>my parents where mixed faith as well (mother Irish catholic father English C of E) and he had to agree we where brought up as Catholics. I regard my catholic upbringing as a fine inoculation against organised religion.I think I've mentioned before the last two people to hit me where a nun (with a 3ft wooden stick) and a teacher.The catholic churches failure to address the child abuse endemic in its structure for decades is shocking, also the treatment of unwed mothers in Ireland and the opposition to contraception and abortion. Irelands abortion laws are still something from the dark ages (though I'm sure many republicans would find them very acceptable).

Not trying to defend the Catholic church I do not sympathize with religion too much, but your experience might be more related to the country than to the church? (At least that is the impression I've got, maybe influenced by Pink Floyd :) I've went only 7 months to a Catholic school and never had any troubles (other than the psychological effect on me being so close to the church) but lets discard my experience for it was too short, but my wife went to a Catholic School (and German nuns none-the-less :) since Kindergarten and finished high-school, she was there on "double scholarity" (not sure how to say it in English, but what it means is that she spend twice as much in school than a person in a regular school, for in the morning they taught her in Spanish and in the afternoon she had the same classes but in English) and she never had any problems, same with my sister (she went 2 years to a Catholic School)... in fact, I do not know personally anyone that had problems (this does not mean that there were not problems in Catholic Schools in Argentina, but I do not think it was worse than any other school)