[baddox]

Okay, yeah, a lot of those sound pretty bad, particularly anything involving paying for local religious classes or ceremonies. From what I can remember from my conservative Protestant upbringing, none of those occurred. There were special courses that effectively required purchasing the book being covered and organized trips that cost money, but that’s the worst I can think of. I would assume that the church facility charged money for use for weddings, which doesn’t strike me as unreasonable assuming the amount is reasonable to cover cleaning and ongoing maintenance. At a recent funeral I attended, a family member mentioned that the preacher leading the service was paid $100, which I got the impression was more customary than obligatory. That didn’t bother me much.

[slededit]

There is a reason protestant comes from the word "protest". The catholic church has a lot of baggage.