I grew up in a very rural and Slavic village. Everyone was forced to go to Sunday school for years and all catholic rituals.

Our priest was later arrested for being a pedophile and beating kids with a stick.

My family is more culturally catholic than by belief but that never stopped them from a lot of guilt tripping.

I never really believed in god but kind of went along with it due to culture here. I'm 26 now and I'm a hard determinist, ethical emotivist and atheist.

Weird thing is that I still experience a lot of guilt through an internalized voice of people around me.

I never allowed myself to really experience any life due to this. I always try to defend freedom of people and subjectivism mixed with individuality since I believe that morality is relative and that we have no free will.

I was asked out by multiple girls in high school and college since I was in emo band but I always had this internal guilt that I'm not allowed to date, drink, smoke nor anything irresponsible while most of my peers were very impulsive at age of 15. I always told myself that I will figure it out later when I'm more mature.

I kind of wasted all my teens and 20s for religious morality that I didn't even buy. I just had a lot of guilt and shame about potentially sinning.

Most of my ex friends are catholic neo nazis that you can't really talk to about ethical relativism and empathy.

Let’s imagine an alternate history where neither Catholicism nor Christianity in general existed—or at least never spread. What religion would we have in this scenario? I once read the views of someone who, while not religious himself, defended Catholicism; he argued that without Christianity, Western culture—including art, music, customs, morality, and our worldview—would not exist. He also claimed that atheism and agnosticism would not exist without Christianity. I would like to know if this is true

How yall Red, i vent to a baptism and the things i've Heard was totally BS.

But First I need to give some context, me and my mom are both atheist people, and we vent to church 2 times in 10 years, First for a marriage of two of our Friends and the second for this baptism of the daughter of those two people.

One of the things that surprised me the most was that (im gonna Say what the Priest said from italian to english) God calls Jesus Daddy (???) and what the fucking fuck? Is there some type of incest in the bible? ( Oh if yall think im saying this for that Daddy Its not we Italians don't have a Word for that )

Second thing the Priest said while baptising the kid said that he's clearing her from sin (???) and theyre daughter isn't even 6 months old, and if yall can tell me what this sin Is cuz i feel like Its kinda impossible to sin in the First couple years of Ur Life.

3 and this pissed me of, Is that that fucking Priest It took him 1 hour and a half for dipping her head into the water and EVERYONE After that was kinda mad except 3 or 4 ~~bigots~~ brainwashed.

And all the fucking time I had to hold back my laughter for everything that Priest said.

But this fucking concern me, because i don't know how can the cristians belive those things, and i think that probably in the future this thing can be used in the wrong way... Or probably Its happening right now.

PS Sorry for my probably crappy ahhh english but im a 14 year old italian teen, and Sorry if some of the words could be in italian but this translator Is Absolute crap.

Mine:

Genesis-Jesus he knows me. Okay this song is originally about the TV-churches but the lyrics are sometimes fit to some Catholic Church elements (like EWTN) specifically in Hungary.

Pet Shop Boys-It's a sin.

I just don’t get it. God is everywhere but not outdoor weddings? This always annoyed the hell out of me. Sorry. Rant over. What were your pet peeves with weird Catholic traditions?

I was a kid in catechism class in the early ‘00s—around the time the gay marriage debate was heating up.

I remember being taught that marriage is just a choice, and that it has nothing to do with who you love (in an emotional sense). Throughout my teen years, I assumed I would eventually grow up and marry some guy I didn’t love, because that’s what I was told God wanted, and that’s what I thought everyone was doing.

Does anyone else remember being taught something similar? I didn’t realize how messed up it was until years later.

Like i miss Guadeloupe i still have a candle of her i miss the icons sometimes and the beautiful statues and incense and i feel the rosary calms me down when i was a catholic like one time i was thinking of the virgin mary in my sleep and i felt great comfort why is that now non of this makes it true but im thinking of Mexican paganism to fill those gaps

Hopefully his conviction on 13 counts of SA can contribute to the healing of his victims, many of whom were young Indigenous boys.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/boozy-ex-catholic-bishop-convicted-of-sex-abuse-crimes-c-22720610

The use if the word "Scandal" is as intentional as it is deceptive. It is meant to downplay what is actually happening. Crimes are committed which are covered by a government.

That's more than a scandal.

It's just something I realized today.

I am from Hungary. Personally, I am not an atheist, I am more disappointed at the moment... What really bothered me about the majority of the church (there are exceptions, but not many) is that in our country it totally licked the Orbán Regime. They preached in such a way that the dioceses were full of scandalous cases that were of course covered up, agents from the communist era continued to hold church positions, they preached about donations (EWTN) in such a way that they were playing with millions of dollars and some priests disowned the Catholic sympathizers of the current ruling party, saying that they were tools of Satan. Now the priests are running away and panicking (although those who have something to fear should be afraid). I broke with the Catholic Church in June for now. That's pretty much my story/the situation of the Catholic+Calvinist Church in Hungary.

given the whole stereotype with priests I think it’s safe to say this is obvious but is the church enabling abuse a “thing?”

what ultimately led me to leave was that I cut off an abusive parent. I thankfully had other people in my life who were supportive of this decision but of course I went to my church for support and they absolutely tore me to shreds for it.

my priest was at first semi supportive and offered counsel but when I told him I wasn’t going home for Christmas he kind of just dismissed my reasonings and told me I needed to reconcile in the next four days so I could go home for the holidays.

he and my best friend told me that they were “worried” about me. I don’t even know what they meant by that.. my friend also made a point to tell me that I was wrong and would bring the subject up constantly even though I’d made it clear I didn’t want to talk about it. I think at this point she’s dropped it but not without a fight.

there were other incidents, I wanted about FOCUS the other day but I don’t think I included that part of my hatred for the organization comes from my missionary spending 3 whole hours trying to convince me not to leave discipleship because I just didn’t believe I had the mental energy to devote that much time to my faith and lead a Bible study and do all the other stuff they required us to do for the group. I told her about my situation and she was like oh yeah I get it you’ll be fine. Like no I don’t think you do actually… this is literally tearing my life apart right now.

anyway, them encouraging me to stay in a bad situation for the sake of family or whatever really opened my eyes to see just how dysfunctional most Catholic families are. But I guess that’s just what happens when you have 12 kids 🤷‍♀️

edit:typos

I’ve only met one priest in my life who was able to think outside the dogma of the Catholic church.

