Some weird stuff I remember about being raised a Catholic: seeing my first statue of St. Lucy (depicted as eyeless, holding a platter with her two bloody eyeballs on it); viewing the glass coffin of Mother Seton with her body purportedly "incorruptible" (but finding out via a little plaque hidden in another room that the "body" I'd seen was actually made of wax); having a priest tell me that my looking at the center section of the New York Daily News was "an occasion of sin" for me because I confessed (at age 13) to be aroused by the newspaper's summer photos of models in bathing suits; stepping into a church during Lent to find all the statues (and there were many) shrouded in deep purple cloth; attending a service at which a life sized crucifix on which a life sized Jesus lay impaled was placed on the church floor . . . And scores of people were standing in line to kiss the statue's feet! Ew. What are your "best" Catholic recollections?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I was raised to believe the catholic church was the great abomination by a Fanatical Salvation army mother who did not even like me associating with Catholic children.
Yet exposed me from a young age to pictures of a broken and bloody Christ, graphic representations of Hell and the devil, told me stories of the torturous horrors that befell Satan worshipers honestly believing the night terrors, bad dreams and nervous disposition she was instilling to a four year old would save my soul for her god.
The more I read of this sort of thing, catholic and protestant the more I become assured Christianity is a death cult, filled with blood worship, ritual cannibalism and monstrous mental abuse and sacred lies (That's before you get to the doctrinal physical abuse and the not so doctrinal sexual abuse.)
LenHazell53
Level 9
Sep 21, 2019
0
Well done for getting out of that one intact, Len. Carrie’s mum has got nothing on yours!
My sister and I used to compete to be the first ones out of the church. We were the two youngest of a large family.
We'd position ourselves to be last into the pew so we could be first out.
That didn't always work so then we'd jockey our position by timing our communion.
Once, I had the aisle seat so refused to take communion to lose my position. I felt very guilty.
heymoe2001
Level 5
Sep 21, 2019
1
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Your priest was a freaking fool. Who even says that shit?
DZhukovin
Level 7
Sep 20, 2019
0
@Winkiedink54 My generation has some pretty wounded people thanks to religion and the church.
Priests, Pastors, Ministers, Vicars, curates, cannons, deacons and Bishops, to name but a few.
@Winkiedink54
That's really not my angle. If I say your priest was a fool, that's me relating to you, okay?
@Winkiedink54
Yup. I think religion, particularly authoritarian religions, produce stupid people in part for these reasons:
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Groupthink
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Seems to only appeal to people who majorly lack brains
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Reasoning and learning are put on the backburner
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Religious communities have already kind of gone into squalor, considering rampant criminality, certain people who have joined those religions, etc. and how their legacy has persisted over time.
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No one really gets into the academics of the matter. People like Luis de Molina, who were perfectly intelligent have always been kicked and devalued in religious history in favor of more physically rather than mentally oriented people.
Right, but my point is, why would anyone act like that unless they were completely stupid? I personally find it comical when people try to play around with the concept of ethics by making up their own rules about what is sinful, and what is not, especially when it comes to putting those rules on people of sufficient maturity, who can handle themselves just fine.
@Winkiedink54
Yup 
@DZhukovin I was being a bit facetious I know, you are right, the main reason of course most professional religious people do this is money, when your living depends on the gullibility of others it must be a strong motivation to play the fool and perpetuate the myth
@LenHazell53 Righto, Dad!
@LenHazell53 Nah, you weren't being facetious Dad. I picked up on the humor.
I am thankful I was not raised Catholic. Being raised strict Lutheran was bad enough. I was terrified of an abusive god throwing me into eternal hell. Many nights I cried myself to sleep, afraid god would kill me and I would wake up in hell. The pastor used to force me and other kids to recite memorized material in front of the whole congregation. If we performed poorly, the pastor would shame us in front of everyone. Then our parents would punish us. It was awful.
SKH78
Level 8
Sep 20, 2019
1
That is child abuse. So very sorry you went through those experiences.
No memories, but it seems obvious that if you want to control others for your own profit and power, then creating an ideology, which as Hitchins said, is. "A cult of suffering." Seems like a good way to justify all the harm you are going to do in the process.
Fernapple
Level 9
Sep 20, 2019
3
This isn't a best Catholic recollection but after reading about your experiences with the church it made me think, mostly because some of the things you were exposed to were so weird, about something that happened to my mother.
My parents were not religious. My mother was raised in a Catholic home. I found out that my mother was raped by a catholic priest when she was 9 years old. Her brother, my Uncle Tony, tried to kill him with an ax. He was 12 years old. Their father stopped Tony, telling him the priest was a man of god and we don't question him. The mindless support people give the church is astonishing to me. I did not know about this incident in my mothers life until after her death. It explained so much to me about why my mother hated religion and the church. She never told me about it.
Redheadedgammy
Level 9
Sep 20, 2019
6
as the priest sexual abuse scandal began to come to light, the one thing that struck is how many knew and stayed silent because the priest had the power of heaven or hell over them if they spoke up
@bookofmoron That's exactly what my uncle said too. He hated his father for not reporting that priest for what he did to his little sister. It was a huge injury on both my mother and uncle Tony's life that never healed. They neither one followed the church or believed in any god after that.
Horrible crime ... even more horrible are the people who took the side of the criminal.
@Redheadedgammy those crimes were amplified a hundred times by the silence and complicity of those who could but didn't do more
@Winkiedink54 I finally realized why she raised me to question everything and search for my own answers about religion and god.
@Winkiedink54, @SKH78 these monsters usually have helpers it seems. That's what is so maddening.
@Winkiedink54, @SKH78, @bookofmoron totally agree. Those who don't speak up help it to continue.
It is like that Bastard Cardinal Pell claiming he was unaware that sex with a twelve year old was illegal, and that's because in the Vatican the age of consent IS 12, it is the lowest in the civilised world.
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