidentMillard Fillmore as its presidential candidate inthe 1856 election. However, Fillmore was not anti-Catholic or nativist; his campaign concentrated almost entirely on national unity. Historian Tyler Anbinder says, "The American party had dropped nativism from its agenda." Fillmore won 22% of the national popular vote.[140]
During this period of time, discussions of public versus religious education were growing in both urban and rural settings. Protestants and Catholics alike understood the importance of educating the youth; however, finding common ground on how to approach education became a challenge with differing values mixing together.[141]
While the push for moderated school systems increased in the mid-nineteenth century, government oversight was common, especially in less-populated, rural regions. As such, the local church and community tended to create educational systems centered on their particular faith, and education was largely seen as a group effort.[142] In urban areas, public education was more closely monitored and at the forefront of politics since cities saw the largest increases in immigrant population which brought in new children to educate.[143]
Many Catholic immigrants coming into the United States found it was more comforting to stay tightly-knit with those of the same nationality, leading churches to create their own educational facilities for the children within a particular community. Every immigrant group coming from a Catholic country had unique saints to venerate and views on how to educate their children, so ethnic groups tended to stick together in order to preserve their traditions. Classes were taught in the immigrants' native language in an attempt to keep their culture alive as well, but many American Protestants viewed this negatively, as though the immigrants were unwilling to adjust to their new lives in an English-speaking nation.[143]
The push for public education came from a hope that America would become a more prosperous place if it were made up of well-rounded, well-educated individuals. And because immigrants made up a large portion of the population, common education had to be established.[142] Many Catholic communities wanted to remain separate, though, since public education tended to have Biblical influence from the Protestant ChristianKing James Bible. Major disputes erupted because the Catholic church did not want their youth to be educated under Protestant ideologies, as most public schools read Bible hymns and utilizedMcGuffey Readers, which featured Biblical passages teaching moral lessons to students from a Protestant point of view.[142]
The disagreements between faiths led leaders of public education systems, typically Protestant in faith, to advocate for disintegration between schools. To the leaders, the Catholic community was not worthwhile and had too many differences from Protestantism; therefore, they assumed, combining educational systems would only bring about further complications. Additionally, combining systems meant leaders on either side would have to give up their authority in dictating the ideas and lessons pushed to the forefront in public education.[141]
Anti-Catholicism amongAmerican Jews further intensified in the 1850s during the international controversy over theEdgardo Mortara case, when a baptized Jewish boy in thePapal States was removed from his family and refused to return to them.
The First Vatican Council convened in 1869 and caused another rift to form between Catholics and Protestants. The Council passed the doctrine ofpapal infallibility, claiming that the pope, like Peter in ancient Christianity, retained an ability to make definitive decisions about official doctrinal disputes over faith and morals.[144] Protestants viewed this as an attempt for the Roman Catholic Church and the pope, who wasPope Pius IX at the time, to establish greater power over their Catholic followers.[145]
This distrust of Rome continued to infiltrate the educational facilities in the United States as well, leading to the fight for eliminating government-funded Catholic schooling. Many cities made attempts to integrate school systems, though there were varying degrees of success. One of the successful attempts was allowing Catholic teachers to find work within public schools, teaching children of countless denominations.[143] But there were instances of limiting Catholics in public education as seen in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1873 when a law was passed that forbade Catholic garments from being worn within public education facilities—it was not repealed until 1898.[143]
In theOrange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872, Irish Catholics violently attacked Irish Protestants, who carried orange banners.[146]
In 1875, another attempt at limiting Catholic funding came about in the form of the Blaine Amendment. It was brought into the courts afterJames G. Blaine, who was searching for a campaign platform for presidency, created an argument for defunding parochial, or denominational, schools. Though it was not explicitly stated to be against Catholicism, Catholic versus public education had been a heated topic for several years by this point. Many newspapers argued that Blaine wanted to build his following from those who held anti-Catholic beliefs. Although the amendment was vetoed, it made lasting impacts on the United States.[147] After 1875, many states passed constitutional provisions, called "Blaine Amendments", forbidding tax money be used to fund parochial schools.[148][149] In 2002, theUnited States Supreme Court partially vitiated these amendments, when they ruled that vouchers were constitutional if tax dollars followed a child to a school even if the school were religious.[150]
