Thinking about converting to the Catholic Church but I have problems with their history

[po18guy]

Q: Why consider joining at all?
A: Truth.

We err when we look right and left, seeing only sinners, hypocrites and worse. This is but a trick that the malevolent one uses to dissuade souls from pursuing truth.

Observed human behavior, whether Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, et al, has zero to do with what the founders taught. The reason the founders had to teach what they did is because we are flawed. A perfect person needs no such teaching.

Rather, look always and everywhere up - up to the perfection of God - and you will not be disappointed or discouraged. Yet, God in Christ chose to reveal the absolute maximum of truth (the most we can bear) to and through His Church, which is the living, breathing, mystical Body of Christ. Go anywhere else, regardless of reason, and you are compromising truth for the sake of personal desires. Recall here that those personal desires are flawed, or else we would not need the Gospel.

Best to leave history out of it. It is a red herring. Do not seek reasons to disbelieve. Seek reasons to believe. Seek truth - the deposit of faith - knowing that you (and I) are as flawed as any member the Church has ever contained. From that knowledge springs humility and God will pour His grace into a humble heart.

 

[OrbisNonSufficit]

Sack of Constantinople was done by already excommunicated “crusaders” bought by Byzantine Prince (or member of royalty I believe). To blame Catholic Church for it would be as blaming Orthodoxy for communism.

Selling of indulgences began as almsgiving. People were told to invest their money on the poor and help them. However, most of the time they would give money to the Church so Church used them to help the poor. However, later on some priests abused this and kept the money, so did some bishops and in the end people started perceiving it as “paying money for sins”. It happened because of sins of men, not necessarily that idea was bad but it was poorly formulated.