My grandfather was a staunch Catholic for his entire life. He also beat up my grandmother, and when she finally left him in 1955 and wound up a divorced single mother of five who only had a high school education and worked three jobs to survive, the Church ostracized her, not him https://twitter.com/MoiraDonegan/status/1309947126294642688">https://twitter.com/MoiraDone...

When he wanted to get remarried but still remain a Good Catholic, the Catholic Church annulled his marriage to my grandmother. Poof, she and five children no longer existed in the eyes of the church.

By the time I knew my grandpa, he was a kind, generous, and loving person who I adored. Life is complicated. I didn& #39;t know the whole (violent) story until I was older and he was dead. But I also saw how my grandmother suffered for her entire life. How she was never made whole.

Anyway, this isn& #39;t to say that Catholicism is any more good or bad than any other faith; like any other faith, it brings comfort and community and does some good. It is simply to say that the Catholic Church is a formal, enforced patriarchy and lots of women have borne the costs.