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Being on the other side of the pond, it’s hard to know if the anti-Catholicism in Britain is as virulent and wide-spread as it seems, or whether I’ve formed a skewed notion or am too sensitive to what is justifiable criticism. A couple of things make me think that, in general, the British are openly hostile to Roman Catholicism, and singularly intemperate in their attacks upon it. The kind of vitriol reserved for Catholics is not used against Lutherans, Hindus, Buddhist, Jains, Taoists, because a self-aware speaker would fear he’d portrayed himself as an intolerant bigot. Why exactly are Catholics such open game in a nation that produced and esteemed people like (from Wikipedia) John Henry Newman, Augustus Pugin, Muriel Spark, Gerard Manley Hopkins, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, J.R.R. Tolkien, Malcolm Muggeridge and Joseph Pearce. Members of the Royal family such as the Duchess of Kent and former Prime Minister Tony Blair? The reception the Pope received during his visit to Britain and the controversies surrounding the visit underscore the remarkable ease with which the British feel at ease in attacking Catholism. What brings this to mind today is something quite small, but here it is: On the John LeCarre fan Facebook page, a comment writer attacks Graham Greene and devalues his worth as a writer solely because he was a Catholic. (In contrast, in all the recent Canadian material I’ve read about Marshall McLuhan, I found no one who thought his Catholicism lessened his worth or impact. It probably expanded his vision and deepened his insights.) It’s not simply that the British, in general, find it easy to attack Catholicism, it is that they do so in an environment where it’s clearly acceptable to do so, and it’s acceptable to be rude about it. I can’t help feeling that the larger, and equally intolerant atheism movement in Britain contributes to this. Perhaps I’m seeing a sliver of what Jews and Muslims around the world experience when people attack their faith, and regard all believers as dangerous lunatics. Catholism has been under attack for nearly 500 years in Britain, and sneerers and scoffers seem certain they’re about to triumph. They smell blood, are sure of victory, and that has given them a confidence indistinguishable from arrogance.

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