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[quote=Anonymous]I know there are a number of recent threads on Catholicism and some about folks leaving the Catholic Church. I thought this was specific enough to merit its own thread for some personal advice.

Even before the recent/further revelations about additional sexual abuse in the Church, I have been struggling with belonging to the Church/my Catholic parish. I was raised Catholic and completed all sacraments including being married in a Catholic church (with a dispensation because my husband is [non-practicing] Jewish), and having both our kids (6 and 4 now) christened in a Catholic church.

But for several years since my kids were born, I have not really gone to Mass much, nor have I taken the kids. For a brief period I found a parish I really liked when my son was younger, and they had a nursery offering for toddlers while adults attended Mass upstairs. I felt like I got so much more out of Mass when I went by myself. But we moved away and I couldn't find another parish with a nursery. Then, it was simply too difficult to take both kids myself when my daughter was a baby, and since my husband is Jewish he was not inclined to attend Mass (which is fine with me, just logistically challenging). Occasionally I would leave the kids with him and go myself, but over time it became far less a habit.

At least, these are the conscious reasons for not going, but recently I have been reflecting on the more subconscious reasons. I have found over and over again that my important non-spiritual beliefs do not align with the rigid constructs of Catholicism. Specifically I am looking for a religion/congregation that supports [u]my[/u] beliefs in:

- inclusivity, accepting of all people regardless of sex orientation, gender identity, sex, background 
- science and the laws of nature for lack of a better phrase
- tenets and practices of equality and social justice that I don't feel supported by the Catholic Church 
- that the Bible is NOT the be-all, end-all "Word" on humanity and spirituality and the teachings of other major religions in the world are not wrong/bad
- spirituality and a higher power (in my case I do believe in God and Jesus, and I would maintain that belief regardless), but that one doesn't necessarily need a narrowly structured religion to experience and practice spirituality and have a relationship with God

And after reflection I do know that I want my kids and I to have *some* kind of religious/spirituality-based structure in our lives, just something broad and fitting with my/our beliefs from other areas of life too. I have been in a push-pull with attending Mass and not, based on the idea that I "had" to stick with the Catholic Church. Certainly some of that is influenced by my mom who routinely attends Mass and does expect us to.

In considering all that, I was thinking that Unitarian Universalist might be a better fit. To be honest I don't know *that* much about it, but from what I do understand of it, it aligns nicely with some of these broad beliefs.

My hand does feel a little "forced" at reflecting on this and making some decisions because if I do ultimately decide to stay in the Catholic Church, I want to invest more time into participating and bringing my kids into the Church and since my son is in 1st grade we are approaching the time for him to start catechism for preparing to receive communion.

Does anyone have any experience having left Catholicism and "converted" to UU, specifically? Any recommendations of good books to read about UU? I was thinking about reading a book on it to learn more, and also finding a local UU congregation and going to a service.[/quote]

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