Secularism can never replace faith – is the recent surge of new Catholics this Easter a sign of things to come?
As you have probably heard, this is a big year for Catholics. Dioceses across the country are reporting a surge of record numbers of people coming into the Church, whether as candidates (people who have already received a Christian Baptism at some point) or as catechumens.
In a New York Times article published on March 26, 2026, some interesting numbers were reported: the Archdiocese of Detroit received nearly 1,500 new Catholics, the Archdiocese of Washington reported just under 1,800 and the Diocese of Newark alone gained 1,700 people.
Our own diocese had it’s own surge with a record number of entrants this year with 282 men, women and children entering the Church this Easter. Father John Sheridan, our Diocesan Director of the Office of Faith and Worship, says is an increase of more than 90 people compared to 2025, a 46 percent rise.
Hallow, the popular prayer app, released their own original data on the phenomenon. According to them, more than 80 percent of dioceses are showing an average growth of 38 percent in their OCIA groups, with the four largest dioceses in the country (Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York and Chicago) showing year-over-year growth of 139 percent, 23 percent, 36 percent and 52 percent respectively.
In other words: we’re so back!
What caused the Surge?
While the surge is undeniable, it’s also somewhat inexplicable. Discourse on the phenomenon has attributed the election of Pope Leo XIV, the cultural hangover from the COVID-19 pandemic, technological advances, political instability and the availability of Catholic media. There is probably truth to all of these claims, but I think there’s something larger at work.
The counter-culture movement that is secularism has begun to decline. The tantalizing economic opportunities—and the worldly pleasures they afford—are no longer as readily available as they were during the 80s and 90s. Millennials and Gen Z are far more cash-strapped than their parents were, and they aren’t able to afford the same kinds of diversions that made religion feel unnecessary.
It would take an extremely well-developed spiritual life to resist the temptations of wealth forever. Gen Z and Millennials do not have that particular burden, generally speaking.
As a result, I think more people are taking a look around and saying, “Is this really good enough?” During times of economic hardship, spirituality seems to increase. Because young people are struggling, they’re looking to traditional institutions for a sense of purpose. The analgesic of economic success is wearing off.
As Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” The rich man is able to surround himself with so much ease and pleasure that he can drown out the nagging feeling that he’s still missing something. It would take an extremely well-developed spiritual life to resist the temptations of wealth forever. Gen Z and Millennials do not have that particular burden, generally speaking.
Unfortunately, newer, cheaper and more addictive vices have also appeared to keep people sedated: pornography, marijuana and gambling.
Apathy is the True Enemy of Christ
The good news here is that these vices feel a lot more predatory than the economic prosperity of previous decades. It’s easier for people to recognize that these distractions are incapable of filling the void that exists within everyone.
However, because of the inadequacy of these vices to maintain the delusion that we do not need God, people will fight for them all the more viciously. People hate being called out—especially when, deep down, they know there’s something wrong with what they’re doing.
I’m not saying it will be easy, but that’s where the Church’s opportunity lies.
Remember, the opposite of love isn’t hate—it’s indifference, and it seems that the younger generations are more aware than ever that there is something deeply wrong with our society. They’re choosing to deal with that either by becoming more religious or sinking more deeply into their vices. But indifference seems to be declining.
Encouraging Trends: is the Surge a new Start?
According to data from the Public Religion Research Institute, the number of Gen Z adults who say, “Religion is the most important thing in my life” has grown to 17 percent, compared to just 13 percent for millennials. At the same time, the number of people who say, “Religion isn’t important to me at all” has shrunk to 32 percent for Gen Z, compared to 35 percent for millennials.
Still, that’s a huge number of people that are unaffiliated. There’s still a fight ahead of us. My sense, though, is that these people are unaffiliated for different reasons—they’re injured, rather than just oblivious.
And that’s good news, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Because it’s got to be easier to show a person in pain—rather than someone who thinks they’re on top of the world—that they need help, right?
They’ll hate you for trying. But behind the vitriol you are sure to encounter in your evangelization efforts, there is a heart aching for renewal. That heart is going to fight to defend itself before it can surrender.
With all that said, we simply don’t know enough yet to determine whether the surge is a revival or a one-year anomaly. Maybe, maybe not. But should we even be worried about whether Christianity is surging or declining?
The Many Crises of the Church
The Church has survived many periods of spiritual decline: The Saeculum Obscurum in the 10th and 11th centuries; the pre-Reformation Era in the 14th and 15th centuries, and, more recently, the post-1960s Secularization.
In the first two cases, Catholics of the time probably despaired over the state of the Church, worried that it was collapsing and leaving them without a spiritual home to shelter them. Instead, in the 12th century, Saint Francis renewed the spiritual life of the Church and helped usher in a golden age for Catholicism. Then, post-Protestant Reformation, when many Catholics probably felt that the Church would be supplanted by the new denominations, the Council of Trent initiated a counter-reform, and the newly founded Jesuit order spread across the globe to bring the Gospel to the New World, Asia and Africa.
In both cases, the Church was made stronger after periods of decline.
We must trust in the divine providence of the Church, that Jesus Christ will continually renew us. Is it possible that this year’s surge is the beginning of a counter-reform to the secularization of the past 60 years? Of course, and I pray that it is so.
But what if next year, we don’t see the same growth in catechumens? What if we don’t even see the same numbers as this year? Should we despair? Of course not.
That’s why I want to caution against any triumphalism about the historic numbers of new Catholics entering the Church this year. I feel that it is born out of fear, and thus, a failure to trust in the Lord. We ought to celebrate, yes. But we shouldn’t worry about whether the Church is shrinking or growing. Instead, we should focus always on spreading the Gospel and living out the Good News in at all times.
Walk with Joy, Not Pride
The size of the Church may ebb and flow, but it will never vanish completely. That’s the lesson I believe we should take from this year’s surge. No matter what happens, we must carry on with trust in God and a desire to spread the Gospel.
Be wary of wanting to win. In wanting to win, we can be defeated. The true victory is Christ’s over death. But He didn’t come in glory, He came in humility. We should expect to be hated and persecuted—where did we get the idea that we are supposed to be popular? When is the hard road ever the popular one?
Pride is perhaps the most devious of all the sins. None of us want to see Christ denigrated, and it makes us angry. But is it not, in some way, our own humiliation that we fear? When we fret over the “decline” of the Church, are we not at least somewhat bound up in the idea that we will be seen as fools who picked the losing side?
Isn’t it so much harder to accept Christ in His humility than if He were a conquering king? But that’s what He wants from us. Similarly, I think that when we are so quick to celebrate record numbers, it is partly because we are in some way heaping praise on ourselves.
“Look at how popular my side is!”
So, celebrate all our new Catholics. Celebrate the Good News of Christ. Celebrate His victory over death. All of that is wonderful.
Just leave worries over “winning” and “losing” to God.
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