I'm stunned every time I read posts by some of the ecotrain peeps that are so close to what I feel. I know, it happens a lot here, but I still can't believe it when it does. I had exactly the same growing up in a Catholic place. Even though it was never anywhere as bad as here in Ireland. Those stories were something else when I first heard them. Growing up in Holland and Germany at the same time as so many others in Ireland who were gravely mistreated and abused by the church seems so surreal when it was so much different where I was. But still, I always thought the things they tried to teach us were BS and their god just didn't seem to resonate with me at all. I do remember how scared I was at confession before our first communion. The thing was, I wasn't going to tell the priest everything, I was lying through my teeth. I wasn't afraid I'd be punished by god for lying, I was afraid the priest would discover I was lying and tell my parents LOL. That was a no go in our house :) Thank you for writing your views on this subject, I loved reading it.