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[rurallib]

2. I am long removed from the Catholic Church. The catholic group may be a bad place to post

for recovering Catholics.

But since you asked I will answer:

I am @ 13 years older than you. Spent all 12 years in Catholic schools, the last three against my desires. The hypocrisies in my church and schools were overwhelming.

In high school we had a priest / principal who was abusing the male students fairly openly. There are still lawsuits in courts against this priest.

By 7th grade Catholicism seemed like a joke. By 10th grade I had quit going to church. My parents and I seldom saw each other, so it never became an issue.

When I was an altar boy on Sunday mornings I would always chuckle inside at those who were sitting in the front pews were the same people I saw messing with other spouse at the KC's party the night before. And they must have had such hangovers!

I had become involved in the anti-war movement in HS and became more so in college. Amazed me that the local churches supported the War. Oh so many things were so bothersome.

I tried other christian sects off and on for about a decade and finally came to my own conclusion that pretty much every religion was pretty much hokum. At that time I just became non-religious.

In the past decade thanks in large measure to the internet I have come to the conclusion that I am an atheist. I feel very comfortable with my current state. When religion does occasionally come up I have found many of my friends are closeted atheists themselves.