u/AdCreepy5450

I just watched a YouTube video about the Vatican’s London real estate scandal, and it made me do a calculation that honestly DISGUSTS me.

Over the last 30 years, my parents and grandparents have given more than $89,000 to the Church.

Not because they were rich. Not because they wanted to fund LUXURY. They gave because they genuinely believed in it. They thought they were helping the poor, supporting the Pope’s charitable work, and contributing to something moral, spiritual, and just.

And then you learn that the Vatican lost HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS on a luxury building in London.

A building in Chelsea. Opaque funds. Brokers. Commissions. Prada, Gucci, Hermès, and Chanel bags in the story. A convicted cardinal. A trial that COLLAPSED.

And that is when it becomes PERSONAL.

Because this is no longer just “a Vatican financial scandal.”

This is the money of people like my parents. Like my grandparents. Simple, honest people who gave for YEARS because they thought they were doing good.

They could have kept that money for themselves. For their retirement. For their children. For their grandchildren. For their own security.

But instead, they gave it to an institution that preaches HUMILITY while playing with MILLIONS in luxury real estate.

Honestly, I do not even know whether I am more ANGRY or SAD.

At this point, I have a hard time seeing it as a donation made to a Church.

It feels more like my family helped feed a FINANCIAL MACHINE disguised as a religious institution.

https://preview.redd.it/n64dgd15q80h1.jpg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4fc589479cbbde38aadfe0f0400a8e7878ee34e

I never chose to be Christian. My parents forced it on me from day one. Church every Sunday, prayers before everything, no questions allowed. Every time I tried to express doubt I was shut down or guilt-tripped. "It's for your own good." "You'll thank us later." Spoiler: I won't.

It cost me friendships too. I lost people because I wasn't "allowed" to do normal things, because I had to push their beliefs onto them, or because I just became this judgmental version of myself I didn't even recognize. Looking back I hate how much of my childhood was shaped by something I never even agreed to.

The cracks were always there. Eternal torture from a "loving" god, fake free will, the whole guilt machine. But I wasn't allowed to look at them. Now that I finally let myself think, everything makes sense. Not because I "lost my way," but because I finally found it.

Reading this sub has been such a relief. Knowing I'm not alone, that other people went through the same thing and came out the other side, it means more than I can say. Thanks for being here. ❤️