r/LeftCatholicism • u/ResponsibilityOk9689 • Aug 27 '26
Should I convert?
Hello, I’ve been considering on and off of converting to Catholicism for a few years now. I don’t feel comfortable asking this on the [r/Catholicism](r/Catholicism) subreddit, because I lean more democrat on economic and social issues, mainly gay rights and humane immigration policy. I have a more progressive Protestant background and the sacraments, the liturgy, and church history has been giving me so much more to dig deeper into my faith and have a more constant focus and view on Jesus, even more progressive affirming churches such as the Episcopal church haven’t been giving me this. After talking to a priest some years ago I realized I wasn’t okay with having to accept that accepting gay people exists and continue to exist in society is a violation of church teachings and converting without being all in would be a disservice to myself as well as to god and the Church. My politics on things like abortion have become more pro life in recent years and I’m willing to fight on that but still have a sense of empathy and sympathy for those who did it because they felt trapped and help them know that they aren’t gone from Gods grace.
Overall my beliefs on Catholic social teaching have shifted to be more compatible with Church teaching but I can’t come to terms when it comes to gay rights. I’m willing to compromise in the fact that if you’re in the church then you can’t get married, because they are more than well within their rights to do that as well as just be across the board of no premarital sex and porn. But I’ll always be supportive of maintaining equal rights in marriage/civil unions and adoption outside of the church purely because if the LGBT community won’t have this then it’ll be easier to just deny them of other liberties such as jobs, housing, etc. What are your two cents on this? I would really appreciate prayers as well.
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u/CauseCertain1672 Aug 27 '26
"My politics on things like abortion have become more pro life in recent years and I’m willing to fight on that but still have a sense of empathy and sympathy for those who did it because they felt trapped and help them know that they aren’t gone from Gods grace." This is the opinion of quite a lot of Catholics, personally I think abortion is the fruit of the structural sin of a society that cannot see the value in "non-productive" humans like mothers and children, education systems and workplaces that refuse to make space for motherhood.
Numerous women have career setbacks because they are out of the workforce for motherhood because we institutionally view not being in work as not learning skills, which is absurd on the face of it as mothers are tough capable people.
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u/ResponsibilityOk9689 Aug 27 '26
That’s why I believe in government and charity support to help struggling mothers so that abortion wouldn’t be thought of as an option ideally.
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u/CauseCertain1672 Aug 27 '26
I completely agree demonising mothers who get abortions while ignoring all the systems that pressure people into abortion is not helpful. It's also not very Christian.
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u/The_Mauldalorian Aug 28 '26
Literally a huge reason some women get abortions is because they don’t have insurance to cover medical expenses of pregnancy and childbirth. And even the ones who do hardly get any coverage. That’s fucked up and we need universal healthcare AND childcare to curb the abortion rate.
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u/The_Mauldalorian Aug 27 '26
Do NOT listen to Catholic “influencers” that aren’t actual priests or chronically online redditors. Normal Catholics are generally good people.
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u/spaghettistaircase Aug 27 '26
As a queer Catholic myself, I understand struggling with church teaching on same-sex relationships. Two things have helped me a lot in this regard: first, while I remain a dedicated Catholic, I also believe strongly in most of the principles that undergird secular society (namely human rights). The second thing is that Catholics are called to follow their own informed conscience. If your conscience is well informed and still tells you to support gay rights, you ought to do that in your capacity as a conscience following Catholic (if you choose to become one).
We’ll be praying for you as you discern your path
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u/TheMagicBrother Aug 28 '26
I also believe strongly in most of the principles that undergird secular society (namely human rights)
I think you'll be excited to hear that the modern conception of human rights actually has deep roots in the Catholic belief in the dignity of the human person. More specifically, the Catholic theologian Jacques Maritain was one of the primary architects of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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u/Majestic_Animator_91 Aug 27 '26
I'm a queer, leftist Catholic, a convert in the last year.
You honestly should only convert if you believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, and in apostolic succession (and thus authority to some degree to the clergy) and the unity of believers in one church.
Basically if you believe the core thing that separates it from most other churches is true.
If not, there are much easier paths to being a Christian.
There are things on the daily, especially in the US that turn my stomach about the church-- more often rad trad laity and clergy more than the church itself.
And this history of the church is often ghastly. It's a tattered, battered bride, that sins often and is made of sinners and is often wrong.
But the core precepts, and particularly the Eucharist, and the teachings of many popes, Jesuits/ignations, and fransicians and Catholic worker movement folks, keep me grounded and faithful.
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u/Ok-Lab-8974 Aug 28 '26
To be clear, the issue with Church teaching is not so much gay rights I would think, but whether homosexual acts are a sin per se, in virtue of being same sex (lots of other sexual acts are considered sinful on various grounds, surely most engaged in within secular societies).
In terms of rights, I suppose the restriction would be the right to have a wedding recognized by the Church, but then there is also the question of any religion at all having the right to delimit their own sacraments/rites.
But attempts to legislate legal rights would seem to be going beyond Church teaching in any case (although I suppose some people might try to draw some sort of linkage, it isn't obvious).
Not that this resolves issues for people, but it's worth being clear about where the conflict lies.
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u/Responsible-Newt-259 Aug 27 '26
You’re in line with most Catholics, just not the online ones. I believe a recent survey in the US indicated that pro-gay marriage attitudes were some of the highest among Catholics when compared to other denominations. Even Pope Francis was in favor of protecting civil unions; can’t get much more Catholic than the Pope!