A favorite rhetorical device in the 1870s was using the code words for Catholicism: "superstition, ambition and ignorance".[151] President Ulysses Grant in a major speech to veterans in October 1875 warned that America again faced an enemy: religious schools. Grant saw another civil war in the "near future": it would not be between North and South, but will be between "patriotism and intelligence on the one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other."[152] According to historianCharles W. Calhoun, "at various points in his life, Grant had bristled privately at what he considered religious communicants' thralldom to a domineering clergy, but he did not specifically mention Catholicism in his speech. Still, Catholic journals decried the president's seeming exploitation of religious bigotry."[153] In his December 1875 Annual Message to Congress, Grant urged taxation on "vast amounts of untaxed church property" which Professor John McGreevey says was "a transparently anti-Catholic measure since only the Catholic Church owned vast amounts of property – in schools, orphanages, and charitable institutions". Grant told Congress such legislation would protect American citizens from tyranny "whether directed by the demagogue or by priestcraft."[154]
Anti-Catholicism played a major role in the defeat ofAl Smith, the Democratic nominee for president in 1928. Smith did very well in Catholic precincts, but he did poorly in the South relative to previous Democratic presidential candidates, as well as among theLutherans of the North. His candidacy was also hampered by his close ties to the notoriousTammany Hallpolitical machine in New York City and his strong opposition toprohibition. His cause was uphill in any case, because he faced a popular Republican leadership in a year of peace and unprecedented prosperity.[155]
The passage of the18th Amendment in 1919, a culmination of a half-century of anti-liquor agitation, also fueled anti-Catholic sentiment. Prohibition enjoyed strong support among dry pietistic Protestants, and equally strong opposition by wet Catholics,Episcopalians, and German Lutherans. The drys focused their distrust on the Catholics who showed little popular support for the enforcement of prohibition laws, and when theGreat Depression began in 1929, there was increasing sentiment that the government needed the tax revenue which the repeal of Prohibition would bring.[156]
Over 10 million Protestant soldiers who served inWorld War II came into close contact with Catholic soldiers; they got along well and, after the war, they played a central role in spreading a greater level of ethnic and religious toleration for Catholics among otherwhite Americans.[157] Although anti-Catholic sentiment declined in the U.S. in the 1960s, particularly afterJohn F. Kennedy became the first Catholic U.S. president,[158] traces of it persist in both the media and popular culture.[159] In March 2000, theCatholic League criticizedSlate magazine and journalistJack Shafer for a piece the League described as taking "delight in justifying anti-Catholicism."[160][161] Anti-Catholic hate crimes against persons and property have also continued to occur. The summer of 2020 saw a wave of anti-Catholic acts which ranged from the vandalization of churches[162][163][164] and cathedrals;[165][166] to the destruction and often the decapitation of statues, particularly statues ofSt Junipero Serra,[167][168][169]Mary,[170][171] andJesus;[172][173] in states including Illinois[174] and Florida.[175] Many of these acts are tied to other political movements, the most notable of them is theQAnon movement, but otherfar right groups have also espoused anti-Catholic sentiment. One popular conspiracy theory is based on the belief that the three stars on the DC flag stand for London, the Vatican and Washington.[176] Another far-right conspiracy claims the pope was arrested for sexual abuse.[177]
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious (generally Catholic) institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen. It suggests a more active and partisan role than merelaïcité. The goal of anticlericalism is sometimes to reduce religion to a purely private belief-system with no public profile or influence. However, many times it has included outright suppression of all aspects of faith.
Anticlericalism has at times been violent, leading to murders and the desecration, destruction and seizure of Church property. Anticlericalism in one form or another has existed throughout most of Christian history, and it is considered to be one of the major popular forces underlying the 16th century reformation. Some of the philosophers of theEnlightenment, includingVoltaire, continually attacked the Catholic Church, both its leadership and its priests, claiming that many of its clergy were morally corrupt. These assaults in part led to the suppression of theJesuits, and played a major part in the wholesale attacks on the very existence of the Church during theFrench Revolution in theReign of Terror and the program ofdechristianization. Similar attacks on the Church occurred inMexico andPortugal since their 1910 revolutions and inSpain during the twentieth century.
