What’s so truly horrifying about Catholicism as an institution, though, is how Church leaders us their rule book to beat people up. They’re loud, outspoken, and insistent about it. When the Church is able to gain political power, it grinds people into the dirt.

From the atrocities of the Irish laundries to the subjugation of French speakers in Quebec, to the oppression of LGBT people in the US, the Church seems never to miss an opportunity to beat people down.

From my perspective as a person on the receiving end of the Church’s horror, I can’t help but view it as a vicious, evil institution. It’s awfully hard to look up and smile when a boot is grinding your neck into the ground.