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Catholics for clout Why are young New Yorkers claiming to convert?

Piety has become an aesthetic. Credit: Taylor Jewell/Getty Images for Vogue

Piety has become an aesthetic. Credit: Taylor Jewell/Getty Images for Vogue


August 22, 2022   6 mins

Christians of convenience are nothing new. As early as the second century, the sect-hopping Peregrinus milked Christians for money and fame, until they found out he was eating food sacrificed to pagan idols. But there is something shocking about the “Catholic revival” driven by downtown New York scenesters — that is, the phenomenon of attractive, highly social ketamine enthusiasts saying they are Catholic.

To be clear: there has not been a mass return to traditional Catholicism among New Yorkers. Downtown bars have not grown dusty as their former patrons marry, have children and stay in; their denizens have not renounced their stuporous ways. A few microcelebrities are going to Mass and confession; a few thousand fans of theirs post insular memes with half-remembered phrases from the Gospels; and a few brands sell things like “GOD WON’T LET ME DIE” booty shorts and the Praying “Trinity” bikini.

The aesthetics employed are tired and unremarkable: plaid schoolgirl skirts and altarpieces, bedroom photo shoots with Edwardian corseting, photos with nymphet eyes peering up from the kneeler. “Young Catholics” today, long after organised religion fell from centrality in American life, are scraping its remains; they are reviving the Catholic revival of Eighties Madonna, down to the intermammary rosary. The difference is that back then, Catholics weren’t pleased. Madonna started every “Blonde Ambition” performance with a prayer — and Pope John Paul II issued an official statement condemning it as “Satanic”, urging Catholics not to attend. Italian broadcasters refused to play the “Like a Prayer” video, and Pepsi dropped the singer from its ad campaigns.

Compare that to the Met Gala’s 2018 “Heavenly Bodies” theme: Rihanna wore a bedazzled minidress and mitre, while Cardinal and Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan gave an enthusiastic press conference. Are Catholics so desperate for religion to have relevance that they’ll take anything, even what seems almost too superficial to even be sacrilegious?

Apparently so. According to a recent New York Times guest essay, “New York’s Hottest Club is the Catholic Church”. What is shocking about this piece is not, primarily, its subjects’ half-hearted prostitution of Catholic imagery. Rather, it is the seeming guilelessness with which its author Julia Yost, editor of the established conservative journal First Things, seems to take them at their word. Though not intimately familiar with Catholic doxa, I suppose her mission faces a challenge: how can one be a public-facing Catholic in a world almost too stupid to evangelise to? 

This is not to say there are no Catholics in New York: there are, and their folkways are quite identifiable. Most strikingly, they tend to abstain from fornication, believing this is necessary to avoid eternal damnation. They generally marry and have children at relatively young ages. They generally marry, therefore, one another. I have a friend who is a recently un-lapsed Catholic. As such, his romantic life, formerly abuzz with tantalising young heathens, primarily consists of a dreary, desperate succession of false starts and mutually embarrassing denouements. He suffers, and his sojourn in Purgatory may very well be shortened for it.

To those for whom “Catholicism” has provided spiritual comfort and guidance, and introduced useful restraints, we should be encouraging. As famous convert Evelyn Waugh said when Nancy Mitford asked how he reconciled his awful character and his Catholicism, “were I not a Christian I would be even more horrible”.

We should be less encouraging, however, of those who use Catholicism in pursuit of attention and in the exercise of branding: that is, as pure spectacle, exactly like everything else online. The evolution of Catholic Twitter illustrates this. At least the Weird Catholic Twitter that the New York Times profiled in 2020 presented the intriguing oddity of anonymous Ignatius Reilly types, fuming about “dumbed-down doctrine” from the rooks they’d erected in their mothers’ basements. Today, it’s bigger and more banal: young women, unequipped for Instagram stardom, post selfies outside churches they don’t venture inside, and swarms of priapic men lose their minds. Both factions have the dove and fire emojis in their handles.

In these cases, rather than a cure for vanity, Catholicism is a veneer that makes their trespasses more palatable, even giving them cause for sanctimony. The harsh prescriptions of Catholicism could well be a respite from the modern world, but one’s hardly “not of this world” when she claims it to be so before thousands of Patreon subscribers, or Twitter followers, or Instagram voyeurs. Part of the Christian message, in my enfeebled understanding, is to not parade one’s piety (“when thou prayest, enter into thy closet” — Matthew 6:6). Early in Jude the Obscure, Jude recites the Nicene creed in Latin at a pub and is met with thunderous applause, which makes him furious. Repentant and ashamed, he storms off. Can we imagine any Twitter Catholic today feeling bad about making a spectacle of their faith?

