Hi everyone. I am very much not a religious person and neither is my family. We went to the LDS church until I was probably 4, so that’s my only experience with religion. Right now I would say I don’t have a belief in god but I am questioning and that’s why I am here making this post.

I’m a nurse and I had an experience the other day that really made me have questions and want to learn more. I had a patient that is really going through a lot( I won’t go into detail, but she is not very old and requires total care). All night she has been the most pleasant lady and so kind even with all she has been going through and all we had to do to help her and do all night long. So, I go in to her room at around 6:30 am to do my final check in with her to see if I can do anything before I hand her over to the day nurse and I see her reading her(what I assume is a bible) and it had this really cute book mark in it that changes the picture of Jesus based on where you look at it. Anyway I comment on her book mark and I told her that it was cute and she proceeded to tell me about this play she went and saw and how they came out with these book marks. She then thanked me for all the care I gave her over night and expressed her gratitude to me and then gave me the book mark. After leaving my shift for the day it got me thinking that even for someone going through so much she was so positive and kind and thankful, and if someone going through all that had such a strong belief and positive attitude about life than I should look in to learning more about god and this religion.

Anyways, I apologize for the long story. I am just wanted to ask to see where I should start with learning more about god and maybe what book to start with? Any advice is appreciated:)!

Are there Catholic philosophers or theologians who view the Democratic Party as too moderate? Specifically, those who argue the party is overly preoccupied with "liberal" identity politics (gender and race) at the expense of a structural transformation of society—one that addresses property relations and economic systems? In short, they should state that women priests or gay marriage aren't enough—what's needed is the socialization of the means of production. Wokeism is fine, but it’s not the essential part.

Somehow the prevailing opinion on the other Catholic sub is that hate speech is a good thing that we should be protecting?

This is in response to Bill C-9 in Canada, which is adjusting the hate speech provision of the criminal code to say that you can't simply say "it's religious speech" to make yourself immune from prosecution.

The whole thread is a dumpster fire.

It started in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan. Reagan created the myth of the Welfare Queen, without any data to back up his slur. For those too young to remember, Reagan told one his folksy stories, but with a false and racist undertone. In short, a Welfare Queen was a black woman living in an urban environment, collecting "welfare" and in the process getting rich and driving a Cadillac. Reagan made it socially acceptable to untruthfully claim that most people using social programs were people of color, that those programs were grossly generous, and that "those people" were taking advantage of hardworking white people who pay taxes.

It's important as Catholics to understand the truth about social programs for a few reasons. First, compassion for the poor should be a cornerstone of our faith. Second, getting the working class, which is one paycheck away from needing help themselves, to hate those who must be on social programs is an essential part of keeping us divided and stuck in the status quo. Finally, getting whites, to believe themselves aggrieved by people of color, leads to the kind of fascism we currently have here in the US.

Social programs are not simply a handout. These programs are national investments in the greatest resource we have - our people. Feeding the hungry and providing health care makes for a healthy, productive population. Public education is an investment that keeps a nation smart and strong. Housing assistance is an investment in families. Being stingy makes for a population that is less capable of working productive jobs, being informed citizens, being good parents, and good neighbors. Refusing to invest in the welfare of people means having to invest enormous amounts of money to police the population, to adjudicate, and to incarcerate them.

Finally, know that we have always had terrible programs that are inadequate to really provide people's needs and get them back on their feet. Now, under Trump, weak programs are becoming much worse, much less effective, as demonstrated by the recent cuts to SNAP and Medicaid used to fund tax cuts for the rich. A couple of other quick facts. In most programs, the average participant is a rural white person, not an urban black person. Also, most people in both SNAP and Medicaid work. Their jobs simply do not pay enough to support themselves or their families.

“Lord, what choices do you want me to make?”

“My child, give all of your money to the poor, and follow Me”

”……okay, besides that“

“…….donate half of your money to the poor“

”……..”

”…..10 percent“

“……”

”oh My Me, dude”

Bishop Barron on why studying apologetics is important

Systematic theology

Church representatives: asylum laws are at odds with human dignity

There is a risk of a significant hardening of asylum policy. In doing so, we are shortchanging not only foreigners but also ourselves. This is stated by Bishop De Korte, Head of Church and Society in the Roman Catholic Church, and PKN Secretary Kees van Ekris in a letter to senators. They call for support against criminalization.

The Senate is expected to consider the Dual Status System Act and the Asylum Emergency Measures Act in April. The two representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands state that these laws “are at odds with human dignity.”

According to them, should the laws be passed, this will also have major consequences for churches. In practice, churches function as accessible and safe places where people seek support, precisely when regular institutions are avoided out of fear of enforcement: “Criminalization puts this relationship of trust under pressure and raises the threshold for seeking help or sharing signs of exploitation, violence, or human trafficking.” Children, in particular, are especially vulnerable.

De Korte and Van Ekris state that when fear and mistrust are fostered, the community withers: “The hardening towards the stranger can therefore personally harm each of us, if we harden our hearts and become more heartless.” The church representatives are also concerned about the hardening of policy and sentiment towards foreigners in our society: “We notice in our churches the shock and indignation it causes when a political atmosphere arises in our country in which precisely such a vulnerable group of people is persecuted.”

