Ask an ex-Catholic

[Aroura]

Well I'm not sure if is still used, but 15 years ago when I was in high school it all of the Catholic schools I knew of in TN participated.  It's supposed to be purely voluntary but I declined participation so my parents signed me up.  One of my brothers was starting to be rebellious.  When he came back he became a devout Catholic again and is still to this day.  I was much worse than him so they hoped it would help.

Basically they took us to an elementary school for a weekend and chained the doors (not sure how they bypassed fire code).  Then for the next 48 hours we were only allowed an hour to sleep (but they gave us Monday off from school to recover lol).  Then we have search leaders who were close to our age talk about their struggles and how they found faith.   One talked about being molested by a guy dressed as Santa Claus.  Another talked about how he was a bully and one day waiting in line in the lunch room Jesus appeared to him and said "I forgive you".  I asked him if it was sloppy Joe day because that's the only time Jesus visited our cafeteria.  He didn't think it was as funny as I did.  All the while we listened to Creed.  I never liked them but now I have a clockwork orange reaction lol where I become violently ill.

They also brought in group therapists and we had mass what felt like every couple of hours (not sure because we weren't allowed to have any time keeping devices).

They kept the windows blacked out and the only time we could see natural light was 1 hour each day in the yard (fenced in playground) as I called it.  

Obviously it didn't stick lol I was more rebellious than ever, but I did have some friends that were changed because of it and they stopped associating with me shortly thereafter.  We also weren't ssupposed to talk about what search was.  I assume to create the impression of a secret club.   I actually got threatened by some search veterans because I was telling everyone all about it.

I was just curious how widespread this practice was.

O my gosh I'm sorry I didn't respond to this earlier.  I've been preoccupied.
This is terrible!  I'm so sorry you went through this. It's abuse, pure and simple. I know there are other things like this going on, didn't know the Catholics were doing it to.

My sympathies, seriously. 

[cocunningham]

Well I'm not sure if is still used, but 15 years ago when I was in high school it all of the Catholic schools I knew of in TN participated.  It's supposed to be purely voluntary but I declined participation so my parents signed me up.  One of my brothers was starting to be rebellious.  When he came back he became a devout Catholic again and is still to this day.  I was much worse than him so they hoped it would help.

Basically they took us to an elementary school for a weekend and chained the doors (not sure how they bypassed fire code).  Then for the next 48 hours we were only allowed an hour to sleep (but they gave us Monday off from school to recover lol).  Then we have search leaders who were close to our age talk about their struggles and how they found faith.   One talked about being molested by a guy dressed as Santa Claus.  Another talked about how he was a bully and one day waiting in line in the lunch room Jesus appeared to him and said "I forgive you".  I asked him if it was sloppy Joe day because that's the only time Jesus visited our cafeteria.  He didn't think it was as funny as I did.  All the while we listened to Creed.  I never liked them but now I have a clockwork orange reaction lol where I become violently ill.

They also brought in group therapists and we had mass what felt like every couple of hours (not sure because we weren't allowed to have any time keeping devices).

They kept the windows blacked out and the only time we could see natural light was 1 hour each day in the yard (fenced in playground) as I called it.  

Obviously it didn't stick lol I was more rebellious than ever, but I did have some friends that were changed because of it and they stopped associating with me shortly thereafter.  We also weren't ssupposed to talk about what search was.  I assume to create the impression of a secret club.   I actually got threatened by some search veterans because I was telling everyone all about it.

I was just curious how widespread this practice was.

O my gosh I'm sorry I didn't respond to this earlier.  I've been preoccupied.
This is terrible!  I'm so sorry you went through this. It's abuse, pure and simple. I know there are other things like this going on, didn't know the Catholics were doing it to.

My sympathies, seriously. 

Lol no problem at all. It really wasn't so bad for me. They underestimated my ability to sleep through anything ;-) . The practice though I found rather barbaric and didn't know if it was localized, national, or global because there is very little published outside the Nashville diocese.

[strawdawg]

I went to Catholic school too and I consider priests and nuns vermin. The lowest form of life.

[Spooky]

I'm an ex-Catholic.  You have questions.  Let's get started.

Does the church prefer Cabernet or Merlot?

I'm personally fond of a good Malbec. 

[Athene]

Transubstantiation.  Really, Catholicism is batshit crazy.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION FOR BEGINNERS 
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1973674/posts

Back to pushing to the magic, I see.

[Longhorn]

I've explained to Randy why transubstantistion is impossible by definition multiple times, but alas, he just edited it out of his reality like it was Deuteronomy

[Jenny A]

I find the questions about reading theology after concluding god is non-existent a little nuts. Having concluded there's no evidence for Santa, reading up on the various nationalities versions of him is futile as they aren't evidence. Theology is about doctrine not evidence.

I do dip into theology, but my interest is historical. Knowing what people thought is useful in explaining their actions.

[Divinity]

The whole eating the body of Christ thing i never understood. Why the fuck would you eat him? Isn't he your lord and savior? Isn't that kind of cannibalism? How do Catholics not go "This is kind of fucked up." Then you have drinking his blood. Are they all vampires or something?

If someone asked me to eat someones body, and drink their blood, whatever age I was I'd think "WHAT THE FUCK?" I don't care what it looks like.

[Spooky]

But Jesus is a Zombie...don't we want to be like our leader?

[Jenny A]

When you were a Catholic, did you consider Mary to be a goddess or any of the saints to be demi-gods. I don't necessarily mean did you think those words, but was that the general idea?

Also did you find mass as beautiful as I found the Lutheran liturgy? I can still sing it and despite not believing a word of it, it's lovely and homey.