Things You Should Know Before You Become Catholic

Brief Overview

• Becoming Catholic is not simply joining a church but entering into a centuries-old faith tradition with specific beliefs, practices, and moral commitments that will shape nearly every area of your life.
• The path to full membership typically involves months of structured formation called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, and the Church takes this preparation seriously rather than treating it as a formality.
• Catholic teaching covers areas most modern people find challenging, including sexuality, contraception, divorce, and the authority of the Pope, and you will be expected to understand and engage honestly with all of it.
• The sacramental life of the Church, including regular Mass attendance, Confession, and reception of the Eucharist, is not optional background noise but the actual heartbeat of what it means to live as a Catholic.
• Community life inside Catholic parishes can be warm and deeply supportive, but it can also be complicated, political, and sometimes disappointing, and you should go in with realistic expectations.
• Becoming Catholic may create real tension with family members, friends, or a spouse who do not share the faith, and this is one of the most underestimated challenges that new Catholics face.

What You Are Actually Signing Up For

Becoming Catholic is not like switching gyms or trying a new diet. It is a full, binding commitment to a specific set of beliefs, a sacramental life, a moral framework, and a community that spans two thousand years of history. The Catholic Church does not see itself as one option among many; it teaches that it is the one Church established by Jesus Christ, holding the fullness of the Christian faith (CCC 816). That claim alone will require you to sit with it honestly, because if you accept it, it changes how you see every other religious tradition, including the one you may be leaving. You are not simply choosing a worship style or a community with good music. You are assenting to a body of doctrine, a sacramental system, and a moral tradition that has real consequences in everyday life. The Church asks for intellectual assent, not just emotional affiliation. That means you will need to actually believe the things Catholics believe, or at least be genuinely moving toward that belief. Conversion is not a one-time event; the Church sees it as a lifelong process (CCC 1427). But entry into the Church through the sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, represents a real and serious commitment. Nobody should take that lightly, and the Church itself does not want you to.

The RCIA Process Is More Than a Class

Most adults enter the Catholic Church through a process called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, commonly known as RCIA, and it is worth knowing exactly what that involves before you start. RCIA is not a quick membership course; it is a structured process of formation that typically runs for several months, often from the fall through the Easter Vigil in spring. You will meet regularly with a team of parish leaders, sponsors, and sometimes priests or deacons who will walk you through Catholic teaching, prayer, and liturgy. The quality of this experience varies enormously from parish to parish, and some programs are genuinely excellent while others feel rushed or poorly prepared. If you go through a weak RCIA program, you may arrive at the Easter Vigil without a solid foundation, and that gap will show up later. You have every right to ask questions, push back on ideas that confuse you, and ask for more time if you do not feel ready. The Church actually permits an extended period of formation, and no one should pressure you to rush the process. You will also be assigned a sponsor, usually a practicing Catholic who accompanies you through the process, and that relationship can be deeply meaningful or purely administrative depending on the person. The Easter Vigil itself, the ceremony where most adults are received into the Church, is a long and beautiful liturgy that holds real significance in Catholic tradition. Go in with realistic expectations about the program and a commitment to taking your own formation seriously, because what you put into it is largely what you will get out of it.

What the Church Actually Teaches, Not What You Have Heard

One of the most common problems new Catholics face is that they entered the Church with a distorted or incomplete picture of what the Church actually teaches. Popular culture, social media, and even well-meaning but poorly catechized Catholics often give people a version of Catholicism that is either too soft or a caricature. The actual Catechism of the Catholic Church is a substantial document, and it covers everything from the nature of God and the sacraments to sexual ethics, social teaching, and the afterlife. Catholic teaching holds that faith and reason are compatible and that the Church actively supports genuine intellectual inquiry (CCC 159). The Church does not ask you to park your brain at the door, but it does ask you to approach certain questions with humility rather than demanding that the faith conform to your existing preferences. You will encounter teachings you find difficult, and that is normal. What matters is how you engage with difficulty: honest wrestling with Church teaching is different from simply deciding in advance that the Church is wrong. The Church teaches on issues like abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, care for the poor, and the nature of marriage, and all of those teachings are connected within a single coherent framework rather than being a menu of options. Catholicism is not cafeteria-style, and the expectation is that you will seek to understand and assent to the fullness of Catholic teaching, even when it takes time. This is genuinely hard for many people, and it is far better to know that going in than to be surprised by it later.

