Does criticizing the Pope make you anti-Catholic?

[IzzyR]

*Originally posted by sqweels *
There is a difference between “adhering” to Catholic teachings and using your power to force others, including non-catholics, to adhere to those teachings. There are many Catholics who are not opposed to abortion and many more who say they are “personally” opposed to abortion but wouldn’t fight to take that right away from American women.

This is a good point, and one which I had not considered. My impression is that orthodox Catholic belief would require a person to oppose abortion for all people, as it is considered murder, but then again, I am not a Catholic and may well be wrong. So I will qualify my earlier statement to say that McGreavy’s statements would tar all those who do believe that, in accordance with their Catholic beliefs, the Gov should outlaw all abortions. This group does not include all or even most Catholics, but there are a large number of people who fit in, and these people are probably not fond of hearing themselves labeled as extremists. It is to these people, and to their sympathetic buddies, that Schundler is appealing.

That McGreavy guy clearly never meant to paint people like this as extremists ans therefore should not be considered prejudiced against Catholics as a group

I’ll go you one further: McGreavy never meant to paint anyone as an extremist besides Schundler himself, including those who hold identical positions. He is probably not prejudiced against any sort of Catholic. Its all a political game. But actions count too, not just intentions.

If you think that te Catholic Church has abused its power, you have the right to criticize it. If you think that Catholic teaching on certain issues is wrong, you have the right to disagree without people putting on hat #3 and boo-hooing about how you’re being bigotes toward little-old ladies.

To repeat, no one has suggested that someone who disagrees with Church teaching on any issue is bigoted. I don’t recall that I’ve ever heard someone suggest such a ridiculous thing. But if you can’t disagree without demonizing the holders of such positions, that may be a different issue.

[sqweels]

Well, not bigoted (let alone bigotes), but calling someone “anti-Catholic” could readily be construed as analogous to “anti-Semitic”. I often hear that label applied to those who criticize the Church’s position on issues, but if that’s being “anti-Catholic” in the same sense that a Democrat is “anti-Republican”, then perhaps there’s nothing wrong with it.

We just need to be careful when using the term due to difficulties in maintaining the distinctions I outlined above.