"Anticatholicism (a hatred or fear of catholics as opposed to opposition to the RCC) is not IMO dissimilar to antisemitism."

Well, you can redefine all you want, but since I see no virtue whatsoever in the oppressive, patriarchal, war-mongering faiths of Judaism or Catholicism, then I am quite happy to declare myself both an anti-catholic and antisemite.

Just to reverse-engineer your simile-chaining, it is quite possible to be horrified by the murderous activites of both Nazis and Crusaders without automatically being forced to embrace Judaism or Islam.

Also, to your comment:

"The dangerous idiots are the Catholic hierarchy."

There wouldn't be a hierarchy if it weren't supported by the rank and file.

To my mind, the world's catholic flock could do with a bit of unwelcome publicity. Perhaps they might think twice about what their tithes and unquestioned hero-worship actually props up the whole time.

It'd also be interesting to know where you get your figures about the UK's catholics being working-class. Slightly dated opposing view here, e.g. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/3682311/Catholics_have_forgotten_the_white_working_class_/