Why does DC seem like such a Catholic town with so little Catholics?

[Anonymous]

What are you talking about OP? Go to the Catholic Information Center in K Street. My in-laws are Catholic so Catholic DC is all we hear about. You need to expand your friend and association group.

[Anonymous]

Maryland was a Catholic settlement

DC was originally Maryland
Georgetown
Catholic U
Georgetown Prep, Dematha, St Johns, Stone Ridge, Mater Dei, Holy Child, Holy Cross, Seton, St Marys, McNamara, Carroll, Heights, St Marys Ryken, St Francis, Spalding, Mt St Joes, Visitation, Good Counsel, Notre Dame Prep, Maryvale, Mercy, John Carroll, Calvert Hall, St Anselm's.

It's drenched in parochial schools everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

I’m really sorry you were treated like a member of your church and not as an individual. But the Church has made its position on LGBQT people abundantly clear - God loves you, but living as your authentic self and seeking out human love and connection in the way you were born to want is a mortal sin that you must avoid at all costs. Your daughter may be a lesbian, but the church demands that she live without sexual companionship and will not recognize any marriage she makes unless it is to a born man.

People are not unreasonable in assuming that your continued support of and affiliation with an institution with such a clearly stated policy indicates your support for that policy. Maybe it’s not fair, but church affiliation isn’t mandatory, and it’s certainly not something that is outside your control.

If your organization serves a lot of LGBQT people, you have to accept that serving that population in a real way means recognizing when your choices make people uncomfortable. No one is going to ask a card carrying member of the Daughters of the Confederacy to join the NAACP Board, even if she’s just honoring her ancestors and isn’t really a racist. The stink is there.

I'm not sure which post is worse. Hers or yours.

I don't believe she was asked to leave because she was Catholic. That's total bullshit and didn't happen. But assuming it really did, your support for it is also bullshit. You're a bigot.

Taking responsibility for your choices is hard, I can see why you’d shut down and start insulting people who make you uncomfortable.

Maybe you should stop being bigoted to people based on who they are and how they love. How dare you presume God made them wrong?! What do you know?

One of us is the bigot and it ain't me.

Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. God knows what you think about his creations. You’re crazy if you think any amount of ritual can forgive that kind of unabashed hate. Absolutely crazy.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you just trolling? Spare me the Catholic bashing. I've been Catholic my whole life. I went to Catholic school through grad school. I've been to Mass a thousand times over. Never once have I been subjected to anything anti-gay in any of those contexts. My best friend is gay. I just went to his wedding with my whole family. The Pride Parade is our favorite day in the summer. We live right on the parade route and have a party. I don't give sh*t if you're gay, and neither does any Catholic I know.

You're the one generalizing and spreading hate.

You’re pretty lucky then, because our homily today (in Arlington) was centered around the holy family and how same sex couples, people who “choose their gender” and those who don’t marry and have children aren’t on the right path. That was the message. I don’t agree with it, but we get a homily like a few times a year.

[Anonymous]

To answer OP’s original question, there are close knit, insulated pockets. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I made a great community of friends in our k-8, our kids went to the same couple high schools and now may are going to the same colleges. My community both got larger and smaller. More people, but the overlap and connections are crazy so it feels like it got tighter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

I’m really sorry you were treated like a member of your church and not as an individual. But the Church has made its position on LGBQT people abundantly clear - God loves you, but living as your authentic self and seeking out human love and connection in the way you were born to want is a mortal sin that you must avoid at all costs. Your daughter may be a lesbian, but the church demands that she live without sexual companionship and will not recognize any marriage she makes unless it is to a born man.

People are not unreasonable in assuming that your continued support of and affiliation with an institution with such a clearly stated policy indicates your support for that policy. Maybe it’s not fair, but church affiliation isn’t mandatory, and it’s certainly not something that is outside your control.

If your organization serves a lot of LGBQT people, you have to accept that serving that population in a real way means recognizing when your choices make people uncomfortable. No one is going to ask a card carrying member of the Daughters of the Confederacy to join the NAACP Board, even if she’s just honoring her ancestors and isn’t really a racist. The stink is there.

I'm not sure which post is worse. Hers or yours.

I don't believe she was asked to leave because she was Catholic. That's total bullshit and didn't happen. But assuming it really did, your support for it is also bullshit. You're a bigot.

Taking responsibility for your choices is hard, I can see why you’d shut down and start insulting people who make you uncomfortable.

Maybe you should stop being bigoted to people based on who they are and how they love. How dare you presume God made them wrong?! What do you know?

One of us is the bigot and it ain't me.

Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. God knows what you think about his creations. You’re crazy if you think any amount of ritual can forgive that kind of unabashed hate. Absolutely crazy.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you just trolling? Spare me the Catholic bashing. I've been Catholic my whole life. I went to Catholic school through grad school. I've been to Mass a thousand times over. Never once have I been subjected to anything anti-gay in any of those contexts. My best friend is gay. I just went to his wedding with my whole family. The Pride Parade is our favorite day in the summer. We live right on the parade route and have a party. I don't give sh*t if you're gay, and neither does any Catholic I know.

You're the one generalizing and spreading hate.

You’re pretty lucky then, because our homily today (in Arlington) was centered around the holy family and how same sex couples, people who “choose their gender” and those who don’t marry and have children aren’t on the right path. That was the message. I don’t agree with it, but we get a homily like a few times a year.

Exactly.

My friend is a widow and she asked me to go to church with her since going alone was lonely.

She she and I and her 3 kids and my 2 went. 1/2 way through the homily she turned to me and said… I don’t let my kids watch PG-13 movies, but I’m gonna have them sit through this homily talking about sex.

And we all stood up and we walked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

I’m really sorry you were treated like a member of your church and not as an individual. But the Church has made its position on LGBQT people abundantly clear - God loves you, but living as your authentic self and seeking out human love and connection in the way you were born to want is a mortal sin that you must avoid at all costs. Your daughter may be a lesbian, but the church demands that she live without sexual companionship and will not recognize any marriage she makes unless it is to a born man.

People are not unreasonable in assuming that your continued support of and affiliation with an institution with such a clearly stated policy indicates your support for that policy. Maybe it’s not fair, but church affiliation isn’t mandatory, and it’s certainly not something that is outside your control.

If your organization serves a lot of LGBQT people, you have to accept that serving that population in a real way means recognizing when your choices make people uncomfortable. No one is going to ask a card carrying member of the Daughters of the Confederacy to join the NAACP Board, even if she’s just honoring her ancestors and isn’t really a racist. The stink is there.

I'm not sure which post is worse. Hers or yours.

I don't believe she was asked to leave because she was Catholic. That's total bullshit and didn't happen. But assuming it really did, your support for it is also bullshit. You're a bigot.

Taking responsibility for your choices is hard, I can see why you’d shut down and start insulting people who make you uncomfortable.

Maybe you should stop being bigoted to people based on who they are and how they love. How dare you presume God made them wrong?! What do you know?

One of us is the bigot and it ain't me.

Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. God knows what you think about his creations. You’re crazy if you think any amount of ritual can forgive that kind of unabashed hate. Absolutely crazy.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you just trolling? Spare me the Catholic bashing. I've been Catholic my whole life. I went to Catholic school through grad school. I've been to Mass a thousand times over. Never once have I been subjected to anything anti-gay in any of those contexts. My best friend is gay. I just went to his wedding with my whole family. The Pride Parade is our favorite day in the summer. We live right on the parade route and have a party. I don't give sh*t if you're gay, and neither does any Catholic I know.

You're the one generalizing and spreading hate.

Hon, you’re putting money in a pot that is instantly turned around to make proclamations like “gay people are living in sin if they don’t commit to a life of abstinence.” And not just that, laws that seek to make those religious proclamations the LAW.

I’m sorry if this is painful for you, that what you choose to finance with your time and your treasure does not match your perception of yourself. But maybe if you stopped resorting to calling people bigots and instead did a little self reflection, you’d understand. Truth is truth, facts are facts. People who support hate are haters.

Calling traditional religious views on sexuality "hate" is bigoted. Do you call traditional Muslims and Orthodox Jews "haters" or only Catholics?

+1 Truth is not hate but it is hateful to those in rebellion against God and the natural order he created. It is biologically impossible for two people of the same sex “mating” with one another to create a baby; therefore it is unnatural and goes against nature. God declares it an abomination, a terrible sin: those who engage in the sin of LGBTQ will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature
—Romans 1:26

That has nothing to do with LGBT 🏳️‍🌈 love.

If two drug pushers or child molesters show affection to one another and declare their love, God does not say, “Welp, they love each other so they are not sinning.”

The Bible calls LGBTQ “love” unnatural affection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

I’m really sorry you were treated like a member of your church and not as an individual. But the Church has made its position on LGBQT people abundantly clear - God loves you, but living as your authentic self and seeking out human love and connection in the way you were born to want is a mortal sin that you must avoid at all costs. Your daughter may be a lesbian, but the church demands that she live without sexual companionship and will not recognize any marriage she makes unless it is to a born man.

People are not unreasonable in assuming that your continued support of and affiliation with an institution with such a clearly stated policy indicates your support for that policy. Maybe it’s not fair, but church affiliation isn’t mandatory, and it’s certainly not something that is outside your control.

If your organization serves a lot of LGBQT people, you have to accept that serving that population in a real way means recognizing when your choices make people uncomfortable. No one is going to ask a card carrying member of the Daughters of the Confederacy to join the NAACP Board, even if she’s just honoring her ancestors and isn’t really a racist. The stink is there.

