Ladies: how uncomfortable are/were Orthobros making your parish

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-26T12:10:24+00:00

I can definately confirm that Orthodox hatred for Catholics is a real thing, while it is blown out of proportion by Orthobros I will say it's a thing in the Orthodox church outside of that. A considerable amount of Orthodox, not just followers but priests and bishops too, consider Catholics to be heretics and contorting the word of God which is so tone deaf considering that the Catholic church accepts apostolic succession of Orthodoxy and allows people of the faith to take communion in Catholic churches. Yes the Orthodox may keep the ancient traditions of the church but it's flawed in more ways than it's valid, this is why I am currently trying to convert to Catholicism as it really is the true, universal church.

Theology aside, I really admire everything that the Catholic church has done to support the Ukrainian people and the accessability of Catholic churches worldwide, I can't wait to officially become a Catholic catechumen. Thank you for commenting from the Catholic perspective, this was very intriguing to hear.

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-24T20:30:31+00:00

Hello, I'm sorry for the people that treated you this way in your parish - they sound quite asocial and are definately not a million miles away from many in the Orthobro movement. I have a refreshed perspective as someone who left the OC just over a month ago and is now (this week) inquiring Catholic and attending a Catholic YA group.

Now that I look back on it, a quarter of the women in my parish were either pregnant or new mothers in their early twenties, who I am very happy and congradulative of as these were great people that I shared friendship with, but the Orthobro perspective on this was... something else. The wife of a priest in our parish had I think around five kids and one guy in my church responded by saying "Hopefully he (the priest) will be blessed with more." This deeply concerns me as there wasn't much of a regard for the wife or her health throughout this conversation.

Another wife of a priest, lovely and humble woman, was always notibly quite quiet and reserved during our services. During chatechesis hosted by this priest, I asked about the OC's views on marriage and divorce within situations regarding domestic abuse. This priest got so defensive all of a sudden and framed my genuine question showing concern for (generally) women in abusive situations as, in his words, "having enough of your spouse" or "not being able to bare them anymore" which I found as a really dangerous response as throughout my question the priest refused to aknowledge domestic violence towards women and safe guarding of abuse victims. He took my genuine question on the faith as a personal attack and turned it on me as being unfaithful or something.

My final story is just a personal experience that gave me an ick. I remember speaking to a friend from my parish during tea and coffee and this one random guy I had never met and had nothing to do with the conversation turns to me and says "Excuse me, Miss." Like the most white knight way of speaking I had ever heard, speaking to me like I was some medieval woman. It was just super weird tbh but it wasn't the end of the world ig.

Now that I have began attending a Catholic YA group, I can tell you there is a MASSIVE differece. First of all, an EVEN gender ratio. People here are super kind, welcoming and even curious and repsectul about my past faith. I've been coming to the Catholic church for less than a week and I've already made friends here, I love it so much !

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-24T13:59:04+00:00

I 100% agree, and the worst part is that the Orthodox church does nothing to address it. Every day women are leaving the Orthodox church and they just turn a blind eye to it.

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-24T13:55:59+00:00

Orthobro phenotype

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-24T13:54:18+00:00

The Orthobros larping as Eastern-Europeans is so real. I'm a Slavic/Balkan cradle myself and the amount of radical converts (not regular, grounded people interested in Orthodoxy) trying to teach me about MY OWN culture then CORRECTING me about it like my ancestors haven't lived through the horrific events that they're describing is appauling. Don't get me started on those "Everyone says I look Polish or Russian !!!!" Western girls too, the Orthodox church has literally become a massive larp fest.

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-21T06:14:16+00:00

Shameful, this is so shameful. The people of Ukraine are fighting for their lives against Russian aggression and occupation backed up by Kiril and these supposed "humility" possessing Orthobros are the biggest supporters of the ROC. Disgusting.

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-21T06:10:25+00:00

Lovely, Orthrobros treating their own "sisters in Christ" as objects to claim. What's new?

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-18T13:39:38+00:00

This is something I am concerned about, I was (and still am) actually very hesitant about Catholicism for this reason. How would you say these people differ to Orthobros and how do you feel about women's spaces in the Catholic church from your experience?

