Because most people don't know enough about Catholicism.
AnswerThere is a phrase coined I believe by Bishop Fullerton Sheen, which is here paraphrased "Most people really don't really hate the Catholic Church; they hate what they think is the Catholic Church."The ideas of obedience to a human-held hierarchy, the strict moral code, the emphasis on sin and hell as real; such things are repugnant to human nature as they are hard and they are perceived as restrictive. The way the Church is so aggressive to assert Itself and the Rights of God in political or personal matters (moral life) also rubs some people the wrong way.
The Church sees truth as liberating, that is, that once one knows what is good and what is evil, one can live a fully human life in accordance with the Divine plan. This is why the Church is so adamant in Its teachings and Its interest in the salvation of mankind as the Faith It guards preaches. And this is why there will always be people that dislike it; because they just don't agree or don't want to even hear about it.
The people were protesting some corrupt practices in the Catholic Church.
The Old Catholic Church is a group of people who left the Catholic Church after the First Vatican Council. They, as indicated in the answer below, are no longer Catholic as they are not under the Holy Father. There is no "Roman Catholic Church, it's just Catholic, not Roman Catholic. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the official Catholic Church..AnswerOnce you split from the leadership of the pope, you cease to be Catholic. Members of the Old Catholic Church are Catholic in name only.
Catholic and then the Church of England when Henry left the church. Everyone was Catholic in his time.
Judas
Many early Catholics were excommunicated for leaving the church.Roman Catholic AnswerThe Catholic Church does not "punish" people! The Church is the Body of Christ, the Church is there to bring God's Word (Jesus) to the world, and the people in the world to God. Even excommunication is a disciplinary action to help people come to their senses; it is certainly not a vindictive punishment, it is an act of love.
The Albigensians, the Cathars, and John Calvin were all Catholic heretics who left the Church.
The Greek Orthodox Church left the Catholic Church in the eleventh century.
.Catholic AnswerThe Lutheran Ecclesial Community did not "break away" from the Catholic Church. It was founded by Martin Luther, a heretic who left the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and was excommunicated.
William Tyndale did not reform the Catholic Church, he left it and was excommunicated as a heretic.
Yes, unless he has formally left the Church.
First of all the Greek Orthodox broke with the Catholic Church and then during the period called the reformation the the "reformists" broke with the Catholic Church and formed various 'protestant' churches
The Lutherans - a Church set up by Martin Luther in protest (ie 'Protestant') against what he saw as corruption in the Church of Rome.