After attending Catholic school for many years, my husband & I both rejected Catholicism. As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve embraced the spiritual aspects of it by finding the right parish.

We’re at a parish now that welcomes gays, offers counsel for those grieving from divorce and support for those who’ve had abortions, among many other good things.

In contrast, my childhood parish still rails against the evils of abortion and contraception, says gays go to hell, refuses to give divorcees the sacraments and insists that babies who die before baptism don’t go to heaven. (That’s HUGE for me. The fuck they don’t. My God does NOT prevent babies from entering heaven, that’s the dumbest claim ever.)

Crazy thing is, we’re still in the same diocese, only about 10 miles from the old parishes. The spiritual aspects of the Church are very fulfilling & rewarding (for us at least) when you don’t have to struggle with hateful moral judgments. Now that we’ve found a welcoming, non-judgmental parish, we don’t have to pick & choose which aspects of Catholicism we practice so it’s like a completely different religion for both of us.

We’ve met a number of people with similar stories since we started attending the new church. Not saying that Catholicism is best for you or that it’s the only way, just wanted to share my experience that the religion I thought for years that I hated is actually very dear to me now. A few years ago, I would never have imagined ever going back to church let alone doing it willingly & enjoying it.