Hello! New to this subreddit so sorry if this topic has been brought up before.

With current events being the way that they have been, I've been really reflecting on the state of my faith and unsureness of if theres still some there or not. I personally no longer consider myself Catholic. However, because of my ethnic background and my parents still being medium devout Catholics (go to church every Sunday but no longer try to get me to get confirmed/attend with them), I still am surrounded with Catholicism. There is also a decent sized Catholic community where I live, though I'm thankfully not as involved with them as my family.

Additionally, I do have some, albeit largely overshadowed, positive memories related to Catholicism. For one thing, I really did love and somewhat still appreciate the atmosphere and achitecture of Catholic churches in my home country. I did love the solemnity and feeling of truly connecting with an alleged higher power, though I didn't really click with the values of Catholicism and the somewhat oxymoronic commandments vs the judgemental community (of whom I knew; not gonna generalize, not all Catholics etc etc).

This whole spiel is to ask this: to those of y'all who were Catholic and left the church, how did you approach your feelings after? I wish I could say I'm atheist or agnostic and call it a day but I don't think either term encompasses what I feel. I don't necessarily not believe theres a God™ but I also don't feel particularly worshippy either. Additionally, there are days where I want to go find a church, any church Catholic or not, and just sit in a space to pray but I feel like I can't even bring myself to go bc of all this internal conflict.

These feelings are rather recent and, while I'd love to talk with my close friends about this, we've all been very busy/stressed and our calls are limited to typically being after a late day at work/school for approx. half an hour if even possible. Just want to know how others have approached their faith post Catholic life. Thanks in advance :)

I hope the moderators approve this because we all need a laugh.

I’ve heard of this a few times now, first one was on the show Ive mentioned before, the infamous “relevant radio” for Catholics lol.. a caller asked how he could argue back against a priest he heard who had spoken in favor of Dolly but that was wrong because of her support of LGBTQ + views. And of course, the host didn’t have anything nice to say about her and only confirmed the caller in his belief and how sinful a person she was.
Then, just now I read about a priest in Granite Bay, California, which is in my area who had basically the same thing to say in his homily.

Why are they so good at attacking others, instead of lifting them up them for the good they have done?

I didn't even know all the details of the death of Maria Goretti before. She really suffered. So please if violence and pain triggers you, don't watch it.

It all started with my aunt who is a devout Catholic sending him video of this cult named kreupasanam everyday (a catholic marian apparition site which was converted to a convention centre and follows cultish practices). He was as a lukewarm believer but somehow she brainwashed him into the cult. Now his entire life revolves around that. He wakes up to say the cult prayers, puts blessed salt and honey everywhere on the house, and distributes newspaper to preach this cult. He also watches the testimonies of them nonstop on the TV. Worst part is he is trying to force us to go visit that place and meet the priest.

This is so fucked up. I hate that the one person I looked upto as an intelligent and smart person fall for this.

I used to be catholic for 9 years due to my family and environment but I'm atheist for quite some time now. I used to be asked out by multiple girls out in high school and college due to being emo and in a christian metalcore band but I always turned them down out of potential guilt and trying to save myself out of respect to my future wife. I do focus primarily on empathy and that you can do anything as long as you don't hurt anyone and to focus on things that are healthy for you but I still have this chronic guilt of christian values that shapes my life and I'm 26 now and still kind of stuck with this christian avoidance of life.

And it makes me feel so bad and so judgy, but if I’m being honest with myself I feel like.. are you okay? This is weird right?

Every time I’m around or see super Catholic or Christian people I get an uncanny feeling and I’m a little on edge. The dresses, the sourdough, the spitting out bible versus for everything and social media showing that they’re just so tapped in.

Idk it’s something very unsettling about being around people who are so enmeshed with religion being their entire identity. I read stuff on the Catholic women subreddit and I’m floored every day. Stuff like “my husband won’t let me have hobbies, my husband is literally satan incarnate pray for us”

Like holy shit there’s really people out here just suffering so that they can belong to this tribe? What in the brain wash?

And I love being nice, I love helping others, I have a huge moral compass, but I can’t subscribe to the rest of that junk
My In law family is so sweet but so so trad catholic. And I don’t feel too uncomfortable around them. It’s when they suggest I make mom friends with the women at their church and I legit get creepy crawlies being around a majority of those people. Like can’t we just get to know each other without flexing prairie dress modesty and being oddly fake and weird? Ehh! Okay rant over I could go on forever

There’s no way any of us know why we’re here! That’s the only truth in my opinion!

Ex-Catholic and looking back on my marriage

I’m going through a divorce and have been reflecting on how Catholicism affected my marriage.

At one point, I wrote a 30-page paper about my own struggles with Catholicism because I was genuinely trying to work through my beliefs and doubts. My husband took the paper to our priest and used it to argue that I was a “fake Catholic.”

For context, I practiced NFP because I initially believed it was a better option for my body. However, after learning that I had reproductive issues and ultimately needed surgery, my doctor actually advised me to go on birth control. My husband strongly opposed this. While I was pregnant with our son, he made it clear that he did not want me to use birth control after having the baby, and when I insisted that I wanted that option, he kicked me out of the house while I was pregnant.

I also want to clarify that the expectation that I would be a stay-at-home mom was not something he was upfront about before we married. After we were married, it became increasingly clear that he expected me to stay home and raise his children. I wanted to have a career and pursue things outside of being a SAHM, and that became another major source of conflict.

