Quote:
Originally Posted by Drolefille
And I was not raised with a prohibition on asking questions. It's one of the things I liked so much about the Jesuits. I do believe that that aspect has a lot more about where you were raised and the priests/nuns/lay people involved in teaching.
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And the parents.
I'm more than happy to share the story of how I got kicked out of CCD. I was in 7th grade. We were given an assignment - we were given a list of saints and told to choose one and write a paper on him/her. One of the "saints" on the list was Sarah. I asked the teacher, "Is Sarah a saint? I thought she was a matriarch." (I was right.) So the teacher chewed me out for questioning her. How dare I question an authority figure blah blah blah. She got the head of the CCD program into the classroom to berate me. Sister Peggy chewed me out in front of my classmates, formally ejected me from CCD, and then went on to berate my father on the phone (she called him "young man" and he had at least 5 years on her).
So the pastor had my father teach me from the catechism for the remainder of the academic year. And my parents and I investigated a nearby parish. We went to Mass there for a couple of months, including Easter. We were on the point of calling the parish office to enroll as parishioners when we learned that Sister Peggy was being transferred to our potential new parish as head of CCD. We went back to the old parish so fast we left skid marks.
The whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I seriously doubted whether I should get confirmed. I went through with it largely because I knew I'd be in for a world of pain if I didn't. It was the beginning of the end of my being a Catholic.
And then my life led me to Judaism. And here I am.