The Rocky Mountain Collegian

To stigmatize one faith is to endanger freedom of religion for all.

This was the opinion expressed by Philip Jenkins, Ph.D., in his talk "The Last Acceptable Prejudice: A Look at the New Anti-Catholicism" last Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Auditorium in the John and Lucy Cook Hall. The lecture was part of the Henri de Lubac Lecture Series, sponsored by the Jesuit order and named after a theologian who was instrumental in developing the thought of Vatican II.

The lecture focused on anti-Catholicism in America. Jenkins distinguished between "old" and "new" anti-Catholic sentiment. The old version, he said, was derived from Puritan thought and became deeply tied to 19th-century political, social and economic animosities. More recent divides that prompt anti-Catholic feeling tend to be ideological and moral. Both still use comparable rhetoric, he said.

A similar "historical mythology" is involved in both old and new versions of anti-Catholicism, Jenkins said. According to him, many anti-Catholic proponents set up the idea that a "simple religion" founded by Christ has been distorted or destroyed by the Church. He cited recent books like "The Da Vinci Code" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" as examples.

"These would have been immediately recognizable to an American Protestant of 1660-1860," he said.

"Think of the potential consequences if people believe this whole alternative history. . . for potential converts, for those thinking of whether to keep their faith, for those with many temptations to pull away from it," Jenkins said.

He also decried the tendency to throw real historical events such as the Crusades and the Inquisition out of perspective. About recent sex scandals in the Church, he said that "the most anti-Catholic thing one could have done would have been not to protest them." However, he emphasized the importance of being able to disapprove of individual failures, even on a large scale, without attacking all members of an institution.

He concluded that anti-Catholic prejudice left unchecked could have a "long-term destructive and demoralizing effect" not just on Catholics, but on people of all religions.

"When people believe these things [about religions], they tend to base bad law on them," Jenkins said, citing as one example a case in which a Catholic Charities branch in California could not obtain a faith-based exemption from providing birth control to employees.

"If you have any concern about moral and ethical concerns, about equal treatment, about double standards in America, then you should be very alarmed," he said.

Jenkins is a distinguished professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. Since 1979, he has published 18 books and more than 100 articles on historical, social and faith-related topics.

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