In April, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reported 8,598 people preparing to be baptized or formally entering the Catholic church – the highest number of reported initiations for an archdiocese in the US, and a 54% increase from 2025.
Across the US, the number of adults entering the Catholic church has climbed each year since the pandemic-low, according to a survey of dioceses. The increases have prompted talk of a religious revival, but experts say it’s too early to call it a trend.
Record initiations at university parishes
Our Savior Parish in Los Angeles baptized 16 people this year, a record high, said Father Matt Wheeler, the pastor. Sixty-nine people enrolled in its Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program, a 57% increase from last year. Mass attendance grew so significantly that church leaders have, on occasion, redirected worshippers to an overflow area to watch a live stream.
At St. Mark’s University Parish in Isla Vista, the parish has seen its largest initiation class – 56 people, said Father Ryan Thornton. Established in 1965 to serve UC Santa Barbara, the church is located between three fraternity houses.
“That clearly can’t be about the pandemic because the difference is too far,” said Thornton. “So, then the question is, ‘Well, what’s happening now?’”
Why young adults are turning to Catholicism
Once popular reasons to join the Catholic church, such as family pressure or a plan to marry a Catholic partner, have largely fallen away. Today, becoming Catholic is an active choice, said Thornton.
Martinez, 24, said the call of Catholicism was amplified by the loneliness of living in a big city. “There’s so much wrong in the world,” said Martinez. She was drawn to Matthew’s Gospel, which warns that as lawlessness increases, people’s love for one another will grow cold.
For 20-year-old Kathryn Glavin, global crises – including war, injustice and division – lent urgency to the search for steadier ground in faith. “I feel like it’s a dark time for a lot of people in the world,” said Glavin. “And I think that naturally is going to get people who reach for the light.”
A shift within a broader decline
The increase in initiations in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is set against a backdrop of a decades-long national shift away from organized religion. For decades, Catholicism in the US has lost more people than it has gained through religious switching, according to Pew Research Center studies. But the “nones” – people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” – have leveled off in recent years, according to another Pew Research study.
Even if the increase in new Catholics reflects a new national shift, one strong year cannot reverse decades of gradual decline, said Maureen Day, a sociologist and theologian. Still, Day said, the local data could signal that religion is appealing to people in new ways – and the losses could begin to reverse.
What could signal a true reversal is sustained participation in church life, said Day. But that is difficult to track, especially at university parishes, where students graduate and move away. Publicly available data do not show which parishes drove the archdiocese-wide increase. But Michele Dillon, a sociology professor and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire, said parishes’ increases shouldn’t be dismissed.
“It’s real,” said Dillon. “It’s a real observable shift in those individual parishes and dioceses.”
Parish leaders said it’s helped that participants these days have more accessible entry points. They listen to Father Mike Schmitz’s podcasts, pray with the Hallow app, and watch Bishop Robert Barron’s YouTube channel. Our Savior Parish leaders are intentional about making the gospel relatable to a younger audience, said Wheeler.
John Ceballos, 50, the oldest participant in Our Savior’s OCIA program, said what’s made a difference for him is the gentler message at Our Savior Parish. He stopped practicing in his 20s, in part, because of the fire-and-brimstone messaging. Now, he says mass is all about love and community. “Now, everybody’s good. Everybody’s a child of God.”
During mass, Wheeler often looks out at the sea of student faces and marvels to himself, “Wow. Nobody dragged these young adults here.”
