I blame the Popes. Including the current phony.

Homophobia. War on reproductive rights. War on women. Newsflash: those things aren't popular with today's young people.

so I guess it must have hit a nerve. That's positive.

And in particular, those Catholics who are not affiliated with the Church hierarchy - in fact, who actively challenge the insular, authoritarian, holier-than-thou and we-protect-our-own dominant institutions of the Church - have done a lot of good. And their Catholic faith is not divorced from that, but on the contrary, is for them, the moral basis of their progressive beliefs.

I'm under no delusion that the Church itself is a progressive institution, but things are not always as black-and-white as they seem. The real danger is when religion is used as a tool of power and oppression, rather than as a tool of fighting power and oppression. I personally align myself with the latter.

Religion means nothing divorced from those who follow it. Unlike the Church hierarchy and many other Catholics (and many other Christians, and many religious people in general, whether they be Muslims or Jews or what have you, as well as many anti-religious people) I refuse to believe that there is one authoritative interpretation of moral truths. At the same time, I fervently believe in the moral truths that I myself hold. That may seem like a contradiction or a paradox, and it is - because all human beings hold contradictory and paradoxical beliefs when it comes to inherently subjective things, like morality. But - and this is a very important point - just because something can't be objectively measured or proven doesn't mean it has no value. If that was the case, then we would lose the subjective nature that fundamentally makes us human. We would be robotic automatons.

Whether it be a fundamentalist reading of the Bible, the Qu'ran, or other religious texts, or some futile attempt to give value to morality through the scientific method, I maintain that there's no truly "objective", authoritative view of morality and ethics. But again, that doesn't mean that I think any of us ought to jettison our morality - we couldn't do that even if we tried, because again, we're human beings.

My advice to all would be to embrace the subjectivity - dare I say, irrationality - that comes from being human.

Which is why people might be leaving the Catholic Church, because it teaches it has exactly that.

The rest of your post, I'm not exactly sure who you are responding to, but you made sure to get in some tired old slams on atheists (robotic automatons, giving value to morality thru the scientific method), so well done I guess?