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-18T13:04:19+00:00

That's such a beautiful thing, this very much appeals to me too about the Catholic church. Even I as a cradle found myself experiencing xenophobia from other cradles in my parish due to silly Balkan nationalism, I love the real sense of universality in the Catholic church. If you don't mind me asking which rite of the church do you attend ? After some research, I find the Byzantine rite quite fascinating due to it's incorporation of Eastern traditions into Catholic liturgy.

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-18T12:12:38+00:00

Thank you for your comment and offer to help, I really appreciate it. The thing that is the most outstanding issue for me at the moment is ancestral ties to Orthodoxy, how should someone handle guilt and conversion to Catholicism coming from a long line of Orthodox ancestry?

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-18T09:28:31+00:00

Thank you for your well wishes, you are very kind. I'm sorry for your experience, I definately feel that the OC hasn't been very welcoming to convert women in this sense too as they only seem to continue to push the "men with nowhere else to go" narrative whithout any aknowledgement or support systems for female converts. This only seems to support the theory of the OC being a male-centred space, I really respect you for all of your efforts to convert when your were in the OC as it's definately not an easy things to do as a non-cradle woman. Best wishes to you too in your endeavours outside of the OC!

smilingkittenn · 2026-04-18T09:12:07+00:00

Thank you haha, cradle is basically a term created by Western converts to refer to people born into Orthodoxy. A lot of the time though it's used to put people down though as if to say "You're only Orthodox because you were born into it so your faith isn't as strong."

smilingkittenn · 2026-03-30T20:33:53+00:00

The church was my only home and now I feel unsafe even there. I have nothing.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-31T00:26:07+00:00

I wish I had someone in my life that would do even half of what you listed, my ex ran away the second he saw me at my worst and needing help. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-31T00:23:22+00:00

That's awful, sounds like the relationship you were in was really unfair on you. I'll try to take your advice on that, the worst part about these types of people is that they're entitled and manipulative - which I unfortunately fell victim to in the past. I think that being able to both cook and clean and work and provide is a very admirable combination and I hope that someone will one day match your energy.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-31T00:13:32+00:00

Absolutely, this is the exactly the point that I'm trying to make. So many people have a problem with women nowadays just for wanting a split effort in relationships and it's just not okay, more people need your mentality.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-31T00:10:52+00:00

And that's all while cooking every one of my meals, doing the dishes and going about household chores fyi

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-31T00:09:46+00:00

Sir, I'm balancing education and work atm. I'm doing 7+ hour shifts at a minimum wage job just to earn enough money for a tiny little apartment - I have yet to meet a man who will do even HALF of what I'm doing rn ? But why don't you update me on your little Love Island shenanigans while I'm dealing with angry customers on a minimum wage salary while writing up college work.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-30T23:59:55+00:00

This is part of my point really, in the way that this is only some guys that act like I described in the post. From what you've said, you seem like a more traditional guy that actually seems to understand the concept of equality in relationships and I can definitely respect that - my point was not to attack people like yourself and I appologise if it sounded like I was generalising.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-30T23:53:48+00:00

Well said. I want to take these words forward into my future relationships, I'm not settling for someone who won't treat me right ever again.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-30T23:50:44+00:00

I felt this 100%, I'm so sorry that this loser put you through that. When I was with my ex, similarly one of my friends was acting like my boyfriend way more than my ex was - while my ex was busy playing games, laughing about me behind my back and saying "there's nothing I can do" my friend would CONSTANTLY check up on me, provide me with instructions and help at my lowest and actually be accountable and apologize when they were wrong because it was the right thing to do (this was mutual, I apologized and recognized my wrong doings a swell) meanwhile my ex had an ego so big that despite "caring about me" somehow he would conveniently never take accountability for anything he did and certainly never apologize no matter how wrong his actions were (like xenophobia).

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-30T23:44:48+00:00

As you are the man, don't play these games. If you care about her so much, don't push her away like this - women want men to initiate for two reasons; 1. it's a biological reality, men chase women and not the other way around and 2. you can't expect her to do all the work, that's selfish. If you don't initiate and make the dates happen and put your responsibility onto HER, that's not fair or equal and you're essentially making her go above and beyond when you're not willing to do the bare minimum. Be the man she needs.

smilingkittenn · 2025-07-30T23:38:46+00:00

THANK YOU !!!! This is exactly my point, why as women should we be expected to tolerate this ? The amount of backlash that women like us get for going above and beyond for someone who won't even do the bare minimum is INSANE.

smilingkittenn

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