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Original poster

Anti-Catholic feelings

253 replies

StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:25

I'm pretty exhuasted right now with all the Anti-Catholic feeling on MN

A week never seems to go by without a thread about how Catholics should all feels ashamed about abuse (which we all do!) and how the Catholic Church should disband, that all Priests are kiddy fiddlers etc

Then, which really drives me mad, people with their threads about how to fake religion to get into Catholic school

There is now a thread about how frigging funny it is to see the Pope on a condom. I do wonder how funny people would find Mohammad on a sauasge... not very is my bet! Why can't respect for peoples religion be extended to Catholics?

I just wish people would understand that while noone feels that the RC church doesn't have a lot to apologise for it is not 100% rotten, the Pope isn't a Nazi and not every Priest signed up to spend time alone with little boys

DH thinks I should rise above it, but it hurts me! It has just made me cry seeing all the horrible things people have said about the church today.
Am I alone

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iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:29

But people DO fake religion to get into Catholic school. I think it's wrong too, and I'm an atheist. It's well known around here that the rates of older children and their parents being baptised go up once the parents realise who shit the non Catholic schools are. Mind you, I also think it's wrong that my children can't get into our closest state secondary because we're not Catholic, but that's another thread.

iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:31

sorry, that's "how" not "who".

harimo · 25/04/2010 19:32

You are right, of course, but I think the catholic church has to do a little bit more than apologise. it has to change.

It's got to change it's stance on the role of females, on contraception, on abortion, on gay rights (esp. on gay rights!)

In essence: It needs to bloody well grow up and start living in the 21st century.

is it the only religion that has to change? Absolutely not.

I'm a 'catholic' - I suppose I'll always call myself one, but I haven't been to church since I was 'told' I HAD to give to the White orchid appeal (against abortion). Sorry, but I believe it's a woman's (rather than some priest's) right to choose what happens to her body.

SuziKettles · 25/04/2010 19:32

But people don't mock Islam in the same way as they do other religions because they're scared. Not anything to do with respect.

You don't want people to be scared of you do you? You don't want people to be frightened to sit beside you on the bus? Not a bed of roses to be a Muslim in this country.

For what it's worth, I'm a Christian in a Protestant denomination, and for all we don't get the media that the Catholic Church is attracting at the moment, the general consensus is that we're god-bothering, happy clappy wets so not exactly a great rep either.

harimo · 25/04/2010 19:34

And personally, I'd rather pay for an education than send my kids to a catholic school.

Having been throu a catholic education, I can honestly say that.

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 25/04/2010 19:34

No you're not alone. I sometimes wish people would realise that, even though the forum may be virtual, real people's feelings can get hurt. I've seen it justified with 'why do I have to respect your beliefs, it's people, not beliefs that deserve respect', but if people deserve respect, they deserve not to have the belief system they hold dear ridiculed. I don't mind a good honest debate, but it's got unreasonably nasty in a few threads recently.

iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:36

well indeed, harimo, but I can only see it as discrimination. Annoyingly, the only selective private school which takes boys that is less than 45 minutes from my house is also Catholic.

Original poster
StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:36

But why send your child to a school that has a belief system that you don't at all believe in??

It just annoys me that people, on the same thread, say how worried they are that the Priest will abuse their children yet then ask on tips of how to get away with pretending to be Catholic.

Is everything in life now just a matter of personal convinience?

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SuziKettles · 25/04/2010 19:37

I'm fine with people ridiculing my belief system tbh.

I don't particularly like it when SGB talks about "imaginary friends" etc or other posters question the sanity of those who have faith, but I'd walk through fire for their right to say it. There have been many period in history when that right wasn't available.

TwatthewWright · 25/04/2010 19:37

Islam is still relatively new to this country and people are still learning about it.

I have heard people mocking it - teenagers and young men saying they are going to put a jihad on each other. Family Guy mocks islam all the time.

Catholicism is a christian religion and we are in what is called a chrisitan country therefore it is easier to mock it.

Comparing a sausage and condoms is very weak and doesn't have the same meaning at all.

LynetteScavo · 25/04/2010 19:38

StricktlyKatty...I can understand why you feel the way you do...it seems to be perfectly acceptable, quite PC infact, to Catholic bash, even though the very same people wouldn't dream of saying anything anti Muslim/Jewish, etc. It makes me cross too. (I'm not Catholic, but DH, and DC's are)

I think the Catholic school situation is a little different, though (although I'm prepared to be convinced other wise).

BleachedWhale · 25/04/2010 19:38

People are very bad at separating Catholics from the Catholic church. Of course the vast majority of ordinary catholics are lovely people. The actual incidence of abuse by catholic priests is very low compared to the number of priests and the number of population. However, what has shocked people, I think, is the institutional reaction of the church in the medium and recent past. I sympathise with your plight, SK, but while respecting individual catholics, to an outsider it is very hard to have much respect for the institution at present. Given a range of issues.
I don't know what ordinary catholics can do to influence the institution.

iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:39

SK - I wouldn't, but I disagree with religious schools anyway. I think that this school and all religious schools should have nothing to do with any church or religion.

Original poster
StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:40

Suzi I would never ever want someone to be scared of me no. On the other hand it hurts me when people say that taking my DS to Mass implies that I would happily let him be abused

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amidaiwish · 25/04/2010 19:41

tbh i think a lot of the anti-Catholic feeling does come from the school thing. People can't get their kids into the best state schools and therefore resent the whole religion and are now loving that it is being rocked to the core.

if there wasn't the school thing, most people wouldn't be that bothered/interested.

iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:44

It's more the misogyny, lack of support for contraception, condoms for AIDS in Africa, attitudes to homosexuality and abortion that annoy me, tbh - although the school thing doesn't help.

Original poster
StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:44

twatthew why is the sausage and the condom weak?

The Catholic church is anti the use of birth control and the Muslim faith is anti the eating of Pork... so in my mind putting the Pope's face on birth control is pretty such as offensive as putting Mohammad on a frankfurter.

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sarah293 · 25/04/2010 19:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

amidaiwish · 25/04/2010 19:47

you try being catholic with a muslim surname.

trump card!

TwatthewWright · 25/04/2010 19:47

Erm, you can't catch aids, sexually transmitted infections or get pregnant from not eating a sausage.

People die from not using condoms, nobody dies from not eating a sausage.

Anyhoo... the thread isn't about that, I should know as I started it. I think one person may have said it.

Original poster
StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:48

Thank you Riven.

I do not believe that every Muslim has a hook and prays for the slaughter of all Jews. Therefore, I find it hard to imagine why people can't understand that not all Catholics happily let child abuse continue or that we are all thrilled by the spread of AIDS.

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sarah293 · 25/04/2010 19:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

nancy75 · 25/04/2010 19:50

riven, don't you think that other muslims have to take some of the blame for that?
last night when this was breaking news the bbc rang the spokesperson in the uk for opus dei(sp?) obviously thinking that they would be the most outraged and come out the the most angry comments - the guy just said oh its obviously meant as a joke that went to far, we should just leave it as that, no amount of pushing by the presenter would make him say more. compare that with the danish cartoons where we see pictures of people burning down embasies and vowing to kill newspaper editors/cartoonists. is it a suprise that the religion is sometimes viewed with suspicion?
for the record i am not any religion.

iloveasylumseekers · 25/04/2010 19:50

Riven - if I'm anti-Catholic (and I probably am) I am anti-Catholic Church rather than anti-individual-who-happens-to-be-Catholic.

Original poster
StrictlyKatty · 25/04/2010 19:51

twattew do you just refuse to see that putting someones imagine onto something they are opposed to is hugely offensive?

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