A private aside to avoid the anti-Catholic Protestants having it to latch onto. And I agree with Msgr. Pope.
For some today the hatred is from when the Catholic Church as a political institution as well as being the center of Christianity. These folks can’t separate the two and that the political Catholic Church that ruled parts of Italy and its mission of proclaiming the gospel. One unfortunately sees this particular reason for hating the Catholic Church is in some Protestant sects where they are continuing to fight the wars of the Protestant Reformation.
And atheists use these same arguments in addition to their attacks on scripture.
I just tried to stick with responding to the atheist hatred as presented in the article:)
Let's not pretend some Catholics don't have that SAME mindset. We see it often on these threads.