The Mass Is the Center, Not the Periphery

If you are becoming Catholic, you need to understand that Sunday Mass is not optional and not simply a nice weekly habit. The Church teaches that Catholics are obligated to attend Mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation (CCC 2180). Missing Mass without a serious reason, such as illness or genuine inability to attend, is considered a serious matter in Catholic moral teaching. This surprises many people who come from Protestant backgrounds where church attendance is encouraged but generally left to individual discretion. For Catholics, the Mass is the “source and summit” of the Christian life, a phrase rooted in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The reason for this is the Catholic belief in the Real Presence, the teaching that Jesus Christ is truly and substantially present in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine (CCC 1374). This is not symbolic or metaphorical in Catholic teaching; it is taken as literally true, and it is the central reason why the Mass holds the importance it does. When you receive Communion as a Catholic, you are not simply commemorating the Last Supper; you are receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ according to Church teaching. This belief is serious and demanding, and it requires that you be in a state of grace when you receive, meaning free from mortal sin, which connects directly to the necessity of regular Confession. Understanding this from the start will save you a great deal of confusion later, because many people enter the Church without fully grasping why the Mass is treated with such seriousness.

Confession Is Not Optional, and That Will Surprise You

Confession, formally known as the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, is one of the seven sacraments, and it plays a central and non-negotiable role in Catholic life. Many people coming into the Church from Protestant backgrounds find this sacrament strange or unnecessary, because they have been taught that you confess your sins directly to God without any priestly intermediary. Catholic teaching, however, holds that Christ gave his apostles the authority to forgive sins in his name, citing John 20:22-23 as the scriptural basis for this sacrament (CCC 1461). This is not about a priest having personal power over you; it is about the Church teaching that God works through this specific sacrament to offer absolution and grace. You are expected to confess serious sins before receiving Communion, and the general counsel of the Church is to receive Confession regularly, at minimum once a year according to the precepts of the Church (CCC 1457). In practice, spiritually serious Catholics go to Confession far more frequently, often monthly or even more often. Many new Catholics report that Confession becomes one of the most unexpectedly meaningful parts of their Catholic life, once they get past the initial awkwardness. You will need to learn how to make a good Confession, which involves examining your conscience, being genuinely sorry for your sins, confessing them clearly to the priest, receiving and accepting the penance assigned, and committing to amend your life. The emotional and spiritual weight of hearing absolution spoken aloud is something many Catholics find genuinely significant. Go in knowing that this sacrament will challenge your pride, and that is precisely the point.

The Church’s Moral Teaching Is a Package Deal

Catholic moral teaching is not a collection of isolated rules you can pick and choose from; it is a unified framework grounded in natural law, Scripture, and Sacred Tradition. This matters enormously for anyone considering entering the Church, because the temptation is to enter while privately disagreeing with certain teachings and hoping they will not affect your daily life. They will. The Church’s teaching on sexual ethics is perhaps the most countercultural in modern Western society, covering issues like premarital sex, homosexual acts, contraception, and cohabitation, all of which the Church considers morally disordered or contrary to the natural law (CCC 2370, CCC 2357). This does not mean the Church is cruel or indifferent to the struggles people face in these areas; Catholic teaching is clear that persons experiencing same-sex attraction are to be treated with respect and compassion (CCC 2358). But it does mean that if you are living in a way that conflicts with Church teaching, you will face a real call to change, not just to attend Mass. The Church also teaches that artificial contraception violates the unitive and procreative meaning of the marital act, a teaching articulated in detail in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. This is one of the most rejected teachings among Catholics themselves, and you should know going in that many Catholics dissent from it privately while the Church holds it firmly. The Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life extends from conception to natural death, covering abortion, euthanasia, and the treatment of the elderly and vulnerable. You do not have to have mastered all of this before entering the Church, but you do need to be genuinely willing to engage with it rather than simply dismissing the parts that inconvenience you.

Marriage in the Church Is Serious and Legally Distinct

If you are married or planning to marry, your entry into the Catholic Church will immediately intersect with the Church’s very specific understanding of marriage. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a sacrament and a covenant, not merely a civil or social contract (CCC 1601). If you were previously married outside the Church, in a civil ceremony or in another Christian tradition, the Church may not recognize that marriage as valid, depending on the circumstances. This does not mean the Church is dismissing your relationship; it means there is a formal process called the marriage tribunal, often called an annulment, that may be necessary before you can marry in the Church or receive the sacraments freely. An annulment is a declaration that a valid sacramental marriage never existed, which is theologically distinct from a divorce but practically significant for anyone in this situation. The process takes time, requires paperwork and interviews, and can be emotionally difficult, even if the outcome is ultimately favorable. If you are cohabitating with a partner, the Church will ask you to address this situation, which is a real and uncomfortable conversation that RCIA sponsors and priests are obligated to have with you. If you are already validly married in the Church’s understanding, your marriage holds a sacramental weight that brings both grace and responsibility. Children and family planning become part of this framework too, since the Church’s teaching on openness to life affects the practical realities of married Catholic life. It is far better to understand all of this before your reception into the Church than to discover it during a painful personal situation later.

What Catholics Believe About Other Christians and Other Religions

One of the most honest conversations you need to have before becoming Catholic involves the Church’s teaching on salvation and its relationship to other Christian denominations and world religions. This is an area where a lot of popular misunderstanding exists, and the actual teaching is more nuanced than either extreme suggests. The Catholic Church holds that it subsists in the fullness of the one Church of Christ, but it also affirms that genuine elements of sanctification and truth exist outside its visible structure (CCC 819). The Church recognizes that many people outside Catholicism can be saved, and it does not teach that every non-Catholic is automatically condemned. However, the Church does teach that it has been entrusted with the fullness of the means of salvation, which places Catholicism in a distinct and elevated position relative to other traditions. This can feel uncomfortable to people coming from ecumenical Protestant backgrounds where all Christian churches are treated as essentially equal expressions of the same faith. If you have Protestant family members or close friends in other Christian traditions, you will need to think honestly about how this understanding of the Church affects your relationships and conversations. The Church also teaches that non-Christian religions can contain elements of truth and goodness, while maintaining that Jesus Christ is the unique and universal Savior (CCC 843). This is not relativism; it is a specific theological position that some people find clarifying and others find challenging. Knowing this going in means you will be better prepared to articulate and live out Catholic identity without either arrogance toward others or confusion about what the Church actually claims.

The Pope and Church Authority Are Not Negotiable Add-Ons

Many people who are drawn to Catholic worship, sacramental life, or intellectual tradition sometimes overlook or underestimate the authority structure they are committing to when they become Catholic. The Church teaches that the Pope, as Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter, holds a universal and supreme authority in the Church in matters of faith and morals (CCC 891). Papal infallibility is a real and specific doctrine, though it applies far more narrowly than most people assume; it covers only formal definitions on faith and morals made under very specific conditions, not every statement the Pope makes. But beyond infallibility, the ordinary Magisterium of the Church, meaning its ongoing teaching authority, also carries weight that Catholics are expected to give sincere assent to (CCC 892). This is genuinely different from Protestant Christianity, where individual interpretation of Scripture is placed at the center and where church authority is often voluntary or community-based. When you become Catholic, you are accepting that there is a teaching authority outside of your own private judgment, and that this authority can bind your conscience in certain matters. This does not mean you cannot think, ask questions, or experience doubt; it means you commit to working through those questions within the framework of the Church rather than simply overriding the Church’s judgment with your own. Many people find this a relief, because it means they are not alone in sorting out every moral and theological question. Others find it genuinely difficult, especially if they have strong opinions that conflict with official teaching. Being honest with yourself about where you stand on this before entering the Church will save you serious confusion later.

Saints, Mary, and Catholic Devotional Life Will Raise Questions

If you are coming into the Catholic Church from a Protestant background, the Catholic practice of praying to saints and the high regard given to Mary will likely be one of the most challenging areas to understand. The Church is clear that Catholics do not worship the saints; worship belongs to God alone (CCC 2096). What Catholics practice is called veneration, a respect and honor given to holy men and women who are believed to be with God in heaven and who can intercede on our behalf. The distinction matters a great deal theologically, even if it does not always look that way from the outside. Mary holds a special place in Catholic devotion as the Mother of God, a title formally defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, which flows directly from the Church’s teaching that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Catholic Marian doctrines, including the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, are defined dogmas of the faith, meaning they are formally required beliefs for Catholics (CCC 491, CCC 966). You do not have to feel emotionally close to Mary or the saints when you first enter the Church, but you do need to understand what the Church actually teaches about them and why. The rich tradition of Catholic devotional life, including the Rosary, novenas, feast days, scapulars, and holy water, can feel strange or even superstitious to newcomers. None of these devotions are strictly required for salvation, but they are deeply woven into Catholic culture and community life, and dismissing them entirely tends to put new Catholics at a distance from the broader community. Give yourself time to learn the history and theology behind these practices before forming strong opinions about them.

Your Social Life and Family Relationships Will Change

This is one of the areas that catches new Catholics most off guard, and it deserves honest attention. When you enter the Church, your commitments will begin to shape how you spend your time, what you value, and how you engage with people who do not share your faith. Sunday Mass attendance means Sunday mornings are no longer casually available for brunch, family gatherings, or sports events. Fasting and abstinence on Fridays during Lent and avoiding meat on Fridays throughout the year are practices the Church genuinely recommends and in some jurisdictions requires (CCC 1438). The moral framework you are committing to will sometimes put you at odds with your peers on questions of sexuality, marriage, entertainment, and lifestyle choices. This is not unique to Catholicism, but the Church’s specific moral positions are countercultural enough in the current moment that new Catholics regularly report feeling a real social cost. If you are in a mixed religious household, your conversion can create tension with a spouse or partner who does not share the faith, and this tension is serious enough that the Church addresses it directly in its pastoral guidance. Children raised in a Catholic home will be formed in the faith, and if your partner does not support that formation, conflict is likely. Family members, especially parents from Protestant traditions, sometimes feel hurt or even threatened by a conversion to Catholicism, reading it as a rejection of how they raised you. None of these challenges should necessarily stop you from becoming Catholic, but you owe it to yourself and to the people in your life to think through them honestly in advance. Good RCIA programs will address these issues, but many do not spend enough time on them.

The Parish Experience Is Not Always What You Hope For

The Catholic Church is the largest single religious organization on earth, with over a billion members worldwide, and that scale means the parish experience varies wildly from one community to the next. Some parishes are vibrant, welcoming, intellectually serious, and filled with committed Catholics who will become genuine friends and companions in faith. Others are cold, poorly managed, liturgically careless, and marked by internal politics that can make any new member feel invisible or unwelcome. You should know going in that the universal Church’s teachings and the local parish’s culture are two different things, and a bad parish experience does not mean the faith itself is defective. Many Catholics spend years finding a parish community that truly fits them, and there is nothing wrong with visiting several parishes before settling into one. The priest matters enormously to parish culture, and a parish can change dramatically when a pastor is reassigned or replaced. Financial pressures, building maintenance, school operations, and staff conflicts are real parts of parish life that you may eventually encounter. The Church has also been deeply marked by the clergy abuse crisis, and any honest account of Catholicism must acknowledge that this crisis has caused genuine and lasting damage to trust within the institution (CCC 2285). Confronting that reality does not mean abandoning the faith, but it does mean entering with clear eyes rather than naive idealism. Many converts report that the institutional Church is imperfect in ways that surprised and disappointed them; the key is learning to distinguish between the unchanging deposit of faith and the very human failings of the people who carry it. Seek out the community of serious, faithful Catholics who do exist in most places, because that community will sustain you when the institutional frustrations mount.

Catholic Social Teaching Is Not Left or Right

One of the most common misunderstandings about Catholicism in contemporary culture is that it maps neatly onto either liberal or conservative political categories. It does not. Catholic Social Teaching is a substantial body of doctrine covering human dignity, the common good, solidarity, the rights of workers, care for the poor, the role of government, and the responsibilities of economic life (CCC 1928-1948). On issues like abortion, euthanasia, and sexual ethics, Catholic teaching aligns with what many would call conservative positions. On issues like immigration, care for the poor, the death penalty, and economic justice, Catholic teaching often challenges what many consider conservative political orthodoxy. The Church explicitly teaches that the economy must serve the human person, not the other way around, and that the right to private property carries with it a social obligation to the common good. If you come into the Church expecting it to validate your existing political tribe, you will be disappointed on both sides of the spectrum. Pope Francis has emphasized care for the environment, stating in Laudato Si that the earth is a common home requiring responsible stewardship. Earlier popes wrote extensively on the rights of workers and the dangers of both unrestrained capitalism and state socialism. The Church does not endorse political parties, and Catholics in good standing span a genuinely wide range of political affiliations. What the Church does demand is that you form your political conscience in light of Catholic teaching, which often means being willing to be politically homeless rather than fitting neatly into one partisan box.

Fasting, Penance, and Sacrifice Are Real Parts of the Deal

Modern Catholic culture in the West has significantly softened the Church’s historical emphasis on fasting, penance, and bodily sacrifice, and this can give new converts a misleading impression of what the tradition actually asks. The Church teaches that penance is a fundamental part of Christian life, flowing from the call to conversion and the recognition of sin (CCC 1434). Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting and abstinence, meaning one full meal and no meat, and all Fridays of Lent require abstinence from meat. Outside of Lent, the Church calls Catholics to some form of Friday penance throughout the year, though in many countries Catholics are permitted to substitute another form of penance for abstinence from meat. The tradition of fasting extends far beyond Lent in the broader Catholic spiritual tradition, with saints and spiritual directors consistently recommending regular fasting as a discipline for prayer and spiritual growth. You will also encounter the concept of indulgences, which are related to the remission of temporal punishment for sin, and which confuse many newcomers because of their association with medieval abuses (CCC 1471). The Church’s current teaching on indulgences is specific and quite different from the distorted practice that sparked the Protestant Reformation. Beyond formal requirements, Catholicism carries a strong tradition of voluntary mortification, meaning deliberate acts of self-denial offered to God for spiritual purposes. This tradition runs through figures like St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Padre Pio, and while extreme physical mortification is not encouraged for ordinary Catholics, the principle of self-denial remains central. Entering the Church with an honest understanding of this dimension will prepare you for a richer and more demanding spiritual life than many people expect.

Doubts and Spiritual Dryness Are Normal, Not Signs You Were Wrong

One of the most poorly prepared areas for new Catholics is what happens after the initial enthusiasm of conversion fades. The Easter Vigil is genuinely moving, the sense of arrival is real, and the early weeks of being a “new Catholic” often carry a warmth and freshness that can feel almost permanent. It is not. Spiritual dryness, doubt, and the experience of God feeling distant are documented realities in the Catholic spiritual tradition, described by mystics including St. John of the Cross as the “dark night of the soul.” These experiences are not signs that your conversion was a mistake, that the faith is false, or that God has abandoned you. The Church’s tradition, along with the witness of countless saints, is clear that these periods are part of the normal arc of spiritual growth (CCC 2731). What matters is not the feeling of faith but the act of choosing to remain faithful when feelings are absent. Many new Catholics make the serious mistake of interpreting spiritual dryness as a sign that they need to leave the Church, when in fact the tradition teaches the opposite. You will also likely encounter intellectual doubts, especially as you read more and encounter genuine criticisms of Catholic teaching and Church history. There is no shortage of serious Catholic scholars, apologists, and theologians who have engaged with these doubts honestly, and you should know that resources exist. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, and G.K. Chesterton all came through serious intellectual struggle to a firm Catholic faith, and their writings remain available and relevant. The faith is not fragile, and honest questions do not threaten it. What the tradition does ask is that you bring those questions to prayer, to serious reading, and to trustworthy guides rather than simply walking away at the first point of difficulty.

The History of the Church Is Complicated, and You Should Know It

Anyone entering the Catholic Church needs to be honest about the fact that the Church’s two-thousand-year history includes periods of genuine scandal, moral failure, and institutional corruption alongside extraordinary holiness, intellectual achievement, and charitable service. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the clergy abuse crisis of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the treatment of indigenous peoples by some missionaries, the silence or complicity of some Church officials during World War II, these are real historical facts that critics of the Church will raise, and you need to be prepared to engage with them honestly. The Church itself does not deny these failures; Pope John Paul II made formal public acts of repentance for the sins of Catholics throughout history during the Jubilee Year 2000. What the Church teaches is that the holiness of the Church is the holiness of Christ and the saints, not a claim that every Catholic or every institution has acted well throughout history (CCC 827). The human members of the Church, including its clergy and leaders, are sinners capable of serious moral failure, and history proves that beyond any doubt. Knowing this going in protects you from two equal and opposite errors: naive idealism that collapses into disillusionment, and a cynicism that refuses to see the genuine holiness and good the Church has also produced. The same institution that produced the Inquisition also produced St. Francis of Assisi, built the university system of Western civilization, pioneered hospitals and care for the poor, and preserved classical culture through the fall of Rome. Holding both realities together without minimizing either is one of the honest intellectual tasks of being Catholic. Read actual history, not just Catholic apologia or anti-Catholic polemic, and you will be far better equipped for both the faith and the conversations it generates.

You Will Be Expected to Keep Learning Your Whole Life

Catholicism is not a faith you arrive at and then stop thinking about; it is a tradition of intellectual depth and ongoing formation that rewards serious engagement throughout a lifetime. The Church produces an enormous body of teaching, including papal encyclicals, council documents, synodal documents, and theological scholarship, that practicing Catholics are expected to engage with, not merely accept passively. The Catechism of the Catholic Church runs to nearly three thousand numbered paragraphs and touches on virtually every area of human life and belief (CCC 1-2865). Most Catholics do not read the entire Catechism, but serious Catholics at least become familiar with its structure and major teachings over time. Beyond the Catechism, Catholic intellectual tradition encompasses figures like Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Newman, and dozens of others whose thinking has shaped Western civilization and continues to inform Catholic theology. Scripture plays a central role in Catholic life; the Church teaches that Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition together form the single deposit of the Word of God (CCC 80). Catholics are expected to read and pray with Scripture, and the Church provides a three-year lectionary cycle that covers the majority of the Bible in Sunday Mass readings. Many converts report being surprised by how much they did not know about the Bible after years of Mass attendance, which is a real problem that ongoing formation addresses. There are excellent resources available for continued formation, including parish adult education programs, Catholic study groups, and a wide range of well-regarded Catholic writers and speakers. The point is that RCIA is a beginning, not a completion, and the serious Catholic treats formation as a permanent commitment rather than a one-time preparation for reception.

