Catholic Churches

Coming to Italy I had in mind that people were very religious especially since the Catholic Church is based in Rome. Being very religious I believed that most people in Italy would not be as upset with the Catholic Church as they are. I never thought all of the negatives that have happened throughout the ages would be so widely spread. I was especially surprised that a lot of basilicas and cathedrals did not have that many church goers in attendance. I believe the power of the church has gone down significantly and this shows with the somewhat recent separation of church and state. When I go to church in the United States it the church is full and all of the church goers but a significant amount of money in the basket. Here there are little to no people who give an offering to the church. I think the most surprising thing to me throughout the religious experience is that a lot of people bad mouth the Catholic Church. I heard a lot of negative attitudes while I was in churches and other religious places. I believe in the United States it would not be acceptable to do that. The people who do not believe in what it stands for would not go.