Broadly it includes those whose dogma and identity are founded upon contrasting themselves from anything and all things Catholic. The following working definition was put together by Prof. David Crusuribe of Trinity College:
Anti-Catholicism (like anti-Semitism in some ways) is not easy to define. I am often tempted to apply the "definition" of pornography advanced by Justice Stewart of the United States Supreme Court: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."
My definition is drawn from the history of anti-Catholicism in America: I believe that modern anti-Catholicism continues (with some interesting variations) the religious themes of the Protestant Reformation and the secular (anti-clerical) themes of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment periods. In the United States these two strands became intertwined in nineteenth century Nativism, and they have continued (though attenuated) up to the present. Their presence on the Web simply reflects the fact that all kinds of ideas (mainstream and marginal) are now disseminated in this way.
Anti-Catholicism is bot religious and secular in its origins and motivations. Anti-Catholic themes may be loosely categorized as follows:
1. attacking Catholicism as being un-Christian or a cult (in the pejorative and not the sociological sense);
2. ridiculing or misinterpreting Catholic doctrine or practice;
3. ascribing to the Catholic Church a sinister role in an anti-Christian or anti-American conspiracy;
4. distorting or taking out of context illegal or scandalous behavior (especially sexual misconduct) by Catholic clergy or laity.
Your post #9219 seems to reveal a great deal of paranoia.
The apparent testimony (I use the term testimony here very loosely) of the Roman Catholic Church seems to rests entirely on the pack of the priests and nuns. There is little visible testimony of anything from the common Catholic adherent.
So to us, Roman Catholicism consists in activities within four walls of a building, and when common Catholics exit that building we have no way to know from any visible “testimony” that Catholicism actually produces anything in people’s every day lives. It doesn’t appear to have any positive affect in the lives of my Catholic family members; or in my Catholic neighbors.
I have no way of knowing common Catholics from the rest of society by daily observation. The testimony of the church does not seem to rest on any common Catholics or the way they live.
So it is only natural that when he immorality of certain priests becomes known, it seems to paint such a devastating portrait of the church and the priesthood. It is because it is the life and practices of priests and nuns that seem to constitute the entire apparent, observable testimony of the Roman Catholic Church.