A new report suggests the internet, reverence of the Holy Mass, and other factors have been driving young Americans toward Catholicism.
A lengthy profile in the New York Post explored this new phenomenon among young Americans, with some dioceses even seeing 30 percent to 70 percent increase in new converts.
According to the National Catholic Register, some dioceses are reporting year-over-year increases of 30% to 70% in new converts. The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, for instance, experienced a 72% jump in converts just from 2023 to 2024.
The Post spoke to several young new Catholics who cite the pandemic, the internet and a distaste for “lax” Protestant alternatives as reasons for turning to the faith.
Sydney Johnston, a 30-year-old Upper West Side millennial, transitioned from a nondenominational Christian upbringing to devout Catholicism, finding the rituals and ancient history of the Catholic Mass profoundly beautiful.
“There’s just something so beautiful and transcendent about the rituals and the ancient history in the Catholic Mass that’s been preserved,” Johnston told The Post. “The church really communicates a degree of reverence that I didn’t find in the more liberal, laissez-faire approach of nondenominational churches.”
A native of Orange County, California, Johnston said her protestant faith felt too much “like a cultural experience than something that was really rooted in history with a deep theological foundation.”She turned away from the church entirely and lived her life as a workaholic for several years until the pandemic forced her to deal with questions about Christianity she often avoided.
“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,” she said. “And I ultimately just felt myself most drawn to the Catholic Mass.”
Students at Christendom College, a Catholic campus in Virginia with a significant conservative political lean, registered to vote just weeks out before the 2024 Presidential election. pic.twitter.com/lyNJg6izfW
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 29, 2024
The Rev. Raymond Maria La Grange of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer told The Post that most converts tend to be in their 20s or early 30s and that his parish grew after the pandemic.
“Some were Protestants, some were nonreligious, some were Catholics who never practiced the faith. Both men and women,” he said. “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.
Other Catholics like Adrian Lawson found the faith through the internet after going from being nondenominational to atheism to evangelicalism in his early 20s.
“I was wrestling with mental illness and the meaning of life, and those are questions that I could not answer without religion,” he said. “My mental health improved very quickly, and church showed me a different way of looking at life. I just became less self-centered, and that made me a lot happier.”
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Lawson moved Catholicism after witnessing an online debate between a Catholic and a Protestant creator, Cameron Bertuzzi, about church history. Bertuzzi’s public conversion after the debate inspired many to convert. He credits regular rosary prayers with alleviating his anxiety and depression. As a catechist, Lawson observes a 50 percent annual increase in converts, many young and drawn to the Church’s tradition and community.
Others come from non-Christian backgrounds. Marin Minamiya, a 28-year-old from Austin raised in Japan’s Shinto faith, converted in December 2024 while studying at Columbia.
“I think being Catholic inevitably makes one have a positive outlook on life because God is good,” said Minamiya. “It gives me a lot of confidence, and it gives me a lot of support through the Catholic community to become a better person and a virtuous person.”
Similarly, Taylor New, a 27-year-old from Cincinnati, was an active evangelical when a YouTube video on Catholic history sparked her conversion journey. “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.
Despite initial resistance due to her tight-knit church community, extensive research led her to convert in 2024, crediting the internet’s wealth of resources for guiding young seekers toward Catholicism.
U.S. Catholics now lean toward former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden, according to a Pew Research poll. https://t.co/OOc2NqwxmP
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 4, 2024
“It was something that I didn’t want to do. I begged God to not make me Catholic,” she said. “I found a lot of support in my church, just because I didn’t have a super-tight-knit family at home.”
Young converts often cite dissatisfaction with the perceived laxity of Protestant churches and a search for purpose and moral order. La Grange theorized that the world has failed to provide young people with a moral order, leaving them “unmoored.”
“I’d say the most common impetus of the young 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,” he said.
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