The Catholic Convert Boom Is Real But A Troubling Pattern Is Emerging

As we approach the holiest day of the year for the Catholic Church, tens of millions will prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans across the country are preparing to join the faith I have belonged to since birth. Converts to the faith have played a crucial role over ...
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As we approach the holiest day of the year for the Catholic Church, tens of millions will prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans across the country are preparing to join the faith I have belonged to since birth.

Converts to the faith have played a crucial role over the last two millennia, from St. Paul’s journey to Damascus, to St. Augustine’s departure from a life of debauchery that would make Hugh Hefner blush, to G.K. Chesterton, whose writings still speak to millions nearly a century later, to St. Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint.

I firmly believe the Catholic Church is the greatest civil institution ever created. Since its founding, the Church has clothed the naked, educated the young, fed the hungry, tended to the sick, and through divine mercy provided the path to salvation for billions of people.

During the darkest times in human history, the Catholic Church was the only institution that separated the West from barbarism. The very fabric of Western civilization is tied to the history of the Church.

While it’s easy for me to wax poetic about a church I have repeatedly fallen in love with over the years — even with all of its shortcomings — other high-profile converts appear to be using their newfound membership in the Catholic faith as nothing more than a political prop.

It is true, the vast majority of new converts join for all the right reasons. But a small, vocal cadre of political influencers are using their catholicism to build social media platforms, feigning purity as an E-girl or, even worse, promoting antisemitism. It is people doing the latter who pose the most credible threat to the integrity of all Catholics and create a widespread erroneous belief that Catholicism has an issue with Jews.

Unlike many branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church does not demand that the faithful be committed Zionists to receive God’s blessing. Many prominent members of the Church have spoken out about the plight of civilians in Gaza. It seems recent converts to the faith understand those teachings but somehow forget that the Church also rejects any form of antisemitism, condemns hostility toward Jews, and upholds the enduring covenant with the Jewish people as God’s chosen people. They have already become cafeteria Catholics, picking and choosing which parts of the teachings they prefer.

Holding nuanced opinions about sensitive subjects in the Middle East, like America’s relationship with Israel, can be a tough balancing act for anyone. For the Catholic, however, it is completely possible to be a critic of Middle Eastern affairs without being expressly antisemitic. And your new membership in the Catholic faith should not serve as your call to action against the State of Israel.

Yet for some political influencers, their call to the faith doesn’t seem rooted in deep devotion or hope for eternal salvation. Rather, their main mission seems to be in “otherizing” of those who don’t fall into their particular bubble.

Perhaps the gravest sin in all of this is using Christ and the Church as a political prop. Using a phrase like “Christ is King” — not to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, the salvation of souls from hell, and His resurrection — but to otherize those of different faiths is no different than taking the Lord’s name in vain.

The phrase “Christ is King” should not be followed by “Netanyahu should be on trial for war crimes.”

For those just joining the Church, it is worth remembering that Catholics in this country were long treated as outsiders — feared, condemned, and accused of harboring foreign allegiances. Most cradle Catholics of the Ellis Island stock have a better understanding of that shared history.

Those looking to use the Church as a platform to dictate foreign policy or dismiss the life of other faiths are no less cringeworthy than when priests from the Boomer generation host climate change events or demand that the United States change its immigration laws.

It seems transparent that your membership in this church is one more platform, like a social media account where views and followers are all that matter, not devotion.

These are uneasy times, but it’s in moments of darkness that we as Catholics should look to the saints who have come before us and truly offer our lives to Christ and build the church – not use it for self-advancement.

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Ryan James Girdusky is an author, podcaster, political consultant, and writer whose work has been featured in the Washington Examiner, The American Conservative Magazine, The Week, Human Events, and The Daily Caller. He is the host of “It’s A Numbers Game with Ryan Girdusky” podcast. Follow him on X: @RyanGirdusky

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.