The Anti-RCC Catholic...

[Cleobulus]

I was raised in the church, but left it years ago, but this post isn't really about me, I'm not even a Catholic anymore, but rather an atheist.

No, this post is about the person who raised me, my mom(well, ok dad helped raise me a little too. :))

All my life, my mother never set foot in a Catholic church unless it was a wedding or a funeral, never regular services.

She throws the tithe envelopes that her house still receives in the trash.

This is the woman who was told by the Church, 30 plus years ago, that she risked her soul if she wanted to live a happy, healthy life with my father. Because of the difficult pregnancy she had with me, she had to wait a minimum of 6 years before having another child, she defied the Church and used birth control.

This is the woman who was told by the Church that some of her friends are sinners because of who they are and who they love.

This is the woman who went to a Gilded Church that preached about the plight of the poor while asking for money for themselves.

This is the woman who told me one of her greatest regrets was having me raised in the Church for her mother's sake, something even my younger sister(6 years younger than me) did not have to do.

This is the woman who, for much of my life, referred to the Pope of the time as an asshole, and the current one as a fucking asshole. :)

And yet, even after all this, she still considers herself Catholic, for she told me once that the Church doesn't belong in a building lined with gold, or in the arrogance of the Vatican. It belongs within each individual Catholic, in the heart, that the teachings of Jesus shouldn't be used to prop up the corrupt, but used by the faithful, on their own, to help and love others. This is what being Catholic means to her.