Washington Post, Rise in Young Catholic Converts Points to Spiritual Longing in U.S. and Europe:
As Pope Leo XIV visits France, the number of converts is growing in secular Western countries, and some in Gen Z are rediscovering the faith of their grandparents.
When Léa Guiragossian, a 22-year-old medical student from Bordeaux, arrived in Paris [last] weekend to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo XIV, she did so as one of the great hopes of Catholicism in the West — a legion of new converts.
While the Catholic Church is growing rapidly in Africa and some other parts of the developing world, it is facing mounting challenges in Europe, the United States and Latin America from secularism, abuse scandals and competition from Evangelical faiths.
But it is also witnessing at least one upward trend. As Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, visits France — the heart of secularized Europe — church data shows an increase in the number of converts in several Western countries, including the U.S., France, Spain, Belgium and Germany. …
The convert growth is not nearly enough to offset the number of people leaving the faith, along with decades of sharp declines in infant baptism rates. Overall, converts are a tiny fraction of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Still, church officials are hailing the surge in conversions, with some of the most striking data coming from France and the U.S.. …
[D]espite widespread perceptions that many converts are politically conservative, French clerics say that is often not so.
“I don’t think I’m very conservative,” said Guiragossian, who converted this year after a traditional two-year period of religious study. “I like to think that religion loves everyone, accepts everyone and wants everyone accepted.”
Her parents were Protestants, she said. But when a Catholic friend invited her to a service, she was smitten by the “beautiful atmosphere” of a Catholic Mass lit by candlelight and designed specifically for youths. “I went every week after that,” she said.
Those who work with converts say they are often the children of less religious parents, come from working-class backgrounds, and are being drawn to the faith of their grandparents often through Catholic friends or family, but also social media. …
In the U.S., recent-year data has yet to be published, and church-backed groups have been cautious, saying it is still too early to discern a trend. But after a plunge during the pandemic, convert numbers in the U.S. have steadily rebounded, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) — a research group affiliated with the Catholic Church. … [E]xperts say the converts are providing a spiritual jolt.
The Archdiocese of Chicago — Leo’s hometown — this year conducted what appears to be the deepest survey into why more Americans are becoming Catholic. It found that 34 percent of all converts were Gen Z, 35 percent were millennials, 20 percent were Gen X and 10 percent were baby boomers — indicating that U.S. converts skew younger, as in France.
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