In a striking turn, Yost’s essay doesn’t seem to question a “fake it till you make it” view of Catholicism; the idea that you should believe before performing the rituals is deemed Protestant nonsense. This might make sense in the context of a “dark night of the soul”, but it’s bizarre when applied to conversion. Historically, it doesn’t hold up: the overwhelmingly dominant account of an internal conversion is St. Augustine’s (“there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away”). And while it’s true that Protestants prioritise internal change over external sacrifice (as Luther said, “Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly”), it’s not like the Catholic-adjacent, in the main, make any changes in their habits. One of the most vocal young converts I know — he’s told me, with a terrifying conviction in his large eyes, that even married men and women shouldn’t have non-procreative sex — shows up to every party with a different Tinder girl. He says they overwhelm him.

Why convert, if you don’t believe it? This is a distinctly postmodern attitude to appropriating the premodern. Sincere belief is hardly even conceivable these days. So, it seems impossible to imagine actually believing Mass and prayers and chastity are a matter of eternal life or death (as do countless Catholics to this day), or to believe it without compulsive ironising. The solution to that problem of imperfect faith could be submission to readily available religious authority. And yet, many of the loudest in this crowd espouse sedevacantism, the view that there has been no valid Pope since Vatican II, and even no valid ordinations — a theology so bespoke it would rattle the bones even of the most traditionalist Catholics. Spending their days engaged in arcane and unconvincing debates in which they copy stuff from Reddit and paste it onto Twitter, they bear an uncanny resemblance to the DSA cretins for whom they bear such scorn. 

I suppose this is how we do politics now that politics is dead: the near entire retreat to the imaginary, a casual contrarianism committed to nothing besides its own ability to shock. Yost claims that “members of a small but significant scene are turning to the ancient faith in defiance of liberal pieties”. The choice of Catholicism is, of course, not random. Pretending to embrace that rapidly dying faith, led by an octogenarian Argentine with one lung, is an expression of antipathy towards the mainstream status quo and its sacred cows. There is apathy here, too. The vague conservatism of the “Catholic revival” does not reflect commitment to improving society or even their own souls; instead, it is merely confused agitation born of obsession with a liberal class they imagine to be composed solely of Jezebel writers — a politics, faith, and worldview with all the conviction and all the consistency of one impetuous toddler angry at another.

It may be true, for the more sincere among them, that the draw of Catholicism comes from a painful and desperate place. Young people, particularly in the post-Covid years, feel adrift and alone, and may well feel, as Waugh did a century before them, that the choice is between “Christianity or chaos”. The draw is half a longing for rules of any sort. (Is it any coincidence that many of these new Catholics espouse Ray Peat’s Eighties nutritional code, with its inane admonitions against pineapple and paeans to hypnagogic ice cream?) But this so-called traditionalism betokens little more than a hysterical obsession with ever more arcane, ever more irrelevant concerns.

Another part of the draw, I suppose, is general dissatisfaction with the fuzzy, listless conformism of the post-Obama years; it’s almost too banal to observe that the milestones of adult life are gone, the union job, marriage, family home, children, all so easily available to an earlier generation. As one young Catholic podcaster tells the author of the New York Times essay: she didn’t like how everyone told her to get a job when what she really wanted was a family.

But wait: “get a job” is pretty reasonable advice for aspiring mothers. If you don’t have a trust fund, a job with health insurance is probably the single biggest facilitator of having children in America. You don’t have to become a provocatively Right-wing traditionalist to breed. A single stroll through Park Slope makes very clear that the liberal elites, in fact, love children. Throw a stone, and you’ll find a secular, Dem-voting female professional with a husband, children, and a life far more similar to that of any given parishioner than any on-trend “Catholic”. It’s not “choosing the better part” to be an unemployed podcaster, nor does self-marketing through semi-nude photography on social platforms compare to sitting at the feet of Christ.

Young New Yorkers are reacting to modernity via a touristic experiment with the American Right. But, with rare exceptions, they haven’t stopped fornicating; they haven’t started forgoing coke so they can wake up for Mass on Sunday. Instead, the fixation with “post-liberalism” or “post-feminism” or “Catholicism” is superficial: it reveals little more than a narcissism of small differences. Endlessly rejecting “liberal pieties” is easy; what’s difficult is taking a cold and curdling look at one’s own life.


Ann Manov is a writer living in New York. Visit her website here.

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J Bryant
J Bryant
2 years ago

An interesting article that describes the latest fad among a subset of young-ish people in NYC and likely in other major cities. Such people exist in every generation: rootless, fundamentally belief-less, bored while waiting for the next shiny thing. They’re Seinfeld minus the humor (although unintended irony abounds).
Meanwhile, back in the mundane, real world, Roman Catholicism grinds on. It’s a tainted brand for the time being, until the shame of the abuse scandal wears off, and it struggles against the secular nature of modern society. But there’s still a strong community of faithful Catholics out there, and I believe the Church will eventually rebuild. The Church has weathered worse storms.

Roger Ledodger
Roger Ledodger
2 years ago
Reply to  J Bryant

The real irony of the abuse scandal is that an LBGQTIA+ man on ordination then becomes a priest and the shame falls solely on the latter identity not the former.

Last edited 2 years ago by Roger Ledodger
Guglielmo Marinaro
Guglielmo Marinaro
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Ledodger

WTF is an ” LBGQTIA+ man”, when he’s at home? I have never come across one.

Dave Blake
Dave Blake
2 years ago
Reply to  J Bryant

I agree, there have been real crises in the Church and must worse heresies than those promulgated on social media … it’s all a ‘bit wet’ as the guru Nigel Molesworth might say. What does surprise me, if Ann’s essay holds true, is that these young-ish coverts seem to be so very badly catechised. Have they not undertaken RCIA?

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Blake

That this piece on Catholic converts does not mention RCIA calls into question its veracity.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

Catholicism is not a dying faith, it must be said, even if this breezy, fictionalized account, primarily concerned with postmodern podcasters (whoever they are), tweet writers and the author’s circle of acquaintances, is meant to be humorous.

Roger Ledodger
Roger Ledodger
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

It is a persecuted faith, indeed outside of the West the persecutions are physical and often lethal. But in the West any criticism of Islam, the usual persecutors, is ‘Islamaphobia’. So curiously it now lives under persecution in the 3rd world and possibly thrives.
Here in the UK we are ‘missionary country’ Catholic Priests from India and Africa are sent here to save us.

ormondotvos
ormondotvos
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Ledodger

The sheer lunacy of “belief”!
Please save me from that?

David Rivetti
David Rivetti
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

Indeed, Catholicism is hardly a dying faith in Africa and Asia. The next pope will likely come from outside of the west. Catholicism in the western world is troubled but hopefully will make a comeback, but not the phony brand as described in this essay.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago
Reply to  David Rivetti

Nor is it dying in the Americas for that matter.

We often hear that the next Pope will hail from outside of the West. This would make sense as a reflection of the strength of the Church in Africa and Asia–but would be nonsensical as an attempt to demonstrate progressive bona fides.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Sarah is extremely popular among young Catholics the world over, who thirst for reverent worship and moral clarity. Will His Eminence become Pope? He embodies these qualities–but these are scorned by the present Pope so feted by the secular media as a “progressive from the Southern Hemisphere.”

polidori redux
polidori redux
2 years ago

As the C of E is an institution for those who don’t believe in God, Catholicism is all that is left to me.

Dave Corby
Dave Corby
2 years ago
Reply to  polidori redux

I agree that the CofE has desperately lost its way – but non-Biblical-based Roman Catholicism is not the answer.
The reasons for Protest are still valid and a great deal of the non-establishment Church still teaches the actual Word.
Find a good local church that teaches from the Bible about a personal relationship with Jesus and the priesthood of all believers. Saved by Grace and not by works.

LCarey Rowland
LCarey Rowland
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Corby

Amen. Jesus is Lord!

Bryan Wilson
Bryan Wilson
1 year ago
Reply to  Dave Corby

Where did your Bible come from? Dropped out of the sky, did it?
Catholicism is entirely biblical – if reading the Bible correctly.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
2 years ago

I’m wondering if some are turning away from the contradictions, hypocracy and chaos of their current progressive religion. When they can’t critically think for themselves and they stop trusting their current leaders it may seem like it offers more stability.

