Yes. For years I attended church: it was an empty virtue signaling social exercise. Everyone dressed in Sunday best, showing off the latest fashion, newest car, boasting of their holidays etc. Confession was another empty ritual: parroting a few Hail Marys and carrying on without changing their behaviour, wrong attitudes or wrong thinking (still hating, envying, gossiping etc) Precious little love or charity; none in the convent school I attended. Idols, rituals, repetitions of prayers, solemn kneeling but no Spirit filled, God surrendered and Jesus centered lives. There were a few pious saintly souls (my great grandma certainly was) but they were very rare.
Yes. For years I attended church: it was an empty virtue signaling social exercise. Everyone dressed in Sunday best, showing off the latest fashion, newest car, boasting of their holidays etc. Confession was another empty ritual: parroting a few Hail Marys and carrying on without changing their behaviour, wrong attitudes or wrong thinking (still hating, envying, gossiping etc) Precious little love or charity; none in the convent school I attended. Idols, rituals, repetitions of prayers, solemn kneeling but no Spirit filled, God surrendered and Jesus centered lives. There were a few pious saintly souls (my great grandma certainly was) but they were very rare.