Holy Roman EmperorJoseph II (emperor 1765–1790) opposed what he called "contemplative" religious institutions – reclusive Catholic institutions that he perceived as doing nothing positive for the community.[178] Although Joseph II was himself a Catholic, he also believed in firm state control of ecclesiastical matters outside of the strictly religious sphere and decreed that Austrian bishops could not communicate directly with theRoman Curia.[179] His policies are included in what is calledJosephinism, that promoted the subjection of the Catholic Church in theHabsburg lands to service for the state.[180]
The Secularization Decree issued on 12 January 1782 banned several monastic orders not involved in teaching or healing and liquidated 140 monasteries. The banned monastic orders:Jesuits,Camaldolese,Order of Friars Minor Capuchin,Carmelites,Carthusians,Poor Clares,Order of Saint Benedict,Cistercians,Dominican Order (Order of Preachers),Franciscans,Pauline Fathers andPremonstratensians, and their wealth was taken over by the Religious Fund.
Georg Ritter von Schönerer (1842–1921) was anAustrian landowner and politician ofAustria-Hungary. He was a major opponent of political Catholicism and the founder of the movementAway from Rome!, aimed the conversion of all the CatholicGerman-speaking population ofAustria toLutheranism, or, in some cases, to theOld Catholic Churches.[181][182]
Brazil has the largest number of Catholics in the world,[183] and as a result, it has not experienced any large anti-Catholic movements.
During the 19th century, theReligious Issue was the name given to the crisis when Freemasons in the Brazilian government imprisoned two Catholic bishops for enforcing the Church's prohibition againstFreemasonry.
Even during times in which the Church was experiencing intenseconservatism, such as the era of theBrazilian military dictatorship, anti-Catholicism was not advocated by theleft-wing movements (instead,Liberation theology gained force). However, with the growing number of Protestants (especiallyNeo-Pentecostals) in the country, anti-Catholicism has gained strength. A pivotal moment during the rise of anti-Catholicism was thekicking of the saint episode in 1995. However, owing to the protests of the Catholic majority, the perpetrator was transferred toSouth Africa for the duration of the controversy.
During theCOVID-19 pandemic in Brazil,drug dealers took advantage of the pandemic to unite fiveslums inRio de Janeiro imposingevangelical Protestantism on the area and attacking Catholics (and also members ofUmbanda).[184][185]
Anti-Catholic and anti-clerical sentiments, some of which were spurred by an anti-clericalconspiracy theory which was circulating in Colombia during the mid-twentieth century, led to the persecution and killing of Catholics, most specifically, the persecution and killing of members of the Catholic clergy, during the events which are known asLa Violencia.[186]
Cuba, under the rule of theatheistFidel Castro, succeeded in reducing the ability of the Catholic Church to work by deporting one archbishop and 150 Spanish priests, by discriminating against Catholics in public life and education and refusing to accept them as members of theCommunist Party.[187] The subsequent flight of 300,000 Cubans from the island also helped to diminish the Church there.[187]
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During theFrench Revolution (1789–1795), the clergy and the laity were persecuted and Church property was confiscated and destroyed by the new government as part of a process ofDechristianization, the aims of which were the destruction of Catholic practices and the destruction of the very faith itself, culminating in the imposition of theatheisticCult of Reason followed by the imposition of thedeisticCult of the Supreme Being.[188] The persecution led Catholics who lived in the west of France to wage a counterrevolution, theWar in the Vendée, and when the state was victorious, it killed tens of thousands of Catholics. A few historians have called the killings agenocide.[189] However, most historians believe that the killings constituted a brutal crackdown against political enemies rather than a genocide.[190] The French invasions of Italy (1796–1799) included an assault on Rome and the exile ofPope Pius VI in 1798.
