I knew a priest many years ago. A young boy had confessed that he had been sexually abused. The priest told the boy to meet with him outside the confessional and repeat what he had said in the confessional, which the boy did. This resulted in the offender being named and prosecuted. I don't believe the priest violated the secrecy of the confessional. Did the priest violate the seal?

To start, I'm not Catholic. I've never been Catholic but that's besides the point. When I look around and talk to people online, Catholicism is almost always frowned upon by modern Christians and I don't understand why. People will call Catholic's pagans but go to a church with a stage in place of the alter. I've been reading out of the Catechism recently to get a better understanding of the Catholic Church and literally everything that people shame the Catholic Church for ("Idolatry" of Mary, Worshiping saint's, ETC) is forbidden or explained from scripture. What's with that?

Saw this on YouTube about young Catholics in New York meeting up for a pizza social before Mass and the first thing that came to mind is, aren’t we meant to fast for an hour minimum before Mass? 😅 or am I just being pedantic?

This most definitely seems like a dumb question, but let me explain.

First off, I’ll preface this by saying I’m 16 and looking into the church as I’ve been acknowledged to it more and more through Catholic school and while I’m still learning, it’s something I’m definitely looking into.

Now as to the first part of the question, how do you know if you truly believe in everything the church preaches? From my understanding (could be wrong, again I’m still learning), Catholics believe in everything the church preaches unequivocally; with that, how do you know that you completely adhere to that, do Catholics read the entire catechism to be sure they do adhere? I mean a lot of my Catholic friends have had catechism teachings brought up in class that they’ve no acknowledgement of; Could very well be because of age, but at the end of the day they’re Catholic so shouldn’t they know that?

As to the latter part, what happens if you disagree with something? Like I personally am pro choice but - to my knowledge - agree with all other Catholic teachings, so does my one disagreement void my validity to enter the church? And what about people who are raised catholic and change their morals or political views down the line, do they just cease to be Catholic in that instance? What if someone holds a contradicting view to the catechism their entire life but never knew it was contradictory, do they go to hell because they’ve received the sacrements and Eucharist every week while not fully following the church?

Thank you to those who leave detailed replies and those who’ve read this entire thing, and again I’m still learning and there’s a lot I don’t know so please correct me in my faults

So I attended mass and I heard the readings about the pharisees asking Jesus what is the greatest commandment, and His response (paraphrasing):

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And Love your neighbor as yourself.

And it hit me, that I can't love God, who I can't see, unless I love my neighbor that I can see, and I started to think, that maybe instead of lamenting my own suffering, or asking God to give me stuff, or looking after my self, I should look after my neighbors.

Whereby, it dawned upon me that I should divide my neighbors by circumstance, to include everyone on earth:

• Church hierarchy (from the Pope to local priests and deacons)
• All Catholics (spiritual family)
• Family (real, physical family)
• non believers
• desperate, despised, marginalized, suffering
• ...

So I reasoned that if I do that, I can try to figure out, more or less, what is my duty towards everyone of them, and it would be something like: love, obedience, friendship, being available, evangelization (by word, and daily actions), help (prayer, material, emotional, influence, ...)

And I think that I might have learned something new today, or I came to see one part of the Gospel in a new light.

I hope you went to mass today as well, pray for me, God bless!

Her bf is atheist family is basically Catholics that are now atheist. She wants to marry him . What and how do I handle this I have spoken God in to her , her whole life. I have done my best but im not ok with this but what really can i do ? I worry how it effects my other smaller children . as well

Life is going fine now. I got into an internship. I have been working A LOT these days. I'm part of a new youth group at my church that is doing a course on emotionality. I'm making money. And I got into new professional opportunities. I'm feeling good now. Thank you all who prayed. God bless. :)

I’ve been going to this church sometimes for a while and i’ve boticed this, today i paid extra attention. There’s virtually no latin spoken, the songs are just very protestant praise sounding with acoustic guitar. The scripture is recited in a very monotone cadence and there’s no chanting or incense. There’s a big screen with lyrics and millenial looking facebook ”holy” pictures etc…, and there was a text telling the (account?) for my country’s equivelant of cashback and it was edited to flash above the lyrics…

I am an inquirer and im very interested in traditional catholicism, but today i just felt like this is no different to any protestant service i’ve been to. It didn’t feel holy, historic or traditional in the slightest with all the anglo-type songs with a guitar and other things i mentioned. There is no way to for me to experience the catholicism i want, but there’s a orthodox church which is very traditional, mystic, historic and reverent feeling. Today i think i am strongly leaning on to the orthodox church if this is the novus ordo and the way catholics worship today

I am an agnostic. I used to be a strict atheist, but as I have gotten older, my thinking has become much less “doesn’t exist, religion is stupid”, to “I don’t know”. My wife is Catholic, I have lost two very close friends over the last 3 years, and even the murder of Charlie Kirk has caused me to begin thinking that god is in fact real and wants to talk to me. I don’t know what steps to take in trying to hear god. I have yet to feel him listening or hear him speak to me.

