Highly recommend this book! Not to be sensationalistic, but it was eye opening. A financial journalist followed the collapse of Banco Popular (which was run by Opus Dei!) and it led to him investigating the org and its shady practices. Crazy fun fact: when Opus Dei was initially having trouble getting Vatican recognition, Josemaria Escriva considered making it part of the Orthodox Church. (!)

So, if you can be baptized in the name of god, then why shouldn’t you be able to be baptized in the name of something else subsequently, or nothing at all? Doesn’t it logically follow that you could use the same process of baptism to alter your essence in a different way?

To date, I have encountered no proof whatsoever of any indelible mark upon my soul, despite allegedly being baptized as an infant. Frankly, I do not have any desire for this mark, and view my infant baptism as an egregious violation of my free will.

I’m convinced that there is a way to be baptized into something else, and that the Catholic Church just refuses to admit it. We don’t live in the universe of the impenetrable barrier, we live in the universe of the unstoppable force. It is true that you can’t un-ring the bell, but you can certainly ring the bell again, and you can ring it differently using different techniques.

im jus so happy im not catholic anymore!! i converted just before the pandemic after meeting a FOCUS missionary during a very difficult time for my mental health.

i left earlier this year, around April-May, and im SO happy!! i dont feel guilty for my every action and every thought not centering around faith, i don’t expect myself to be perfect & don’t deal with religious OCD anymore, i don’t feel like lesser for being a woman anymore, and i love embracing my new freedom!

i love my new life and im proud of all of you for finding the same. if ur new to deconstructing, hang on!! it gets so much better, you’re doing the right thing. :)

Edit: I only noticed now I spelled "embraced" wrong omg LOL

Heh, get it. Sprit, demons and Halloween... I like word play. Ok on to the post.

I consider myself pretty fortunate to have a more "liberal" Catholic upbringing, as libral as the school it could get with the archdioses breathing down our necks. Halloween was a normal holiday celebrated, the only exceptions made for my K - 8th grade school was obviously no gory costumes, and also no Devil costumes. Cause u know Satan.

Still, I do consider my time in that space to have deeply traumatized me when it came to being a person "who experiences same sex attraction" as it is phrased. Simply put being Gay and also probably not even cisgender, still figuring that part out, was not fun as a kid. I didn't even know what the word "gay" meant until I was like 12.

While not Catholic specifically, if you've watched the movie Paranorman made by the same studio as Coraline, the antagonist of the story is a character I deeply related to. It's really good and you guys should watch it if you have a love for spooky stuff and animation. However the jist in the movie is, wanting to inflict the same suffering I went through on to others as a form of catharsis serves to perpetuate the cycle of abuse.

So when I mean I embrace the demonic forces, I mean that I embrace the thing that the Church as a institution fears. Proving their charicature of lgbtq+ people wrong by showing compassion and helping those like us leave or make peace. Which is how the Church loses it's abusive power.

That is what the Catholic Church as a instutition truly fears, losing their power and control over us.

Which if you think about it, that's the same reason Demons as "fallen angels" of God are seen as dangerous. Because they broke free and stoped blindly listening to orders with out question.

So Happy Halloween my fellow demons! mwah ha ha ha ha

More of just venting, but I was texting my parents about how I am really hating grad school so far because the stress is getting me down.

My mom texted me paragraphs about St. Dymphna who I guess had anxiety and told me I should pray for her intercession while at school. Then she told me she would buy the hallow app for me if I wanted (she knows I’d never pay)

Can we be real here

"Timesuck with Dan cummins" released an episode (425) on catholicism in Ireland. Its quite good and well researched,

Hey everyone,

This is gonna be a bit of a vent session, so buckle up. I grew up in a tiny town out here in rural Pennsylvania. You know the type - one stoplight, everyone knows everyone's business. The Catholic Church is basically the center of everything.

For most of my life, I just went along with it. But lately, things haven't been sitting right with me. I started questioning some teachings, and well, let's just say the answers I found weren't what I expected. So, I decided it was time to step away from the Church.

Now, you'd think that would be the end of it. Nope. The whispers started. Sideways glances at the grocery store. Cancelled coffee dates with old friends. It feels like the whole town is judging me.

But the weirdest part? It's happening on the airwaves too. I'm a licensed amateur radio operator, a ham as they call us. It used to be a great escape, connecting with people all over the world. Lately, though, I keep hearing static bursts and cryptic messages whenever I try to reach out on my usual frequencies. It's like someone's jamming my signal or messing with my equipment.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it all feels connected. Like leaving the Church has made me a target. I don't know what to do anymore. It's hard to be yourself when everyone's watching, judging, and maybe even trying to silence you.

Anyone else here dealt with something similar? How did you navigate leaving the Church in a small town? Any advice for dealing with potential harassment on the airwaves?

Would love to hear from you all. Feeling pretty isolated right now.

I, 26 M, am getting married next September! I was baptized and confirmed Catholic, but we were a Christmas/Easter family until my parents became super religious after my siblings and I grew up and moved out. They’ve been volunteering at the church frequently and spending most of their time with the church, losing most of their old friends.

