Hi Kiley,
I read your post being able to relate alot, though both my parents were unbelievers, and I was sent to an Anglican School boarding school, which while wasn’t run by nuns and didn’t have more than one priest, we were terrorised by the other boys mostly rather than the teachers. We went to chapel every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
While I was there a teacher joined who was an evangelical Christian, and believed he was sent there by God by getting 3 visions 3 nights in a row.
It was 100% true, because as the years went on, a little bible study he ran once a week was a vestige from all the religion. We got to hear about the bible in real terms, not just reciting things from a book created by a church that was created by King Henry the 8th when he wanted to get divorced.
I became a born again believer there, received the Holy Spirit, and received by first prophecy there over the course of the 8 years that I was there.
He literally was a missionary to a “Christian” school that had really become a religious and traditional school more than that actually Christian.
Why do I say this — because I know this will offend a lot of people who may be anglican or catholic or greek orthodox, but the bottom line is that Jesus did not come to bring religion but life — to restore our relationship with God via Him, because of His sacrifice.
So don’t judge God or Jesus based on the behavior of the Catholic church or its members — because they are merely men and make mistakes like all men.
Dive into his Word, using a modern translation like the NIV or the New King James, and find Him for yourself, and then find a bible based church that is following Jesus wholeheartedly, not just traditions for the sake of it.
If you ask Him he will answer:
‘ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ‘ Matthew 7:7–8 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.7.7-8
Matt
