Question/Ramble about Dating and Worries
I know that this will obviously vary by location, but I want to know how the dating pool is looking within the Catholic community? I'm 22F.
Some background: I have been on and off interested in Christianity for about 4/5 yrs now. The variety of denominations have always confused me but I started going to OCIA December 2025, and will go again starting in next month, June 2026. While there are many things I don't fully understand, I haven't learned anything there that I disagree with.
One of the initial reasons that drew me to Christianity was that my biggest wish in life is to get married and have children. Even before I believed in Jesus, I thought that I would want to marry a Christian man and raise my kids with those values (someday, I don't have kids right now). Eventually it hit me that in order to do that, I should also believe. That's not what's why I'm continuing to grow in my faith, but it was one of the things that brought me here.
Anyways, I still have a few questions/concerns/thinking to do within myself before I take the next step in deciding I want to get the Catholic sacraments of initiation.
I haven't ever really dated (though have made some poor choices). I've heard it's best for Catholics to date Catholics. This makes sense to me because I'd be dating for marriage and it's important to be on the same page about that. But is it hard to find a good Catholic Man? Again, I don't really know what the dating pool looks like in general but I just feel like I would be 'limiting' myself by only dating Catholic men. But then at the same time, I think that it's probably not limiting but more decerning the right type of man? I don't plan to start dating yet but would like to get myself out there within the 6months to a year.
More importantly: Something that scares me is the thought of 'what if I'm lying/pretending about my faith in God?' I don't have this thought as much when I imagined being part of the other Christian denominations, but being Catholic feels more serious ‐ probably because it's full and true.
I don't know if that made sense or sounded silly. I think I had other thoughts to but they've escaled me at the moment. I don't think I articulated all of my thoughts very well. But I would appreciate any feedback or guidance.