Relations improved in 1802 whenNapoleon came to terms with the Pope in theConcordat of 1801.[191] It allowed the Church to operate but did not give back the lands; it proved satisfactory for a century. By 1815 the Papacy supported the growing alliance against Napoleon, and was re-instated as the State Church during the conservativeBourbon Restoration of 1815–1830. The briefFrench Revolution of 1848 again opposed the Church, but theSecond French Empire (1851–1871) gave it full support. The history of 1789–1871 had established two camps – the left against the Church and the right supporting it – that largely continued until theVatican II process in 1962–1965.[192]
The Government of France'sThird Republic (1871–1940) was dominated by anti-clericalism, the desire to secularise the State and cultural life, based on an obsession with being faithful to the most extreme currents of the French Revolution.[193] This was the position of the radicals and socialists.[194] in 1902Émile Combes became Minister of the Interior, and the main energy of the government was devoted to furthering ananti-clerical agenda.[195] The parties of the Left, Socialists and Radicals, united upon this question in theBloc republicain, supported Combes in his application of the law of 1901 on the religious associations, and voted the new bill on the congregations (1904). By 1904, through his efforts, nearly 10,000 religious schools had been closed and thousands of priests and nuns left France rather than be persecuted.[196] Under his guidance parliament passed the1905 French law on the separation of Church and State, which reversed the Napoleonic arrangement of 1801.[197]
In theAffaire Des Fiches, in France in 1904–1905, it was discovered that the militantlyanticlerical War Minister under Combes, GeneralLouis André, had imposedreligious discrimination upon theFrench armed forces by using theMasonicGrand Orient de France's huge card index documenting which military officers were practicing Catholics and attendedMass and then blocking them from all future promotions. Exposure of the policy in the National Assembly by the opposition almost caused the government to fall; instead Emile Combes retired.[198]
In the Napoleonic era, anti-clericalism was a powerful political force.[199] From 1860 through 1870, the new Italian government, under theHouse of Savoy, outlawed all religious orders, both male and female, including theFranciscans, theDominicans and theJesuits, closed down their monasteries and confiscated their property, and imprisoned or banished bishops who opposed this (seeKulturkampf).[200][201]Italy took over Rome in 1870 when it lost its French protection; the Pope declared himself aprisoner in the Vatican. Relations were finally normalized in 1929 with theLateran Treaty.[202]
Following the defeat of the CatholicKing James II byWilliam III at theBattle of the Boyne in 1690, theProtestant Ascendancy installed by theEnglish Crown throughPlantations, sought to consolidate their power and prevent any resurgence of Catholic influence. To achieve this, they enacted a series of laws known as thePenal Laws, designed to systematically oppress Catholics and other non-Anglican religious groups.[203]
The Penal laws imposed a number ofcivil disabilities amongCatholics, such as fines for participating in Catholic Worship, and evenCapital Punishment for priests found to be practicing their ministry within Great Britain and Ireland. Catholics were also prohibited from beinglanded, Voting, Teaching, Holding any Public Office and bringing religious paraphernalia from Rome into Britain[204]
Following theReform War, PresidentBenito Juárez issued a decree nationalizing Church properties, separating Church and State, and suppressing religious orders.
In the wake of theMexican Revolution, theMexican Constitution of 1917 contained further anti-clerical provisions. Article 3 called for secular education in the schools and prohibited the Church from engaging in primary education; Article 5 outlawed monastic orders; Article 24 forbade public worship outside the confines of churches; and Article 27 placed restrictions on the right of religious organizations to hold property. Article 130 deprived clergy members of political rights.
Mexican PresidentPlutarco Elías Calles's strict enforcement of previous anti-clerical legislation denying priests' rights, enacted as theCalles Law, prompted the Mexican Episcopate to suspend all Catholic worship in Mexico from August 1, 1926, and sparked the bloodyCristero War of 1926–1929 in which some 50,000 peasants took up arms against the government. Their slogan was "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" (Long live Christ the King!).
