I got my 16 years of Catholic education in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was a good experience for me. We had capital corporal punishment in one school that I attended from age 10-14, and not in the other schools. In that one school, the only corporal punishment was a swat on the butt with a canoe paddle, administered by the principal, a nun with a sense of humor who administered the punishment very gently. It was a "red badge of courage" to get the canoe paddle, but I never did.
In the other schools, the worst punishment was detention - staying after school for an hour or less, usually having to write something over and over.

I know a lot of Irish-born priests and nuns, and their experience in school was similar to mine - perhaps a bit stricter, but not harsh. The only American Catholics I know from England are of Irish ancestry, and their experience was the same.

I know lots of former Catholics from the U.S., England, and Ireland who had a bad experience in Catholic school. Is it any wonder why they aren't Catholics any more?

I have no doubt that a harsh Mother Superior or a dictatorial pastor can turn an entire institution into a hellhole - but a lot of Catholics had a much more positive experience. And many had a mixed experience, where the good outweighed the bad.

And many who are prone to absolutist, literalist thinking left the Catholic Church because they could not understand the nuances and abstractions. We've had many neoconservative movements within the Catholic Church, since Vatican II - and one neoconservative Pope, John Paul II. They have tried their best to impose absolutist thinking on the Church - but so far, their results have been mixed. Can't say I know which side is winning - but I doubt that either side will ever win full control. Like it or not, churches are political institutions that will forever shift from one perspective to the next.

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Pete, you have no doubt noticed that the Gospels do not describe the conception or birth of Jesus, his childhood, or his resurrection. Those things are left to the imagination. I'm sure my imagination understands these mysteries and others differently from the way yours does. I believe all the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, but I'm sure I understand many of them differently.

-Joe Offer-