Although, thank Goddess, I didn't grow up Catholic, I've known many who did, and I've heard the stories.
So, for all those feel-good “Come Home to the Catholic Church” commercials, here's the truth-in-advertising version.
Hi, we're the Catholic Church.
We're the ones who, all over the world, have sexually abused hundreds of thousands of children.
We're the ones who did everything that we could to hush up that fact.
We're the ones who have routinely done everything that we could to protect the perpetrators.
We're the ones who repeatedly, when caught with our cassocks up and our pants down, have protested with words of repentance, but still done nothing to stop the abuse.
A long time ago, you walked away from the Catholic Church.