I’m very curious about this notion, because I’ve heard it many times and it doesn’t resonate at all with my experience. I’m italian, lots of people here are catholic, including my family: I grew up in a religious environment (nothing too radical, but we were, and I still am, actively catholic: I usually go to mass on sunday, I’ve spent years in the boyscouts, who are mostly religious in italy, and have received all the sacraments at the appointed times), and I don’t think I have seen catholic guilt being taught or instilled in people in any significant or systematic way. Like, sure, you tend to develop a guilt-based moral attitude, but that only kicks in when you think you’ve done something wrong, it has nothing to do with pleasure, except maybe sexual pleasure in some cases (for example, my family is pretty chill about this). What’s more interesting, we tend to associate that kind of feeling with protestants rather than catholics (puritan work ethics and whatnot), so I don’t think it’s because there are differences between american catholics (I’m assuming op is american, correct me if I’m wrong) and catholics in other parts of the world. I suspect that it’s just some kind of strawman, cartoonish version of other religious beliefs, that is subconsciously used by most religions in order to feel superior, or at least decent, since all forms of christianity have a lot to make up for. It’s as if we were constantly saying, to non-religious people as well as ourselves, ”we’re not the extremists you think we are, whatever bad things you heard about the church come from our crazy, fundamentalist cousins, the protestant/catholic/orthodox/whatever”. I admit I might have been a lucky catholic, because my family and my town’s community embrace a “liberal” version of christianity, where the emphasis is on building community and helping each other out, not on being pure from sin, hating lgbt people and whatnot, But I’m not trying to make the point that catholicism or religion aren’t necessarily bad, I’m saying that in their mainstream version, even at its most bigot and idiotic, that kind of guilt isn’t present. I’m sincerely curious to hear if any other catholics have had different experiences.
