Jacket Text Why are women leaving the Roman Catholic faith? Why are so many refusing to raise their children as Catholics? What has made some women so outraged at Catholicism that this anger remains long after they have left the church? What would make these women view themselves as "recovering Catholics"? Women are leaving the Catholic church in record numbers. Many question a faith that continues to maintain a patriarchal attitude toward them. Some women are disturbed by the church's obsession with sex and its ban on birth control and abortion. Not allowed to serve as priests, women feel discriminated against when they are not included as full members of the faith. The Recovering Catholic brings together poignant stories of more than fifty women whose ages, backgrounds, life experiences and geographical locations differ markedly yet each made the difficult choice to leave the Catholic church in order to find a more fulfilling way of expressing her spirituality. Women profiled range from an eighteen-year-old student to a twenty-nine-year-old homemaker to a sixty-nine-year-old retired market researcher. Author Joanne H. Meehl addresses a wide variety of topics including the reasons why women begin to question their faith, the heavy burden of religious guilt, the attitudes of the Catholic hierarchy toward women and the escalating amount of sexual abuse cases involving priests. She includes practical advice on breaking away from the church - including how to tell your family that you are no longer Catholic - as well as information on choosing new spiritual outlets. The Recovering Catholic is the first book on the Catholic church to focus on the individual journeys of women who faced not only discriminatory practices and oppressive dogma, but the ire of their families and society in their search for a spiritual happy ending. For all who are struggling with the emotional turmoil of religious commitment versus church teachings. The Recovering Catholic illustrates how you can successfully choose to leave the church and find new avenues for your faith. You, too, can recover from the crippling effects of a dogmatic religion. Contents in Brief Preface Introduction Questioning: The First Step Out Guilt, Sin, and Shame for Being Human Women, Less Equal Than Men Sex, Birth Control, and Abortion Useless Dogma What Is a Chruch? So Far Ahead That We're Behind Exploration Telling Your Family You're No Longer Catholic Making Peace with the Catholic Church Happy Endings and Moving On: From Here, Where To? Epilogue Appendix: Key to Women in Survey Bibliography Index