Ok let me state that this is a personal theory and may very well be full of holes. But, I feel that I want to put it out there and receive only comments that agree with me, okay just kidding, Feel free to be wrong and disagree.
Many of us here have lived through decades as witnesses or associates (relatives) of witnesses. Many of us here have read tons of the old literature and even have access to it via hardcopy or electronic. I too as I've searched for my real feeling about the truth have researched and read way more than I ever did as a dub. That seems to make sense because as a dub I trusted the society to do all the research and just present me with what my thoughts should be in a nice tidy package. However, finding out how you personally feel about a subject, especially one as important as religion takes some effort. During my searching and reading I discovered something that I hadn't thought of too often as a loyal dub. Just because I didn't think of it too often doesn't mean that I didn't totally believe it just that I didn't give it much consideration.
My theory:
Okay here we go.
According to Wilkpedia catholics make-up about 25% of the U.S. and protestants make-up about 54%. Although the percentages could be argued a few points either way they still show more Protestants than Catholics. As a witness I would have sworn on my mother's grave (ok that would have gotten me in trouble) that there were way more catholics than protestants in the U.S. I wouldn't have had any numbers or charts to back that up and a simple check would have proven me wrong but I would have stuck by my guns because I would have never checked - there would have been no need. In fact there was never a need and I never checked; until I began researching my inner feelings and ran across this fact.
Why did I feel that there were so many more Catholics than any other religion out there? I can't be completely sure but I have a theory - probably the same one everyone else has who has gotten this far in my post - because for the last 100+ years the WTBTS has focused on the Catholics as being especially powerful and evil. When the WTBTS publications mention clergy or false religions most dubs (notice MOST not all) automatically assume this means Catholics. If you were to present the simple fact that the majority of the country is not Catholic I think most dubs would be astounded and want definite proof before they would even consider it. Once they did accept the point they would be like "so what."
Why does it matter, why did the society link false religion with Catholicism? Why did they focus so strongly on Catholics as being the main enemy of God's people? I have a theory. This by the way is the real main theory of my post. By the way I don't think they focus on the Catholics as much as they used to. Now they spread the evil demonizing hatred around to the protestants and other relgions more.
We've discussed on this board several times how similar the WTBTS organizational structure is to that of the Catholic church. Modified a little, yes, but still eerily similar. The pope has papal infallability when discussing religious doctrine; the GB doesn't claim that but if you disagree or don't follow - boom! you're dead at armageddon - might as well claim GB infallability.
It has been shown here and in the WTBTS own literature that the truth appeals to the humble and downtrodden of the world. A lot of the American adherents to Catholicism can fit into this category. If you review the history of Catholicism in the U.S. it has flourished and been imported by the streams of immigrants vying for a better life here in America. Technically this is true of all U.S. religions but for the most part the Catholic nations that immigrated to America weren't the wealthy Western European nations (yes, I realize that there are some W. European Catholic countries). They were the poorer South and Central American countries and poorer Easter European nations. I believe the WTBTS decided early on that their target audience was the humble, uneducated, downtrodden individuals who simply were not allowed to be a part of mainstream America. I believe that they knew the Catholic church was their direct competition for these very same people. In fact, the Catholic church already had these very same people as adherents. The WTBTS needed to unseat the Catholic church and convert these masses of people to their religion. These adherents would prove to be loyal and provide much needed cash. How to do that? Simple: demonize the enemy, discuss their faults, march outside their churches, target their core audience and show how their membership is dwindling due these issues/problems. Teach that those who have nothing now will have everything later. All you need to do is _______________(fill in the blank with WT dogma). Focus Focus Focus on the Catholic church and its faults.
Were they successful? I don't know, but they were at least successful in making many dubs view the Catholics as the religious leaders of America even though that is definitely not the case.
I'm not a gifted writer so I may have made this more confusing than necessary but I boil it down to this: The Catholic church had the adherents that the WTBTS wanted. So they made them look bad to make themselves appear better. They gained loyal, cash supplying adherents.