(OSV News) ─ At the April 19 Easter Vigil at parishes across America, the church will welcome many new Catholics.
Perhaps that doesn't sound extraordinary. After all, it happens every year.
True enough -- but in 2025, there is a seemingly significant trend: Several dioceses, compared to the previous year, are reporting increased numbers of people who will either be baptized, confirmed and receive first Communion (catechumens), or who have already been baptized in another Christian tradition, and will be confirmed and receive their first Communion (candidates).
Is there an explanation -- such as a post-COVID sacramental boom? Effects of the National Eucharistic Revival? Individuals seeking community or authenticity? Or maybe all of these?
"It's a good question -- and we're not entirely sure," Patrick Krisak, director of faith formation and missionary discipleship in the Archdiocese of Boston, told OSV News. "There's really not any one factor that you can sort of pin it down to at this moment."
This year, the Archdiocese of Boston has 458 catechumens, up from 360 in 2024.
And while Krisak can't attribute that increase to any precise reason, he does have some ideas.
"There was perhaps for a while, a lack of interest or a thought that religious belief and practice was not valuable. And then, I think, as folks in our secular culture have discovered the value of ritual and community -- well, those are things that are important to us in the life of the church. And for whatever reason, it seems there's a greater openness to exploring what that looks like."
Krisak sees that "people are looking for authentic expressions of 'I need to make this my own, but I can't make it my own on my own. I have to (do it) with the community, and with some sort of coherent system of belief.'"
"I think that really is just seeing this cultural shift in people going from 'We'll figure out what this is, or it doesn't matter what this is, or we'll create what this is' (to) 'Oh, no; wait a minute -- we need to do this in community, with each other,'" he said.
Krisak paused in thought.
"That's a sort of large-scale conjecture about what's going on in our culture, but it seems to be part of what we're seeing lived out in parishes," he said.
A January 2021 Pew Research Center study found nearly 3 in 10 U.S. adults (28%) said the 2020 coronavirus pandemic boosted their faith. The same 28% thought the religious faith of Americans had also become stronger as a result.
"We cannot compare this year to last year. We have to go back to the year before COVID started. Because for us, COVID put a halt on everything," said Sister Celeste Arbuckle, a Sister of Social Service and director of the Office of Faith Formation in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
In that archdiocese, 653 people (384 candidates, 269 catechumens) were part of the Rite of Election this year, up from 444 people (220 catechumens, 224 candidates) in 2024.
"I would say the increase comes because of COVID. People postponed," Sister Celeste said. "At least for a lot of our people, there was a real -- what shall I say? -- yearning to connect with people. They weren't able to do (that) during COVID. This past year -- because they have come out of COVID -- going to church, they've had an experience at church they weren't able to have."
She proposed that the conflict and confusion of daily news headlines may also have an impact.
"Everything that's going on -- it's so hard for people to know how to sit with all of that hurt and anger," she said. "And prayer -- whether it's adoration, whether it's Mass, whether it's the rosary, whether it's a devotion to a saint -- allows them to sit with something bigger than themselves. And then they begin to say, 'Where can I continue this deepening of what I have?'"
She added: "If parishes are doing OCIA correctly, that's where people say, 'I'm just not one of the crowd.' One of my OCIA directors said, more precisely, 'They have been waking up to God.'"
OCIA is the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, previously called the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, or RCIA. It is a multi-step process by which adult candidates or catechumens typically join the Catholic Church.
In the Archdiocese of Detroit, there are 977 people preparing to receive sacraments (400 catechumens; 577 candidates), up from 793 people (360 catechumens, 433 candidates) in 2024.
Kathy Fech, the archdiocese's sacred worship coordinator, credits the National Eucharistic Revival, which began in 2022 and continues through 2025. Last year, the revival included the cross-country National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
"I think we would be silly to discard the working of the Holy Spirit through the efforts of the Eucharistic Revival," Fech told OSV News. "I'm not saying that the National Eucharistic Revival is a sole factor, but I think the fact that we as Catholics have been very intentional in the last two years about bringing our Lord in the Eucharist -- and bringing our faith literally to the streets across the country -- definitely could be a huge part of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we're seeing across the country, and how that's impacting our numbers in regards to OCIA, sacramental prep and other things like that."
Fech also emphasized community.
"You've got people -- in this post-pandemic world, especially -- who are starving for relationship," she said. "And what does the church say? We say, come to us in person; let us bring you two things. Let us bring you, yes, a vibrant parish community that meets your spiritual needs. We hope that all parishes are doing that. But first and foremost, let us offer you a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through the Eucharist."
And the church, Fech said, offers continuity.
"I think particularly young people, they are trying to find truth. They're trying to find beauty, but also trying to find stability," she said. "They live in a world where the political culture is so tenuous, where society is so tenuous. … And they're saying, 'I need something true. I need something stable.'"
Sherry Weddell, co-founder and executive director of the Catherine of Siena Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado, cautioned observers from drawing quick conclusions.
"Our rule around the institute is, never accept a label in place of a story," advised Weddell, the author of several books including "Fruitful Discipleship: Living the Mission of Jesus in the Church and the World." "So I think if we had a chance to listen to these people and really hear their journeys, I think we'd see there's a startling combination of things. And it varies from person to person, of course."
Wedell stressed, however, that intercessory prayer can spark conversion and widespread renewal.
"Stuff like this always happens because God is bestowing, is calling people from their responding," she said. "We know the graces are always available to people at all times, but literally there are times in the church's life when the graces that are apparently being bestowed -- being poured out -- are greater, and more people are responding. That's another characteristic pattern of awakenings. And so I think that's part of what's going on."
At the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the largest group of new Catholics there in at least a quarter of a century -- 125 -- will receive the sacraments at Easter.
Brett Perkins, assistant director for evangelization and religious education in the Office of Campus Ministry, said he has witnessed a discernible purpose this year.
"Fewer of them are sensing that they were doing this out of obligation -- that they 'need' to get confirmed -- but rather more out of an intentional decision to follow after Jesus, and a desire to be a part of the body of Christ in the church," he said. "They're letting that change their worldview."
A March 2025 Pew Research Center study found that in many countries around the world, a fifth or more of all adults have left the religious group in which they were raised.
Still, Perkins is optimistic that the roots he has helped to tend are deep -- and may be part of a larger revival.
"I don't think anybody's looking for another box to check or another club to be a part of. If that's all your faith is going to be, then why bother," he said. "But for folks who are desiring and who see that void and notice that void inside and are looking for its fulfillment, come and see, right? Come and see. Because the Catholic Church is here for you -- we always have been, and we always will be."
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Kimberley Heatherington writes for OSV News from Virginia.
