I think that a lot of people who consume a lot of religiosity and conservative news, especially during the pandemic and not interacting with real people much, got so entrenched with their views and totally forgot that they might actually know friends, relatives and neighbors who are good people yet not religious.

I've had people make comments to me as if they assumed I was as rigidly religious as they are, because I'm a nice person, and when I take offense and enlighten them that I'm one of atheists she's talking about, they are really taken aback. They had been taught to believe that all atheists, agnostics, humanists, and freethinkers are sinister, and they don't know how to process a nice atheist.

I like to think that if more of these super entrenched conservatives actually were aware that many of their friends and neighbors are non-believers, they wouldn't be so hateful in their comments, and perhaps think a minute before they say such things.

Yes, the pedophile comment is the truth about the catholic church, but actuality of that was projected onto the liberal and moderate politicians by those in the media who just like to screw with some gaslighting and smearing others to distract from the truth.

The pedophile comment was not out of line.

I came to the realization many years ago that not only do most people avoid thinking but they generally find it quite painful because it is just so much easier to accept a few simple rules and dogma and then live their lives in a rut. That anyone would consider doing otherwise is just not something they would ever consider.
So if you think independent thoughts and have an IQ over 120 points, you are always going to be considered a bit of an oddball by most of the people around you because they just don't think for the most part and they don't want to, they will actively resist any attempts to make them think.
As a dear friend from South Carolina puts it 'They Get Thinky Pains and They Don't Like That One Bit'

Only a weak idiot would feel harmed and find them selves concerned with the personal opinion of someone that is simply a meer idiot.

~M. Middleton 1902

Well played!

Good for you. That will likely be the end of it, outside cold looks from her, unless you press it further. That’s okay, too, as her discomfort is funny (IMO). You seem capable of handling yourself but she might tell the zealots in her church about you. Younger ones might take up her anger (I’m sure she feels it) so head’s up.

Those that belong to the catholic church should be presented with the truth of their church.

I tend to do much the same with any catholic person who tries to tell me what a blessed person they are for following the CC.

If they get in my face about how good the church is, I ask them how they feel about my mother being raped by a catholic priest when she was nine years old. I’ve yet to get anything of substance from them in response.