Catholic Church sees spike in converts as young people seek ‘moral order’

There is a spike in converts to the Roman Catholic Church as young adults reportedly seek “moral order” after the pandemic years.

While people may convert to the Catholic faith at any time of year, the Easter season is when many choose to do so. According to the National Catholic Register, “certain dioceses are reporting increases of 30%, 40%, 50% and even more than 70%” this year. One particular diocese in Fort Worth, Texas, has seen spikes in numbers, where the number of converts from “896 at Easter 2023 to 1,544 at Easter 2024, an increase of 72%.”

Father Will Straten, the pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas A&M, argued to the National Catholic Register that many new converts are desperate for authenticity.

“The students who aren’t Catholic are hungry and are looking for something. People are just looking for something that’s authentic and real. They’re looking for something that’s grounded and seems to make sense,” he said.

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The New York Post spoke to a priest and several new Catholics about the recent wave of conversions across the country, particularly among young adults. 

Father Raymond Maria La Grange of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan, confirmed that at least three-quarters of his new converts are in their 20s or early 30s and that “it was really after [the pandemic] that the parish in general started to grow.”

“Some were Protestants, some were nonreligious, some were Catholics who never practiced the faith. Both men and women,” he told The Post. “Some well-off, others living day to day. Some are intellectuals, some are mystics. Some 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’s busy, in a good way,” La Grange added.

The priest argued that “the most common impetus” inspiring young adult converts to the Roman Catholic Church “is that they realize the world cannot provide them with any moral order, or reasons for living in any particular way. A culture of license has left them unmoored.”

People participate with colorful costumes and hats at the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, United States on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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One young woman in Manhattan, Sydney Johnston, told The Post about how she initially grew up in a nondenominational Christian household. After walking away from religion for a time, the pandemic hitting during her college years inspired her to rethink her life. When the lockdown ended, she began a two-year exploration across dozens of denominations to discern which she believed to be the true faith.

“I 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,” the young woman recalled. “And I ultimately just felt myself most drawn to the Catholic Mass.”

The rootedness in “ancient history,” she said, is at the core of the Catholic Church’s sense of authenticity.

“There’s just something so beautiful and transcendent about the rituals and the ancient history in the Catholic Mass that’s been preserved,” Johnston said. “The church really communicates a degree of reverence that I didn’t find in the more liberal, laissez-faire approach of nondenominational churches.”

St. Peter’s Square is crowded with faithful attending a Canonization Mass on September 4, 2016, in Vatican City, Vatican. (Getty Images)

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Taylor New, a 27-year-old Cincinnati native, said that once she saw a YouTuber’s video about the history of Catholicism, there was no going back to her former evangelical faith.

“I decided to watch it, not thinking much of it — but I joke that that video ruined my life in the best way, because that set me on my spiral of research,” New told The Post.

As much as it pained her to leave her previous faith community behind, she said that there is a gravitational pull that people like her are feeling thanks to resources on the internet.

“A lot of young people are converting to the faith, and I think that’s just because there’s a wealth of things to search on the internet, and people are just on a search for truth which has them gravitating to the Catholic Church,” she said.

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Former atheists have felt the pull as well, thanks to the work of Catholic influencers online.  

The interior of the Saint Louis Cathedral. Catholic cathedrals are well known around the world for their architectural beauty. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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A 30-year-old software developer in Southern California named Adrian Lawson told The Post that he was initially raised as nondenominational and then became an atheist as a teenager. What inspired his conversion to Catholicism was watching a debate between a Catholic and Protestant YouTuber, after which the Protestant influencer converted to Catholicism.

Despite the “very strong negative reaction” from his parents, Lawson started attending the Catholic mass in 2022 and proceeded to fully convert a year ago.

“I had anxiety, depression, and panic attacks, but since I’ve started praying the rosary regularly, I haven’t had any of those issues,” he said.