I have secretly been considering converting to Catholicism for the past year
Alben Barkley:
I have gone to Catholic Mass numerous times with a close friend of mine over the course of the past year, not partaking in the Eucharist of course, but I have gone and taken it seriously.
But now I am at a crossroads. I don't want to be stuck in some limbo as someone who goes to Catholic services but doesn't REALLY believe and is shut out of communion forever.
At the same time, I find it almost impossible to reconcile my beliefs on many social issues, especially abortion, with Catholic dogma. I feel like if I went through RCIA and everything and "officially" became Catholic, it would just be a lie because I wouldn't ACTUALLY denounce my views on abortion, sexuality, etc.
So this is especially aimed at those of you who are liberal/leftist yet cling to your Catholic faith: How do you do it? How do you reconcile it? How do you avoid the cognitive dissonance?
I mean obviously President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, many other prominent Democratic politicians have done it... but they were born and raised into the faith. It would feel weird to essentially convert to Catholicism with the express goal of being a Cafeteria Catholic all along. At the same time, I've felt more of a connection to God at some of the services I've attended than I have since I was a small child at church, and I didn't even expect it at first. I expected to scoff at it and was only going at my friend's insistence, but then found myself drawn to it more and more. So if you've seen me make comments in defense of the Catholic Church or faith, well, that's probably why.
Sometimes I feel like the best solution would be to just go to an Episcopalian Church or something... but the experience I have with mainline churches, and no offense to those who are members of them, is that they just seem a little too "anything goes" for me, like there's not much point in going to church at all if you are going to accept any and all beliefs. Maybe that's just my evangelical upbringing influencing me still, maybe it feels like there SHOULD be a little guilt or something as a result of that, or maybe there is something to the idea that there's just something that doesn't quite vibe with me and these churches.
In any case, I am at a crossroads where I will probably either go full Catholic or revert back to non-belief (maybe deism if anything). So, knowing there are some prominent posters here who are both very much Catholic and very much progressive, I'm curious as to how you reconcile these apparent opposites and find fulfillment in your faith without doubting your politics.
Unpoisoned Chalice:
To be a faithful Catholic requires belief in many things:
Belief that the existence of God can be demonstrated through reason
Belief in a triune God that consists of a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are not three different modes of the same God or three separate gods but rather "persons"
Belief that Jesus Christ was simultaneously divine and a man in a hypostatic union with two natures, one human and one divine
Belief that the violent death of Jesus Christ via crucifixion is the source of human salvation from sin
Belief that Catholic priests have the ability to transubstantiate wafers into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ regardless of their moral character
Belief that various supposed Marian apparitions are at least "worthy of belief"
Belief that abortion is a sin which can condemn those involved to Hell
Belief that the Pope is protected from error whilst making ex cathedra declarations on faith or morals
Belief that the Catholic religion of the 21st century is the same as early Christianity and historical Catholicism
That last point is perhaps the most damaging of all. The Papacy has no basis in historic Christianity. The most frequent argument made in favor of it is an expansive interpretation of Matthew 16:18. If there existed a "Vicar of Christ" recognized by the universal church, why would there have been a need for the Council of Nicaea? Or indeed any of the other theological disputes with so-called "heresies" and the semantic debates of Ephesus and Chalcedon? Why would the Patriarch of Constantinople have dared to excommunicate the papal legates in 1054? And then there is extraordinary transformation of the Second Vatican Council! The church that allied with the reactionary crowns of Europe to suppress liberal revolutions in the 18th-19th centuries, that declared extra ecclesiam nulla salus, that had Boniface VIII announce in his audacious pride that "it is necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff" then proclaimed itself in favor of religious liberty and ecumenical dialogue. A church that could not tolerate the slightest dissent within Christianity now suddenly saw the wisdom of pagan philosophers, Confucius, and others. Other Christians were no longer heretics or schismatics but "separated brethren." Traditionalists revolted and the church has been in an uneasy balancing act between rigid orthodoxy and what it once denounced as modernism.
As an ex-Catholic, I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy studying church history and theology. From my own experience and the reasons I have outlined here, I would advise potential converts to not enter the church. It is only because of my own relation to this institution that I have made this post. I am not intending to single out Catholics. If I had a background in another religion, I would have responded similarly.
John Dule:
I have sympathy for the people who are forced into cults from a young age, but you’re old enough to know better.
TheSaint250:
I know we’ve had our disagreements in the past, but just wanted to say that it’s good to hear you’ve been considering joining the Church. I’ll be praying for you
Skill and Chance:
It is interesting to me how there is such a consistent a Mainline->Deism->Catholicism/Orthodoxy pipeline among more religious intellectuals.
*One could argue that some of the Mainline churches are approaching official Deism today.
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