Boost in new Catholics points to ‘quiet revival’ in the Church

This Easter, hundreds of people throughout the country, including 450 in Auckland, officially joined the Catholic Church. Last year, the Auckland figure was 350.

Samuel Brebner, Auckland Diocese’s manager of ministries to young people, said immigration alone cannot account for what he’s seeing.

“People are just showing up at our events at a rate that I haven’t experienced previously . . . it’s almost like a switch flipped.

“We’ll have young people coming along, many of them with no previous experience of the Catholic Church . . . and they’re curious. When you ask them what brought them here, they reference YouTube videos by Christian influencers or thought leaders that are engaging with the Catholic Church in a meaningful way.”

He said Gen Z appears to be seeking a truth that endures beyond the news cycle.

“In recent years, young people really have seen how temperamental and changing morality can be in the secular space, and I think there has been a yearning or desire for something deeper, something more comprehensively thought out.”

A similar pattern has been seen in Christchurch, where about 100 people joined the Church at Easter this year, up from 70 who joined last year, Radio New Zealand reported.

Brendan Malone, a Christchurch Catholic and podcaster, said the new convert figures are too fresh to show up in population data.

“. . . the quiet revival is about people coming to an active participation in the faith, rather than merely having Catholic as an identity of sorts.”

Mr Malone, who is also a travelling speaker, encounters young men all around New Zealand who are on the road to Confirmation. It’s something he wasn’t seeing even two years ago. While millennials – including Mr Malone for several years – were more likely to flock to evangelical churches, Gen Z are curious about tradition and stability, he said.

“People were looking for, ‘Okay, well, where’s the deep tradition? Where’s the source of this thing? If you’re going to go to the real thing, where is it to be found?’

“And so I think they went looking for perhaps those denominations that actually had a very long, like in the case of Catholicism, 2000-year history, [and] Orthodox almost as long.”

Similar patterns of young people joining churches has been seen in other denominations and in other nations such as Australia, France, the UK and the United States.

A study by The Pillar showed that, for many US dioceses, the increase in people joining brought the numbers up to pre-Covid levels of new entrants. But, in some cases, the numbers have increased to levels not seen since the pontificate of St John Paul II.

Academics and commentators in New Zealand say there has been a change in the social and religious climate, but also note that there is not yet strong enough evidence to suggest the “quiet revival” is occurring either here or abroad.

FULL STORY

Easter miracle? NZ churches claim youth attendance boom in global ‘Quiet Revival’ – NZ Herald (By Matt Burrows/NZ Herald – subscription required)

A ‘quiet’ Catholic revival? Christchurch says ‘yes’ (Radio New Zealand)

Catholic Enquiry NZ (Facebook)

New record in France: More than 20,000 adults and teens baptized at Easter (EWTN News)

‘The best decision I’ve ever made’ – Australia sees surge in adults entering Church (The Pillar)

America’s new Catholics, by the numbers (by Brendan Hodge/The Pillar)