I'm not sure which post is worse. Hers or yours.

I don't believe she was asked to leave because she was Catholic. That's total bullshit and didn't happen. But assuming it really did, your support for it is also bullshit. You're a bigot.

Taking responsibility for your choices is hard, I can see why you’d shut down and start insulting people who make you uncomfortable.

Maybe you should stop being bigoted to people based on who they are and how they love. How dare you presume God made them wrong?! What do you know?

One of us is the bigot and it ain't me.

Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. God knows what you think about his creations. You’re crazy if you think any amount of ritual can forgive that kind of unabashed hate. Absolutely crazy.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you just trolling? Spare me the Catholic bashing. I've been Catholic my whole life. I went to Catholic school through grad school. I've been to Mass a thousand times over. Never once have I been subjected to anything anti-gay in any of those contexts. My best friend is gay. I just went to his wedding with my whole family. The Pride Parade is our favorite day in the summer. We live right on the parade route and have a party. I don't give sh*t if you're gay, and neither does any Catholic I know.

You're the one generalizing and spreading hate.

You’re pretty lucky then, because our homily today (in Arlington) was centered around the holy family and how same sex couples, people who “choose their gender” and those who don’t marry and have children aren’t on the right path. That was the message. I don’t agree with it, but we get a homily like a few times a year.

Exactly.

My friend is a widow and she asked me to go to church with her since going alone was lonely.

She she and I and her 3 kids and my 2 went. 1/2 way through the homily she turned to me and said… I don’t let my kids watch PG-13 movies, but I’m gonna have them sit through this homily talking about sex.

And we all stood up and we walked out.

And the priest probably thought you walked out because you disagreed with him and thought same sex marriage was fine. It probably never occurred to him that he was talking about kinky sex to children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Church is pretty well attended. Have you looked there?

🤣😇

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are Catholics here for sure, but it’s not nearly as heavily Catholic as Boston, New York or Philly. Historically it was always more African American and AAs aren’t real Catholic.

What?

The ignorance is so palpable it’s nappy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in New York, where Catholic communities felt much more rooted in immigrant identity—Irish, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino, etc. There was plenty of overlap, of course, but Catholicism was as much a cultural inheritance as a religious practice.

You see less of that in D.C. than in places like Boston, New York, or Chicago. In D.C , Catholic life seems more centered on long-standing institutions, traditions, and status, rather than on immigrant or working-class roots. It feels more insular as a result.

You seem to have little experience with the communities of more recent Catholic immigrants to the DC area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

Same. I could not be more liberal, but when people hear where I went to school, they immedialtey asusme the opposite. Do people not know Catholics historically have been evenly split in U.S. politics? Kennedy anyone? Biden, Pelosi?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

I’m really sorry you were treated like a member of your church and not as an individual. But the Church has made its position on LGBQT people abundantly clear - God loves you, but living as your authentic self and seeking out human love and connection in the way you were born to want is a mortal sin that you must avoid at all costs. Your daughter may be a lesbian, but the church demands that she live without sexual companionship and will not recognize any marriage she makes unless it is to a born man.

People are not unreasonable in assuming that your continued support of and affiliation with an institution with such a clearly stated policy indicates your support for that policy. Maybe it’s not fair, but church affiliation isn’t mandatory, and it’s certainly not something that is outside your control.

If your organization serves a lot of LGBQT people, you have to accept that serving that population in a real way means recognizing when your choices make people uncomfortable. No one is going to ask a card carrying member of the Daughters of the Confederacy to join the NAACP Board, even if she’s just honoring her ancestors and isn’t really a racist. The stink is there.

I'm not sure which post is worse. Hers or yours.

I don't believe she was asked to leave because she was Catholic. That's total bullshit and didn't happen. But assuming it really did, your support for it is also bullshit. You're a bigot.

Taking responsibility for your choices is hard, I can see why you’d shut down and start insulting people who make you uncomfortable.

Maybe you should stop being bigoted to people based on who they are and how they love. How dare you presume God made them wrong?! What do you know?

One of us is the bigot and it ain't me.

Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. God knows what you think about his creations. You’re crazy if you think any amount of ritual can forgive that kind of unabashed hate. Absolutely crazy.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you just trolling? Spare me the Catholic bashing. I've been Catholic my whole life. I went to Catholic school through grad school. I've been to Mass a thousand times over. Never once have I been subjected to anything anti-gay in any of those contexts. My best friend is gay. I just went to his wedding with my whole family. The Pride Parade is our favorite day in the summer. We live right on the parade route and have a party. I don't give sh*t if you're gay, and neither does any Catholic I know.

You're the one generalizing and spreading hate.