The effects of the war on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed.[205] Where there were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion, assassination or not obtaining licenses.[205][206] It appears that ten states were left without any priests.[206] Other sources indicate that the persecution was such that, by 1935, 17 states had no registered priests.[207]
Some of the Catholic casualties of this struggle are known as theSaints of the Cristero War.[205][208] Events relating to this were famously portrayed in the novelThe Power and the Glory byGraham Greene.[209][210]
In recent years the Catholic Church has experienced persecution at the hands of the Government, led byDaniel Ortega. As of November 2022, 11 Catholic priests remained in custody, most of which for political offences.Rolando Alvarez, Bishop of Managua and a prominent critic of Ortega, was arrested in 2023, and then exiled in January 2024. Several Catholic media outlets were shuttered by the Government, and police harassment of Catholics and clergy was widespread,[211] with Catholic charityAid to the Church in Need (ACN) considering Nicaragua the country of most concern regarding persecution of the Church in all of Latin America in 2022.[212]
The situation ledPope Francis to publicly express his concern over lack of religious freedom in Nicaragua.[213]
The crackdown on the Church[214] is a response to growing criticism of the regime and its human and civil rights abuses by the Church hierarchy and priests. The Churches opened their doors to welcome people fleeing regime forces after demonstrations, and to care for those wounded in confrontations with the authorities, which led the Government to accuse the Catholic Church of siding with the demonstrators, according to the testimony of one priest who spoke, under anonymity for fear of reprisals, to ACN. The priest in question claimed to have personally rescued 19 demonstrators withAK-47 bullet wounds, after the hospitals had been ordered not to help them. "During those days, the people on our church benches were not listening to the Gospel, they were living it", said the priest.[215]
In 2023, the country was scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom.[216] In the same year, the country was ranked as the 50th most difficult place in the world to be a Christian.[217]
In recent years, the Catholic Church in Nicaragua has faced increased scrutiny and actions from government authorities. In a notable event, the Nicaraguan police, known for their loyalty to President Daniel Ortega's administration, announced an investigation into several dioceses for potential money laundering. According to their reports, significant sums were discovered in various Church facilities, and there were allegations of illegal withdrawals from bank accounts that were legally frozen.[218]
In March 2022, Nicaragua withdrew its approval of Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, Apostolic Nuncio in Managua and ordered him to leave the country.[219] Then, in March 2023, Nicaragua officially severed ties with the Holy See, andby August of that year, the Nicaraguan government banned theJesuits and seized their assets.[220][221]
According to Catholic charityAid to the Church in Need, at least 46 priests were under arrest at some point in Nicaragua in 2023. Many of these priests ended up being exiled at the beginning of 2024.[222]
The government has banned traditionalHoly Week processions since 2023. Some churches that obtained special permission to hold them are now restricted to short walks toward their main altars. According to Nicaraguan lawyer in exile Martha Patricia Molina, there has been a crackdown aimed at preventing participants from performing the Judeas passion plays, which are "theatrical representations of the passion and death of Christ".[223]
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For the situation in Russian Poland, seeAnticatholicism in Russian Empire
Catholicism in Poland, the religion of the vast majority of the population, was severely persecuted duringWorld War II, following theNazi invasion of the country and its subsequent annexation into Germany. Over 3 million Catholics of Polish descent were murdered during theInvasion of Poland, including 3 bishops, 52 priests, 26 monks, 3 seminarians, 8 nuns and 9 lay people, later beatified in 1999 byPope John Paul II as the108 Martyrs of World War II.[224]
The Roman Catholic Church was even more violently suppressed inReichsgau Wartheland and theGeneral Government.[225] Churches were closed, and clergy were deported, imprisoned, or killed,[225] among them wasMaximilian Kolbe, a Pole of German descent. Between 1939 and 1945, 2,935 members[226] of the Polish clergy (18%[227]) were killed in concentration camps. In the city ofChełmno, for example, 48% of the Catholic clergy were killed.
Catholicism continued to be persecuted under theCommunist regime from the 1950s. ContemporaryStalinist ideology claimed that the Church and religion in general were about to disintegrate. Initially,Archbishop Wyszyński entered into an agreement with the Communist authorities, which was signed on 14 February 1950 by the Polish episcopate and the government. The Agreement regulated the matters of the Church in Poland. However, in May of that year, theSejm breached the Agreement by passing a law for the confiscation of Church property.
On 12 January 1953, Wyszyński was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pius XII as another wave of persecution began in Poland. When the bishops voiced their opposition to state interference in ecclesiastical appointments, mass trials and the internment of priests began – the cardinal being one of its victims. On 25 September 1953 he was imprisoned atGrudziądz, and later placed under house arrest in monasteries inPrudnik nearOpole and inKomańcza Monastery in theBieszczady Mountains. He was released on 26 October 1956.
Pope John Paul II, who was born in Poland as Karol Wojtyla, often cited the persecution of Polish Catholics in his stance against Communism.
