Picotin David B I am Protestant and the theological divide between Protestantism and Catholicism is as far as the east is from the west
Yep, we know we disagree on that matter.
I am somebody who grew up in Italy (very close to Rome) and obviously was raised Catholic. I can't say "Roman Catholic", since nobody I know said so when I was in Italy and to me "Roman" is either a dialect / slang spoken by lowlife people in Rome's suburbs, or the name of the people who spoke Latin and killed Christians 2000 years ago 🤣 For a while I've been atheist (mostly in my teenage and a bit after) and now I'm Catholic again.
I lived half of my adult life in Europe and the other half in the USA, where I currently am. As such I can't help but always compare "how stupid or different is X in country A compared to country B". I generally try to refrain to make such comparisons out loud, but since here the comparison has already started, I decided to chime in.
The American Catholics (or at least the ones I've met) are so different, traditional and conservatives that would kick most of Italian Catholics (probably even my most zealot and devout old aunts) out of their churches. Heck, some of them even try to kick the Pope out (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedevacantism ) which is something that shocked me almost to the point of slamming to the floor when I learned it!
For the little bit that I know from the few friends with whom I spoke about it, European Catholicism is closer to some other US Christian "variants" than to the US Catholicism.
@CyberGene here we have done it again: can you please spit this thread in two, the tinnitus and religion ones? Thanks!