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(LifeSiteNews) — Adult converts to the Catholic Church in the U.S. have risen by about 38 percent this year, part of a recent worldwide surge in Catholic conversions.
Data from 140 of America’s 175 dioceses show that the increase in adult Catholic converts from 2025 to 2026 is driven by men in their 20s, according to The Washington Times.
The Catholic prayer app Hallow found that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles more than doubled its number of Catholic converts this year, with a 139 percent increase from its 2025 numbers. Catholic apologist Joe Heschmeyer has documented the other dioceses with the biggest spikes in Catholic converts this year, including Norwich, Connecticut, up 112 percent; Pueblo, Colorado, up 105 percent; Rapid City, South Dakota, up 96 percent; and Venice, Florida, up 94 percent.
The New York Times noted that in many cases, rising numbers of Catholic converts more than make up for COVID-era church shutdowns. Philadelphia has this year seen twice the number of converts from 2017. In the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, 1,701 people were baptized into the Church this year, compared with 1,000 in 2010.
Remarkably, this trend has been occurring worldwide over the past few years. The UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Sweden, and Norway have recorded a similar uptick in adult Catholic converts. This year in the UK, in the Archdiocese of Southwark, more than 590 adults from 112 parishes across South London and Kent were initiated into the Church at Easter, the highest number recorded locally in at least 15 years.
Last year, the Conference of Bishops in France (CEF) recorded the largest number of catechumens to be received or baptized into the Church since records began about 20 years ago.
Heschmeyer shared a survey showing that, since 2020, when the number of Americans with no religious affiliation (“nones”) peaked at 28 percent, that number has since declined to 25 percent. He showed that data indicates a slight number of those have converted to Protestant Christianity, and a slightly larger number have converted to Catholicism.
The New York Times interviewed four new Catholic converts to dig into the reasons behind the surge in initiation into the faith. Interestingly, both of the young men interviewed cited online Catholic influencers and apologists as important to their conversion.
Jesse Araujo, 19, who lives in Nevada, said that listening to Catholic podcasters on YouTube, like Father Mike Schmitz, was most influential in bringing him to the faith.
“A lot of people spend their time scrolling through TikTok — my version of that is apologetics,” he said. Araujo felt compelled to convert after learning about the sacraments.
Amen-Ra Pryor, 23, a Ph.D. student in mathematics at Howard University in Washington, grew up nonreligious and agnostic, and was introduced to nondenominational churches by his friends.
He began to look into “the deeper questions,” he said, “like, what does it mean to live a good life and to do good, and what is faith, and is faith reasonable?”
Pryor started reading ancient Christian thinkers and watched YouTube videos from Catholic apologists like the Thomistic Institute and Taylor Marshall.
A perusal of comments on videos from Catholic influencers shows it is not uncommon for listeners to attribute their conversion at least in part to these online catechists and apologetics groups, such as Father Chad Ripperger, Trent Horn, Catholic Answers, Matt Fradd, and Fr. Mike Schmitz, as well as Catholic authors like Dr. Brant Pitre.
Dr. Taylor Marshall has pointed out that, in 2020, when COVID lockdowns were enforced worldwide, many people turned to online content for spiritual nourishment, and Catholic podcasts, including his own, exploded that year.
Heschmeyer has been careful to note that increasing Catholic conversions do not necessarily indicate a religious “revival” per se, but according to one point of view, indicates rather a leveling out of decades-long religious decline.