The Eucharist Changes Everything, and You Need to Understand Why

The Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not a peripheral teaching or a devotional preference; it is the central claim that distinguishes Catholic Christianity from most other forms of Christian worship. The Church teaches that at the words of consecration during Mass, the bread and wine become truly and substantially the Body and Blood of Christ, with only the appearances of bread and wine remaining, a change described by the technical term “transubstantiation” (CCC 1376). This teaching is drawn from John 6:53-56, where Jesus says that unless you eat his flesh and drink his blood, you have no life in you, a passage the Church reads as literal and not merely symbolic. If you are coming from a Protestant background, this will be the teaching that most requires careful engagement, because it is the one that most sharply distinguishes Catholic and Protestant understandings of the Lord’s Supper. Receiving Communion unworthily, meaning while in a state of mortal sin, is treated as a serious matter by the Church, with 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 cited in support of this position (CCC 1385). This is why the Church asks non-Catholics not to receive Communion at Mass; it is not a statement of hostility or exclusion but a recognition that full Eucharistic communion flows from full doctrinal and ecclesial unity. You should also know that Catholics are obligated to receive Communion at least once a year, during the Easter season, as one of the precepts of the Church (CCC 1389). Over time, the Eucharist tends to become the anchor of Catholic life for serious practitioners, the thing they keep coming back to even when everything else feels difficult. Understanding the theological weight of this sacrament before you enter the Church gives you a frame for everything else in Catholic life. It is genuinely central to all of it.

What Happens If You Struggle After You Join

Many new Catholics experience a period of real difficulty sometime after their reception into the Church, and this is something the Catholic community does not always talk about openly or prepare people for well. The statistics on converts leaving the Church within a few years of entering are a real challenge, and they often reflect inadequate formation, unmet expectations, or a failure to integrate into genuine community. If you find yourself struggling after becoming Catholic, you are not alone, and the struggle does not mean you made a mistake or that the faith is defective. The Church has always recognized that ongoing conversion requires ongoing community, regular sacramental life, and honest engagement with the intellectual and spiritual tradition. Leaving the sacraments because you are struggling is often described by spiritual directors as the worst possible response, because the sacraments are precisely the means by which the Church teaches that God provides grace for exactly these moments (CCC 1131). Find a priest you can talk to honestly; not all priests are equally gifted as spiritual directors, and it is worth searching for one who combines orthodoxy with genuine pastoral sense. Look for a community of serious Catholics, whether in a parish small group, a Catholic study group, or a movement like Opus Dei, the Focolare, or the Neocatechumenal Way, all of which have helped many Catholics deepen their faith after a rough patch. Be honest about your specific struggles rather than vaguely “feeling distant from the Church,” because honesty about the actual problem makes it far easier to find real help. The Church is a hospital for sinners, a phrase often attributed to a loose reading of Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:12, and the tradition knows well that people who are hurting or struggling belong at the center of the community, not on the margins of it. If you go in expecting perfection from yourself, from other Catholics, or from the institution, you will be disappointed; if you go in expecting a long, demanding, meaningful life of faith with all of its complexity, you will be much better prepared for what actually awaits you.

The Decision Is Real, and That Is Worth Taking Seriously

Everything covered in this article points toward a single honest conclusion: becoming Catholic is a serious, significant, lifelong commitment, and it deserves to be treated that way from the very beginning. The Church does not want you to enter because you liked the aesthetics of the liturgy, because a Catholic you admire made it look appealing, or because you were emotionally moved at a single Mass. It wants you to enter because you genuinely believe, or are genuinely moving toward belief, in what the Church teaches, and because you are willing to commit your life to living accordingly. Matthew 16:16-19 captures the foundational moment of Catholic ecclesiology, Peter’s confession of faith and Christ’s response, and that exchange points to the specific and serious nature of what the Church believes it carries. The process of conversion should involve prayer, reading, honest conversation, and a willingness to sit with questions long enough to engage them seriously rather than just dismissing them or suppressing them. Talk to Catholics who have been in the Church for a long time, not just the enthusiastic recent converts, because the long-haul experience of Catholic faith is different from the initial honeymoon period and equally important to understand. Ask hard questions in RCIA and do not accept vague or deflecting answers; you have the right to clear, honest teaching. Take the time you need; the Church has been around for two thousand years and will not be harmed by your taking an extra six months to be sure. If you do enter the Church with clear eyes, genuine faith, and realistic expectations, you will find something worth the cost: a sacramental life, an intellectual tradition, a moral framework, and a community that, at its best, points toward something genuinely true and genuinely good. That honest assessment is the most important thing anyone can offer someone standing at the threshold.