Non conformists have been a pushover for the Left's soft totalitarianism. But Catholics? Dear oh dear.

I gave up God and religion in 1955, when I was 13, as I couldn’t reconcile it with my rational education. That was a personal choice, I don’t contest other people’s choices. In respect of religious teaching, I think that the essence is contained in “Know thyself;” “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” Texts and words can offer guidance, but ultimately, whether or not we have a religious faith, we have to understand reality through our own direct experience if we are to lead a truly moral life, good for us and good for others. One way of doing this is through Vipassana meditation, in which one observes with equanimity reality as it manifests in our own mind and body, the only place where we can directly experience it. Vipassana is the non-sectarian core teaching of the Buddha, a practice from which people of any or no religion can benefit. I appreciate Collits’ concerns, I am not commenting on them but drawing attention to a technique by which people would better understand both the conflicting approaches which he describes and the underlying reality, whether or not it is God-given.

Speaking of behind the scene (or even in-your-face) totalitarian motives and "educating" young "catholics" particularly in the USA why not check out these three truth-telling references on the Open Tabernacle website

Opus Dei's Influence on the US Judiciary
Opus Dei's Influence is Felt in All of Washington's Corridors of Power
White Catholic Voters Driven by Baseless Fear & Dark Money

Educating, opps, brainwashing the next generation of Catholics with clearly fallacious falsehoods must be discontinued!

It is clear that much of religious text was the work of scribes able to impose their own societal biases into the text, given much of it, contested and contests scientifically proven evidence?

And a say this as a reformed catholic, who was allowed to actually develop critical thinking, rather than have it buried, as is par for the course, in much of Catholic/Christian philosophy!

Current Christian philosophy owes much of what it teaches and believes to the overwhelming imposition of Constatine and that pagan sun worshipper's beliefs. And that of subsequent writers who enforced it? And indeed on the fanaticism that's on display here and in the minds of fanatical, sword-wielding Bishops, at the head of bloodsoaked armies.

Education should expose the student to the almighty truth as opposed to bury it under a mountain of mendacious, misleading misinformation!

Gallelao was threatened with excommunication for proving the earth was not in the centre of a universe that revolved around it! And Saint Peter's Basilica was built on donations that bought absolution for any sin?

And just don't get me started on the centuries of acceptable and covered up, paedophilia and overt homosexuality in the priesthood! And this same group preached and preaches celibacy and gives marriage advice, which until recently, included a non-contraception rule/advice! By what has mutated/morphed into an absolutist evil empire?
Alan B.

The author wrote: "Even in the few places it can be said to teach Catholic truth, the programme is structured around an open-ended questioning format."

There is no such thing as Catholic truth. If something is true it is true for everybody, and its truth can be supported by evidence. It is common to many religions and political opinions to confuse belief with truth. They are not the same thing. Truth does not exist with qualifications.

I am not a Catholic, nor a supporter of Catholic elitism,
but I fear that if parents are prevented from educating their children their own way and avoid exposing them to influences which they, rightly or wrongly, consider harmful, then we all are doomed, unable to tell who's children will be next to fall prey to brainwashing by the state or whatever other powers prevail. They might well be your own grandchildren.

That said, trying to teach children the Ten Commandments, including "Thou shalt not steal", using tax-payer stolen funds, is laughable: "Do as I say, not as I do" never works!

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Dear David,

«If something is true it is true for everybody, and its truth can be supported by evidence.»

The above is a perfect example of half-truth.

Yes, what is true is true for everybody, but no, truth cannot be supported by evidence.
Such faith in the scope and power of evidence, is a superstition.