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The first is an unwillingness to grow up and forgive what seem to be the sort of offenses we have all suffered from parents or teachers or pastors.

The second is an unwillingness to live the Catholic life, leading to a desire to blame the Catholic Church rather than admit this.

Desdemona notes that most of the people who left were baby boomers. That would not surprise me. Baby boomers were raised in an orthodox catholic church. One fasted from midnight (only water) if receiving communion. Sunday's High Mass was long ... very long. Children were expected to attend the 9am mass and sit with their classmates and their teacher (always a nun). The point I am making is that as children, we were exposed to strick discipline. Then Vatican II blew open the doors and windows. It was sudden and dramatic (albeit traumatic). Some catholics could not weather the change.

For example, when catholic school closed its doors for summer break, the nuns were in full habit. When the doors opened in September, only a few "holdouts" still dressed that way. The other sisters doffed the heavy drapes in exchange for lightweight suits and short veils. Eventually, even the veils were abandoned. And this was just the beginning. If you never experienced communion before Vatican II, it must sound like some mythological tale. One knelt at the communion rail and waited for the priest and altar server. The altar server was ALWAYS a boy; he carried a patten to catch the host, lest it fall. The ONLY person who could touch the host was the priest.

Imagine experiencing this as some cast in concrete truism! Within a few weeks, we had Eucharistic Ministers with heavily perfumed fingers, dipping into the chalices and placing the host into our sweaty palms. That change alone was enough to send minions of catholics walking. The clamored long and loud enough to restore the Tridentine mass.

"Children were expected to attend the 9am mass and sit with their classmates and their teacher..."

9 am? Try 8 am... and somebody always threw up. It never failed.

In the family (I'm the oldest in my parents progengy), all but, maybe, three blood relations and two spouses(that I can count) on my mother's side are back. A couple of cousins didn't raise their kids in the Faith, so I don't count them. My dad's side is a mess, don't go there. Now, that doesn't mean that there weren't some who died before returning, but they were two generations ahead of me and followed the socialist line at an impressionable time of life. And the thing that really gets you is that every time there's a funeral they all go to Communion.

But, yeah, most of the people I know who left were boomers and did so over marriage/divorce and other matters of convenience.