I tried to give our families personal reasons for leaving the Catholic church without going in depth into my personal reasons for leaving the church and I guess that really did not answer the question the OP asked. I was really trying not to "bash" the faith because in the end certain things go on in every religion that can be viewed in a negative light. What really drove me away was 1) The entire scandel of sexual child abuse. Evidence emerged that showed that the church was aware of many of the problems and the individuals responsible for the acts. These situations were kept quiet and the church merely reassigned these individuals to other parishes. I sorry but a crime is a crime. The church had a responsibility to their members, to the children, to God to stop these abuses and turn these investigations over to the proper authorities. This whole situation had me severly question the faith I was practising. 2) The whole birth control issue. The Catholic church advocates the use of no birth control other than abstinance or the "rythim method" or what ever the proper term for it is which I can't remeber right now. The church quotes scripture about the spilling of the seed which by the way is also one of the reasons that they find homosexuality so sinful besides the fact that the scripture calls it a sin directly. After consultation with three different priests at three different parishes the conclusion I drew was that the churchs doctrine said you can have sex only if you do so in an attemot to have children, all other times it is sinful. Well right there aren't they contridicting themselves by saying this and at the same time saying the only form or birth control we acknowledge is the rythim method.
Finally I mentioned in an earlier post that we were required to obtain letters from the priest at the church where our chosen Godparents for our children attended. I was told by a later poster this did not happen in her parish. Well thats great, but in the Houston Galveston Diosese it happens. I have numerous friends and relative who are Catholic and record keeping is alive and well here. When ever you go for any sacrement the church creates a file and requires that letters and or documents verifying your Baptism, first communion, confirmation etc. be kept to make sure you have not skipped a step or done what was suppose to be done. The church makes it very difficult to be a member and I'm sorry but in the world I live in I am looking for spirituality, growth in understanding of my faith and walking with Christ in the growth of my faith, not another opportunity to fill out endless forms and perform record keeping. Again, these are the reasons I left the Catholic church and I am not bashing it in any way. These are changes that I could not see coming in the way the church operated and therefore as a family we made the decision to move on. I can honestly say that spritually it was the best decision my family has ever made as we have moved closer to the Lord and deepened our understanding of our faith.
