Thoughts on Recovering Catholics

I recently had some discussions with a blogger who identifies herself as a "Recovering Catholic." The first time I heard that phrase was when a columnist in our local paper used it to describe herself too. She never said really why she was recovering or what happened to her.

When I used to debate on AOL boards, another debator and my comrad-in-arms, Eileen came up with the theory that a majority of Catholics who leave the church, don't know anything or very little about their Catholic Faith. In discussion after discussion the amount of basic knowledge of Catholicism that these people did not know was stunning. They in fact weren't recovering from Catholicism, because in fact they never knew what Catholicism really was, what it really taught, or how it was really to be lived.

It may be that they had a run in with a mean nun, or an abusive priest or something. But that's not recovering from Catholicism - that's recovery from physical, emotional, intellectual or sexual abuse.

However, the more usual scenario was that they were bored to tears at mass, never took a religion class after first communion, unless their parents made them stick it out until confirmation, and the parents never practiced their faith and were nominal in every sense of the world. Then these poorly-formed Catholics experienced wonderful fellowship and community at their local Evangelical church and left. That's not really recovering from Catholicism either. It's a lack of religious upbringing, spiritual, catechetical neglect or apathy that they're recovering from, not Catholicism.

Interestingly, I found this comment over on Beliefnet about the phenomenon of "Recovering Catholics."

This questioner identified herself, as if in explanation of her attitude, as "a recovering Catholic."

When I first heard that term, about a decade ago, I thought it was mildly amusing. It seemed a clever self-designation for those who believed they had been scarred in some psychological, physical, or sexual way by ruler-wielding nuns and/or lustful priests, or simply from what they later came to believe were the precepts of a restrictive and guilt-inducing dogma. The label expressed their disaffection from the religion they grew up with, and "recovery" from its alleged harm was an allusion to the Twelve-Step movements whose adherents are committed to live free of destructive addictions one day at a time.

When I heard Mary Karr's questioner describe herself as a "recovering Catholic," however, the term struck me for the first time as a smug, self-satisfied, self-pitying kind of whine that arises from our society's current canonization of self-proclaimed victims. Too many of us too often blame a range of factors, including substances, parents, and/or institutions (in this case the Catholic Church), for our own bad behavior, irresponsibility, and dissatisfaction with life.

I concur.