Excessively scrupulous individuals

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think I get what you mean. Growing up, one parent's house was basically high church protestant, other was more secular. I was more exposed to "the world" and how it works.

Some people I know, adults, who were raised in what I would call a "Catholic bubble" and then continued in schools of the same nature, and now socialize in the same groups, tend to get easily scandalized by certain things.

For example, I have a very small, tasteful black tattoo on my foot. So sometimes seen in the summer. I wouldn't get a tattoo now, personally, but I got it before I was in the church.

I know some catholics who are actually scandalized by this. They say tattoos are yucky and don't get it. You don't have to like tattoos at all, but it just seems silly to me to pretend like you don't know what they are and never see them, especially when you watch football all the time.

Other things too, simple movie references, anything mildly "adult" and I don't mean graphic or sexual, just anything that isn't basically sheltered. I also remember one girl trying to show off how traumatized she was about the sex-related questions on her marriage prep questionnaire. I thought it was ridiculous considering she had studied a lot about the sexual teachings of the church, and was also about to get married, but for some reason she felt like she would look more pure if she acted scandalized.

Or if you bring up some of the bad stuff people are teaching in public schools and at the college level, people don't want to hear about it, because it's not a pleasant topic.

I wish I had more examples of the top of my head, but it basically comes down to clutching of pearls over things and immature handling of the reality of the world. And of course the holiest priests I know never act this way, they don't get scandalized by reality.

So is this what you mean? I become a little frustrated with it all as I feel it can be a competition to appear the most holy. The truth is though, that many people simply don't want to cause scandal or lead others into sin. So everyone is sort of walking on eggshells to not appear as if they are aware of anything outside of the bubble. Everyone just knows their favorite theologians and acts ignorant of the secular world, when we need to be evangelizing it.

I have found it is similar with Catholic dating. People are so trying to say how much they love the church and want a holy marriage, that it becomes impossible to relax and get to know someone. It is hard to handle "grown up" situations maturely.

/r/Catholicism Thread