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Certainly many Irish people find the idea of abandoning Catholicism to be as counterintuitive as giving up their racial or sexual identity. A televised panel discussion on the abuse crisis last summer ended with a reporter asking a woman who was voicing her anger if she was ready to leave the Catholic Church. She paused, as if befuddled, then said, “Where would I go?” Then again, while until recently, being a member of the church had obvious social rewards, Eamon Maher, who has edited books about Irish Catholicism, told me, “now it’s a positive disadvantage.” Maher continued: “If you go around saying you’re an ardent Catholic, people will be distrusting of you.”
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