Is Anti-Catholicism Justified?

One of the last acceptable prejudices in recent years... the Catholic Church, has been getting a lot of scrutiny because of the cover up of sexual abuse of children and other events. But, what has also been on the rise, fair or not, is a lot of Anti-Catholic sentiment. Now, anti-Catholicism is nothing new, especially in the US, but it seemed to have cooled down with the election of John F. Kennedy back in 1960. But, an interesting phenomenon has resurfaced since events like the sex abuse scandal. A lot of people feel like they can make blanket generalizations about Catholics and about the Catholic Church and not even think of themselves as being prejudiced.

For instance, when Mel Gibson went on his anti- Semitic rant back in 2006, one British newspaper discussing Gibson, ended with the line "who could have imagined Catholicism could be so interesting?"

Now, imagine if someone were writing an article about about Bernie Madoff and ended with the line "who knew Judaism could be so interesting?" People would understandably be in an uproar. I'm not saying that the Catholic Church does not deserve criticism. I honestly think all organized religion is a little kooky. But bigotry against the Catholic Church is still bigotry and it's wrong.

Finally, the only way we can become a truly understanding world, is to condemn bigotry wherever we see it, whether it's the Catholic Church or a gay teen being bullied to the point of suicide.