CONFESSIONS OF AN OVER THE WALL GRATEFUL RECOVERING CATHOLIC
First Communion, Confirmation, parochial grade school & high school--the whole mackerel snapper smear. I was brought up in a working class family where the church was the center of our little community.
My mother was a pretty good singer & got jobs singing at church weddings. My uncle called bingo in the parish hall, the height of catholic experience. I went to grade school run by the Sisters of Perpetual Punishment. They were quick to rap you on the knuckles with a ruler
They seemed very concerned the boys would see what was under the girl's skirts by watching the reflection in patent leather shoes. I looked but no luck. They also seemed concerned blacks were pushing whites off the sidewalk during Reconstruction.
I went to Catechism class to hear the bread wafer & wine became the body & blood of christ, which sounded like cannibalism, & god was 3 parts (the trinity), & christ died for our sins. After awhile this became blah-blah-blah background noise to me.
My uncle was an usher. I helped him pull people who had feinted out of church, which they did a lot in those days. Today they'd call an ambulance. Then it was smelling salts & good to go.
In high school, they had a hazing of freshmen. The boys were forced to dress & act like girls. I was disgusted.
The priests all seemed like apparatchniks from a hostile foreign power. Finally I found one I liked. He came into catechism class one day & said, "Good Morning, All you bitches & bastards." I was thrilled. Unfortunately he left the church a few months later & got married.
I became enamored by books. My father had a 6th grade education & became threatened by my growing intellect. He forced me to give up my library card. I snuck back 6 times.
I liked Thoreau & Emerson. On Sunday morning I would sneak out of the church & walk in nature in the nearby mountains.
I got in fights with the local bully boys who resented my rebellion . Some of them I won. Finally the school kicked me out for preaching atheism & socialism in the halls (they called it communism).
I escaped to Greenwich Village, which was very exciting in the 50"s & 60"s
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10 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Well written. My Dad was raised Catholic and was kicked out of parochial school, he was an atheist then later turned agnostic. He told my Mom to raise us in her religion, Methodist and at 11 or 12 after being caught for ducking out of church (I'd go sit on the banks of the Delaware River) I quit the attempts at religious indoctrination and never looked back. As I told my Mom, "how good can it be for us when you just drop us off at the front door."
I had friends who were Catholic and they would explain to me the inner workings, I thought how weird is that? but never said anything to them.
I must say, the Christmas show was fun (Mass -
), I went once with a friend, I was in my 20's. She did appreciate my humor but sorta moved away like maybe the lightening bolt might get her if she stood to close to me.
silverotter11
Level 9
Sep 13, 2019
0
Good for you. In my view, religion is best seen in the rear view mirror. If I wanted some big, unaccountable organization doing a mind trip on me, I would have become a republican.
I'm glad you went out in nature. It doesn't screw around with you. In those days I got a lot out of Thoreau, Emerson, & the other American Trancendalists . In a way, they were wild eyed idealists, but they were a good antidote to catholicism
evangelical christianity is worse
bootaski
Level 6
Sep 13, 2019
1
Damn straight!
Evangelical christianity is right up there with the baddies, especially when they get political. It's interesting how they have abrogated their supposedly "christian values" to support Trump. They say they support "family values", but they glorify a reported genital grabbing lecher who is accused by several women of sexual abuse. He is reported to have been a good friend of accused serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
What hypocricy. Evangelical christianity is largely a large con job that rakes in the suckers. Many people are aware of the pedophiles & financial misdeeds of the catholic church, but the evangelical christian group The Family still has great influence in Washington.
I can't for the life of me figure out WHY Churches need to be so ornate and opulent for a god that can create ANYTHING, supposedly, that it wants and yet allow/permit literally millions, if not BILLIONS, to live, starve and die in abject poverty.
Triphid
Level 9
Sep 12, 2019
1
sadistic bastard ain't he/she?
@K9Kohle789 Very succinctly put may I say.
It's the ' Bread, Bibles, Blankets and Bangles' game that the Xrstians have been using for centuries and most times when those little tricks didn't work out to plan then came the Booze and Bullets solution.
After that came the land grabs, the shackles and slavery followed the rape and pillaging of the natural resources, etc.
Oh what wonderful humanitarians these Xrstians truly were and, in some cases, still are.
Would love to hear the rest.
Heathenman
Level 7
Sep 12, 2019
0
I kept it brief, as long posts don't get read. Churchill said of a 17 page report, "It carefully avoids any danger of being read"
love it! not my experience at all but i knew someone who said that in school a nun had picked up his desk, with him in it, and flung desk and boy across the room. that has been my overriding impression of nuns ever since, although i like sister wendy (and even named one of my cats after her).
g
genessa
Level 8
Sep 12, 2019
0
In my experience, not all the Sisters were angry & sadistic, but some were. If you survive a catholic education in those days, you know how the victims in concentration camps feel
Looks a lot like the Church I grew up in.
I only had two years of Catholic school (Yay!). That was plenty.
We had a pedophile priest. (Thanks Cardinal Law).
The nuns hated what they were doing for the most part - being "volunteered" to be in the classroom - when in fact they were probably women who didn't want to have children and chose the church instead. (Nice fit).
My two older sisters went all the way through Catholic School like you - I'll have to ask about hazing? It might have been bad there too.
It was no picnic in Public school or college but I always looked old for my age so pretty much missed most of it.
That's so sick stuff making you cross dress for no good reason? Sounds kind of Catholic to me.
I was going to the library before I could read. lol Thankfully no one ever discouraged me.
RavenCT
Level 9
Sep 12, 2019
2
Nice story! It’s nice to know there are people like you in the catholic church. That’s a beautiful picture!
bradnyijuan
Level 7
Sep 12, 2019
0
No, People like me left the catholic church & never really looked back
Wow, we begin to understand you!
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Sep 12, 2019
1
Thanks. I'll tell you more. I am not some dispassionate intellectual
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