General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCanonRay
(16,195 posts)since I was 7 years old.
Celerity
(54,601 posts)
Renew Deal
(85,251 posts)maxsolomon
(38,868 posts)Mass fills me with disdain for believers, so it's best I don't go.
moonscape
(5,770 posts)So maybe for several years without my active knowledge
DET
(2,519 posts)I grew up with Sunday school, weekly Mass, religious retreats, pancake breakfasts - the usual Catholic rites of passage. My mother grew up with the nuns, which she absolutely hated. But she felt obligated to give us a religious upbringing. And it provided a convenient social outlet.
I stopped going to Mass in my twenties. Just didnt believe in the teachings of the Church anymore - but I always loved the familiar rituals of Mass (the pageantry, the incense, the organ and the hymns,
) The final straw for me was the revelation of abuse by the priests and the resultant coverup. I was shocked and horrified and I knew that I could no longer be associated with the church in any way.
Swede
(39,658 posts)Funerals and weddings, that's it.
Wounded Bear
(64,415 posts)Floyd R. Turbo
(33,022 posts)CanonRay
(16,195 posts)The priest called after 1 class and told my parents to not bring me back. 7 years old. I was " disruptive".
Floyd R. Turbo
(33,022 posts)harumph
(3,307 posts)thought crime
(1,634 posts)Lapsed Catholic? Ex-Catholic? Still, I give some credit to Catholicism for helping me develop a conscience and love for the "Other".
Tommy Carcetti
(44,522 posts)I guess you can call me a Joe Biden style Catholic.
I attend mass regularly and hold no regrets about that.
I have my issues with the church leadership, mainly with things like birth control and ordination of women and married people. And yes, the way the abuse scandals were handled was inexcusable.
Bottom line, its an institution, and like most institutions its inevitably flawed and has both good and bad things about it.
But its still my faith, I like the fundamentals of it, and Im not going to give it up or made to feel guilty about being a practicing Catholic.
Iggo
(49,960 posts)DFW
(60,305 posts)She grew up in a small village with religious attitudes dating back to the late Middle Ages. Protestant children were told not to play with Catholic children, because they were evil, and vice-versa. My mom's parents, though Catholics, were considered as a little suspect, because they never told their kids any such thing. 1950s style German "liberals," if you will.
When a local priest had to be "transferred" because his molesting of local small children became too well-known to overlook, my wife, still a little girl, began to suspect something was wrong with the whole picture. As she got older, she just abandoned Catholicism altogether, not seeing anything worth believing in. She never condemned her parents, or anyone else who still believed in it, she just said this not for me, and that was it. Our daughters learned about religion in school, but never found any of it credible. We neither pushed them toward it nor away from it. From the beginning, we told them that as long as they made an informed decision, they would have our support. Their decision was "none of the above," the same as my parents both chose, as did I and my siblings.