Anti-clericalism in Spain at the start of theSpanish Civil War resulted in the killing of almost 7,000 clergy, the destruction of hundreds of churches and the persecution of lay people in Spain'sRed Terror.[228] Hundreds ofMartyrs of the Spanish Civil War have beenbeatified and hundreds more in October 2007.[229][230]
The Jesuits (Societas Jesu) were banned from all activities in either clerical or pedagogical functions by Article 51 of the Swiss constitution in 1848. The reason for the ban was the perceived threat to the stability of the state resulting from Jesuit advocacy of traditional Catholicism; it followed the Roman Catholic cantons forming an unconstitutionalseparate alliance leading tocivil war. In June 1973, 55% of Swiss voters approved removing the ban on the Jesuits (as well as Article 52 which banned monasteries and convents from Switzerland). (SeeKulturkampf andReligion in Switzerland)[citation needed]
In theEast–West Schism of 1054, theEastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church broke theirfull communion with each other because ofEcclesiastical differences,Theological, and Liturgical disputes.[231]
In April 1182, theEastern Orthodox population of theByzantine Empire committed a large-scale massacre against the Catholic population ofConstantinople,[232][233] this massacre is known as theMassacre of the Latins and it further worsened relations and increased enmity between Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism.[234]
During Russian rule, Catholics, primarilyPoles andLithuanians, suffered great persecution not only because of their ethnic-national background, but also for religious reasons. Especially after the uprisings of1831 and1863, and within the process ofRussification (understanding that there is a strong link between religion and nationality), the tsarist authorities were anxious to promote the conversion of these peoples to the official faith, intervening in public education in those regions (anOrthodox religious education was compulsory) and censoring the actions of the Catholic Church.[235] In particular, attention was focused on the public actions of the Church, such as masses or funerals, because they could serve as the focus of protests against the occupation. Many priests were imprisoned or deported because of their activities in defense of their religion and ethnicity. In the late nineteenth century, however, there was a progressive relaxation of the control of Catholic institutions by the Russian authorities.[236] Additionally, all the Eastern Catholic population was forced to convert to the Orthodox faith, with refusal often being met with violence and even murder, like the martyrs ofPratulin.
DuringWorld War II in Yugoslavia, theChetniks killed an estimated 18,000–32,000Croats, who were mostly Roman Catholic.[237] The terror tactics against the Croats were, to at least an extent, a reaction to thegenocide which the Ustaše committed against the Serbs.[238] Along with mass murder, the Ustashe conducted religious persecution of Serbs that included a policy of forced conversion from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism, often with theparticipation of local Catholic priests.[239][240] However, the largest Chetnik massacres took place in eastern Bosnia, where they preceded significant Ustashe operations.[241] Croats (and Muslims) who lived in areas that were intended to be parts ofGreater Serbia were supposed to be cleansed of non-Serbs, in accordance with Mihailović's directive of 20 December 1941.[238] About 300 villages and small towns were destroyed, along with a large number ofmosques and Catholic churches.[242] Fifty-twoCatholic priests were killed by Chetniks throughout the war.[243] A number of Catholic nuns were also raped and killed,[243] including thekilling of several nuns from Goražde in December 1941.
