13:52 I am sorry if being denied the Eucharist hurts your feelings and you feel left out. Poor baby. You don't have to agree with the position of the Church. You don't have to go to the Catholic Church. No one is forcing anyone to be Catholic and live with such barbaric rules regarding the Eucharist and alter servers. If you don't like the teachings of the Church go elsewhere. There are plenty of other denominations you can choose from.

I am also 13:52 (and I apologize again for perpetuating the falsehood that altar girls are not allowed).

@13:35, so those who don't agree with the RCC can't post here? Oh kay ...

@13:48, I've only seen it used by RadTrads to complain about pro-choice and/or birth control-using Catholics. (Which, if I'm not mistaken, are the majority.) I use the word RadTrads to describe folks who think Vatican II was an abomination and nothing good has happened since then.

Those who are concerned about the Episcopal Church (of which I am a member) becoming a de facto arm of the Democratic Party may not find their fears relieved by joining the Roman Catholic Church, although as with TEC, the politicization of the RCC is a parish-by-parish and diocese-by-diocese thing.

I'm a black female protestant who was lucky enough to spend some time in the catholic church growing up and I have wonderful memories of the amazing people who worshipped there. The Catholic church is a big tent and encompasses many liberal and many conservatives, see for example, the Anglican and Catholic churches in Europe. Because of that, it doesn't have the deniability of many protestant denominations who can distance themselves from "extremes" within the protestant family due to different names.

I could go on but the people who feel personally offended by Catholics for existing on DCUM are INSANE. It's like they search for the word Catholic and then rain down diatribes on the rest of us. We get it. You don't like it. But anyone who wants to be Catholic can do so. It really is a free country. And people are allowed to recommend Catholicism to others. The problem is that these anti-Catholics seem to think that other people are ignorant of Catholic doctrine and thus by telling us basic things about Catholicism, we will have our minds changed. But really - WE KNOW. Thus there is no need to start bashing Catholicism like it was invented last week in every thread. WE KNOW.WE KNOW THE TENETS OF THE DENOMINATION - it's pretty well known . So if someone says "have you tried a Catholic church, YOU CAN ASSUME THEY KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. And if the other person says "which do you recommend"? YOU CAN ASSUME THEY KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. We know who the Pope is. We know their stance on abortion and condoms and gay rights. WE KNOW. WE KNOW. You don't have to come in guns blazing as if you are educating. YOU ARE NOT.

So if you are not educating, then you are just inserting yourself into a conversation with irrelevant and uninteresting information for the purposes of picking a fight on an issue you feel irrationally attached to. You are being a troll. YOU ARE A TROLL. You can't bear the fact that someone else holds a different opinion to you so you just HAVE to rant whenever you can. Can't you just go to the political boards and criticize Republicans?

How long before the whorehouse poster shows up? Bets, anybody? Or maybe she's already here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
2. No altar girls, much less no married/female priests

I hate to perpetuate your anti-catholic vent but wrt to no.2 above about altar girls, I'm catholic and my nieces are currently training to be altar girls. We also have many friends whose daughters are altar girls in catholic parishes throughout the DMV area.

Has the Diocese of Arlington changed its position?

A quick use of Google-fu says that it has, hence that quibble is invalid.

Anonymous wrote:
4. The allegations of "cafeteria Catholic" against those who do not believe the entire doctrine (but most often laity who use birth control or don't think abortion needs to be outlawed)

I guess it must be the tone of voice they used when they said "cafeteria catholic" that offended you instead of the words (since they are an pithy description that captures the essence in a humorous way somebody who picks and chooses.)

Anonymous wrote:

FWIW, the thread turned into a discussion of Catholicism when some Catholics came in and asserted that OP needed to become Catholic.

So Catholics can't talk about their church without you coming on to talk about your college roommate? Oh kay....... Whoever used the word "whiny" had your number.

Anonymous wrote:
2. No altar girls, much less no married/female priests

I hate to perpetuate your anti-catholic vent but wrt to no.2 above about altar girls, I'm catholic and my nieces are currently training to be altar girls. We also have many friends whose daughters are altar girls in catholic parishes throughout the DMV area.

And we're off...!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree that the Catholics are just anti-women--and the anti-abortion thing is untenable.

You obviously have no real understanding of the Catholic faith.

In fact, in Europe at least, predominantly Catholic countries have much higher participation by women in the workplace than in predominately Protestant ones. Women also are more likely to go into traditional male fields like engineering.

