I had a conversation recently with Christopher Dowling on conversion therapy and the Catholic Church. In the previous episode, Christopher shared the story of his Catholic upbringing, as a youth group kid, a NET missionary, a University of Dallas student, and a seminarian. Today, we’ll be picking up where we left off. Chris will share how he first connected with Bob Schuchts, the Theology of the Body Institute, and the John Paul II Healing Center. It was here that he and others were exposed to carefully crafted sexual orientation change efforts. He also struggled in these settings, as he put it, as both a victim and victimizer. He also felt like these settings increased the type of repressive sexual dysfunction in him that creates abusers like McCarrick.
Christopher’s experiences have a lot to teach the Church. I learned a lot from my conversation with him, and I’m sure you will too.
Catholicism and conversion therapy: how I survived