Not only Catholic schools did disencourage writing with your left hand, many teachers in ordinary schools put the student's pen into the "pretty hand". When I was a child, it wasn't actually disencouraged any longer, but most teachers in the country didn't think that about it. I, for example, are left-handed, but I learned to write with my right hand.
Currently, I'm more or less ambidextrous. When using a tool, I often try both hands. I usually write with my right hand, but I can write l legibly with my left hand, too, and sometimes I do, for example when I am holding something with my right hand and want to jot something down simultanously. My computer mouse is on the right side. I hold my rosary beads in the right hand, too. When I was still a smoker, I would hold the cigar or cigarette in my right hand (I think most right-handed smokers use their left hands). My watch (which I only wear when at work) is on the left wrist. I used to wear it on the right as a child, but then somebody told me that you wear it on the left.
I think it is a bit strange. Right means correct, too. Your rights (and not your lefts) are in the law. In German, you say somebody is "link" (left) if he is treacherous, and if somebody betrays you, he has "linkt" you.
