{"id":12961,"date":"2025-04-22T11:34:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T15:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12961"},"modified":"2025-04-22T11:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T15:34:05","slug":"whats-driving-more-young-people-to-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/04\/whats-driving-more-young-people-to-catholicism.html","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Driving More Young People to Catholicism?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The National Catholic Register<\/a> is reporting some stunning growth in some of its dioceses, with a surprising amount of new converts coming from younger generations. According to the Register, some dioceses are reporting increasing of 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent, with some even reporting growth of 70 percent or more in 2024. For example, the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, reported a 72 percent increase of converts between 2023 and 2024, rising from 896 to 1,544. Rev. Raymond Maria La Grange of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer told The New York Post<\/em> that many of his church\u2019s new converts are in their 20\u2019s and early 30\u2019s. \u201cSome were Protestants, some were nonreligious, some were Catholics who never practiced the faith. Both men and women,\u201d he said. Some well-off, others living day to day. Some are intellectuals, some are mystics,\u201d he said.<\/a> \u201cSome got to know Catholics who brought them in, others came in on their own and hardly know any Catholics. It is a fun time to be a priest. It\u2019s busy, in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic seems to be a big driver in the shift. \u201cUp until that point, I was such a workaholic, but during the pandemic, I started thinking and revisiting my criticisms of Christianity. I just started reading the Bible, and I found so much wisdom and beauty and meaning,\u201d said Sydney Johnston, who grew up nondenominational but joined the Catholic church last December. The pandemic encouraged her to seek more beyond her life. \u201cI had this question on my mind, like, do I feel God here? Does this feel like a holy place? And so I really paid attention to the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the services. And I ultimately just felt myself most drawn to the Catholic Mass.\u201d \u201cPeople are just looking for something that\u2019s authentic and real. They\u2019re looking for something that\u2019s grounded and seems to make sense,\u201d said Father Will Straten of St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Center at Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

The increase is present in the UK<\/a> as well, where Catholics aged 18 to 34 outnumber Anglicans 2 to 1. These new, younger converts are driven by an increased interest in prayer, Bible reading, and social activism. \u201cPremier Christianity magazine has written that many young people are rejecting the looseness and moral flexibility of modern society. Raised \u2018against a backdrop of perma-conflict\u2019 and an increasingly secular landscape, they view traditional Catholicism as \u2018a beacon of cultural defiance,\u2019\u201d reported The Times<\/em>. \u201cWhat such young people seem to crave is a sense of belonging and meaning based on moral clarity and structure, coherence and consistency.\u201d With the recent passing of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church stands to possibly gain even more converts with the election of a new Pope who could potentially speak more to these younger converts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Catholic Register is reporting some stunning growth in some of its dioceses, with a surprising amount of new converts coming from younger generations. According to the Register, some dioceses are reporting increasing of 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent, with some even reporting growth of 70 percent or more in 2024. For example,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":12958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat\u2019s Driving More Young People to Catholicism?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Catholic dioceses report record growth in 2024, with young adults flocking to the faith for truth and meaning in a world of moral confusion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/04\/whats-driving-more-young-people-to-catholicism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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