Can anyone point me to any actual persecution or mass discrimination of Catholics in the US today?

[davidthegnome]

206. Actually, it really does exist.

It's not just the bible belt where people take issue with Catholics. It happens frequently in all parts of the Country - and it is usually started, or encouraged by protestant preachers. When I was a child (during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s), some times I would get into shouting matches with neighborhood children who told me that Catholics weren't real Christians, that we were doomed to hell because of our reverence for Mary. That we were wrong, impure, disgusting, in some way immoral because we prayed to someone feminine. This would occasionally lead to school yard bullying, and even fist fights.

Later in life I had a girlfriend who was a Mormon, who held to the opinion that Catholics were stupid and evil... well, because her church told her so. She told me she could never marry a Catholic, because we believed in dumb things, like the Holy Trinity - as opposed to really smart stuff, you know, like the holy underwear.

While I am no longer Catholic and do not follow any organized religion, if you really looked, you could find examples of "actual persecution" or, "mass discrimination", against just about any group on earth. You could also find plenty of modern examples.

I suspect though, that you aren't interested in really confronting discrimination or persecution as it pertains to Catholics. I suspect that you are simply trying to stir the pot, to encourage people like me to post, so you can point out how insignificant our experiences are. It's happening now (discrimination), with people making broad brush statements about how all Catholics are somehow enabling child molestation. Is that, somehow, not discrimination? Can we discriminate only by monstrous, direct action, or might we also do so indirectly, by simply not engaging with, hiring, or being involved with people who are (or we suspect might be) Catholic? Do we do so through bigotry that many here see as harmless? Through bigotry that many swallow as logic, as gospel, that is permitted and even condoned by intellectuals that ought to know better...

I will not defend the hierarchy of the Catholic church, it's patriarchy, it's ancient dogma, it's ignorant, conservative leaders, with their ignorant ideas - these things generally ARE despicable. However, the assault on the laity I see (and have seen) both here and in the real world is rather troubling. Some of the very finest people I have known were, and are Catholic - not the sort of people who would enable child molesters, nor practice nor encourage sexism or homophobia.