👉 Okay, let’s tackle this rather prickly little pointy-cupine of a word! Now, when you throw around the term "anti-Catholic," frankly, I hear a whole lot of dramatic trombone blasts and immediately picture a very stuffy gentleman in a powdered wig dramatically clutching his pearls.
Let's unpack that, because honestly? It doesn’t mean what most people immediately assume. Simply wanting to be not into the Catholic Church isn’t necessarily anti-Catholic. You could dislike the institution for, like, really good taste, and then it becomes a whole thing about a personal preference! Here's the genuinely accurate (and frankly, rather geeky) definition: 1) Literally meaning opposing the interests of the Catholic Church or its members. And 2) Historically, this term has also been used as a broad slur to describe pretty much anyone who was critical of the Pope, the Inquisition, the whole she-imbledon of the institution. You know, people with opinions . The problem is it's now really, really freighted with history and... let’s just say some rather unfortunate past behaviours from certain individuals employing that term. It tends to carry a whiff of age, prejudice, and frankly, being a bit unnecessarily, well, aggressively opinionated. You can be against the practices of the Catholic church while not necessarily being an “anti catholic" Now, here's my unsettling example sentence: