TheMagicBrother

I'm a bisexual left-leaning cradle Catholic. Recently I've begun to feel tired of dealing with Catholicism's regressive tendencies and having to explain them away to others, so I've been feeling a pull towards the Episcopal Church. Since I'm considering jumping ship, I wanna hear the stories from the other direction. What made you decide to join the Catholic Church despite the issues it has? Did you have any horror stories in the process of conversion (like having to swear to follow all Catholic teaching without question) or was it smooth? Would you say sticking with it is a good idea?

Title. As someone living close to the coast the rising sea levels concern me greatly, and I haven't seen any posts here dedicated specifically to this topic so I made this one.

Seeing another post about Germany crossposted here made me think of asking this. I've always kind of wanted to move to Germany, and I would want to make sure I can practice my Catholicism fine there. I hear a lot of talk about how it's in crisis and on the verge of collapse, but a lot of that is from people who think homosexuals should be stoned so I'm sure how much I should trust it.

I just found out about it yesterday, and from what read I found it politically very agreeable but theologically extremely disconcerting. Its thesis, best as I can tell, is that there is no specific "development" of human civilization during history, that societies have alternated between being free and being tyrannical since prehistoric times, and much if not most of Enlightenment ideas of liberty are not original but borrowed from indigenous American cultures they came into contact with--all of which, to me, seems to greatly call into question the idea that Catholicism is in any way uniquely moral or liberatory. This has done a lot to shake my faith, especially since it's gotten a stellar r

I just found out about it yesterday, and from what read I found it politically very agreeable but theologically extremely disconcerting. Its thesis, best as I can tell, is that there is no specific "development" of human civilization during history, that societies have alternated between being free and being tyrannical since prehistoric times, and much if not most of Enlightenment ideas of liberty are not original but borrowed from indigenous American cultures they came into contact with--all of which, to me, seems to greatly call into question the idea that Catholicism is in any way uniquely moral or liberatory. This has done a lot to shake my faith, especially since it's gotten a stellar r

These days online Catholic spaces are dominated by hardcore trads, and a lot of sources are saying growth/retention of the faith among the youth is primarily a characteristic of the right-wing, with progressive/leftist types more likely to drop out entirely. I know that these trends are in large part unique to the US and not representative of global Catholicism, but I do worry about whether the American Church is going to fall to the far right, and whether that will later be the trend in other countries as well. Do we have reason to be optimistic? Do you think Pope Leo is going to be able to put a stop to this as he clearly wants to?

This is something that's always bugged me a bit. I recently saw someone here ask if leftist Catholicism is compatible with Western intellectual heritage, and while I think that's a very good and important question to ask, my dilemma is kind of the opposite. As a Filipino-American, it's hard to get around the fact that we're Catholic because the Spanish conquered us and not simply because we chose to be (though I do understand it was way more nuanced then Spanish soldiers forcing us all to convert on pain of death). I love my Catholic faith and genuinely find comfort and meaning in it, but part of me can't help but feel that that's a byproduct of a colonized mentality more than anything? What

Admittedly I'm just a Filipino-American na natututo ng wika, so I might not be saying much of substance here. There's been some discourse about loanwords in the Tagalog language, which I've been following out of concern/curiousity about its future. A lot of people say English words don't fit super well phonetically into the language (at least not as much as Spanish ones), not to mention how the spelling can get wonky when the infixes and circumfixes are used. An easy solution would be to respell the words to fit Tagalog orthography, but from what I've seen this is pretty rarely done? Is this technique used in more technical texts at least? I'm not super concerned about it in informal setting

I'm sure you all know about Clodovis Boff, the guy who helped his brother Leonardo develop liberation theology, even cowriting a book with him about it in 1986. What some of you might not know is that he disavowed it in 2007, coming to agree with most of Ratzinger's critiques of it. His latest expression of this turnaround is in this open letter to the bishops of Latin America. https://firstthings.com/an-open-letter-to-the-bishops-of-latin-america/

What's your take on this? I still think liberation theology is pretty cool but I definitely agree with his point that it doesn't currently emphasize the spiritual dimension of Christianity enough.

(Note that I don't necessarily mean liberal in the US sense, just in the sense of believing in economic freedom and liberal democracy)

In my search for a good country to teach English, virtually every source I've seen says China would be my best bet. And having looked into it it does seem like an amazing place with a lot of advantages that other countries don't have. My main concern is the political situation. I do think Western media overexaggerates a lot in this department, but just how closed off to dissent is the political climate over there? How much would someone like me, a typical believer in Western-style democracy and the free market, have to bite their tongue when visiting/living