page_title: Westboro Baptist Church
section_title: Catholicism
hierarchical_section_title: Westboro Baptist Church / Church views / Religions / Christianity / Catholicism
caption_attribution_description: w:Westboro Baptist Church at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, on the day of Pope Benedict's address to the UN General Assembly.
context_page_description: Westboro Baptist Church is an American church known for its use of inflammatory hate speech, especially against LGBT+ people, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, atheists, Muslims, Jews, Mormons, U.S. soldiers and politicians. Multiple sources describe it as a hate group and the WBC is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The church has been involved in actions against gay people since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church. In addition to conducting anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets celebrity funerals and public events. Protests have also been held against Jews and Catholics, and some protests have included WBC members stomping on the American flag or flying the flag upside down on a flagpole. The church also has made statements such as "thank God for dead soldiers", "God blew up the troops", and "God hates America". The church has faced several accusations of brainwashing and has been criticised as a cult.
context_section_description: The Westboro Baptist Church describes Catholic priests as "vampires" and "Draculas" and accuses them of sucking semen out of male children's genitals like vampires suck blood from their victims. In addition, WBC called Pope Benedict XVI such epithets as "The Godfather of Pedophiles" and the "Pervert Pope". In April 2008 the WBC protested against Pope Benedict XVI during a papal visit in New York City.
   The WBC launched a website called Priests Rape Boys in which they criticize the Roman Catholic Church because of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, saying, "Every time any person gives any amount of money to the Catholic Church, that person is paying the salary of pedophile rapists."
  The WBC describes the Roman Catholic Church as "the largest, most well-funded and organized pedophile group in the history of man" and goes on to say that, "There are over 1 billion Catholics in the world—that's one out of every six people alive today—and every single one of them will split Hell wide open when they die—period. And there is nothing they can do about it." The WBC also criticizes Catholicism, as it does Eastern Orthodoxy, for venerating the Virgin Mary, the Saints, relics, and icons; they accuse the Catholic Church of committing idolatry.
caption: WBC member protesting Pope Benedict XVI outside the United Nations in New York City (2008).
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