Historic Anti-Catholic Cartoons
While anti-Catholic cartoons date back to the Protestant Reformation, around the 1870s there was a renewed focus on the Catholic Church in the United States. World events, such as the new dogma of papal infallibility (the belief that the pope cannot be wrong in matters of faith), raised concerns that Catholics owed allegiance first to the Church and not to the United States. The increasing number of Catholic immigrants, most notably from Ireland, led many to believe that America’s Protestant culture was at risk.