New National Pastime

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan is upset because some people don't fall for his dying religion: Anti-Catholicism Is the Nation's Other Pastime.

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-Catholicism. It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime.

What really set him off was an opinion article by Maureen Dowd. Dolan writes:

She digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription -- along with every other German teenage boy -- into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans...

But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850's, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.

It's odd that he uses the word prejudice. To me, that word applies to bias against traits that people can't control: race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, economic class, or age. The Catholic religion is something that people choose, so the word prejudice doesn't apply.

People like Maureen Dowd (and millions of others) have examined the Catholic Church and realize that it's nothing but a huge con, with two goals: To gain power and to control people. Stating facts isn't prejudice.