Reply #71: It sounds on the face of it, whenever you are ignorant of its history [View All]

[izzybeans]

(like me), to be completely docile. Phonetically it sounds purely descriptive. So I'm not surprised that different regions both within the catholic church and outside it use it differently. It seems wherever conflicts between "reformationists" and catholics are high the term is used derogatorily as a slur. However, given the term was used by Catholics before Martin Luther, it can't be reduced to a slur in all occasions or regions. Papists=follower of the pope-sounds to me like a description. Is Papal a slur? I just heard on CNN someone say Papal authority? That only means something negative if you aren't catholic and have something against them. Laura Bush calling someone a Papist would be a slur. My father who was raised a catholic and used this term, per my discussion with him this morning, to describe himself before he left the church. So go figure. Was he slurring himself? I don't think so. He didn't know it had negative connotations in other regions because it didn't carry a negative weight in his. I won't be using the term because I could give a dime about it. Its meaning is obviously defined in relation to a particular context and so should probably stay in those contexts.