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God led you away or was it one of those below the belt issues that account for the vast majority of people leaving the Church. Was it a divorce, or birth control, or some other moral issue that the Church remained too inflexible on?

God led me away. I wasn't looking to change anything. Like most Catholics I believed what I was told from 1st grade, I never questioned it. Family (huge) all Catholics, friends all Catholics. The thought of leaving never entered my mind. Leave, why? Leave to go where?

Was it a divorce, or birth control, or some other moral issue that the Church remained too inflexible on?

I had nothing to compare it to and there was no need to compare. That was all I knew, the RCC. Family/friends never discussed church or what went on. Other than,' my parish is having a dance, or some event'. Rules/doctrine were never debated. When you are in it and raised in it - that's all you know. Being told this is the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church - and if you go to another non catholic church it was a sin. I knew that was a sin I wouldn't commit because I had no desire to go anywhere else.

Much later on, the one thing that bothered me was the priest was not the only one giving out Holy Communion. I was trained that it is holy and only a priest could. Then one day, my parish had lay people giving it out. I was on the side of the church and the priest was giving out Holy Communion in the middle with the two lays on the side. I had to walk in the opposite direction and to go up the middle aisle. I knew people noticed and at the end of Mass, some one from the parish came over and asked me about it. I told him how I felt and he agreed. I took what I was taught VERY seriously. Obviously, he did, also.

All the changes made from - it's ok now to eat meat on Fridays along with the rest of it - didn't bother me but more bothered I wouldn't remember the changes. But anyone other than the priest giving HC out bothered me greatly. And that was all from how I was trained from the beginning. If something is wrong, how come it still isn't wrong. What changed? No excuse was good enough because it was so ingrained in me that it was wrong.

If it's ingrained in you that you are in the 'right church' what is there to question? At least, for me I never questioned and wasn't around anyone that did.