My wife's separation from the Catholic Church was interesting. She was raised deep into the church. Catholic schooling, parents who tithed, and attended regularly, the whole works. Her first year of teaching was at a local Catholic elementary school. Most of the lay teachers fit into two categories, the ones that were just passing through, since they had no intent of being grossly underpaid, with laughable benefits, for an entire career. The ones that stayed lived as very poor folks, driving junk cars, hoping to find a way to pay for their kids education, barely getting buy. We visited more than one that was living one step above third world conditions. At the end of her first year, the Priest in charge announces that he is wasting too much on paying the teachers every two weeks and will now issue nine paychecks a year. In her case it was less than $900 each. She was then contacted by the Catholic school that she attended, to interview for her next year. That school offers to hire her on the spot, and offers her ten percent less than the few coins she is currently making. She politely declines, which results in Mother Superior scolding her for "not being dedicated enough to do god's will". This particular church was then in the middle of a scandal, as the priest would magically end the annual charities appeal, and end up with a new, very expensive car, every year. Not only a new car, but a mid-life crisis car, like a Trans-AM. He also managed to find it in his heart to drop 1/4 million into a new home for his recently divorced sister. This was back when a typical new places went for $60-70K.
The final straw was relocating to a new area, with a good paying public school job, a husband and a baby boy. She met with the local priest, in the brand new mega-church, and asked about scheduling a baptism. The priest stated that, after the secretary scheduled the meeting, he reviewed her status. He then got very distraught about "the envelopes", and launched a fairly aggressive rant directed at a young lady holding an infant. As she became more upset and confused by his confrontational behavior, she told him that she had recently moved to the area, and didn't understand what he was so upset about. He then came right out and told her that, without a history of significant contributions to his church, there would be no baptism.
That was the beginning of the end for her. She got our son baptized at a big inner city Catholic Cathedral, sort of piggy back him on to a service that was being done for her brother's new baby, but that was the last interaction we had with any of the Catholic leadership. Haven't set foot in one except for funerals, and weddings, since then.