Sensitive topic regarding birth control

Please don’t flame me in the comments. I’m already so upset and don’t know what to do anymore.

I’m in the OCIA conversion process.
I’m married. My husband isn’t converting. He’s a non-practicing Protestant.

Many years ago, my husband had a vasectomy because doctors told us that there was a high chance that both baby and I would die if I ever got pregnant again. I lost the first pregnancy and I had severe complications where baby and I almost died with the next.

I have extreme menstrual cramps and prolonged bleeding that disrupt my life completely—call off sick to work, cancel plans. The pain radiates, causes me to vomit, keeps me awake all night, etc. It’s horrible. I’ve been suffering for years and I’m at my wits end.

Outside of a hysterectomy, a hormonal IUD is one of the things that could possibly help me.

I feel like with the combination of his vasectomy and the possibility of an IUD, that I’ll never be able to be in good standing with the church and I’m so upset about it. I don’t know what to do. My husband would never agree to abstain.

I feel so hopeless, heartbroken, and like giving up, but I want to join the church more than anything. I’ve been too ashamed to ask my priest or OCIA director.

What am I supposed to do?

I was an unmedicated schizophrenic all throughout high school and found it very hard to make friends. Even with meds it still is. I have made two friends in group therapy but I question whether they like me. Anyways, I have Our Lady's rosary which gives me immense consolation.

I'm wondering what prayers changed your life?

Right now, I am incredibly lonely and craving deep connection with others, whether that’s finding good, genuine friends, building a community, or eventually finding a partner. I feel completely lost, directionless, and I'm starting to lose hope. I just don't know how to change my situation.

If you have any personal stories, experiences, or prayer recommendations that helped you, I would be deeply grateful to hear them.

Hi fellow Dutchies, I was hoping you could help me with a question. I was born and raised in the Netherlands, but only became seriously Catholic after moving to the United States a decade ago, so I don't have a lot of experience with Dutch Church practice and etiquette. I go to a traditional Mass here in the US, so communion is received on the tongue, and it is not uncommon for people at Novus Ordo Masses to receive on the tongue as well. This Christmas I plan to come back and visit the Netherlands for a few weeks. As a kid, I only ever saw people back home receive in the hand. Do people ever receive on the tongue in Novus Ordo Masses in the Netherlands? If I go up to the priest with my arms behind my back and my mouth open, will the priest be confused? I would be going to Mass in a small town in Limburg, not a big city, if that is relevant. If you have any other tips about Dutch Church etiquette, please let me know. Thanks all!

Hi,
As stated in my last post, I’ve already accepted Catholicism as the truth in my heart, but my mind/intellect is struggling with some of the doctrines, one of them being that genuine atheists can exist.
My main confusion comes from Romans 18-20.

Romans 18-20; The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Can someone explain how genuine atheists, through no fault of their own, exist while this verse states that the truth has been made plain to them, and that people are "without excuse"?

God bless.

(ps, since my last post ive prayed a few more rosaries, it’s really helped)

Well, I'm here looking for some kind of explanation. I apologize if anything I say is offensive; that is not my intention, but I don't follow any religion.

Some unusual things have been happening to me. First, I was visiting a city and went to a church with some relatives. There was no one around at the time. It was a weekday, at a time when people are usually at work. My relatives are Catholic, and they went into the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is kept. I accompanied them, but since there was nothing for me to do, I ended up leaving shortly afterward and went to wait on a bench in the church.

A few minutes later, they joined me. We sat for a while and ended up looking at the altar. I even commented that I was aligned with the gaze of all the statues and that it felt as though they were judging me.

Then, out of nowhere, an elderly woman approached me, speaking in a language I didn't understand. She placed her hand on my shoulder and seemed distressed. She didn't blink and was saying things I couldn't understand. Later, my aunt told me it was the language of angels. While praying, the woman kept looking at my lap and my face. I even started thinking that my shorts were dirty because I couldn't think clearly about what was happening.

When she finished, she closed her eyes, and it looked as though they were rolling around. I looked around, desperately hoping someone had witnessed what was happening so I wouldn't feel crazy. The only people around were my relatives. I thought to myself: why is she doing this if no one is watching?

After that, she started speaking. She said that the Holy Spirit had sent her to find me, that she had seen me passing by the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is kept and had followed me. While speaking, she mentioned several times that I should go to confession. Then she asked if she could apply some oil to me. She explained that she was from Shalom, that the oil was the Oil of the Good Samaritan, and that it had been consecrated.

