Joe, you're right that I know next to nothing about the religious doctrines of the Catholic Church, nor do I care about them. Everyone gets to have whatever doctrines they want. I also know full well that the official church political positions and the actual beliefs of its members are often on different wavelengths on many important issues. My problem with the church is the fact that it is demonstrably anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-abortion rights, etc. etc., and uses the hard-earned money of folks like you to further these agendas in the political field. I'll stop making denigrating comments about the official policies of the church when you get the church to stop funding bigoted political initiatives and issuing instructions to its members to not vote for pro-abortion rights politicians. In other words, if you want to be left alone, you have to leave others alone. My own response if I were in your position would be to leave the church as fast as possible and find a way to be a Christian that doesn't involve harming others, or funding the harm. I don't like the fact that someone I like and admire as much as I do you is proud to be part of an organization that does the things the Catholic Church does.

Religious people are usually great. Religious organizations rarely are.

John