catholic amy Catholics, ex-Catholics, and children of ex-Catholics are all hopelessly superstitious and catholic. 000110 ... amy the children of ex-Catholics don't have to be baptized to be like this either. 000110 ... Q but if they are or might have been, do they still have a ticket to ride - oops, i mean to limbo? 000110 ... MollyGoLightly I know two Catholic ladies with pretty altars in their bedrooms. I think I'll skip the Confirmation and go straight to the altars. One of the ladies has virgin mary statues all over the place. One night when she was painting a chair her son had to beg her not to paint the garden mary's lips pink. 000520 ... WoNDERGIRL I'm just a pretty little Catholic girl innocent bullshit because your sex fills me up like Jesus never could 000521 ... grendel see: Doom_Generation 000521 ... gregg *lights some candles and chants a strange language* now am i a witch, or am i pagan or am i catholic? or did the lightning storm make the electricity go out and im still practicing for my Swahili test tomorrow? 000521 ... MollyGoLightly she has a saint benedict that she wears around her neck. who is saint benedict? 000728 ... typhoid would he be the saint of cooked eggs or something? 000728 ... erin i think a lot of the earlier blathes have it all wrong. if there's one thing i am overly familiar with, it's catholics and their sentiments. because of 19 years of sunday masses and 9 years of catholic schooling...i feel like a bit of an authority on this. yes, many catholics are superstitious. it has to be recognized, though, that every religion has its fanatics and zealots. the american catholics (the hispanic ones are a different story) that i know generally roll their eyes at 'mary and saint worship' and label it idolatry. also, many catholics bemoan the social lagging of the church. we want for the church to sanction non-abortive birth control, and we want to loosen up the restrictions on the priesthood....let the poor horny bastards get married!! i find it ironic that some people freak over the fact that a high (higher than the general population) percentage of priests are gay. these tend to be the same idiots that hold fast to the idea of celibate priests, and to the idea that priests should only be male. i could go on forever, but really, who cares? the idea is, we don't all swallow the traditions and viewpoints of the church whole, because many of them are just not practical. unfortunately, the church can only really make a leap of progress every 60-odd years, because of the institution of the pope. john paul was actually pretty liberal when he became pope, but decades later, the times have changed and he hasn't. no biggie, though. many catholics are hoping the next pope will allow the church the chance to breathe and change. we'll see. 000728 ... beily Hey, Catholics aren't all superstitious, pious, fanatics, or freaks. Okay, I agree that there's more than one person of the Catholic religion who fits that description, but just because some of them are like that doesn't mean they all are. I've met some really cool people who are also Catholics. In fact, one of them saved my life once. And he did that because he cared about me, not because he was trying to do what's right or something like that. (You know who you are, and I know I owe you alot.) If you haven't met all Catholics you can't label all Catholics. 000807 ... unhinged i was baptized catholic...both my parents were raised catholic but none of us practice anymore. my parents were first married in a unitarian church and had to get re-married in the catholic church so that their marriage would be recognized in the eyes of that institution so that i could be baptized. because my father was divorced, even though that marriage had been annulled, he had to pay the catholic church hundreds of dollars to marry my mother in the church. my baptism was the only sacrament i ever made in the catholic church. i only went to church to make my grandma happy and that was usually only twice a year. my granfather died 10 months ago suddenly of lung and bone cancer. his request for his last rites he made to my father; he wanted cremated and didn't want a funeral mass. my grandfather was catholic so my dad went to several churches to try to get a priest to come to the funeral home to say a service for our family and he couldn't find one priest. not one. because we weren't going to have a funeral mass and they weren't going to get any money out of it. i could go into several different rants about that whole situation but when it comes down to it religion is about money and control. my grandfather wanted control over his own death and the catholic church didn't like that. so instead of consoling a dozen other parishoners they choose to condemn a soul that has already been judged? because of catholocism my grandfather believed he was going to hell. my grandfather was a crotchity alcoholic that smoked two packs a day for over 60 years and spent a lot of time at the bar instead of with his family but his family always had what they needed. everyone has their own ways of expressing love. that was his. he was his own good human being in his own way. the bible tells us that we aren't supposed to condemn others, but the catholic church and religion in general does that every day. what pointless shackles. god is all around us. why do we need to step into a church to feel him and live the live he would have wanted us to? what very pointless shackles. 001205 ... datura i'm the daughter of two lapsed catholics. the first lapsed catholics in the family since, i'm assuming, st. patrick. the guilt comes naturally. 001205 ... unhinged the only time i am catholic anymore is when they pay me to be.... 001210 ... Megan this "mary and saint worship" thing you're talking about.... let me explain. Catholics don't "worship" mary and the saints. They ask them to pray for them... you know how you sometimes pray about your dead grandpa or try and talk to them? It's kinda like that, 'cept you never knew the saints personally. And they're closer to God, so they can got the hookup yo.... dude, I'm so tired.... just disregard this.... it's right, but I'm retarded. 