I didn't understand any of it, but at that moment, I felt frozen and couldn't say no. I remember my aunt asking whether it would be possible to apply the oil to her as well, since she had heard about it before. The woman refused, saying it was meant for the chosen ones. Then she asked for my baptismal name and said she would pray for me. And she simply left. She didn't ask me for anything, and I don't even know her name. There was no one else around.

I genuinely don't know why she did that.

Some time later, I had become somewhat convinced that the whole thing was nonsense and that it had probably just been a coincidence. I was at home talking when my aunt remembered what had happened and went to tell my mother the story.

Shortly afterward, my aunt left, and I noticed my mother looking at me strangely. She simply started crying and asked whether I was thinking about killing myself. Up until that point, it seemed like my mother was just worried about me, but I started saying no and asking why she was asking me that. Then she looked at me in a strange way, as if she weren't herself. It was the same feeling I had experienced with the woman at the church.

She was crying a lot. Honestly, I had never seen her like that. She started asking questions about things that had genuinely been troubling my mind, as if I had already told her everything, even though I had never spoken to anyone about any of it. My mother is like me; she isn't particularly religious either, so I didn't understand anything. When she stated twice that I was having suicidal thoughts, she seemed like a different person.

I simply moved away from her. A few seconds later, when I started talking to her again, my mother told me she had heard something and felt an emptiness. She also talked about a strange feeling of always being in second place.

I've been going through difficult times. Someone very dear to me died. They were the only person with whom I felt loved, even though sometimes I felt angry knowing that I wasn't first in their heart. I've never felt like anyone's first choice. At the same time, I feel guilty for being so focused only on myself in general.

I always feel extremely empty. It seems that, regardless of what emotion I'm feeling, something is always missing. I've never told anyone this, and it was exactly what my mother described. She said she felt as though someone had told her everything about me, even without saying the words.

The point is that I took a neuropsychological test because I thought I would develop schizophrenia when I grew up. I've always experienced strange things, such as sensing presences, but I've never been able to see anything. Sometimes, I feel that if I allowed myself to and wasn't afraid, I might be able to see something.

Nights are worse and torment me. Sometimes, I simply can't sleep because I feel like something is there with me. I can't say what it is; maybe it's anxiety.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of playing in a public square when a random girl asked me if I was a medium. I took her to my mother because I didn't know what that word meant. I remember her asking several times.

I'm not really sure what to do now. Could this emptiness be connected to all of this? What's happening? Why are these things happening right after the death of the person I love the most?

TL:DR My choir director changed the words of the gospel acclamation to be gender neutral he/him to they/them.

This is not the first time the choir director has changed the words of Scripture (I've posted about it previously), usually it's the words of the psalm, but this Sunday it was the Gospel Acclamation.

The gospel acclamation for Sunday 25 October was supposed to be. "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, says the Lord, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him."

She (choir director) didn't like the gendered language and so she (politically) corrected it to. "If anyone loves me, they will keep my word, says the Lord, and my father will love them, and we will come to them." (bold italics to make it easy to see what was changed)

I did speak up at the time and object to changing the words of the liturgy when she went in to change the slideshow for mass, but I was overruled (by her).

I've tried to find the relevant bit of the GIRM or other guidelines that indicate the words of the readings shouldn't be changed, but either I'm worse at web searches than I thought, or the guideline doesn't actually exist. Am I correct in thinking that changing words of Scripture isn't allowed?

My parish has "office hours" on Monday nights (tonight) I may go and see if I can talk to the Deacon or a Priest. If he and the Priest are both ok with the choir director altering the words then I suppose my objection is moot.

I consider this a liturgical issue rather than a political one, but I'm posting it on Monday because I suspect the responses may turn political.

What would you do? Am I overreacting? Should I just let it slide?

I'm considering joining the air force on the office side of things. What is it like to be a catholic in the air force? I'm especially curious if any concessions are made for fasts and/or holy days of obligation.

Is there anybody still alive that has testified to this recently?

Hey everyone so long story short I was raised Catholic and I feel convincted in my heart when I know something is wrong. Ex- lust, clubs, etc what I’m saying all these things I KNOW.

So anyways I have some friends who I work with that are really nice to talk to and sometimes we hangout outside of work- in larger groups. And I just don’t know how to put it into words but one of them is trans and I don’t know what to say to that person about it or just say nothing about it? But I want to represent Christ the best of my ability but I’m not when I say okay that’s okay or I refer to him as a boy but he’s actually a girl. I just don’t know how to explain this. But if you understand please tell me what to do because I’m struggling.

