my resentment to or rejection of Catholicism

As I've stated many times, I was uncomfortable as a Catholic. I didn't understand many of its concepts like saints (as a semi-divine entity), the Virgin Mary (as a divine entity), the Pope (authority of God on earth), reciting the same impersonal prayers (the Lord's Prayer not included in this list) and confession of sins to a priest (middle-man between humans and God). At the same time, I saw lots of corruption in the Catholic Church like priests charging for their services -- Last Rites, First Communion, Confirmation and other (Catholic) sacraments.

Now that I go to a Protestant church and have learned Jesus only gave us two sacraments (Baptism & The Lord's Supper). I wonder where the Catholic Church got seven sacraments? That's five more sacraments.

• Baptism
• Eucharist (Lord's Supper)
• Reconciliation (confession)
• Confirmation (confirmation of faith)
• Marriage
• Holy Orders (ordination of priests)
• Anointing of the Sick (Last Rites)

See http://www.americancatholic.org/features/sacraments/default.asp for more detailed information.

Further more, I see lots of discrepancies in the doctrine compared to what Christianity originally was.

After almost four decades on this earth, I finally feel comfortable expressing and living my faith -- in a Protestant church, no less. I can say that I'm a Christian feeling that I can dare call myself so. I've studied the Bible and have no trouble to question my beliefs and understanding of the Scriptures -- a behavior that's not encouraged in Catholicism.

The only problem (if ever) is that my oldest son's completely Catholic. He believes in saints, the Virgin Mary (as a divine entity) and impersonal prayers.

Then again, I can be wrong in all this. Maybe Catholicism's the true expression of Christianity, but I can't believe corruption and secondary beliefs (saints, etc) are part of the core of what our belief should be. At the end of the day, I'd still go to a Protestant (Presbyterian) church where I feel at home and can feel that I'm a Christian and not part of a stupid charade.

In all, let's see what God's got to tell us when he comes to separate the sheep from the goats (http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-if-god-came-to-visit.html).

deeply in the eyes of evil

Sexual abuse, homosexuality and corruption were always the dirty secrets that everyone knew. Growing up Catholic, one had divide the good priests from the bad. Of course, for every pervert in the garbs of a priest, there's a good servant of God. Nonetheless the Catholic Church is nowadays plagued with stories of sexual abuse, pedophilia and other sexual scandals. Maybe this is the perfect scapegoat to leave Catholicism. This might be the main reason why I don't call myself a Catholic anymore. I'm a Christian plain and simple.

There's something dark and evil that I've seen in the past couple of years in the Vatican from all places. It constantly reminds me of stories of the end of times with false prophets, preachers and uttermost evil posing as good. Maybe it's all in my psychotic brain, but I can't trust the head of the Catholic Church at all. Well at the end of the day, I'm no one to be heard, but my instincts hardly ever fail me when reading a person's soul. In all, I see deeply in the eyes of evil where goodness should abide.