All Comments on 'Mea Culpa'

You've painted a good picture and sense of place and ensured your reader has no sympathy for the main character by the second paragraph. You obviously love complex adjectives and although they imply a more literary style, they can put the reader off, purely because you use so many. Try reading your work out loud before you post if you don't have access to an editor and hopefully you'll pick up the niggling errors which run through this piece (sung instead of sang, past instead of passed etc.) You also need to be aware of continuity - you say her skirt came to her knee, then talk about her long skirts (in my book, long skirts imply at least calf length but mostly ankle or floor level). Have you researched the Quaker faith? I believe they still have elders and in some meeting houses they call each other Brother and Sister. Quakers have a very close and active religious community so it seems incongruous you have the girl say she is looking at "the way this community religion thing works" as a reason for seeking out a Catholic church. If she were wanting to experience transubstantiation through a full mass that might be a reason, since it is a very different form of service from those she would be used to. I'm also surprised that you have the priest say there's only one service in the church per week. Most Catholic priests would say a short mass several times a week plus sessions for confession on Friday and Saturday. I understand you want to make him as unappealing as possible but it's always good to make your fictional world concrete.