#'a dude' the genderless witch says ok

[chasing-sirius-in-circles]

So a function of my little personal Italian American renaissance has gotten me thinking more about how even my weird ass mountain people family (I have only my uncle and dad on that side so past tense applies) would have been culturally Catholic. If great grandma G and great uncle R were in fact witches carrying on from an old Italian tradition, it would surely have been blended with some of that influence, and even in a non witchy capacity, that's a cultural legacy that's there--

What I'm getting at is that I have zero interest in Jesus or the bible (at least religiously for myself, I always want to know everything about culture and history and beliefs) but I would really like to learn more about all the other pieces of Catholicism--the rituals, other practices, and reasoning. And the truth of it, not the propaganda. So here are some study questions I'm leaving for myself that I welcome responses to if they spark a thought!

To research, answers and source suggestions welcome:

Confessional, historically: was that established as a means of controlling the population like a proto surveillance state wearing god camo, or as a genuine function of religious practice that served the populace as much as the church? Where does that originate?

Confessional historically: could you argue that, sociologically speaking, a space of total honesty beyond legal reach like that would have served people before the advent of talk therapy in many of the same ways as talk therapy would come to do later? As in, is it the same social resource niche/a means of filling the same or a very similar social need? The next time someone makes a joke about confession being stupid/laughable/weird would I be a nutjob if my reaction was "dude be nice. We don't shame people for utilizing a safe space to talk through their feelings and actions just because it's a god themed space."

Confessional today: I always hear people say "oh yeah if you're Catholic and you do something terrible you just have to confess and then say the right prayers enough times and it's all ok" but then every actual depiction of confession I've ever seen is more like "if you confess to something terrible you'll be told to pray to repent or for guidance or whatever but also the priest will talk through it with you and encourage you to make irl amends, not just say however many Hail Marys and call it good." I'm guessing the average Catholic experience is somewhere between these two, but what exactly is it like?

What is the difference between a mass and a service? Or a vesper (or is that the term for the kind of choral music used in vigils?) What exactly is a vigil as opposed to like, a night mass?

Ritual, offering, prayer: I see in movies sometimes this kind of bargaining with God type of prayer, like, "I lit a candle I took certain steps with holy water or somesuch (??? More info required I know I'm not articulating accurately, that's why they're study questions) and now I'm promising I'll go to church every Sunday until I die in a pew if you will do/help with/grant me [thing] O Lord." Is this typical? Is prayer a two way street, what you offer God and what you ask of God? Like, is *asking* a thing? Or are most prayers more like saying grace, a "this is a thing I am thanking you for" celebration of God without request or expectation, and the bargaining kind just shows up in movies because it makes a good plot point?

Ritual, offering, prayer: again with the cold and probably bold sociological takes, but how does lighting a candle for a loved one or appealing to a saint differ functionally from pre-christian ancestor or demigod worship? Are they functionally similar and it's the theological context that makes an important difference? Or are they culturally situated but still technically comparable?

How much acknowledgement of the technical presence of a divine feminine or a genderless God or holy spirit is there among modern practicing Catholics? Does anyone call it a divine feminine aspect, or is that a term outsiders apply but practitioners don't?

Is the devil really A Thing or is translating satan as the noun "adversary" actually more accurate? Is there one devil named Satan? Or is that an American bible belt thing better described some other way in a Catholic context, or no? If no, and there is literally a single identifiable being of evil in defiance of God, how did he get there? Why? Canonically, not according to reinterpretation by outside groups or cultural splinters that are super niche.

Evil continued: Demons. Canonically and not pop culturally, what's going on there?

Sin: is original sin "people are born evil" or does sin here mean any deviance from God/from a spiritual state, and would it be better stated as "we are born separated from the divine by default as corporeal and complex individuals?" By extension, is baptism important because an infant who dies will literally be condemned, or is more like wanting to give them a direct line back to the divine should they not make it to an age where they can actively seek God themselves? Like emergency lights for finding the way back? Does God actually care if an infant with zero control is or is not baptized, or is it something we as humans choose for our peace of mind?

Are relics still a thing? Especially outside of Europe and the general vicinity of early christianity in the Middle East/Levant? If I go to a large church in the US would I come across bones?

Burials and death: what's the attitude on embalming and cremation and burial and when that happens for modern catholics? Are modern Catholics down with ideas like ossuaries or catacombs? What about mass burial? Has the old timey attitude of "we are not our flesh and bone so if the churchyard gets full and the bones end up in a pile without individual identity that's fine" still around?

Interpretation: for modern Catholics, how literally do you read the bible? As a historical account, or as mytho-history that is often exaggerated (in a literary sense) or applied metaphorically? Are there young earth or anti-evolutionary Catholics or is that a uniquely American protestant angle? How much room do most practitioners allow for ideas like "yeah evolution is totally a thing and creation stories aren't supposed to be verbatim, but representative?"

Social: what is the modern zeitgeist in terms of loving ALL your neighbors and inclusivity v. judgement and discrimination? Is it a comparably variable set of attitudes like across protestant individuals, or is there a uniform attitude? Are modern Catholics actually likely to turn their backs on progressive politics if one pope supports them and the next doesn't, or is official church doctrine more of a lip service thing for the average practitioner these days?