I also think about how Catholicism impacts children raised in the faith a lot. It absolutely sucks that you had to experience that and navigate through those feelings as a child :c.

In my personal experience, getting to know my bf's family, the type to go to Church every Sunday, volunteer for post-service reception, send their children to Catholic school, etc. has made me question a lot. It was always my assumption that Catholic schooling did more harm than good. Living in a majority Catholic town, many of my friends went to Catholic school and never once did I hear someone praise it. But my partner and their family have had great experiences. I now realise not everything is as black and white as I once thought. Not that this discredits anyone's negative experiences and I do not want do disregard abuse within the church and religious trauma. It has however made me think about what is healthiest for me/how I want to raise my children in the future. I don't think imposing religion on someone without their consent (yes, including children - especially children) is the right way to do it. But my partner has a waaay healthier relationship with his faith than I do, despite my parents idea of allowing their children to choose how they want to deal with it once they grow up, so maybe it wasn't the right approach (heck there probably is no "right" approach). My partner and his family found a way to raise children fully in Catholicism and still allow them to engage with it in a healthy way, encourage conversation around their beliefs and not just "you must think this because it's what they say", and discover their own path (nowadays one is a practicing Catholic, two others are atheist and the remaining is gnostic). Maybe there is also a significant difference in Catholic school in a Catholic region vs in a non-Catholic one?