Lapsed Catholics sign in!

[LostInAnomie]

I've been lapsed for around 10 years now. How about you?

[Phredicles]

1. 21 years,

but I teach at a Catholic school. It's only awkward some of the time.

[deucemagnet]

20. 23 years,

and I teach at a Catholic university. The crucifixes in the classrooms used to bother me, but I got over it.

[petronius]

2. This is a trick, isn't it?

If that's you grandma, I go to church every week! And every holy day! And I don't try to double-dip the holy days that fall on Sunday!

(If this isn't a trap, 18 years.)

[Connonym]

3. I prefer the term "recovering"

Stopped going to Mass regularly about 20 years ago, stopped going to Mass at all (save for funerals and weddings) within the last 10 years. Finally told my mom I was agnostic about 2 years ago. She prays for me and that makes me feel so much better :-P

[greendog]

4. 32 years.

I prefer "former".

[Redstone]

5. Does 40 years of disagreeing with the Church count? If so, sign me in.

Redstone

[Kat45]

6. Stopped going about 30 years ago. Joined a UCC church 7 years ago.

Works for me.

[LeftyMom]

7. As soon as I was done with communion classes

Luckily I didn't get stuck toughing it out through Confirmation. My sister didn't even have to bother with that, which may explain why she's at least nominally a believer and I'm not- I had my fill of it.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

8. lapsed for about

5 years......irish guilt.

[edbermac]

9. I didn't lapse...I escaped.

O8)

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. I'd say about 10 years

I didn't come from a particularly religious family but I did the Catholic school thing and the going to mass on the really holy days but other than that, I was never really religious to begin with.

I still went to church with my family on Easter and Christmas up until about 2 years ago just because I didn't want to fight with them on a holiday, which was right about the time when I "came out" as an atheist...now they don't bother asking any more.

But all told it was like a 10 year process for me starting when I was about 14, though I don't think I ever really believed in God.

However, I still can't shake the Catholic guilt...

[Fearless]

14. They call it guilt, but it's really forced low self confidence

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. *Raises hand*

Left it before I married...

More than 43 years ago!

I never looked back either...

[DesertFlower]

12. about 45 years. nt

[Fearless]

13. About 6, but they've been really really good years.

:spank: :spank: :wow:


In the words of George Carlin: "I was a Catholic until I reached the age of reason."

[ButterflyBlood]

15. I refuse to consider myself lapsed since that implies I was EVER Catholic

I never was. I was someone who was raised in a mixed Catholic/Lutheran family who ended up receiving Catholic religious education because the Catholic (my mom) cared a lot more and attended churches of both denoms probably about equally. And now consider myself to have absolutely nothing to do with the church. I'm a non-denom Protestant with a Lutheran background.

[elshiva]

16. Ex-Episcopalian who went to a Roman Catholic College.

Now I'm an atheist. I've only been an atheist for the last four months.

[WinkyDink]

17. Yo! I stopped attending Mass in 1967, when I went to college.

I brook no outside criticisms of the "One True and Apostolic Faith", heh---but I can't abide the actual services anymore.
Dominus vobiscum.

[MichiganVote]

18. I ex-communicated myself 30 years ago. Never looked back.

Needless to say they haven't come looking for me but I'm sure I'm still counted in the numbers when it comes to political stuff.

[LibertyLover]

19. Going on 29 here

When I was about 25 I realized that I had no real belief in either Catholicism or Christianity. Which was interesting given that at the time I was part of the Catholic charismatic movement. The Goddess spoke to my soul and made me Her own.

[MorningGlow]

21. Walked away 30 years ago, when I was 12

Even though I was in Catholic school at the time--that was a rough one--and then went to a Catholic girls' school. I had NO patience with my classmates who never tried to understand the religion, just accepted whatever dogma was shoveled down their throats. It was like voluntary ignorance. :scared:

Anyway, went over to the Dark Side (hee) and became a pagan and witch in my late 20s. I'm much happier over here! :hi:

[PleadTheFirst]

22. 20 years lapsed, after 12 years of Catholic school

[Chan790]

23. 7 years here...

