"...put hoods on and went with torches to ..." rectories. 

Quite right, Mary O'Malley. The KKK targeted Catholics (spelled with a "K"), African Americans and Jews. (I won't publish the repulsive "K" names for the latter two targeted  groups.) Shame on our Catholic leadership. Symbols of bigotry count! They are almost as timid as English Catholic bishops who fear protesting against the burning of an effigy of the pope on Guy Fawkes Day in England. The latter (as do all religious and political leaders there) simply look the other way, believing in time, people will come to their senses.