My fiancee was raised Protestant and we’re getting married in her church. I don’t agree with many of the catholic beliefs, and I feel uncomfortable making my future wife take classes in the catholic church and promise to raise our kids catholic. I talked to my parents about this and saying how I’ve struggled with elements of the catholic church like the eucharist and how we just want to get married in the Protestant church. However, my parents want me to talk to the priest. This naturally makes me uncomfortable, and I’m unsure how to run that conversation.

Should I even meet to have this conversation or just have another conversation with my parents? They’re aware that I struggle with elements of the church, but they asked if I would talk about it and give it a shot. They also made passive comments about having to be educated, even though I’ve taken college courses on the Bible, grew up with it around me, and don’t want the response from someone who clearly supports the catholic faith.

How would you handle this situation?

Hey all,

I guess I wouldn’t say I’m officially ex catholic. I’m a 30 yo still living with the parents so for them it’s always been “we’re going to mass” (also for extra context Latin household so there’s an extra layer of Catholic…iykyk). Any thought to question it or say I’m not a catholic would never cross their mind.

But now I’m engaged and ✨getting married✨ and the only thing my parents wished for was that I have a Catholic wedding. And all throughout the process I’ve been planning and imaging my wedding without that. After all, it’s not really a faith I truly believe in. I can’t look past all the bad it’s done In the Name of God and it’s truly done more harm than good for myself. I’m basically a closeted pansexual, enby, reproductive rights advocate and this faith I grew up in deeply taught me to fear my parents, to always obey them or else you go to hell and you should be guilty for it for the rest of your eternal life. Basically to the point I stop or hesitate in making life decisions that I want because “would my parents be disappointed” and this God and then my soul is ruined.

And now my parents and my fiancés parents want to have dinner this weekend with us and I just fear this topic will come up. On one hand I want to imagine a reality that I can have varying opinions on faith and spirituality from my family AND still have love and acceptance from them (to an extent obvi), but fear holds me back so much from even trying to have that conversation. To the point I’m thinking to myself “what’s the worse that it could do if I go along with this Catholic wedding?”

Idk I’m mostly venting here but from what I’ve seen people share I just hope someone can understand or relate (also sorry if you do relate) and just assure me it was worth it to separate fully from the faith.

All the prefaces: I’m safe, taking care of myself, have a therapist, and reached out to family and friends.

I still go to mass with my wife and children after having told her about a year ago my loss of religious belief. I guess all the cognitive dissonances caught up to me - during the homily this past Sunday I had the most vivid image of self-harm pop in my head that I’ve ever had in my life.

The homily was innocuous- Jesus calling the blind man and something like “all of our faith journeys are like that, we each have these steps, remember when Jesus called you?” And I guess there was a part of me that revolted saying “oh yeah, what about the part where you feel all alone and abandoned because of loosing faith, what about that step?” And my wife’s voice echoing in my mind the last year “Gods not done with you yet”. Well, maybe they will believe me if this image in my mind were to be reality. How can anyone say there is a loving god then?

I chalk it up to an extreme part of myself stepping up to protect me from the bullshit.

I Googled it to see links between depression and religion (Catholicism in particular) but came up with a bunch of articles about how church generally just makes it better.

So I thought to ask her: anyone else experience church & mass attendance actually making depression worse?

Lately, I have been able to be open about this. I was SA as a child by two different people in my house. Different times, different people, different actions. They were not related to the church, but the son of a person who worked for us and a "friend" of the family. I am male, they were males.

I hid this from everyone and created a terrible path of self-destruction growing up. I had severe constipation, which led me to have severe medical trauma on top of my SA. Weeks after I had to shit quite literal stones that fissured my anus, I inserted a camera probe without any anesthetics thru my intestines. This added trauma made me an insomniac. At age 9, I was sleeping about 5 to 6 hours a night, when a normal child should be sleeping 10. Obviously, this affected my grades and my social skills, which brought me into isolation. I felt into a deep depression and my parents tried everything the could to see why I was wrong. "Something must be wrong with his brain". I went to psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists and got a plethora of diagnoses. I never disclosed my SA with any of them. As I grew up, I became a magnificent liar. half of what I said was lies.I also lacked confidence and anything that made me look weak or that I assumed feminine was a threat.

My life as a grown-up was far from easy, but I began rebuilding little by little. Studying art allowed me to have an escape valve for many things that I could not talk about.

I am 41 now. I am married and even to this day, my SA follows me. I recently got diagnosed with CPTSD, and I have been to put this together after opening up about it with my partner and later with my psychologist, who diagnosed me.

So, in all this story, where does the church comes? Well, I was never able to trust my parents as a child because of the fucking church. Their morals were the morals of the church and if I allowed as a child for males to do this to me is because I did something to deserve it! "Have faith and let the lord do his thing," "he writes straight with crooked features" !!!! I still today can't go forward and tell my father about this because the fucking church brainwashed him trying to hide their own fucking sins under the rug!!! He doesn't blame the church who hid the beasts; he doesn't blame or show disgust for those who committed the most awful thing you can do to a child!!! FUCK THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!!! YOU STOLE MY CHILDHOOD, YOU STOLE MY FATHER, YOU STOLE MY FUCKING LIFE!!!! I do not believe in heave nor hell, but holy shit I wish there was a fucking hell!!!! I have lived in hell for my whole fucking life and had to crawl on shit to get out of it, I only wish them a fucking eternity of that same fucking suffering!!!! FUCK GOD, FUCK RELIGION, FUCK EVERY SINGLE ENABLER OF THAT MONSTROSITY!!!!!!

