Yes. When I was in jr. high school, I was the object of mockery for being Catholic. I should mention that the boys doing the mocking bullied me on a more-or-less daily basis; Catholicism was just one of many things for which I became their target.
I ran into one of them at my 25th reunion a couple years ago. Unsurprisingly, he’s still an asshole.
I got this too. They would chant “Catholic kids, preacher’s kids” which is not very original and also incorrect as “preacher” is more of a non-Catholic Christian thing.
But apart from that, no real abuse.
I’m a Mormon (practicing, FWIW), and in the ten years I spent in Utah I saw a lot of casual contempt towards Catholics and the Catholic Church. Mostly referring to the Catholic Church as the “church of Satan”, perhaps jokingly, but pretty pervasive.
It always struck me as wildly ironic and un-self-aware behavior, such as criticizing the entire Catholic Church for the recent child abuse coverup scandal, when our own church has had plenty of child abuse coverups in the past. Or referring to Catholic churchgoers as “sheep” when the most profound herdlike mentality in the region was within the ranks of our own church. There was also plenty of discussion about incompabilities in faith between the Catholic teachings and LDS doctorine, as though they overwhelmed our similarities.
(I noticed more of this kind of arrogant behavior in Utah Valley, home of Provo and BYU. In general, I didn’t come across much if any in the greater Salt Lake area.)
I found it particularly galling since most of my friends while growing up were Catholic. And anyone who was passingly familiar with the local history would notice that the LDS and Catholic churches helped each other quite a lot. By way of example: much of the land on which the Cathedral of the Madeleine sits in Salt Lake City was donated by the LDS church; the Catholic church donated some beautiful sculptures and artwork for the Salt Lake Temple.
No, never ever. No longer practising, but while I was, not once.
Edited to add: I grew up in Southern Alberta in a pretty largely Mormon area and there were also a lot of Dutch Reform, who apparently dislike Catholicism, and I still never had any issues.
I grew up Catholic in the 1960s, and I don’t recall anything like this. Of course, I not only went to a Catholic Church and School, but lived in a predominantly Catholic area. But not completely, by any means – we had substantial Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopal congregations and a large synagogue nearby as well, not to mention Russian and Greek Orthodox churches. Maybe the lack of a major Protestant group (even when you added up all the denominations) kept the mix pretty uniform.
I have to admit that, when I lived in Salt Lake City during the 1980s, I didn’t feel any anti-Catholicism as Subway Prophet mrntions, but then again, I was living in the Greater Salt Lake area, and only visited the smaller towns and cities.
That was my experience as well. I had kids ask me if I was Christian because I was Episcopalian, not RC. The teachers in my public school also started off the day with the Catholic version of the Lord’s prayer. My Boy Scout troop was Catholic as well.
I was shocked when I got out of Boston and heard the contempt that some Protestants had for Catholics.
Not really …
Growing up, almost everyone I knew was Catholic and I remember being baffled when I read in our 8th grade history text that John Kennedy faced some opposition on the basis that he was Catholic - I was completely perplexed and couldn’t imagine from who?.
In college, I got the “Catholics aren’t Christians” thing a few times, but I always figured it was no big deal – more of a laugh and whatever moment than any actual offense. What are they going to do, go tell God on me?
I have to confess that I, and I think some of my fellow Catholics, are guilty of reinforcing the Catholics aren’t Christian thing, because depending on the context, I have answered the question “Are you a Christian?” with NO, I’M CATHOLIC. It’s like a panicked way of saying “I believe in evolution! I don’t want to try to convert any Jewish people!” I get that this is not really the best reaction, because it assumes that Christian=fundamentalist Christian=creation science=etc etc etc, but it’s more of a knee-jerk reaction and I try not to do it.
When I was maybe five or eight, my dad asked me if I knew what prejudice was. I told him it was when people didn’t like Black people or Jews. He told me that was true, and that also sometimes people weren’t going to like me because I was Catholic.
I thought that was ridiculous! How could someone not like me over something I had no control over?
When I was in eight grade, I kept it hidden from one of my best friend’s dad that I was Catholic because I don’t think he would’ve let me hang around her anymore.
When I was a senior in high school, a gal I thought was a good friend and smart asked me about my horns. You know, the horns all Catholics have. (She was a Lutheran, fercrissakes, and apparently not as bright as I thought.)
When I was a freshman in college I worked at a drugstore. The manager put all these pamphlets in the breakroom about how the Pope is actually Satan and tying Catholics to Hitler.
And the assorted ignorant comments about not being a Christian and worshipping Saints.
Catholic version? What’s the Catholic version?