001217 ... jem i've been raised catholic, and my mom works in a church. my whole family, actually, is involved with the church. i dont believe in the bible. i dont believe in organised religion. it causes for a lot of tension within my family. and yet i go to church every sunday, i eat the "body of christ," i stand, sit, stand, kneel, sit, kneel, sit and stand, i say the prayers and hum the hymns and everything is peachy. everything is peachy. except the fact that i hate every second of it. i hate how it makes my mom happy for me to go to church. i hate how my opinions arent taken seriously becuase im only 16. i hate how dependant people are of church. i hate how no one takes notice i die inside. 010311 ... mikey false religion. created to control the population. but it stuck! people are sheep. 010311 ... johnny west baaaaaah. baaaaaah. 010311 ... Mr. Wonderful I am not catholic, i am lutheran, and i guess u can't really call me religous. I attend church, i pray, i take communion, and i think God is a major part of my life, but i am not a fanatic, I believe there is a god, i believe in christianity, and i guess the only way to find out the truth, is when i die. There has to be a god cuz the big bang is gay, and food tastes good. we have to eat, so it dosent have to taste good, but it does, so... i think there is a god, not just because of that but that is one point 010311 ... mikey if more religious people were open minded like you then religion would be more accepted by people like me =o) 010311 ... Aimee I used to be Irish Catholic. Now I'm american. You know, you grow. 010311 ... nocturnal dammit, my mom just told me to get off the computer because we have to go to church. this is the one thing that makes me hate being home. but it makes her happy, so I don't mind it all that much. I just close my ears and think of other things. 010311 ... mikey think of blather! 010311 ... johnny west "think of London a small city dark dark in the daytime people sleep sleep in the daytime if they want to if they want to" - David Byrne 010311 ... kx21 yes, many catholics are superstitious? Given that superstitions is a key attribute of Faith...and it is always good to make people happy rather than angry... A Politically Correct Answer, PLA should be many catholics are faithful... 010311 ... kx21 It should be A Politically Correct Answer, PCA should be many catholics are faithful... 010311 ... Byrnes it's interesting that so many people who think Catholicism destroys people's free choice are mad at people who choose to be Catholic. Quite being hipocrittes. If you choose to be Catholic, more power to you. If you don't choose to be Catholic, more power to you. Only an complete ignorent moron would degrade a religion because they choose not to partisapate is the religion. Have you ever heard the phrase, "If GOD wanted there to be only one religion, than everyone would be identical"? I think the Dalai Lama or some other important dude said that. Anyways, i guess what i'm sayin is it's incredibly selfish to degrade a religion just because it doesn't appeal to you. Catholicism does a lot of good in a lot of people, so quit bashing it, you prejuduce basterds. 010520 ... futile one Perhaps it is unfair to "degrade" a religion simply because you find it unappealing. However, there is a great difference between trolling and polite discussion. Realize also that your point of view is hampered by your poor writing and spelling skills. I am afraid that I cannot take you seriously amidst words like "hippocrittes," "ignorent," and "partisapate." Sorry. 010520 ... nocturnal that's funny. I was just gonna leave the spelling thing alone because I correct people so often, I'm getting sick of people thinking I'm a grammar elitist or whatever, but I have to agree. I would also like to say that I was raised as a catholic and I can therefore say that it is worth bashing. personally, I'm against organised religion altogether, but catholics just go to church once a week, light a couple candles, say some mindless prayers, then go about their sinful lives. then (and this is really only the good catholics) they go to confession and all is forgotten. tell me something good or worthy of praise in any of that. 010520 ... Byrnes re: nocternal Hmmm... I didn't know that all my religion meant to me was lighting candles and going to church every Sunday. I thought it meant something more on a spirtual level. Thanks for correcting me. 010521 ... nocturnal I calls 'em as I sees 'em. 010521 ... ClairE You know how us Catholic_girls can be we make up for so much time a little too late i never forgot it confusing as it was no fun with no guilt feelings the sinners the saviors the loverless priests i'll see you next Sunday we all had our reasons to be there we all had our minds made up for us we had to believe in something so we did what i learned i rejected but i believe again i will suffer the consequence of this inquistion if i jump in this fountain will i be forgiven? Wow, I feel like I just channeled. (Alanis Morisette) 011211 ... Annie111 Is something that i'm not really but kind of am if i had to choose a religion Catholicism is more to me than religion It is about being Irish, mainly, to our family And culture And ritual Tradition I actually find fundamental Christians (paging Jerry Fallwell) to be much scarier than Catholics. 011211 ... little wonder I have to agree with you, fundamental Christians are a lot scarier. I find comfort with catholics...probably because I was raised that way and know what to expect. 020305 ... unique butterfly where you people get these ideas? i've been catholic my whole life and i've