Hilaire Belloc Quotes

It was not until 1780 that Catholics were allowed to even be members of Town Corporations.

In this extraordinary act, the people who are persecuted are made to pay extra taxes to facilitate their persecution

A videotape of this response was used by Kennedy as a campaign TV ad. American history had been full of anti-Catholic prejudice and it was responsible for the Presidential loss of Al Smith. Kennedy hit the issue directly betting that America had become more tolerant. He was right but he still lost several states because of religious bigotry.

Kennedy was a Roman Catholic and there was a great deal of anti-Catholic prejudice in the country then. Al Smith, the only Catholic who had run for the Presidency, was defeated with almost all his opposition coming from anti-Catholic forces appealing to the then popular prejudice that if a Catholic became President, the Pope and the Vatican would be running America. Richard Nixon, a master politician with few scruples, cleverly kept raising the religious question in the voters minds by saying that he would not make Kennedy’s religion and issue of the campaign. Kennedy barely won.

Poland was one of the Nazi occupied nations which cooperated in the mass murder of Jews and facilitated the Holocaust. Even after the war, much of the Polish Catholic clergy maintained virulent anti-Semitic views and in 1946 Polish thugs with the encouragement of some priests engaged in a pogrom in Kielce of returning Polish Jewish refugees. Catholic Primate of Poland, Augustus Hlond, made numerous anti-Semitic statements further exacerbating the problem. Many cast blame on Pope Pius XII who was not very vocal during the Nazi era regarding the ill treatment and murder of Jews, Gypsies, and handicapped, giving a “green light” to the Polish Prelate and those lower anti-Semitic priests. Papal apologists note that Hitler could have turned on the Catholic Church; the Pope had to walk a fine line between condemning evil and risking the welfare of the Church. Nonetheless, many Catholic priests risked and some lost their lives speaking out against the Nazi evil and protecting Nazi targets.

This quotation was used by the Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 Campaign as: “We represent the majority of the people in Alabama who hate niggerism, Catholicism, Judaism, and all the isms of the whole world.” So said Robert Creel of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. He also said, “I like Barry Goldwater. He needs our help.” The second statement was made at a different time.

Smith was the first Catholic to run for the Presidency. There were many who opposed him who were anti-Catholic bigots. Were it not for this religious discrimination Smith would almost certainly have been President.

First Irish Bishop in the United States and the First Catholic Cardinal of New York. Moscow had just been burned by the French. No New York Catholic churches were harmed.

See Justice Richard Cox for a similar view.

There had been terrible religious wars between Catholics and Protestants in English history. The Protestants finally won and the Anglican Church of England became the “official” state church, but as England became a Democracy the power of the prelates and the church receded. However, there were fears of Catholic politicians in England that they were “controlled by the Pope” and if Catholics were too heavily part of the political system, the Pope might control and dominate English policy. Inge, one of the highest ranking Anglican clerics, allayed this fear, not by denying that the Popes and the Vatican might be interested in gaining more influence in England, but by appealing to the independence of the average Englishman and diminishing the spectre of the Pope by referring to him as an “Italian Priest.” As Inge and other high ranking Anglicans were in the English power system only English Priests. Inge at the time saw the Roman Catholic Church as a narrow, intolerant, monolithic anti modern institution. See {615671}. He argued that fear was inappropriate not because of the nature pf the Roman Church, but because of the characteristics of Englishmen, American Protestants had similar fears and Al Smith was defeated as President mainly because he was Catholic. For all but the worst religious bigots, this fear ended in America with the election of JFK.

At the time, the Muslim discrimination, terrible as it was, was not as bad as Christian discrimination against any non-Christians where death was very common. For many Muslims, the older historical values and practices are desirable if not mandatory today, while many others are modernists like most Christians who reject the Christian practices and morality of the past,

Martin wanted William Howard Taft to answer questions about his religious beliefs. Taft was TR’s selection to be his successor. Ironically, a starting with John F. Kennedy, many presidential candidates have been asked about their religious belief’s and have answered whereas Roosevelt would have them not reply to such inquiries.

Vladimir Lenin. In their quest for world revolution, the Russian Communists had more problems with arguments in the United States whose reforms and economy had produced a very high standard of living. They knew that to effect a revolution, they had to reach the middle class and the intellectuals. They had little economically to attack America with but they were able to attack the United States morally. In addition to religious discrimination, the Communists attacked other forms of discrimination anti-Black, legal, racial segregation (See behavior in the related quote.)

Prime Minister William Pitt, Edmond Burke, and Irish Patriot Henry Grattan had met with the king to discuss granting Irish Catholics rights to participate in government. The King was quite bigoted against Catholics, but England was at war on the continent and if Irish Catholics were angry enough, they might conspire with the Catholic French for an invasion of Ireland. When the Protestant members of the Dublin Corporation heard about the meeting, they immediately issued their own resolution to the King recommending the continued discrimination against Catholics. In a huge political battle in the English Parliament, Pitt and Burke were able to make some progress. The Penal Laws against Catholics that had been in force for a century were repealed. And Catholic men in Ireland were given the right to vote for members of the Irish Parliament. However, the Conservative Protestants blocked further reforms and Catholics were still not allowed to sit in Parliament of hold public office. Between this quotation and {639274} we see the Irish Protestants somewhat divided with the liberals wanting to give Catholics political equality and the Conservatives opposed.