The only difference I ever noticed was Protestants added added “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever” before the Amen (which confused me as a child, since Mom would take us to Catholic mass, Grandma would take us to Protestant). Unless you refer to this? I only ever heard it at Mass, and everything after deliver us from evil was only said by the priests… (until everyone said amen) I was never taught to prayer all of that, in all the years of Catholic school/classes/etc.
It’s been awhile since I said the Lord’s prayer though.
As for the OP. The most negatively I’ve been treated was by other denominations attempting to convert me to ‘true’ Christianity. As a teen I’d sometimes stop to listen to those sharing the word on the street, just for the heck of it. If they asked me, I’d answer honestly that I was Catholic and they’d start asking me questions and trying to convert me to whatever flavour they were. Gotten some comments from the Mormons when they came to the door, but now I just tell them I’m not interested.
This is similar to a running joke with the Mormons - we have to grind our horns down before we have pictures taken or leave the state, otherwise people will freak.
The connection is through Hellboy, right? See, there’s the horns.
Thats the great thing about being Catholic. We don’t have to read the bible, we have people who do it for us.
If I could guess I would say he agree that (at least many) Catholics (especially Americans) don’t hold a strict intrepretation of the bible as truth, especially the Old Testiment. You know the whole Earth is 6000 years old, no evolution thing. What do you think fundamentalists think of the Jesuits?
I am not a practicing Catholic but I have never run into any predjudice. I don’t exactly go around advertising my background.
Yes, that’s what I was referring to. When I was in first grade we said the prayer out loud and I was always torn between adding that bit at the end and having my classmates look at me funny or skipping it and risk going to hell. That’s why I was relieved when they stopped having teacher-led prayer in school. I imagine the Jewish kids were even happier 
That’s what kills me about Christian conservatives, don’t they ever think what it would be like to be in a community where they are in the minority and have their kids be led in the Hail Mary, bow to Allah, or recite Hebrew prayer?
Tangental, but I believe that the basis for the “Catholic isn’t Christian” thing is that the Pope is viewed as being an embodiment of the antichrist in various protestant writings. So given that one is listening to the antichrist’s word on what Christ meant, you can’t be serving Christ.
At work one day a lady noticed the fish on my cars decklid and asked if I was a Christian. When I replied that I was, she inquired where I fellowshiped. When I explained that I was a Catholic and did so at any Church that struck my fancy she became visibly agitated and refused to speak with me further. Although I wasn’t upset that she seemed angry (apparently not liking Catholics or thier beliefs) I didn’t understand why she would be upset. To me the most important things about being a Christian are love and not judging others in any way, shape or form.It seems that I am not the only one who feels this way as many Christians also share this belief . By the same token I am sure they are not values that only the religious share.
I asked my (Catholic) husband about this just a couple of days ago. His experiences growing up Catholic in Alberta and Ontario was some prejudice, but not much, according to him. He really doesn’t think people constantly harping on sexual abuse in the Catholic church is funny, though.
My husband is Catholic and the kids are in the process. (My son just had his first communion a couple of days ago.) My parents weren’t totally thrilled by this, but they haven’t been too openly negative about it. (My father was a Presbyterian minister.) I have no plans to join, but I do go to Mass.
One extremely evangelical friend of ours seizes every opportunity to harp on the fact that she, as a Presbyterian, can’t take communion in the Catholic church, but that’s really the only negative thing.
As far as I’ve observed Catholics do say “the kingdom the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.” However, it’s said after a break in the prayer where the priest says “Deliver us, Lord, from every evil…” and so on. I found that very strange when I first saw it. It seemed like the congregation was being reminded that they needed priestly intercession.
You know, I don’t really think anyone making sexual abuse jokes about any context is funny, whether it’s Catholic or otherwise. It’s just even that much worse for me when it’s a priest joke. My (step-)grandfather had been a priest and left the priesthood after he met my (step-)grandmother.
When I heard about the goings-on Mount Cashel (rather biased), my heart just broke. I’d never had any sort of experience even hearing about child sexual abuse within the church (or any church, for that matter) and it shocked me.
When I was growing up I don’t recall them ever saying this in Church or ion our school. It wasn’t until I heard the Protestants saying it that I first noticed it, and went “Huh?”
There was only ever one comment, and it was an abolutely hilarious situation.
Sitting in the tv lounge, listening to this girl rage on and on about how much she hates Catholics, how they are the devil, how she can tell a Catholic just by looking at them.
Yep, sitting in the tv lounge, in the residence run by nuns, at the only officially Roman Catholic university in Canada.
Hilarious.
Agreed. My Great Uncle is a priest (retired a couple years ago) and I really just don’t find it funny. People often start reeling off those jokes though when they learn I was raised Catholic (though I don’t usually bring it up).