You seem to assume that having a Catholic education ensures that the children are going to grow up with a particular religious orientation. It doesn’t, as you know very well from your own experience.

Most adults I know who are practising Catholics are likely to have dropped away at some stage in their adolescent and adult lives. Many of them never return to the Church, some do.

You say that "Children should be encouraged to be curious, to be critical, to question everything and be shown how to find evidence to find out what's really true. No child brought up that way would ever end up believing in God. " I'd challenge whether that is in fact true. When people get into religion for the first time as adults, my impression is that they are more likely to end up in some fundamentalist outfits, rather than in mainstream religion. That can have some undesirable results.

Many people who are obliged learn a musical instrument in childhood, or learn a language similarly are likely to abandon it as they grow into adulthood. However if at a later stage they want to get back into it, they start with an advantage. I see that kind of thing as extending freedom rather than reducing it.
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As for climate change denial, no doubt you get some Catholics who buy into it. The very word Catholics does rather imply we've got all sorts. But they are very much at odds with the consensus, backed up by the consistent voice of Pope Francis. I suspect there's maybe more of that in the States, consistent with the evident fact that there are an awful lot of climate change deniers in society over there.