Anti-Catholic League

The Anti-Catholic League commonly abbreviated as ACL is a nonprofit organization whose stated purpose is to stand against the spread of Christian doctrines and practices in Alshar in general and Corumm in particular. Founded in 1993 by businessman Chul Lung Qua, the ACL tapped into a vein of growing xenophobia and anti-christian attitudes in Corummese society spurred on by the controversial legal case of Qua v. His Most Christian Majesty's Government. The ACL reached the height of its influence in the late 90's when the government moved to ban organized religious practice. Afterwards it began to lose importance and visibility as it came under pressure by the government by being banned from advertising, organizing meetings or rallies and even recruiting new members. By the year 2002 the ACL had been integrated into the Party of Corummese Democrats with the status of Minor Association entitled to possess an office, its own website and to send a delegate to party congresses.

Background
Christianity first appeared in Corumm in 1623 when Emperor Dagai of the Qian Dynasty petitioned the court of Metzetta to send Christian missionaries to educate his heir, Prince Chun, in western caligraphy, philosophy and religious practice. From Ankae came Acirian Friar Corso Pizarra and two Caphirian priests, Quintulo Batiato and Maximo Cosinga, arriving in Mirzak by the autumn of 1623. They were received at the imperial court amid great fanfare and with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. Being outsiders preaching a foreign religion, they were beset by intrigues almost from the very beginning of their stay, targeted by court scholars, imperial eunuchs and officials. Batiato's predilection for overindulging in sacramental wine was quickly noted by the palace eunuchs, who began plying him with alcohol in an attempt to, through him, curry favor with the imperial heir.

Scholars believe Friar Batiato may have become too involved in the eunuch's plotting and was possibly imprisoned, in any event there are no further mentions of him after 1627. On the other hand Friar Pizarra's tutelage of the prince was deemed so successful and pleasing to the Emperor, that he was granted permission to open a small seminary and an adjacent school for the sons of a select group of nobles. Corummese men who could read and write were free to apply for enrollment into the seminary to be trained as priests. Friar Cosinga for his part would be dispatched to the court of the Duke of Zong and would later go on to found the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, famed for having the biggest repository of Christian illuminated manuscripts in all of Alshar.

From these small seeds and over the next 200 years Catholicism would slowly and cautiously spread in certain urban centers of Corumm under the patronage and protection of powerful and pious noble families and magnates, with Mirzak having a sizable Christian Quarter well into the late 1800's. Official attitudes would range from toleration and indifference but also to terrible persecutions.

Foundation
The Anti-Catholic League was formed in 1993 after an explosion of public outrage and demonstrations caused by the ruling in an Urcean court against Corummese businessman Chul Lung Qua, on the matter of his underage daughter converting to christianity and being granted religious asylum. The ruling was seen variously as a stain on national honor, as a theft of Corummese women to marry them off to western Christians and as a slap in the face of Corumm's millenarian civilization. Several small nationalist and anti-Catholic associations, secretly prodded by the Party of Corummese Democrats, banded together under the leadership of Mr. Qua to push for the criminalization of the Catholic faith. Among the groups that merged into the ACL was the National Front for the Defense of National Values, the Family Protection League and the 16th of February Militant Front.

Apogee
At its height in 1994, the ACL claimed it could put millions on the streets and boasted a membership in the hundreds of thousands. Chul Lung Qua made regular appearances in state television and was frequently invited to rallies by PCD politicians. Blockading and picketing Catholic shops, pelting churches with eggs and paint while police looked on impassively, the ACL felt stronger than ever. Little did its leaders know the League had been instrumentalized by the Party, with much of its mobilization power actually provided by government agencies and with its finances buoyed by shady PCD funds. The Party had decided to do away with religion altogether and the loudness of the League was one of the tools used to make it seem unavoidable and necessary. During the Great Summer March, the ACL made a big spectacle of sending a delegation to the People's Assembly to present a legislative initiative that would ban all religious practice. With the Party graciously accepting the will of the masses and duly voting it through, the text having been redacted in the offices of the Ministry of Interior all along, the League made itself redundant.

Decline
The passage of the Religious Law of 94 was the crowning achievement of the ACL and also its death knell. Within months, the ACL would begin to see its public activities severely constrained. Attempts by the ACL to help enforce the new law were fiercely rebuffed. Permits for public acts stopped being approved, audits began raining down from the tax authorities, activists soon found themselves being clobbered and arrested on the streets by especially vicious police officers. As the crackdown intensified, ACL President Chul Lung Qua was forced to appear on national television and denounce his own organization for excesses and mistakes committed, in the first instance of nationally televised self-criticism. Shortly after and under threat of arrest, a humiliated Qua would be forced to resign from the ACL, although he kept his Party membership. In his place was put a complete unknown bureaucrat by the name of Barbas Chang who would massively wind down the ACL's organizational structure and size.

Activities
During its heyday the ACL would regularly hold mass rallies at public plazas, organize social pressure campaigns to get Christians to renounce their religion, picketing of Christian establishments and churches. The current castrated form of the Anti-Catholic League is a dim shadow of its former self, with membership not exceeding 8,000 members nationwide and with sclerotic mobilization and convocation capabilities. The ACL does limited distribution of pamphlets, usually related to the benefits of a secular lifestyle. They also hold monthly meetings to discuss world developments, play bingo and sell vintage ACL paraphernalia. The ACL is usually allowed to stage one rally outside their national headquarters every six months.