What European countries are still practicing AND Catholic? Portugal? Malta? Certainly not France, and there's probably more practicing Muslims in Spain than Catholics (as in attend some service 1x a week at the least.)

And yeah, when I think Catholic, I think of my former college roommate who no longer considers me a friend because I'm now a Democrat, is rabidly against gay marriage and abortion, insists his wife (I think he truly believes this) stay at home and have kid after kid despite having a professional degree, and was, overall, an asshole to me and my wife when we tried to hang out after college graduation. I dislike the idea of rabid Republicans dominating the church and my fellow parishioners even more than the idea of rabid Democrats.

Our experience with St. B (Springfield VA) wasn't the greatest either, everyone just seemed in a hurry to get out once Mass was over. Not a huge fan of the "Oh yeah, you're not cool enough to share the Eucharist" thing, either, or the "agree with everything we say or you're a fake Cafeteria Catholic" thing.

Oh yeah, and the denial of Communion to politicians with the "wrong" views (it seems having abhorrent social justice views is A-OK, but being pro-choice is enough to deny communion.)

And I guess not allowing altar girls is A-OK if you're in Northern VA. Yes, men and women are different. Now explain why this means a teenage girl can't wear a white robe and light some candles at the start of Mass.

Maybe your friends dropped you not because of your style of Catholicism, but because you just sound like a rabidly angry, sputtering lunatic.

Let's boil down my diatribe, and remove the bits about my friend.

1. Closed Eucharist (i.e. you're not Catholic, no Eucharist for you)
2. No altar girls, much less no married/female priests
3. Denial of Communion to pro-choice politicians, but no similar denial to those with horrible records on social justice
4. The allegations of "cafeteria Catholic" against those who do not believe the entire doctrine (but most often laity who use birth control or don't think abortion needs to be outlawed)

These are issues I have with the Roman Catholic Church.

FWIW, the thread turned into a discussion of Catholicism when some Catholics came in and asserted that OP needed to become Catholic.

Because DCUM turns everything into a free for all---often times Catholics, usually Republicans and frequently, suburbanites. Little people who have the need to feel superior always find someone/thing to rail about.

Can somebody explain how a thread about an Episcopalian church in NW DC turned into another free-for-all against Catholics?

Maybe your friends dropped you not because of your style of Catholicism, but because you just sound like a rabidly angry, sputtering lunatic.

Thank God I'm not catholic, I'm protestant - if only because I don't have to deal with the misconceptions from people who don't know what they're talking about, or with the people who knew one catholic in college and extrapolate to my entire faith...."

Well said.

Thank God I'm not catholic, I'm protestant - if only because I don't have to deal with the misconceptions from people who don't know what they're talking about, or with the people who knew one catholic in college and extrapolate to my entire faith....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree that the Catholics are just anti-women--and the anti-abortion thing is untenable.

You obviously have no real understanding of the Catholic faith.

In fact, in Europe at least, predominantly Catholic countries have much higher participation by women in the workplace than in predominately Protestant ones. Women also are more likely to go into traditional male fields like engineering.

What European countries are still practicing AND Catholic? Portugal? Malta? Certainly not France, and there's probably more practicing Muslims in Spain than Catholics (as in attend some service 1x a week at the least.)

And yeah, when I think Catholic, I think of my former college roommate who no longer considers me a friend because I'm now a Democrat, is rabidly against gay marriage and abortion, insists his wife (I think he truly believes this) stay at home and have kid after kid despite having a professional degree, and was, overall, an asshole to me and my wife when we tried to hang out after college graduation. I dislike the idea of rabid Republicans dominating the church and my fellow parishioners even more than the idea of rabid Democrats.

Our experience with St. B (Springfield VA) wasn't the greatest either, everyone just seemed in a hurry to get out once Mass was over. Not a huge fan of the "Oh yeah, you're not cool enough to share the Eucharist" thing, either, or the "agree with everything we say or you're a fake Cafeteria Catholic" thing.

Oh yeah, and the denial of Communion to politicians with the "wrong" views (it seems having abhorrent social justice views is A-OK, but being pro-choice is enough to deny communion.)

And I guess not allowing altar girls is A-OK if you're in Northern VA. Yes, men and women are different. Now explain why this means a teenage girl can't wear a white robe and light some candles at the start of Mass.

Maybe your friends dropped you not because of your style of Catholicism, but because you just sound like a rabidly angry, sputtering lunatic.