{"id":62460,"date":"2025-11-20T19:07:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62460"},"modified":"2025-11-20T19:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:08:17","slug":"new-york-sees-a-boom-in-catholic-conversions-says-new-york-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/11\/20\/new-york-sees-a-boom-in-catholic-conversions-says-new-york-post\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Sees a Boom in Catholic Conversions, Says New York Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-131113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/newyork2.webp\" alt=\"catholics new york\" width=\"606\" height=\"318\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>What is happening in <strong>New York<\/strong>? The number of Catholics is growing, driven by a rising wave of <strong>adult conversions<\/strong> through the catechumenate. This is according to a report published by the \u201cNew York Post\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Something is happening in the most cosmopolitan city in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We are talking about <mark><strong>New York<\/strong><\/mark>, and the news comes from an impartial and authoritative source: the <strong><i>&#8220;New York Post&#8221;<\/i><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Conversions to Catholicism in New York<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Parishes are witnessing a <strong>significant increase in adults<\/strong> choosing to embrace the Catholic faith, according to <strong>OCIA<\/strong>, the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, the official path toward conversion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/16\/lifestyle\/new-yorkers-turning-to-the-church-number-of-catholic-converts-soaring-priests-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent report by the \u201cPost\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, the newspaper quotes <strong>Father Jonah Teller<\/strong> of St. Joseph Church in Greenwich Village, who explains that the number of catechumenate participants has tripled compared to the previous year, reaching about <strong>130 adults<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The same phenomenon is occurring at <strong>St. Vincent Ferrer<\/strong> in the Upper East Side, where participation has doubled, now reaching almost <strong>90 people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A similar doubling of numbers has also been recorded at Saint Patrick\u2019s Old Cathedral: roughly 100 converts, with the 7 PM Sunday Mass now visibly overcrowded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The situation has become so pressing that the pastor, <strong>Father Daniel Ray<\/strong>, has stated that the community is considering adding additional Mass times to accommodate the influx.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the <strong>Brooklyn<\/strong> district, <strong>538 adults<\/strong> formally requested entry into the Catholic Church in 2024\u2014nearly double the number of the previous year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Already last April, the same U.S. newspaper\u2014certainly not known for being favorable to Catholicism\u2014<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/17\/lifestyle\/why-young-people-are-converting-to-catholicism-en-masse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a><\/em><\/strong> a <i>\u201cmass conversion\u201d<\/i> of <strong>young people<\/strong> to the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Why convert in New York?<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the priests involved, this trend reflects an <strong>authentic spiritual search<\/strong>: many young adults\u2014professionals, athletes, entrepreneurs\u2014say they feel spiritually <strong>unfulfilled<\/strong>, despite career success and the abundance of <strong>opportunities<\/strong> offered by the world\u2019s most \u201csymbolic\u201d city.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <i>&#8220;New York Post&#8221;<\/i> also claims that participation in liturgy increased after the <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/09\/11\/the-death-of-charlie-kirk-and-who-is-celebrating\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">killing last September<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of conservative activist <strong>Charlie Kirk<\/strong>, an evangelical Protestant who was sympathetic to Catholicism. It was a shockwave felt across America.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the heart of this return to faith lies a <strong>combination of deep motivations<\/strong>: social instability, a search for balance and meaning in a chaotic and polarized world (a sentiment amplified after Kirk\u2019s murder), disillusionment with modern ideologies, personal loss, and a growing desire for community.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Father Teller<\/strong> believes that the Church\u2019s appeal lies precisely in the depth of Catholicism: <i>\u201cMaterially, we have everything within reach, but we <strong>do not reach<\/strong> our hearts,\u201d<\/i> he explains, noting that Catholic liturgy, tradition, and teaching provide answers that modern society struggles to offer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Some stories collected by the &#8220;New York Post&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Among the most emblematic stories are those of <strong>Cindy Zhao<\/strong>, a healthcare worker who began moving toward Catholicism after the death of her cousin, and <strong>Liz Flynn<\/strong>, a carpenter from Brooklyn, who found God almost by chance while reading a book at Cracker Barrel, a souvenir shop.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Praying the <strong>Rosary<\/strong> and devotion to Mary offered her a sense of peace that had been missing until then.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some speak of an inner emptiness that professional success could not fill: <i>\u201cOn paper I had everything, but inside I felt nothing\u201d<\/i>, admits <strong>Kiegan Lenihan<\/strong>, 28, who went from the atheism of Dawkins and Hitchens to the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to him, the Church offers a stable structure, a clear system of values, and a <strong>sense of belonging<\/strong> that contemporary ideologies can no longer provide.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Ben Cook<\/strong>, 32, an entrepreneur, describes himself as <i>\u201ca progressive kid from San Francisco.\u201d<\/i> Raised by <strong>hippie parents<\/strong>, he met two Catholics who were, as he says, <i>\u201cundeniably the healthiest, happiest, and most balanced friends I had.\u201d<\/i> From that moment on, he began to discover something more radical than any progressive revolution: faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>\u201cWhy Catholicism?\u201d<\/i> asks <strong>Ian Burns<\/strong>, 22, from the East Village, recently graduated from the University of Michigan. <i>\u201cI feel like I need something to lean on. It is the original Christian religion, and I wanted to <strong>go to the root<\/strong>, not just to the branches.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is a process that seems to have <strong>started<\/strong> even before the election of the American <strong>Leo XIV<\/strong> and, at least according to the testimony of those involved, appears to be <strong>much more<\/strong> than a passing trend.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is significant that it is happening in <strong>a metropolis<\/strong> that many believed had become too modern \u2013 and too secularized \u2013 to be fertile ground for religious vocations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s happening in New York? The number of Catholics is rising, driven by adult conversions that begin with the catechumenate process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":137,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2123,2124,2125,2126],"class_list":["post-62460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-catholic-conversions","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-catholics","tag-new-york-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York Sees a Boom in Catholic Conversions, Says New York Post - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What\u2019s happening in New York? 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