16 years of Catholic schooling (K-12, 4 years at the Catholic University of America) will do that to you.

[Radical Activist]

24. Lapsed Catholics can be interesting.

They often have interesting ideas about religion and politics that I agree with.

And its more fun if she has her old school uniform and some repression issues to work out.

[krabigirl]

25. 24 years here. Left at 14, after my parents forced me to be confirmed.

[sammythecat]

26. I'd say about 32 years ago

was the last time I was in a Catholic church on my own accord, not for a wedding, funeral, etc. It was just me at Sunday Mass. That was the first time since I left home at 17 and I haven't returned since. So I guess that really means I haven't been a practicing Catholic (or anything else) for 40 years.

However, being raised by Irish immigrants and attending Catholic schools for 12 years leaves a pretty deep impression. Although I've long considered myself 95% atheist and 5% agnostic, that Catholic experience never really leaves completely and I don't regret, at all, the values I was taught at home and in school.

[bigwillq]

27. Former Catholic, current Agnostic!

:bounce:

[SacredCow]

28. at least 25 years....

Mostly agnostic now.

[merh]

29. was a wandering catholic, no parish just attended the masses

where I could find one of interest, until 2000, when they started promoting GWB for office and politics crept into the church and poured from the pulpit I gave up going. That was the last straw for me as a formal religious type - I've attended the masses and participated in the sacraments when attending weddings and funerals and such, my religion is mine, between me and God, they can't take it away from me, it was never theirs to begin with. The rituals are like chicken noodle soup when sick, its a comfort zone for me, not about guilt, it just feels right. I never had problems with the rituals, its the people not living up to the message, the pious priest that condemn while they sin. Like the monsignor of the cathedral parish I used to attend telling us, the parishioners, that we should not give money to the homeless that begged outside the church - that is what the St. Vincent DePaul society was for. Holy cripes - the beatitudes has been satisfied by a society that gives to the needy if they qualify.

[NJmaverick]

30. 30 years and counting

[sniffa]

31. Not lapsed, but ex for about 22 years

[Ikonoklast]

32. 36 years here

Got kicked out of a Jesuit prep school for arguing with the Theology teacher.

I would use the art of debate and logical discussion the Jesuits taught me to poke holes in his stories and fables, and he hated my fucking guts for it.

Even though I had passing grades in his class, he flunked me.

Stopped believing in invisible daddy-figure magical sky beings long time ago.

[Whisp]

33. long time.

i ditched that stupidity when I left my parents home.
couldn't handle all that fire and brimstone shit and the constant telling me how worthless I was. at least that's how it was back in my day and with the particular priests I had the misfortune to have.

and boy, did they suck a lot of cash from my Baba's mattress. scoundrels.

[Raven]

34. It's the Catholic Church that lapsed, not me. :-)

[crim son]

35. Lapsed eighteen years.

I just today put up a small altar to Azna the Mother Goddess. I'm done with Catholicism.

[Ewellian]

36. 40 years nt

[UTUSN]

37. 40

[mcctatas]

38. I'm not lapsed, I'm recovering...

[fudge stripe cookays]

39. 28 years.

My psychotic mother was raised Catholic, and sent me to Catholic school so I would not be bussed (she was also a raging racist).

Four years of Catholic school in junior high. Then my father died. Out of all the priests at the school, they were ALL busy when it came time to say the service. But when she threatened to pull my tuition money, miraculously, a time slot opened.

After 47 years of Catholicism, she renounced it that day because she was so pissed. And I renounced religion completely when I saw how horrible she was to people (including me) but then begged me to go to mass on Sunday. I couldn't understand why; what was the point? I wasn't going to be a hypocrite like she was.

[KamaAina]

40. 20-25 years here

not an overnight thing; there were a couple of futile attempts at reconciliation on my part, the last one taking place in NOLA where Catholicism is such an integral part of the local culture.