During thewar in Croatia, theICTY determined that ethnic Croats were persecuted on political, racial and religious grounds, as part of a general campaign of killings and forced-removals of Croat civilians. This included the deliberate destruction of religious buildings and monuments.[244] Approximately 450 Catholic churches were destroyed or severely damaged, with another 250 suffering lesser damages. In addition, approximately 151 rectories, 31 monasteries, and 57 cemeteries were destroyed or severely damaged.[245] While another 269 religious buildings were destroyed during theBosnian War.[246]
In a 1827 report, Blancis enumerated crimes (assaults, killings, thefts, etc) committed by orthodox settlers againstCatholics.[247]
TheKhmelnytsky Uprising in the 17th century has a symbolic meaning in the history ofUkraine's relationship withPoland. It ended the Polish Catholicszlachta′s domination over theUkrainian Orthodox population. The insurgency was accompanied bymass atrocities committed byCossacks against prisoners of war and the civilian population, includingLatin andRuthenian Catholic clergy.[248]
Attacks on CatholicPoles during themassacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–1945 were marked with extreme brutality. TheUPA's actions resulted in up to 100,000 Polish deaths.[249] The Roman Catholic Church suffered huge losses in UPA attacks.[250] According toNorman Davies, "Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners."[251]
AnOUN order from early 1944 stated:
Liquidate all Polish traces. Destroy all walls in the Catholic Church and other Polish prayer houses."[252]
In the separatist region which is known as theDonetsk People's Republic, the government has declared that theRussian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is thestate religion in 2014, and Protestant churches have been occupied by paramilitaries.[253]Jehovah's Witnesses have lost their property, and theirKingdom Halls have been occupied by rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.[254]Roman Catholic,Greek Catholic,Ukrainian Orthodox, and Protestant clergy have been kidnapped by groups such as theRussian Orthodox Army, and they have also been accused of opposing Russian Orthodox values.[255]Human Rights Watch says that the bodies of several members of the Church of the Transfiguration were found in a mass grave in 2014.[256]
On 3 June 2001, nine people were killed by abomb explosion at a Roman Catholic church in the Gopalganj District.[257]
On May 12, 2019, six Catholics including a priest were killed by gunmen who rode on motorcycles and stormed a church in Dablo during a Sunday morning mass.[258] A day later, on May 13, 2019, four people were killed and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed by armed men in an attack on Catholic parishioners during a religious procession in the remote village of Zimtenga.[259]
TheDaoguang Emperor modified an existing law, making the spread of Catholicism punishable by death.[260]During theBoxer Rebellion, Catholic missionaries and their families were murdered by Boxer rebels.[261] During the1905 Tibetan Rebellion, Tibetan rebels murdered Catholics and Tibetan converts.[262]
Since the founding of thePeople's Republic of China, all religions including Catholicism only operateunder state control.[263] However, many Catholics do not accept State control of the Church and as a result, they worship clandestinely.[264] There has been some rapprochement between the Chinese government and the Vatican.[265]
Chinese Christians have reportedly been persecuted in both official and unsanctioned churches.[266] In 2018, the Associated Press reported that China'sparamount leaderXi Jinping "is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982",[267] which has involved "destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith".[268]
Japanese soldiers murdered the French Canadian Jesuit Catholic priests Armand Lalonde, Alphonse Dubé and Prosper Bernard inFeng County, Jiangsu on 18 March 1943.[269][270][271][272]
Japanese soldiers murdered Catholic priests and monks in January 1939 in Hejian and September 1941 in Yuntaishan.[273][274] Several figures of Catholic Saints and convents and churches were destroyed by Japanese in Hong Kong.[275]
On 5 February 1597a group of twenty-six Catholics were killed on the orders ofToyotomi Hideyoshi.[276]During theTokugawa Shogunate,Japanese Catholics were suppressed, leading toan armed rebellion during the 1630s. After the rebellion was crushed, Catholicism was further suppressed and many Japanese Catholicswent underground.[277][278] Catholicism was not openly restored to Japan until the1850s.
The Catholic Church continues to be persecuted. As recently as April 2009 armed men attacked a group of Christians in Taiser Town, nearKarachi. They set ablaze six Christian houses and injured three Christians, including an 11-year-old boy, who was in critical condition in the hospital.[279]
The minorities inSwat Valley are fleeing the area as theTaliban have imposed a tax on non-Muslims, the Catholic Bishops' Conference president ArchbishopLawrence Saldanha has said, urging the Pakistani president and prime minister to intervene. The government has recently allowed the imposition ofSharia laws in parts of theNorth West Frontier Province much to the detriment of non-Muslims.[280]
In 2009, Pakistan is the only country in the world with a "blasphemy law". The constitution also ensures that a non-Muslim cannot become president, prime minister, or any of the 11 senior most government positions in the country.[281]
On 30 July 2009, tensions arose in the Christian village of Korian after pages containing Islamic inscriptions were found in front of a Christian home. Muslims then accused a family there of blasphemy against Islam. On 1 August 2009, a Muslim mob raided a Christian settlement inGojra, vandalizing and looting houses and causing the deaths of eight people and injuries to many others. Fifty Christian homes were destroyed. PopeBenedict XVI expressed profound sorrow at anti-Christian riots in Pakistan and appealed to everyone to renounce violence and take up again the path of peace. He communicated this message in a telegram to Faisalabad BishopJoseph Coutts.[282]
St. Thomas' Church, Wah Cantt, was attacked by a group of armed men on 28 March 2011 which resulted in damages. It is believed that the incident was related to the recent episode of the burning of the Quran by Pastor Terry Jones in the U.S.[283]
The situation in Pakistan deteriorated to such an extent that by 2013 large numbers of Christians started to seek asylum overseas.[284][285]InSri Lanka, ABuddhist-influenced government took over 600 parish schools in 1960 without compensation and secularized them.[286] Attempts were made by future governments to restore some autonomy.