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

I don’t know if young secular “progressives,” if that’s what you mean, are converting to Catholicism, but Protestants certainly are, and indeed it is in large part because of the “chaos” of their former religions, which is the “chaos” of subjective morality. Young converts are in search of morality clarity, which you obviously won’t find in, for example, the Episcopal church.

Not that this fatuous piece tells us anything about who is actually converting to Catholicism and why. Was I supposed to be interested in the cronies of a “writer living in New York?”

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

“…the near entire retreat to the imaginary…”
This partial quote from the article sums it up. It appears we have moved into this phase now, where even stories like this are fabricated from online information, which is derived from social media trends vs. witnessing and interviewing real people doing real things. We are living in an imaginary world.

Roger Ledodger
Roger Ledodger
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

It was ever thus. Though the level of hypocrisy in New York appears to be way above anything in past times. Even 40 years ago, did you want to be married in a Catholic Church as a lapsed Catholic? Turn up for a few masses and confessions. Next, you want your child Christened 5 years of so after another ‘lapsing’ – confession and attend mass. Then another 5 years on, after another lapsing, you want your child to attend a Catholic Primary? As you were before.
Only the old priests still going in the early to mid 1970’s weren’t so easy on forgiving 70 x 7. They got to be suspicious and judgemental at the 3rd return of the prodigal.
IF there is a God, and if the Catholic Church is his church, then don’t read the bible too carefully, because if you do, you start to notice that what in my youth was described in the New Testament as the happenings that indicate The End of Days, and which were to our young Catholic minds unthinkable, appear to be the norm nowadays. I just hope IF it’s true, come the Judgement my defence:-
“I stuck to my Catholic belief and tried to live the life with some difficulty, and now I don’t believe, I find living my non-belief a lot easier.”
Is a sufficient defence to get me a long spell in Purgatory rather than an eternity in Hell.

Last edited 2 years ago by Roger Ledodger
James Stangl
James Stangl
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

Or, young Protestants are moving away from the hopelessly secularized mainline denominations to churches that actually believe in sound doctrine and biblical exposition. My family and I quit the Episcopal Church for a Reformed congregation that preaches and teaches the Word. Easy transition for me, since I was raised in the Presbyterian church of yore. Lots of young families in our church any given Sunday, and we grew during the pandemic.
And as far as rituals for the sake of rituals, I may miss the beauty of the Anglican rite (especially Rite 1), but not the intrinsic danger of ritualism.

Janine Econ
Janine Econ
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

As an Orthodox Christian I must confess that I see nothing wrong at all with attending services simply because one is seeking something. For us, the embodiment of worship is following the wisdom of God in that God became human, the Incarnation teaches us so much. Of course, it depends on what one is seeking. But if it will help people, we know Christ did everything to save even one. If one is seeking, or feels that something is missing in life, who are we to judge their heart? Only God knows that, and God’s mystery working in our lives to bring us to faith is as lifelong pursuit. In our tradition I was baptized as an infant, but it wasn’t until I was middle-aged that the truths hidden there like a mustard seed, if you will, become more understood and pursued by myself, and I continue to learn, even to learn where I’m mistaken as well

Last edited 2 years ago by Janine Econ
Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett
2 years ago

For many religious people, religion is more something you do rather than something you think. Most Catholics I know have no intellectual grasp of transubstantiation, but they practice their religion because it is part of their life. On the other hand, unlike the people in the above article, they do not use Catholicism as an affectation or lifestyle accessory either.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
2 years ago

As a follower of Jesus vs. “being religious” by simply wearing a denomination’s label, following Jesus’ ways is both something you think and do at the same time.

ormondotvos
ormondotvos
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

That’s not theology, it’s good sense.
Read “12 Rules for Life” by Peterson.
Live the humanistic life, like Christ is reported to have done.
Forget theology.

LCarey Rowland
LCarey Rowland
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren Trees

Amen, Warren! Get back to the source, Christ himself. . . what he did, what he said, then laying down his life so that his Resurrection would be the central event of history. Follow the One who shows a way to life, even after death. I’m going with him, to overcome the obstacle of death in our path to eternal life!

Roger Ledodger
Roger Ledodger
2 years ago

Theologians are the ones who attempt to gain an intellectual grasp of it, for the rest why would it matter?
The Gospel repeatedly asks for faith not understanding. Time and again the miracles and stories refer to the role of faith in delivering the end product. “Your faith has made you whole.” etc Or the Centurion whose faith in the miracle he requested being done was such he didn’t need Jesus to enter his house to perform it.
“Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. Say but the word and my servant shall be healed.”
The question I suppose is; how comfortable each one of us is with faith alone?
I’ve no idea. I do know that some of the scientific facts I was educated about appear to come under the faith banner as I couldn’t understand the complex maths that proved it.
Fortunately practising a great deal of science is far easier than trying to figure out how it all works.
As for Catholicism or any deity with an specific interest in humanity is something, sadly, I can no longer believe.
BUT I remember what the faith I was taught stood for and in many ways think it was a better philosophy for living a happy life than the secular alternatives we have today. I also wonder how much my lack of faith now is based on the experience as described by Chesterton.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
It was really hard being a Catholic maybe that’s why I now rationalise my non-belief!
I once had a friend who claimed
“It isn’t so much what you do that matters, but what you believe and want to do.”
He was smarter than me, but I have never been able to accept that. To me it is the exact opposite. Which is why, IF it is all true, one is going to be surprised at the number of Catholics in Hell and the number of Atheists in Heaven.
Maybe I shouldn’t have read Chesterton before I met him!

Wyatt W
Wyatt W
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Ledodger

Oh I completely disagree!
“Theologians are the ones who attempt to gain an intellectual grasp of it, for the rest why would it matter?
The Gospel repeatedly asks for faith not understanding.”
I would encourage you to read the parable of the sower. Jesus specifically talks about how important it is to understand, otherwise you will fall away from the faith since it isn’t deeply rooted. Faith isn’t blindly believing, it is trusting God which he has given us plenty of reason to do, most notably the gospel itself and Jesus’ death on the cross. If he loves us enough to do that then we have no reason to think he doesn’t love us and care for us in persecution/hardship/etc… This is why increasing our knowledge of scripture and knowing God more is so critical! Wrestling with God (see Jacob) is encouraged if anything, it’s not like God doesn’t know where we secretly have doubts.
Thanks for the honest and introspective comment, I truly wish my brothers and sisters in the church really examined their hearts and minds this way.

ormondotvos
ormondotvos
2 years ago
Reply to  Wyatt W

Evolutionary sociology will set you free.

LCarey Rowland
LCarey Rowland
2 years ago
Reply to  Wyatt W

I’m going with the one who survived death itself, and placed his Victory in the very center of human history, then backed it up with Resurrection. I’m going with Him!

Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Ledodger

I consider myself a deist. It is a position which gives a potential meaning to the universe etc. without the problems of religious dogma.

Daniel G
Daniel G
2 years ago
Reply to  Roger Ledodger

The way I understand it is that faith without works is dead (James 2) but you can’t earn your way into heaven (Ephesians 2). Equally that becoming a Christian does not mean that you won’t still sin.
I think some of this article is quite interesting on Chesterton’s quote: https://catholicstand.com/christianity-found-difficult-and-left-untried/

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

as a Roman Catholic myself, and now 20 years ” dry”, I can still honestly say that my Catholic mates in my days of yore in racing and The Army were much more fun and entertaining than any others, especially after a few jars!

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

Yes, the article’s implication that Catholics marry and cease to patronize “downtown bars,” that is, they do not have fun, is especially grating, as the author, a “writer in New York,” has managed not to notice that Manhattan bars, restaurants and clubs have been devastated by closures owing to Wuhan flu hysteria in all its forms, to which Catholics were of course deeply opposed.

Perhaps the fact that large numbers of Catholics insisted on living a full meaningful life, which includes enjoyable leisure activities in charming company (rather than, say, cowering at home “of a long face” bemoaning the Proverbial “lion in the street” in compliance with then-mayor DeBlasio’s edicts), is part of what is attracting young people to the faith.

Last edited 2 years ago by Paul Hendricks
Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
2 years ago

There is a religion shaped hole in our society. I think young people will start turning to organized religion because 1) progressive values have become unhinged and 2) rejecting the mainstream is normal for young people. Even when done ironically I suspect there will be actual converts. The church isn’t dying – and even though I rejected it – I admire how it does not flap in the wind of popular ideas like other churches do.

Roger Sponge
Roger Sponge
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Johnson

The Catholic Church has been dying for 2000 years.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Johnson

Actually, the history of the Catholic church’s positions does also flap in the wind of popular opinion. It just has a longer time constant which gives it the relative illusion of stationarity.

Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh
2 years ago

More cheerless solipsism from Manov.

rick stubbs
rick stubbs
2 years ago

IDK Ann but aren’t we all faking something – even you? Plus aren’t all up market millennials posturing up in some sort of micro brand management schemes – more or less sincere? The quest for transgressive differentiation seems a never ending social media quest in this social space.
At least Catholicism is rich and deep plus as old as the western civilization it bore. And a far bigger tent than many think with plenty of space for weird. Anyway, one doubts it will do much harm to those you think poseurs. Actually, recognizing a clear moral discipline might do them good and, even after their acquisition of sin and guilt, there is still confession and forgiveness- don’t forget!
Far worse transgressive lifestyle choices are in the air, like surgically redoing your parts. I grant that those choosing this actively demonstrate the authentic commitment your standard implies but the consequences of adaption are arguably worse.

MDH 0
MDH 0
2 years ago

This appears to be an article about an article… Pope will eat itself? Anyway, like the Peace of God, I found much of it passeth all understanding. But a sweeping generalisation about the “post-Covid years” was the final straw.

Warren Trees
Warren Trees
2 years ago
Reply to  MDH 0

This is how most “journalism” is done these days. And we are all lost for it.

Lewis Betty
Lewis Betty
2 years ago

The style of this article, its breezy, snooty superiority, wreaks of elitist cynicism–all the fashion these days in some jaded circles. It’s one more reason that sincere seekers after life’s ultimate meaning retreat from everything she represents. Catholicism is one option. Empirical, non-religious afterlife study, as in The Afterlife Unveiled, is another. The theology and practice of the iconoclastic scientist Rupert Sheldrake (Science and Spiritual Practices), a practicing Anglican, is a third. Ann Manov is living in a wasteland of meaninglessness. She needs help.

Nicholas Taylor
Nicholas Taylor
2 years ago

I wonder how the author finds the time to go through all the garbage that floods out of social media, but I’m glad at least that someone does. The problem is to tell the fads from the frights. So much in the world now, and I suppose this was always the case, seemed once like a freight train on the horizon. Nothing to worry about, then suddenly it’s upon you.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
2 years ago

Aren’t most of the fads “frights”?

Last edited 2 years ago by Jeff Cunningham
burke schmollinger
burke schmollinger
2 years ago

I very much agree, and was a bit shocked at The NY Times piece by Ms Yost. Like the author here I was waiting for Yost to point out that simply appropriating the faith for social media clout is both damaging to the soul and the whole.

Cheering on people who use the ancient faith so that they can more easily find a lay on Tinder is the inevitable (disgusting) result.

This isn’t “faking it until you make it,” it’s an anti-Christian blasphemy.

Of course the Bride of Christ should welcome whores— But if she becomes one as well, what’s her point exactly?

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago

I realize you are just giving an example of the appropriation of Catholicism (which appropriation is apparently a social media phenomenon), but the fact is that any man who puts “Catholic” in his Tinder profile will have fewer matches. Only “Trump voter” could be more disastrous for his chances.

Men looking to have more matches on dating platforms are advised to say they are “spiritual.”

Jo Nielson
Jo Nielson
2 years ago

My frustration with the article is that conversion is actually a Months long process. You don’t wake up one day and decide that taking pictures of a Catholic Church or catholic images makes you Catholic. Having gone through the RCIA process, I can tell you that most churches that lean left or more secular don’t get that many actual potential converts. And teaching is mixed at best. Quality varies from parish to parish. I have a really hard time understanding how you can write an article about converting to Catholicism w/o a single mention of RCIA. I found it hard to take the article seriously because of this huge omission. Every convert who actually gets confirmed remembers the magic of the Easter vigil night that they came into the church. It’s a powerful moment for all of us. We all talk about it, even years later. It’s like saying you are giving out chocolate chip ice cream, but there are not chocolate pieces in the ice cream you actually hand me. This topic really interests me, as a convert, so I really found the article really lacking and not as deep as I thought it would be. Then again, maybe it just adds to how superficial the whole ‘scene’ is.

Garrett R
Garrett R
2 years ago

I wonder what their thoughts are on IVF, IUDs, and plan B pills. Maybe they should move to more like minded states like Texas and actually live out their values.

Last edited 2 years ago by Garrett R
Martin Terrell
Martin Terrell
2 years ago

Still mulling over this article, maybe trying to be too clever. The Catholic Chruch has always had some fashionable new members, some better than others. It must be obvious that in a secular and superficial age, some will be drawn to the second oldest religion in town, which in some places has some lovely buldings and even decent music. Some will lose interest, some will mature, and not make too much difference to the solid body of steady and mediocre practitioners (which is where most Catholics muddle along).

Alan B
Alan B
2 years ago

The article reminds me of this season’s skits on SNL, only I made it to the end because its funnier.

Corinne Dias
Corinne Dias
2 years ago

When in reference to the 2018 Met Gala and the piece Rhianna wore, let’s not forget that it was a time when Amal Alamuddin, a lapsed Muslim, was promoting as much catholic fashion as she could. She even met Pope Francis in a Versace outfit fit enough to wear to a catholic funeral. The Pope thought it was delightful.

Dominic A
Dominic A
2 years ago

My guess is that if you factor out such motivations as fear, social expedience, boredom, intrigue etc, the proportion of true Catholics would shrink, a lot. Emotional, political, social utility, sure – The Truth….not so much.

Lana Hunneyball
Lana Hunneyball
2 years ago

Oh my actual. Deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Rabbits all the way down, I guess.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
2 years ago

Well they do like fornicating, apparently.
By the way, what is “fornicating?” It’s a mainly religious construct and used as an epithet. Makes you wonder what happened during the first half million years of human history.
Every similar article trots out the “Waugh the convert” trope as if he were some kind of example that anyone might give credence to. I read the piece mainly with amusement, at the hypocrisy of those who adopt Catholicism as a fashionable lifestyle statement and those who think they stand on higher moral ground.

David Simpson
David Simpson
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Murray

Fornication is technically sex outside marriage, as distinct from sex with someone while you are married to someone else, which is adultery

Last edited 2 years ago by David Simpson
Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
2 years ago
Reply to  David Simpson

But a lot of “knowing” in the old testament was outside of marriage. And if you hadn’t “known” someone does that mean they were necessarily strangers?

Bronson Freeman
Bronson Freeman
2 years ago

I enjoyed the article and think that it made some salient points, but if you are going to write an extended critique of somebody I think its only honest and decent that you name them.

Marissa M
Marissa M
1 year ago

Who is this poor, misguided soul that dribbled out this essay? Has the sweet darling ever left New York City? She has “met” a lot of Catholics. She may need to leave her little haven and meet some more. Catholicism isn’t going anywhere…it is in a civil war right now, but eventually someone new will take the helm….and it will rise from the ashes.

Darwin K Godwin
Darwin K Godwin
2 years ago

Style nosing at substance.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

Of course British Christianity has a class system all of its own.. wheres, for example, in Italy Jesus is just plain ” Signore” or ” Mister” here is a toff.. Lord Jesus Christ, son of The Duke of Heaven, went to school at Eden College, served as an officer in The Household Calvary….

ormondotvos
ormondotvos
2 years ago

Sincere belief is hardly even conceivable these days.”
And ain’t it great? Skeptics abound in the lands of liars.

Mark M Breza
Mark M Breza
2 years ago

My friend who was born out of wedlock in Ireland from an 11 year old mother, then abused by the Christian Brothers & bullied in foster care has nightmares about killing the Pope

Stephen Magee
Stephen Magee
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark M Breza

Seriously? (Just asking for a friend.)

Mark M Breza
Mark M Breza
2 years ago

The Catholic Supremes outlawed abortion.
Is Prohibition next ?

Stephen Magee
Stephen Magee
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark M Breza

WTF are “The Catholic Supremes”?????

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
2 years ago
Reply to  Stephen Magee

I believe Mary Wilson is the only one.

Michael McElwee
Michael McElwee
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark M Breza

The “supremes” did not outlaw abortion. They held that having one is not a right guarantied by the Constitution.

Kat L
Kat L
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark M Breza

Do you live here? Your statement appears uninformed at best.