Eve. I was brought up in a strict Irish Catholic home. I attended a school run by priests, nuns and pillars of the Catholic Church.
I grew up in fear of what was to become of me if I disobeyed any of their rules. That is no way to bring up a child.
Bear with me when I relate why I left this cruel, brainwashing cult.
In my twenties I had an ectopic pregnancy. It burst and by the time I got to hospital my life was at risk.
When my mother found out she was distraught. She went to her priest to say her daughter had had an abortion. What could she do to save me from hell.
The priest visited me to say that what I had done was against the rules of their church. I had let them remove a baby even though it was ectopic.
The church rules that the life of a baby must come before the life of a mother. If I was to be saved I must confess my sin. I refused to confess. In that case, the priest told me, I was to be forbidden from receiving any sacrament of the church. He then patted my three year old saying...what a shame you have to be brought up by such a mother.
I took part in none of my family's church going activities, bar one, from that day on.
Since moving to Ireland I have become involved in the Magdalene Laundries scandal. It confirms my belief that the Catholic Church is a blight on this world.