American culture and anti-Catholicism

Gov. Bush's opponent for the Republican nomination for president, Sen. John McCain, charged him with (at best) coddling the anti-Catholicism found on the university's web site and in quotations from some of its leadership. In return, Gov. Bush's supporters said that Sen. McCain had been considering making a similar appearance. In the end, Gov. Bush apologized to Catholics for failing to condemn Bob Jones University for its attitude toward Catholics.

Reflecting on this series of events, Mr. Steinfels noted wryly that "it is questionable whether there were enough Roman Catholics upset by anything emanating from Bob Jones University to fill an old-fashioned confessional. In fact, opposing anti-Catholicism in the United States by denouncing Bob Jones is about as relevant...as combating medical errors by condemning leeches and snake oil. The Catholic Church takes more nasty hits weekly on cable television than yearly from Bob Jones."

He also exposed a major irony: "The solicitude of the Democrats for Catholic sensibilities is especially remarkable....Its leading candidates for the presidency are dueling to prove who is pro-choicer than whom, as if having ever held any reservations whatsoever on the topic of abortion were evidence of not being a worthy Democrat."

In short, why should Catholics listen to Democratic "outrage" about Bob Jones University when the party doesn't flinch at abortion, a far more serious issue for Catholics than the rantings on an obscure college's web page?

Mr. Steinfels listed some modern -- and offensive -- cliches about the Church: It is "an authoritarian monolith; its doctrines are hopelessly premodern; its rites are colorful but mindless; its sexual standards are unnatural, repressive and hypocritical; its congregations are anti-Semitic and racist; its priests are harsh and predatory; its grip on the minds of believers is numbing. These themes still ring in some fundamentalist pulpits. But they are far more apt to be interjected into the more adult sitcoms and late-night comedy, and to be reflected in films, editorials, art, fiction and memoirs considered enlightened and liberating."

As an illustration of this, he recalled meeting a woman "with an impressive track record in liberal, humanitarian causes [who] was singing the praises of her daughter-in-law. 'She's a Catholic, you know,' the woman said, 'but she's a thinking Catholic.' Can one imagine that woman saying of someone, 'She's an African-American, you know, but she's an educated African-American'?"

In such views, he pointed out, "thinking" Catholics do not include "those who have read and listened to conflicting opinions, struggled with pros and cons, and finally concluded that Church teaching...is right."

What is dangerous about this mainstream anti-Catholicism, he concluded, is that "the constant pitter-patter of gibes, jokes and sneers about Catholicism on television, in films, in celebrity interviews, in university and alternative newspapers probably makes it harder for some impressionable adolescents and young adults to avow their beliefs and ultimately to maintain them."

To that observation, we add only this: Anti-Catholicism, which (like all hatred toward religion) attempts to marginalize believers, makes it difficult for all ages to avow their beliefs, weakening society at large.

(03-09-00)