You’re pretty lucky then, because our homily today (in Arlington) was centered around the holy family and how same sex couples, people who “choose their gender” and those who don’t marry and have children aren’t on the right path. That was the message. I don’t agree with it, but we get a homily like a few times a year.

DP: I have NEVER in 60 years of being Catholic, having nuns and priests as relatives, and attending 15 years of Catholic schools heard such a homily. You should change parishes if that is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

Same. I could not be more liberal, but when people hear where I went to school, they immedialtey asusme the opposite. Do people not know Catholics historically have been evenly split in U.S. politics? Kennedy anyone? Biden, Pelosi?

Sorry but the Catholic Church has done so much harm to so many people (abuse cover-ups, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, curtailing women’s reproductive freedom, the untenable priest celibacy requirement that leads to repression and covert expressions of sexuality) that it’s hard to to see practicing Catholics as complicit or as not being troubled by this.

I was raised Catholic and can’t fathom practicing now. Also, Kennedy was a complicated person individually and full of the contradictions and buried flaws just like the Catholic Church writ large - not sure that’s a great example…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anyone who thinks that we Catholics are all running around hating and judging gays just don't get us. They're certainly not going to Mass with us (where gay sh*t is never discussed) and they're not having dinner with us. Sure, from time to time some bishop or somebody in Rome says something about the gays -- we roll our eyes and go on with our day.

There's a lot of "official" stuff that I don't like about many other mainstream religions. I don't judge every member of those faiths for that stuff. If you are judging every Catholic for every official tenet of the religion it makes you a bigot. Plain and simple.

If the official stance of the religion is that being gay is a sin and abortion is a sin, you can’t really blame people for assuming those are your beliefs. There are also very high profile conservative Catholics wreaking havoc on our country right now, so people are going to be reactionary.

DP: First, of course you can blame a person for making a bigotted assumption. You know full well that people can be personally pro life and politically pro choice -- there are tons of such people in the Democratic party. I'm sure you know Catholics get abortions, have IVF, use birth control, and have sex before marraige too, even if they believe it is a sin. You also know full well that there are a lot of gay Catholics with loving friends and family members who are also Catholic. To "assume" otherwise is bigoty.

Notwithstanding the Church's teaching, Catholics who may or may not follow the Church teaching on this personally, can also understand and recognize that it is not the government's place to pick one religion or religious view over many others, particularly when they aren't even sure the Church is getting these right. And you know this because you see it at work in your own government (our government has more D Catholics than R Cahtolics, btw), so again, don't pretend your "assumption" is not bigotry. To assume every Catholic would form the exact same legal argument as any given judge or Justice, or hold the same position on controversial legal or political topics, is frankly ridiculous. You cannot honestly hold that position given the reality of political splits among Catholics, including those in various offices, unless you are acting out of bigotted emotion instead of rational thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The universities, the churches/cathedrals, and yet I never meet any Catholics out in this area at all.

What gives?

This is a hard town to be openly Catholic with people that you don’t know well. Although the majority of US Catholics and Catholics in this area particular, are not social conservatives, you will be tar-brushed as right wing.

Before the pandemic, I volunteered for years with a nonprofit that did art therapy. In 2019, someone joined the board who assumed that I and another volunteer would be anti-LGBTQ because of our religions. She demanded that we quit because she said it made her feel uncomfortable and she was certain we made the population we served uncomfortable. She only knew I was Catholic because she asked to change a meeting to accommodate her religious holiday and I said I couldn’t attend the new date because my religious holiday was the next day.

When I was told I had to quit because I was Catholic, I fought back a bit, pointing out that 1)one of my kids was an out lesbian and very active in our parish, 2) the witnesses at my wedding were a gay couple, and 3) I had been the volunteer who brought in a trans masc artist (a friend’s partner) to work with our Haitian clients.

It didn’t work. The knee jerk on her part was that as a Catholic, I had to be a bigot so I had to go.

Since then, I have been hesitant to identify myself as Catholic. When it happens online, I see that same knee jerk response even when I am clearly protesting socially conservative policies and ideas.

Same. I could not be more liberal, but when people hear where I went to school, they immedialtey asusme the opposite. Do people not know Catholics historically have been evenly split in U.S. politics? Kennedy anyone? Biden, Pelosi?

Sorry but the Catholic Church has done so much harm to so many people (abuse cover-ups, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, curtailing women’s reproductive freedom, the untenable priest celibacy requirement that leads to repression and covert expressions of sexuality) that it’s hard to to see practicing Catholics as complicit or as not being troubled by this.

I was raised Catholic and can’t fathom practicing now. Also, Kennedy was a complicated person individually and full of the contradictions and buried flaws just like the Catholic Church writ large - not sure that’s a great example…

That is BS and you know it. Apply that to any other group where some in it, it's leaders, have done great harm or hold views you don't agree with. Are you denouncing your citizenship because of the evil done by our government?