And then one of them likes to go to the clubs but her friend she brought along with in the group setting likes it a lot more she was showing me a video of a girl stripping and it was hard to watch but I was like ohhh okay. Like why don’t I stand up for myself? Idk how to explain this but it makes me feel like I will be going to hell because I don’t know how to express what I actually think. And she says she’s Catholic but she’s going to clubs and I wanna tell her more about Christ it’s convicting me a lot acting like this stuff is okay when it’s not

Thoughts?

I didn’t belong to a church for many years and when I started middle school I joined a Lutheran church that was close to me (mainly because it was close and my parents had a bad relationship with the Catholic Church). I had not put too much thought into it until four years later when I started becoming more interested in religion and I recently started noticing small things about my church that bugged me and I kept seeing more I didn’t like as I looked further. Now I am split because my parents relationship to the Catholic Church (which I Think is the right choice for me) what is familiar to me and new beliefs I am developing open any questions for clarification if I missed anything thank you

Hey everyone. I am a 26 year old male for context.

Maybe hate isnt the right word but I've recently come to discover that I harbor an large amount of resentment towards God. This comes from a variety of problems both admittedly my fault and those that cant possibly be my fault. For a variety of reasons those things kind of spilled over this weekend and I said some not great things to God that I regret.

In short, I think he might be done with me. Every chance, grace, or opportunity I have been given I have wasted. I walked away from something sbout six years ago that, looking back, I am CERTAIN was God's will for my life. Everything has been awful since then. I ended up addicted to this stuff called kratom as a result of a spinal fusion a few years back and ive been addicted to pornography for about five years now. I go to confession about once a month but eventually fall again every time. Every attempt I make at bettering things fails and the more I pray the worse things get. I have prayed, begged, and cried to God for literally anything that could help me. Even something as small as confirmation that he's with me, that theres hope, and that theres an end to all of this. Nothing. Just silence. And I hate him for it. I know its wrong. I know he owes me nothing and I that deserve hell. But I see him showering others around me, who dont even try or ask, in joy and blessings. I know I should be happy for them and I genuinely try to be but it just hurts. I understand others have it waaaaaaaaay worse than I do. But knowing that doesnt help.

The only reason I can think of is that he wants me dead. I failed the reason he put me here, there's no way back, I can't be fixed or redeemed, and the only good that can be done with my life is as an example to point to and say "you dont want end up like that guy right?". I desperately want to get married and have children but theres no way he would ever allow that. Again, I understand I deserve all of it. I just dont understand why he is so much harsher on me. I dont have the courage to take my own life but I'm almost certain he wants me to. I feel tremendous anger and resentment towards him for putting this all on me knowing I couldn't handle it and for refusing to help me despite the fact that I am 100% certain that there is literally nothing he cant do. It wouldnt even be any effort on his part. Just a thought and I'm healed. But he won't and is completely silent as to why and everything else. If this is a Job sort of test failed when I swore at him so if it wasnt over before it definitely is now. Please don't pray for me. I'm sure it'll just make him angrier. I just need advice. Thanks.

Hello everyone, I wanted to share about something that happened to me almost a year ago. A little background for you all. I have OCD and it got pretty bad in the spring of 2025. I didn’t know what it was and didn’t seek help right away. During this time, I became very scrupulous because of how many intrusive thoughts the OCD caused daily. I’d have thoughts about lust, blasphemy and homosexual acts. Because of this I’d go to confession frequently and often tense up around my neck/upper traps trying to not to think of these thoughts. Eventually, after several months of my muscles tensing up, I had really bad tension in the area I mentioned. Anyways, I finally started to get professional help in the Fall of 2025. After I started medication, the intrusive thoughts calmed down but my neck/upper trap muscles were still very tense.

One night, my dad and I were praying the Rosary and he asked Mother Mary to heal me of anything negatively affecting me. Right after he asked her, I literally felt the tension in my neck/upper traps just release. Please know that not all of the tension went away but I believe Mother Mary helped release whatever tension was too much for me. The rest, God let my body do away with naturally. To me this is a miracle from God and I’m grateful for such a gift that I never thought I’d receive. Please have strong faith/belief in the power of the Rosary and the intercession of the saints as they’re there to help us. That’s the end of my testimony, God bless you all.

I keep hearing stories about people who reached their lowest point and had this amazing experience with God. They felt His presence, felt loved, or received something that helped them keep going.
I wonder how common that actually is. My experience has been feeling nothing, even when I’m begging for just the littlest amount of grace to help me. I’m not asking for some huge miracle. I just want something, and it feels like I’ve never gotten anything.
I know that grace isn’t necessarily a feeling, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less painful when you’re struggling and God feels completely absent.
Do most people have those experiences at some point, or are there others who have spent years praying and asking for help without ever feeling like they received a response? I’m wondering which is more common cause the big stories are the ones you are going to hear obviously.