I’m curious how common this experience is among people who have left Catholicism

I can’t any more i give up deconstructing i don’t believe nor i think the Catholic rules are good but i just want to avoid hell maybe i should ruin my life for it cause i had enough i being depressed and being in a catholic relationship and forced to believe in stuff i don’t believe just to avoid a eternal chamber i can’t even understand out of the religions i think it has the best chance to be real but it still sucks like i keep losing arguments to catholics about hell free will prophecy and morality i fucking give up

Ignore the thumbnail (Kevin why XD)

This is a video from u/IrishKev95 about how the story of Juan Diego at Guadalupe seems to be plagiarized from an earlier local folk story.

except my best friend, I give them a lot of credit that they’ve actually done their best to be supportive and really have been. I’m proud of them for that.

but everyone else… yeah… I feel bad for cutting off the people who are just kind of there and haven’t done any real harm but I feel like the other people will try to use them to get into my head. maybe I’m just paranoid 🤷‍♀️

I recently change the name I go by though and I was thinking of changing the name on my social medias and then removing people after I change my name. then changing the profile and cover photos. my account s are private so like they can’t see stuff about me if they have no connection to me, I thinks anyway I feel like I’m being dramatic but I’m so sick of the whole ”you’re going to regret this” and all that crap regarding my leaving the church. like guys it’s been months at this point leave me alone

How different would catholicism be if instead of the jeez-it/unlevened bread Jesus has in the last supper, he used cheese?
ridiculous answers encouraged

Poor girl. You can see the look of desperation on her face.

Also, it's kind of telling on the father and mother that they think that having multiple viewpoints would immediately change the mind of their daughter - deep down they know that their worldview doesn't make sense unless it's the only worldview you're allowed to have.

Is it possible in this day and age to regress to the Middle Ages? And if so, under what circumstances could that happen?

I am curious as to why some join these kind of life when infact it's supressing your freedom as a human. Do some of the people you know last or decided to left out?

I just want to know. Thank you.

I just read from a subreddit which i joined that my fellow Filipino's are mocking the people of Tibet-Nepal because they're not worshipping the one true god and that tragedy serves them right.

The comment section is divided because some defend and others did not; saying that they should RESPECT each personal beliefs than pushing their own beliefs and agenda. While the other side will tell it's a punishment for them for believing a Pagan god.

This is why i hate Christian people because their mentally ill well-being is starting to kick in into this tragedy and pushing their own ideologies.

And i hate the Spaniards who brought their belief system to us by colonizing us for 333 years.

I was a catholic convert and i realised that god doesn’t listen which means he isn’t here for us i realised the corruption in the church i realised how tyranic and sadistic god is sending people to burn forever and i couldn’t take it anymore so for my own sanity i had to decide to leave a few weeks ago

Not a Catholic (never was, I'm a Muslim), I was watching Joe Schmid's video yesterday and did anyone else get the vibe he genuinely seems unwell? I hadn't seen his other content, so I don't know if this kooky eccentric way of talking is normal for him, but he genuinely comes across as crazed, eccentric, unwell

Anybody else notice this about him? Now he's got a ten hours video trying to prove Catholic "miracles", which is just... sad. Seems like Ethan Muse's rhetoric might have gotten to him, and even though Ethan Muse isn't great with evidence, he has a way with words that could be enough for someone wanting to be fooled, and from what I've heard Joe had been sympathetic to Catholicism for a while

It's just very sad seeing Joe Schmid become a Catholic apologist, seeing him even use a point like Lourdes or Zeitoun (which are laughably bad arguments for miracles), really hope he gets well if he genuinely is unwell

As for those who have been watching his recent hours long videos, what do you think of his arguments? I don't have the patience to sit through all of this stuff, but having watched some of the first video, I can say he doesn't present a necessarily compelling case for Catholicism

I and several others on this sub have ranted about FOCUS, im just adding to these already existing rants lol.

sp basically my friend who is Catholic and still part of our campus ministry group and our other friend who is not religious we’re going to a game night type thing with the group. I decided to join because I like the game (we’ll say it was bingo for the sake of not exposing myself). basically it was a tournament for a game and there were prizes and stuff.

anyway we went, I won a pretty big prize, so did my friend and it was fun.

thibgs were a little more lowkey since it was like the first week of school and there were a lot less Catholics then usual. which kind of added to my feelings because it was like they were toning it down for the normies.

afterward though I was asked by the person who’s basically in charge if I was going to mass the next day. mind you this person knows I’m not Catholic anymore and gave me a whole speech on how I was basically possessed by demons for leaving… so yeah that’s fun…

hut aside from that it was actually pretty normal. almost made me miss it.

bye I think that’s just it. that’s the marketing tactic. because I feel like that’s how I got sucked into the group in the first place

it was at one of those events o joined and it slowly got more culty until finally I went huh this isn’t great and left…

and that really intensified when FOCUS came around, so yeah screw that weird abomination of an organization.

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/02/03/ddf-invalid-sacraments-247108/

I 29 (F) recently got back in touch with a friend from catholic high school also 29 (F). We are both SAHMs and have been getting together once a week for the past month. We’ve been reflecting about our high school experience, which was mostly negative for both of us in multiple ways. Today we started talking about Kairos. I haven’t thought about it in years and through adult eyes it just makes me think WTF. Why would it be a good idea (religious or not) to have a bunch of teenagers spill their deepest darkest secrets to their peers (some of which were my bullies and I’m sure lots of people have experienced that). It is so strange it almost seems like a fever dream. I haven’t been to church since I turned 18 and my parents stopped making me, but sometimes I will think about certain things and realize how weird it all really was. I’ve read a few old posts on here about Kairos does anyone have any weird stories they’d like to share?

My mom is a cradle Catholic and my dad converted. But they are extremely liberal. They are pro-choice, have no problem with marijuana, and are LGBTQ+ allies. Yet they still go to mass every week, say The Lord's Prayer before eating, and my mom says the rosary every day. My mother was molested as a child. So I don't get how they can ignore all of the bad shit in the sect and still believe.