All of this cycle of trauma could have been avoided if I was allowed to have tolerant parents. My life would have been better. My childhood was stolen by a church that stole my parents.

Apparently, "All Are Welcome" is now banned. Just when they can't get worse, they do!

Left a NSFW tag so you can all go wild. And also because of what I'm about to share. For me it's probably teachings on masturbation. I'll elaborate.

First off I'm a very sex-positive, so the church's overall teachings on sex are basically sexual health homicide to me. So any teaching that forbids masturbation immediately raises alarm bells to me.

... but turns out that there's a bit of truth to it. I used to read up on some apologetics, back when I was a teen, and that was when I came across the argument that "masturbation teaches you to please yourself, it is selfish, you should be pleasing your spouse". This is obviously pretty silly, as it is not masturbation that causes or cultivates selfishness.

But after a life of singlehood... now that I'm finally having sex (29, late bloomer here), I'm actually struggling! And from what I've been able to figure out so far, I've gotten so used to my hand and finishing quickly that I now struggle with partnered sex. The solution? Stop masturbating (temporarily though) and focus on exploring sex fully with a partner, with no focus on orgasm. So yeah... they almost had it, but since the church's doctrines are pretty much filled with sexophobia it obviously got distorted into this silly, puritan, prudish teaching.

So yeah, for me that was it. What about you?

Brief background: I am a chronically depressed adult and have only recently started opening up to my parents about what I actually experience. As they’ve learned more, they have been relentless about identifying a “root cause” for everything despite telling them such a clear-cut cause doesn’t likely exist.

Two days ago, my best friend noticed some concerning behaviors that she felt warranted notifying my parents so they could help/possibly intervene (things are more stable now). During that conversation, my dad apparently asks her if I’ve had an abortion (!!!!!) because of course according to Catholicism, all women who have abortions are doomed to suffer great emotional pain from their choice. Just frustrated and upset that my many years of mental illness could all be reduced to the idea that I had an abortion in my parents’ eyes and wanted to vent. I’m not even sure if this is something I should be upset about or just laugh at the absurdity.

(For the record I have never been pregnant let alone had an abortion, so I don’t even know why the idea came to him. I suspect if I had though it would in no way shape or form have such a lasting impact on my mental health).

Hey, I’m a 17 year old queer person, I am not religious but my parents converted to Catholicism back in 2021, I am agnostic but I feel like every time I try and distance myself from religion my parents just keep trying to keep it around me, like. Icon cards in the car, asking me to convert when I show no interest in converting, I do attend mass with them and my mom keeps asking me if I “get anything” out of the sermons, the awnser is no. I am currently taking a theology course bc I go to an online school that’s catholic based, but I have to start a new unit that is particularly heavy moral theology, and I keep having anxiety and panic attacks around it, this isn’t really the first time I have had panic attacks around religious stuff cause I feel like if I am around anything Christian I just start to get anxiety. Any help and tips would be helpful.

I find it so funny when Catholics would align themselves with conservative Protestant Christians when those same allies of their openly preach that they think the RCC is evil, and lead by satan, and its adherents will go to hell, particularly the Evangelical and Baptist sects.

If a Christian theocracy happened, the Protestants would outnumber the Catholics, and force them to convert.

I’m and adult male who left the church 16 years ago. My dad no longer practices, my mother is a progressive catholic, and my adult brother rejoined the church a couple of years ago. He’s been heavily radicalized, although he isn’t that trad type of catholic. I moved back into my parents home temporarily and I t hasn’t been too bad living here but I’ve had to ask several times that my brother stop trying to convert me back to the faith.

We’re both comedy fans, and started talking about Tony Hinchcliffe’s remarks at the MSG MAGA event yesterday where he disparaged several races. My sibling then told me a story about a Puerto Rican girl from his young adult church group who asked if she could sit out this election because those remarks made her uncomfortable. He told me the group leader told her the church doctrine is you HAVE to vote as it’s a part of your civic duty. But, she can’t vote for Kamala because she supports abortion and any candidate that supports a moral evil is disqualifying.

I avoid talking to my brother about abortion, he knows I don’t like discussing this with him. I blocked him already on social media because he was sending me pro-life propaganda.

Anyway, he asked me how I can support abortion, and I told him I believe it’s a difficult decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor and not by the government. He got heated and started going off saying I’m an accomplice to murder for voting for Kamala. And then started yelling at me that I’m a baby killer and a murderer. I asked him to stop 3 times and I left the kitchen. He then stormed out of the house, drove to his church men’s group, and sent me a graphic photo of an aborted fetus with the text “there’s your vote.”

I miss my old brother, he isn’t even the same person anymore. Thanks for listening, I have no one in my life I can talk to about this.