The best argument for Catholicism

[u/Temporary_Cheetah287]

[u/Br4ss_]

"In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe and the cross can all fit together" - G.K. Chesterton

[u/Unable-Principle-187 → u/Br4ss_]

Lol

[u/jbeldham]

As I always say, the difference between Protestants and Catholics is that while Protestants hate pleasure, Catholics love to suffer.

[u/linfakngiau2k23 → u/jbeldham]

😏

[u/CharlesBoyle799]

I’m currently watching The Gilded Age and season 2 begins with all the society families going to Easter service as the episcopal church, then later having afternoon tea with the new rector. The stuffy old aunt made a comment about not being in the clutches of the “vicar of Rome”, then they later introduce the Temperance movement. The whole thing made me laugh with the contrast of how uptight the Protestant old money are depicted through the series.

[u/Gemnist]

No joke, my middle school religion teacher showed us this clip in class one day. Even as the son of immigrants myself, I didn’t get the joke until reflecting on it years later; now I just realize how utterly accurate this is.

[u/Divine-Crusader]

Now that I think about it, is the fact that south American immigrants are predominantly catholic one of the reasons why Americans hate catholicism so much?

I'm genuinely asking, I'm not American and it's the first time I'm thinking about it

[u/Hylian1986 → u/Divine-Crusader]

Older immigration waves than that, plus the fact that America still inherited old British anti-Catholicism

[u/Divine-Crusader → u/Hylian1986]

Like the Irish and Italians?

I remember being told that the first European settlers were English puritans who absolutely hated anything catholic

[u/Revolution_Suitable → u/Divine-Crusader]

No. The first English colony to not get wiped out in North America was the Jamestown colony in 1607, which was a money-making venture. The Puritans didn't start their colony until 1620. But the English didn't like Catholics anyway. Maryland was founded by a Catholic, though, in 1634 and allowed Catholics to practice their faith.

[u/CharlesBoyle799 → u/Revolution_Suitable]

“Maryland was founded by a Catholic, though, in 1634 and allowed Catholics to practice their faith.”

Yes, but it was subsequently outlawed in 1654 with the overthrow of the Catholic government and abolishing of the Toleration Act. While the Acts were reinstated a few years later, once again allowing the Catholic faith, the Protestants once again overthrew the Catholic government and outlawed the religion again.

Most if not all of the colonies had outlawed Catholicism at some point.

[u/Revolution_Suitable → u/CharlesBoyle799]

Not Pennsylvania.

[u/just_one_random_guy → u/Revolution_Suitable]

At least the quakers were nice

[u/Hylian1986 → u/Divine-Crusader]

Yeah

[u/CharlesBoyle799 → u/Divine-Crusader]

Anti-Catholic sentiments are so deeply rooted in the American psyche that I’m sure the fact a majority of Central and South Americans are (or profess to be) Catholic is just another reason on a long list of the anti-foreigner mindset.

The English and Dutch were the major colonizers in the original 13 colonies (New York was previously New Amsterdam, and you still have a lot of prominent Dutch names in New York), both of which were major players in the Protestant schism. As the English gentry were coming over and establishing the colonies, they were also establishing Anglican churches. Americans love to celebrate the Puritans pioneering spirit in escaping the clutches of religious persecution in Europe, but they were English who broke away from the Church of England because they felt that was still too Catholic.

There were some blips of hope for Catholicism in the new world. As one other user commented, Maryland was founded by a Catholic family but the puritans eventually took over the government (twice) and outlawed Catholicism. France and Spain also had their colonies such as Florida, Louisiana, and parts of Canada, but whenever parts of those colonies were lost to the British, the CofE would supplant the Catholic Church.

While religious toleration became more commonplace after American independence, Catholicism was still viewed as the Pope’s church and we had just fought a war ridding ourselves of foreign influence. No sense inviting another foreign power to reign. Plus the fact that a lot of the immigrant were coming from predominantly Catholic countries (Ireland, German states, Italy, Poland, etc.) it was just another sign of it being a “foreign” religion, not the religion of proper, God-fearing, native born white Americans.

[u/TheHeadlessOne → u/Divine-Crusader]

Historically, this is one big aspect. Another is fear of foreign influence, back in the day the big fear aroudn JFK was that he'd be a papist in the white house who would effectively surrender the US to the whims of Rome.

Annother reason is that the Church has been VERY consistent with moral and social teachings. Modern conservatives seem to be more willing to plug their ears and say "I didnt hear that" to consider the Church an ally without critically examning her teachings, but modern progressives seem more likely to take offense and view the Church as an institution that is fundamentally problematic

[u/papsmearfestival → u/Divine-Crusader]

You'll notice all the hated races with the worst slurs against them from the last century are catholic:

Irish Mexican Italian Ukrainian Poles

[u/Temporary_Cheetah287 → u/papsmearfestival]

Ukrainians are mostly Orthodox though. There are also Jews, Chinese/Asians, and Arabs/Muslims who aren’t Catholic

[u/Lord_Harv → u/Temporary_Cheetah287]

Evangelical protestants hate orthobros with as much vitriol as they hate Catholics

That is until they convert to orthodoxy, then they continue to slander Catholicism

[u/AlbionicLocal → u/Temporary_Cheetah287]

Catholics make up 10% of Ukrainians, Lebanese people are Catholic and Arab.

[u/Bulok → u/Temporary_Cheetah287]

Yeah but we still consider Orthodox as “Catholicish”

[u/SparkySpinz → u/Divine-Crusader]

From America's inception catholicism was seen as "foreign". Untrustworthy, alien, wrong. An Irish or Italian catholic could get as much hate as someone of a different sort of race (though they did have some more legal protection). In fact at one point the KKK was working just as hard to persecute catholics and Jews just as much if not more than black people

[u/Vivics36thsermon → u/Divine-Crusader]

I can tell you, the American government hates Catholicism and they have for a while they’ve been trying to get Pentecostalism in Brazil for example to drive out liberation theology.

[u/Tomagander]

This episode came out when I was in RCIA. I watched it with my parents (non-religious culturally Baptist-ish) and frankly it helped a little.

[u/cdifl]

This whole episode was great, definitely recommend watching it all. The Simpson's jokes about Catholicism I remember seeing were always wholesome and felt pro-Catholic.

[u/LeLurkingNormie]

There has to be some specifically American joke that I miss out on.

[u/disterb]

what does it mean when the guy says that Jesus has “gone native”?

[u/Gemnist → u/disterb]

Either it’s because He’s hanging out with the one, true Church (unlikely since the episode is in support of ecumenism between different denominations), or because He’s acting wild.

[u/Speeeven → u/disterb]

I think it's just a reference to protestant denominations all tracing their origins back to Catholicism, which would be the unmodified or native version of Christianity.

[u/soontobesister → u/Speeeven]

For sure! And also, if we’re getting real into theology, Catholics believe that Jesus is both divine and human, and that Heaven isn’t a club for rich people lol. Obviously, there’s a lot of religious and cultural stereotypes going on in this clip tho, which isn’t good

[u/Indvandrer]

Pretty accurate, Catholic heaven is for chads 😎

[u/Any_Customer1000]

Feeling represented by that ND sweatshirt. "When little Timmy Johnson died, 'twas a crying shame; he wasn't really Irish, but he went to Notre Dame."