Since 2000, in a context of rising violence againstreligious minorities, i.e. Christians, Muslims and Hindus, multiple attacks on Catholic churches occurred. For instance, in 2009, a mob of 1,000 smashed the interior of a church in the town of Crooswatta, assaulting parishioners with clubs, swords and stones, forcing several of them to be treated in hospitals. In 2013, vandals smashed a statue of the Virgin Mary as well as a tabernacle, and they also tried to burn the Eucharist at a church in Angulana, nearColombo.[287]
The term "anti-Catholic Catholic" has come to be applied to Catholics who are perceived to view the Catholic Church with animosity.Traditionalist or conservative Catholics frequently use it as a descriptive term formodernist or liberal Catholics, especially those modernist or liberal Catholics who seek to reform Church doctrine, make secularist critiques of the Catholic Church, or place secular principles above Church teachings.[288][289] Those who take issue with theCatholic theology of sexuality are especially prone to be given this label.[290]
Prime Minister Pombal of Portugal was aggressively hostile to theJesuit order because it reported to an Italian power – the Pope – and it also tried to operate independently rather than operate under the control of the government. In Portugal as well as in much of Catholic Europe, he waged a full-scale war against the Jesuits. The Jesuit order was suppressed in thePortuguese Empire (1759),France (1764), theTwo Sicilies,Malta,Parma, theSpanish Empire (1767), andAustria andHungary (1782). The Pope himself suppressed the order everywhere in 1773, but it survived inRussia andPrussia. The suppression of the Jesuits was a major blow toCatholic education across Europe, with nearly 1000 secondary schools and seminaries were shut down. Their lands, buildings, and endowments were confiscated; their teachers were scattered. Although Jesuit education had become old fashioned in Poland and other areas, it was the main educational support network for Catholic intellectuals, senior clergy, and prominent families. Governments unsuccessfully attempted to replace all of those schools, but there were far too few non-clerical teachers who were suitable.[291]
The Jesuit order was restored by the pope in 1814 and it flourished in terms of rebuilding schools and educational institutions but it never regained its enormous political power.[292] The suppression of the Jesuits has been described as "an unmitigated disaster for Catholicism." The political weakness of the once-powerful institution was on public display for more ridicule andbullying. The Church lost its best educational system, its best missionary system, and its most innovative thinkers. Intellectually, it would take two centuries for the Church to fully recover.[293]
Anti-Catholic stereotypes are a long-standing feature ofEnglish literature,popular fiction, andpornography.Gothic fiction is particularly rich in this regard. Lustful priests, cruel abbesses, immured nuns, and sadistic inquisitors appear in such works asThe Italian byAnn Radcliffe,The Monk byMatthew Lewis,Melmoth the Wanderer byCharles Maturin and "The Pit and the Pendulum" byEdgar Allan Poe.[294] Additionally, priests, clergymen, and even regular Catholic laity are oftentimes portrayed aspedophiles in media, due to the sex abuse scandals within the church in recent times.[295][296]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it.
Hitler ... determined 'to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch.'
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Ogromne straty ze strony OUN-UPA poniósł Kościół rzymskokatolicki, naturalny u wierzących chrześcijan szacunek dla duchownych, świątyń, cmentarzy i religijnych praktyk został bowiem w duszach nacjonalistów ukraińskich zrujnowany.[The Roman Catholic Church suffered huge losses from the OUN-UPA; the natural respect among Christian believers for clergy, temples, cemeteries and religious practices was ruined in the souls of Ukrainian nationalists.]
Detention and Torture of Religious Activists
mohammedan slaves to beys.
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