Anti-Catholicism Catholics, and his replacement by a Dutch Protestant. For decades the Stuarts were supported by France in plots to invade and conquer Britain, and anti-Catholicism persisted. The Gordon Riots of 1780 were a violent anti-Catholic protest in London against the Papists Act of 1778, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics. Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association warned that the law would enable Catholics in the British Army to become a dangerous threat. The protest evolved into riots and widespread looting. Local magistrates were afraid of reprisals and did not issue the riot act. There
Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union forced integration of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church with the Russian Orthodox Church, thus despite an official policy of state atheism, some attempt to use religion to control the population was made. In Lithuania, one of the first countries to fall under the Soviet rule, there was such a strong Catholic identity that it was not feasible to destroy it altogether. The Soviets instead kept one Catholic seminary open, infiltrated it with KGB agents, recruited seminarians, put mandatory pro-Soviet education in place, and attempted to use the Church to become a means of anti-religious policy. Examples of specifically anti-Catholic propaganda after