diff --git a/psrqpy/search.py b/psrqpy/search.py
index fc142530..67105c32 100644
--- a/psrqpy/search.py
+++ b/psrqpy/search.py
@@ -398,8 +398,8 @@ def parse_query(self, requestcontent=''):
         # parse through BeautifulSoup
         try:
             psrsoup = BeautifulSoup(self._query_content, 'html.parser')
-        except:
-            raise Exception('Error... problem parsing catalogue with BeautifulSoup')
+        except RuntimeError:
+            raise RuntimeError('Error... problem parsing catalogue with BeautifulSoup')
 
         pretags = psrsoup.find_all('pre')  # get any <pre> html tags