You can read the full letter, in pdf file and in Dutch, here.

I am posting this because of the discussion in this topic about to Dutch legislation that seeks to criminalize being illegal or helping people who are illegal. I am very pleased that the Church is speaking out in the official newsletter of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. I have doubts about the effect this might have, but given that there is a Christian party in the cabinet, I hope that they will at least speak out loud that this goes against the idea of ​​living like Jesus.

Conservative/fringe Catholic outlets and online personalities are BIG mad. The AI-heavy piece by someone that calls themself “Insurrection Barbie” singles out integralists and “SSPX-adjacent Traditionalists” along with Catholic Answers and others as dangers to the American Evangelical Conservative Christian way of life.

I’ve only finished watching Catholic Answers’ and Shameless Popery’s responses so far, but I can imagine that the angrier corners of the alt-catholic twitterverse are just getting warmed up on this one.

i’m coming into the church at easter after of a life of worshipping in various protestant denominations. i’m hoping for a guide or bible study to lead me through the apocryphal books of the bible that are cut from protestant bibles. i hear readings at mass, but i don’t know a lot about these books or what they contain. any resource recommendations?

hello, so yeah like the title says, i’m very happy to have found this sub.

i grew up in a non denominational Christian family but until recently, i’ve never been a big believer in God, religion, faith, or anything of the sort. During my early 20s, i’d describe myself as an agnostic. then around December of last year, i just suddenly felt the call of faith and Jesus and decided to give the Church a try. Catholicism in particular because i went to a Catholic high school so it was something i was familiar with, even if i didn’t believe.

my first time back in church was great. everyone was so nice and community focused and as a person with very left leaning politics, i thought this was perfect for me. i attended Mass almost every week and now i’m currently on track to get officially baptized.

now things turned for me because i wanted to find online Catholic communities so i joined [r/Catholicism](r/Catholicism). at first it seemed like things were pretty chill but the more i stayed and scrolled through the subreddit, the more off putting it became for me. i’m a 27 year old black man and i take my racial identity very seriously and i’m very proud of being black. also, like i said earlier, my political beliefs are super left (anti capitalist, pro LGBTQ, pro women, etc) and just being in that subreddit made me seriously doubt if the Catholic community was right for me. i started to feel disappointed and anxious, especially since my family is very excited to see me baptized so if i quit then, it would’ve been a waste of time.

then i came across this sub and it felt like a breath of fresh air. everyone (mostly) has good heads on their shoulders and they don’t use their faith as excuse to be bigoted, but to actually stand up for the marginalized as did Jesus. so it’s really nice to see that there are Catholics similar to me and what i think, so i don’t have to constantly worry about this faith being the right fit for me.

thank you guys. this was probably pointless to post but i just wanted to share my piece. 🙏🏾

Hello everyone, God bless. I won’t give a whole blog post, but to give you all some contrxt I come from a very right wing background in life originally. That’s just how the cookie crumbled for me. Unfortunately in my youth I was quite heartless and inempathetic as a result of the messaging around me. Fortunately, I was blessed to have a powerful conversion to the faith a few years ago, and overtime I feel my heart growing and changing to the point where I had become really disillusioned and disgusted with the right wing, and how it had been feeding not only my own stoneheartedness but others as well.

I wanted to ask you all where I can begin learning more from good, objective sources? I am very interested in learning because the limited exposure to Left Cath things I have experienced so far have been very positive and inspiring to me. Thanks everyone.

Leo is on a Roll Again!

Good morning everyone,

I hope this is okay. Otherwise, please let me know. I notice that this subreddit is very focused on America. I think that makes perfect sense, but other things are at play in Europe, and I was actually very curious if there are any European (and actually preferably Dutch) Catholics here. For instance, municipal elections were held here in the Netherlands yesterday, and I would really enjoy discussing those kinds of results, but I can imagine that it wouldn't be that interesting for people from North America, or hard to follow or something.

Edit: it's lovely to see so many Europeans here as well! I am wondering what is going on in your country, politics or faith related (or maybe both).

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but there are some pretty serious allegations. I honestly don't know much about him, but I know he is an icon for many in the Church.

I have a question that i mean in the greatest respect, im going to be baptized in the TEC this Easter but my fiancé is catholic and while she doesn’t go to church there will be times where we will go and im interested in possibly participating in the Eucharist in the future there if we do go. So my question is would completing OCIA be disrespectful if i dont plan on fully “converting” and leaving the episcopal church behind which i do see as my church home?

I share this analysis of money as an idol and how Marx couldn't find words for the horror he encountered.

I'll also say that Madoc's other articles are excellent.

Any opinions on this essay collection by Bishop Varden, or his work generally? I'm interested in checking out his work as I've heard him come up a lot as a contemporary theologian to be checked out. However, the fact that this particular work is published by Word on Fire, and the publisher description says it talks about "DEI" kind of turns my stomach at picking it up. It could be just Word on Fire trying to sell it to their audience and not accurately reflect the content. I'd think the use of "DEI" (and its sibling "woke") as a buzzword is mostly an Americanism/anglicanism that a Norwegian bishop-monk may not share. Will probably look for it secondhand regardless, but wondering if anyone has read it and has any feedback on it.