before i had gotten close with ex-catholics i was under the assumption that “catholic guilt” was mostly about sex, or serious topics.
but i was naïve. it’s apparently about every positive experience. enjoying a meal? you’re so lucky, children are starving. spending your day off cosy in bed? wow, so selfish, homeless people are freezing to death.
every former or present catholic i’ve met has a very obvious anxiety disorder and it’s so painfully not a coincidence.
I know that somehow I’m entirely lacking in Catholic Guilt (probably just… inherited the lack of it from my Dad) and my Mum just somehow managed to grow her own variety (she became Catholic as an adult) but more and more I continue to learn that my experience of growing up (and continuing to exist) as a Catholic is wayyyy not what other people have had.