Reply #133: I was Catholic - birth to age 17. Educated by Jesuits. Considered the veil

[politicat]

The true principles of the Church are anti-woman.
1. Women have no leadership role.
2. Women have no right to leave abusive situation without condemnation. Women who leave abusive marriages are denied sacraments. Women who leave the convent are denied sacraments, even if they leave because they've been physically or sexually abused by priests or other nuns. Women are denied absolution for leaving abusive situations.
3. Women have no right to determine when and if they should bear children, regardless of economic or physical restraints. Women who violate this edict are guilty of a mortal sin and, depending on the parish, may not be able to get absolution without risking untimely childbearing.
4. Women have been told they committed a sin (usually venial, sometimes mortal, depending on the priest) for refusing to have sex with their husbands in an attempt to control their fertility. Other women who were forced by their husbands have found no support from the Church when they pressed charges for marital rape.
5. Rape is still considered fornication to some priests.

The principles of the Church end up being anti-child when the economics of unrestricted childbearing begin to take a toll on family resources. St. Vincent de Paul's and Catholic Charities can't make up for the gap entirely for families that can't afford the children they have because they could not limit their family size. It does a child no good to grow up without basic needs being met, even with the Church's support. It harms the entire society.

Your parish may not turn gay Catholics away, but it's an exception. Every parish I've ever been in - in Arizona, California, Florida and Indiana, as well as overseas - has been pretty uniform in rejecting their gay parishoners. Further, the anti-gay doctrine falls under the same category as the slavery doctrine. Just because in the Bible slavery's okay, doesn't mean it's fine now. Prejudice against the GLBT community is equally inhumane because it's based in rules for shepherds in the Fertile Crescent written 5000 years ago. We've moved on.

I left the Church when it failed to live up to my standards of right living, when I could no longer accept that they could preach hatred for others and then demand tolerance for themselves. (The claims of "anti-Catholic bigotry" get a lot hard to believe...)

I wish you luck in the Church, but don't expect miracles. Those seem to have ended in the 16th century.

Pcat