Anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholicism is hostility, prejudice, or discrimination directed at the Catholic Church, Catholic beliefs, or Catholics as a religious group. It has appeared in political, social, and religious forms.

English Reformation: The sixteenth-century break between the English church and papal authority, establishing the Church of England. The break with Rome helped make Catholic loyalty a recurring political suspicion in England.
Penal Laws: Laws that restricted Catholics' religious practice, property rights, political participation, or education in several Protestant states. They converted religious hostility into enforceable civic disabilities.
Papal Supremacy: The doctrine that the pope holds supreme authority over the Catholic Church. Critics have portrayed papal authority as incompatible with national sovereignty or individual conscience.
Anticlericalism: Opposition to the political or social influence of clergy and religious institutions. It can target clerical power without hostility toward Catholics as a group.
Catholic Emancipation: The removal of legal disabilities that barred Catholics from political and civic rights, especially in Britain and Ireland. Its campaigns directly challenged laws rooted in anti-Catholic suspicion.
European Wars of Religion: Conflicts in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe driven partly by rival Christian confessions and political ambitions. Confessional warfare hardened hostility between Catholic and Protestant communities.
Gordon Riots: The 1780 London riots sparked by opposition to easing legal restrictions on British Catholics. The riots exposed the violence behind popular opposition to Catholic emancipation.
Ultramontanism: A Catholic movement emphasizing strong papal authority and centralized leadership from Rome. Its growth furnished opponents with a visible target for claims of foreign control.
Secularism: A principle or political arrangement separating religious institutions from state authority. Secular governance does not by itself entail discrimination against Catholics.
Irish Diaspora: Communities of Irish origin formed outside Ireland through migration across several centuries. Irish Catholic migrants encountered anti-Catholic prejudice in Britain, North America, and elsewhere.

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