So what?
Catholic behavior has not turned me against God.
Nor did it even turn me against Catholicism.
Because when I first got saved, the first church I went to was the Catholic church I was raised in.
What caused me to leave that then was the disparity I saw between what I read in Scripture and what the Catholic church taught.
And at that time, I had precious little contact with Protestantism and Protestant thought so that did not color my thought.
Just an observation. It seems that most lapsed Catholics leave the Church not because of bad theology but bad experience. If one were to actually read the most recent Pew poll about the surge in South American Pentecostalism that's been touted around here they would see that most "conversions" are the result of a desire for a way of worship more in line with their indigenous pagan beliefs and the prospects of economic advancement.
What caused me to leave that then was the disparity I saw between what I read in Scripture and what the Catholic church taught.
I know. It's so empowering. To be able to say, "I decide." Or to use the Holy Spirit as cover when they reject the Eucharist. Thinking one is a Berean. It's a shame so many protestants can't get past themselves to live their faith as opposed to just reading about it.
What caused me to leave that then was the disparity I saw between what I read in Scripture and what the Catholic church taught
Same here mom. I was raised as a catholic too. I was in the Air Force when the Navigators led me to faith in the real Jesus Christ. Their motto is to know Christ and make Him known, not to determine a church home for me. I still kept going to mass, but, like you, as I read scripture, I began to think something was wrong. I think I lasted about a month, before I gracefully bowed out. I was baptized in the swimming pool at Bien Hoa Air Base, Republic of Vietnam, by a Southern Baptist chaplain, even though I didn't even know what a Southern Baptist was. To this day, however, no one affiliated with the Navigators has ever insisted that I attend any certain church. They left that up to my discretion. Make sense?