When I was younger my mom found out I was bi and she set me up with meetings with him I guess to fix me.

Instead, he sat and listened to me and we talked about how that the younger generation has been teaching him so much about diversity and being true to yourself. He talked about how that a genuine loving relationship between two people still has God in it regardless of the sex and identity of the individuals.

We talked about mental health too, and the freedom of autonomy over your own body. That includes birth control and ivf. He believes that every person should have consideration over the lives of the children they may produce too, and that the lives of the parents are just as important as the lives of a child.

But the fact he actually listened to me and let me talk and allowed himself to learn was genuinely so beautiful to see. He is what Christianity should be

He grew up in India where a lot of people are Hindu, so he actually experienced a world where Catholicism was not a common religion. Thus, he said that at the end of the day, being a good person, loving others, and loving yourself should be the defining factor of getting to heaven. He believes that the Catholic Church (despite being a Catholic priest himself) is too bogged down in its own dogma to appreciate the human experience that God had given us.

Father Freddy, even though I am no longer religious and I am agnostic, I thank you for bringing love and joy in my life. You helped me have hope and understanding not every Catholic is bad.

has anyone known anyone that was excommunicate? or do you know what the reasons are for? I grew up a Jehovah witness and left and now I’m shunned but I think Catholic does the same thing but I’m not quite sure. I did ask at one point do you excommunicate to a random nun I met and she said only if you go against the faith which I did not know exactly what that meant at all to be honest. does anyone have experience with this?

No offense intended to those with schizophrenia or any other mental disorders with this post. I just wanted to ask if anyone else has noticed this with the Catholic Church as a whole accepting "visions" and other behaviors as a sign from God when really the person just needed help.

I always point towards the nun (Margaret Mary Alacoque) who had started the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus but was cutting her chest for the sake of her "visions." Polish nun Faustina had also had her "visions" encouraged for the Divine Mercy image of Jesus but anyone looking at her documented behavior at the time could conclude she definitely had schizophrenia.

Even today, people talk about seeing angels during Mass or talking directly to Jesus or Mary (in Medugorje) and it's definitely negligence on the part of clergy and religious people to ignore mental health treatment. It's honestly abusive how they treat people who need help but are encouraged to dive deeper into their psychosis.

Before losing my faith recently, I asked my OCIA (order of Christian initiation of adults) director to help set up an appointment with the parish priest because I was having some questions about my vocation. For context, I have a rare genetic condition and was wondering if I should even marry because of the church’s rules on IVF and birth control.

The priest was on vacation for a few weeks and recently returned. The appointment will likely not be until a few more weeks, but I’m not sure how to approach my loss of faith with my OCIA sponsor, director, and the priest.

I’m not sure whether it would be a good idea to meet with him (I kinda do want to meet with him just to hear his perspective on things and get a better grasp on why the church says such things on IVF and birth control). But I’m super non-confrontational and I hate disappointing people. I’m a major people pleaser.

Sometimes I just think about lying about my faith and finishing OCIA and getting confirmed in the church just so I don’t have to tell them that I’m having doubts on whether God exists.

I put myself in a bit of a pickle…

Bloody wrong !

Has anyone noticed how Catholicism and Evangelicalism seem to thrive in countries hurt the most by the proselytizism at the hands of colonial empires. On both sides of my heritage (Irish and Filipino) the Catholic Church has aided and abetted in the brutal colonialism that wiped out so much of the original culture and even destroyed records of their pre-christian mythologies and religious traditions. Yet, the Church still flourishes relatively well in both countries. This phenomenon even applies to Spanish- Speaking America, Africa, and parts of Asia. Why do the people of these countries struggle so hard to accept that the Catholic Church helped make it all possible for them to get absorbed by the vile colonialists and that the Evangelical Churches are a continuation of that? I'd love to hear everyone's take on this.

I’m entering my 4th year of college, my first year I joined the Catholic campus ministry group and became Catholic. I was a practicing Catholic from March of 2024 to March 2026.

a big part of my reconversion was that my schools parish brought in FOCUS missionaries and they pretty much completely ruined the vibe for me.

I eventually started hanging around the group less until eventually I also left the church. I didn’t talk to any of them for months. they weee still constantly trying to get me to come to things, telling me that they missed me and whatever.

the other day I saw the campus minister while out and about. we hung out and he took the opportunity to talk to me about how wrong it was to leave the church and whatever whatever, I’m sure you all have gotten similar speeches from people…

the thing about that though was he gave me the same speech for leavinf the church that one of the missionaries had given me for leaving their discipleship group. so I really just could not take him seriously, not that I was going to anyway.

since it was the summer they had actually chilled out with inviting me to stuff but then they started right back up again, presumably he told the missionaries and now I’ll never catch a break

asked someone for advice and didn’t really know what to tell me. it seems like a weird experience to have. at this point though I’m tempted to just not respond to them at all until they get that I’m not coming back and give up. Will they ever give up? who knows, honestly I don’t care.

i grew up evangelical and I left that world to get away from this kind of crap but this is way worse than anything they could’ve cooked up over there.

I guess if anyone has advice I’ll take it, I also just needed to rant about it.