Your perception of theists

[Pyrrho]

There are likely several different reasons for this.  For one thing, there is the whole history of the Catholic church, with the Inquisition and so forth, that really does not make one wish to open up to a Catholic about things that Catholics have tortured and murdered people over.

Eh, sorry but I really don't think this has anything to do with it. :

Catholics identify with an organization that did those things, and only stopped doing them because secular authorities forced them to stop.  That is why the Inquisition ended in some countries before it ended in others; if it had been ended as a matter of church policy, it would have stopped everywhere all at once.  The organization has not been changed to get rid of such things.  

These are incidents that happened centuries ago by people who are long dead. The Catholic Church is a huge promoter of life, even taking a stand against the death penalty for all criminals world wide. I don't think any of my atheist friends fear that I would either a. torture/kill them, or b. support the torture/killing of them. Lol.

I did not say that they thought you were going to torture or kill them.  The secular authorities will not allow you to do that with impunity.  But it does illustrate the level of hatred that Catholics have had for certain kinds of ideas, and you may (or may not) have that level of hatred yourself.  The fact that you identify with an organization with such a brutal past does not encourage people to tell you things.

I think they just don't feel comfortable talking about these things with a strong theist (whether Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, or whatever), for fear of getting into arguments, offending each other, getting in awkward situations, etc. Friends generally like to get along and don't like to get into deep topics with very opposing views. I can understand that, but still find it unfortunate.

I stated that in the part of my post that you omitted in your quote.