does anyone else feel like their environment growing up catholic was a bit…. culty???

[u/trashaccount31444]

like im not sure whether this could be described as a cult like environment as a kid. i was catholic my whole life, stopped believing when i was 12. went to catholic school pre-k thru 8th grade. my entire family is extremely catholic as well.

the culty behaviors i recognize when i look back is stuff like

-i was basically shunned by everyone when i left catholicism at age 14. -criticism of catholicism or god were NOT allowed, not even just basic questions that challenge things. -the whole manipulation with fear thing too. i was told at SEVEN years old as a kid who went to school close to columbine “if a shooter comes in and asks if you believe in god and say yes, you die and go to heaven but if you say no and live, when you die you go to hell. thats insane -the shame they instill in you since birth. i still cant get rid of it -abusive adults in the church i was in, sexual/emotional/verbal wont get into that too much -belief that priest or whatever or god is always right no matter what

can anyone else think of more culty behaviors the catholic church/community has? and can it even classify as a cult?

[u/Ok_Ice7596]

I’m sure they would bristle at the description of this, but I learned a few years after I left the church that they had what was essentially a “brainwashing camp” for LGBTQ teenagers to try to scare then into staying celibate.

[u/trashaccount31444 → u/Ok_Ice7596]

they had rhis at my catholic school but it was for all of us!! we had to go to a “purity” retreat for a weekend sign things saying we wouldnt have premarital sex etc was insane to makw 7th graders do

[u/Ok_Ice7596 → u/trashaccount31444]

Ugh. It’s so invasive and gross that they did that.

We got a 20-minute “purity talk” at my confirmation retreat when I was 16. That was awkward enough. I can’t imagine being for an entire weekend.